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21 November 2007 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Herman Ross   

 

 
 

Correspondence From Abroad


We have been getting a lot of interest by off Island maritime preservationists in this last week. The Bahamas has offered a Sloop to us, Pieces of Eight, to race in their George Town Regatta this year. From Carriacou, not sure if that spelling is correct, marine historian and photographer Alexis Andrews is inviting us to attend the Classic Race Week in Antigua, Jordy congratulated us, from Bermuda, on our new Board and its hopes, Martyn Heighton of the UK National Ship Registry has let us know that they are pushing the replication argument that will benefit the TCI if we can get the Bermuda Sloop survey underway, Paul of the Cayman Catboat Club called to try and figure out a way they can assist us and to tell us that he will make a visit here in December.

See Geoff Mander’s accounting of their cruise on the Turkish Coast at end of Log.

 

Also, in the cruising notes category, my buddy Cliff Vaughn, a retired tv producer who wrote the original Easy Rider, has just come back through the Panama Canal and is still promising to send some of his notes on the second time through- East to West, now West to East.

 

Cliff (Capitan Medianoche) and I and two other Afro-American boats sailed into Cartegena about eight years ago at the same time. I was on my way to Cayman and they were each going in a different direction. We formed a bond, sort of a sailing ghetto and Cliff had a flag made for us. Cliff and I are the only two still corresponding. Let’s hope he puts down a very inexpensive beer in Panama long enough to share something soon.

 

We are hoping to gear up to maintain correspondence with all of those who will eventually become acquainted with our spirit and want to share in our preservation actions.

 

The Committee


I know that the word committee usually means a way not to do something to most people but in reality the committee is the way things are accomplished if the committee takes its tasks seriously. We are hoping with our committees (mainly of a lot of people who are always attempting to form committees themselves) that the activists involved can find a particular niche that they enjoy doing and thereby attract others to assist them in completing tasks.

 

Because of our particular direction at this point in time we have the opportunity to bring world attention to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Bermuda Sloop wreck, the controversy over replication and restoration, the lack of maritime history in the Caribbean Basin, the energy with which we have been carrying out our programmes without much funding, the need for the preservation of heritage here in the Turks and Caicos Islands, all combine to create a foundation that could see a centre for Caribbean maritime heritage and a high possibility to initiate a Caribbean historic ship registry. That could make us the place to come for information and reference for all things maritime heritage related in the Caribbean Basin.

 

Most of those joining most of the committees listed below understand that direction and hopefully will take the seriousness of it to heart.

 

The Vessel Committee Meeting


We attempted a Vessel Committee steering committee meeting last week and though it was well attended it dragged on as though it were a regular meeting and not a lot was really accomplished. The spirit is there it is just a more concise order and direction is needed to get in, line up what is needed for the formation of the actual group and proceed with it.

One outcome is a list of those the steering committee wanted to invite aboard a special Regatta Commission. The list includes Chief Commissioner Delton Jones, Asst Chief Cary Skippings, Inspector Rodman Williams, Inspector Simon Talbot, Personal Scty Min of Sports Ms Peggy Malcolm, Redmond, Dir of Sports Alvin Parker, Beryl Nelson, DECR Director Wesley Clareveaux, Art Pickering and Doug Carlson.

 

We are attempting to contact all on this very important to watersports competition group. The point is to regulate, starting with the Sloop racing, our participation in competition on the sea. The group will be given the task of defining classes, organising handicaps, training judges, scheduling races, selecting courses, qualifying vessels, handling applications for events and arbitrating.

 

The creation of this body will put the Turks and Caicos Islands in a better position not only to make our own racing more professional but to also be in the position of bringing in other types of vessels to compete here. It also provides potential sponsors with a guarantee of event constraints and secures, through possible penalties infractions of the rules. This means good sized purses for advertising and sponsorships with the vessels. If we want the money for the racing we should be professional in every way.

 

Another aspect that the Vessel Committee and the Research and Education Committee will share is the training of potential sailors, sailors and racers, as well as boatbuilders and those interested in the other infrastructural ingredients for a maritime industry.

 


Dr Gilbert Morris

The Ways and Means Committee Steering Committee Meeting


This meeting went to the crux of our most outstanding problems, that of a review of our Articles of Association and how to get the bucks to create and maintain the programmes and projects, and who can assist in doing those two objectives.

 

The list of potentials, under the leadership of Dr.Gilbert Morris, that were felt to actually want to do the work were: Lew Handfield, H.  Hinderaker, Delton  Jones, Becky Carlson and E. Jay Saunders. Everybody on this list has agreed to serve.

 

 

 

Edgar, David, Carlton



The Research and Education Committee

 


Dr.  Carlton Mills, H.E.  Ross, Katya  Brightwell, Deputy Director of Education Edgar Howell, Cultural and Arts Commission Director David Bowen, TCI National Trust Director Ethlyn  Gibbs-Williams, 
E. Jay  Saunders, Brian Riggs, JJ Parker and Dr. Ed Williams.

 

There are many who are actively interested in being aboard this particular Committee and the reality is that the committee itself will formulate access to involvement and will coordinate that involvement. We are covering not only historical research but archival and museum creation as well as networking with other preservation organisations, and the research and teaching of maritime heritage and history in the school system as a regular part of the curriculum.

 

Everybody except Edgar has been contacted and will serve on this Commission. Sorry Edgar I will call you today.

 

Board Meeting For Election of Officers


We called a meeting the week after the election of Board members and only a few showed up, so there will be another meeting called when it can be determined that all of the schedules of the nine Board Governors coincide or some other alternative is reached, such as voting by internet. The Board of Governors elects the Officers of the Board: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer.

 

Al Gore Effect and How Culture Works


Many of you are hoping that the effect of global climate change champion ex-Vice President of the USA Al Gore’s appearance and lecture here will result in more than a point on the resume of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The government invited him and presented him to the people and now it is up to the people to judge what they can do individually and collectively to take the next steps.

 

Our show tonight on How Culture Works will feature Permanent Secretary for Natural Resources Lynn Campbell, DECR Science Officer Marlon Hewitt, DECR Education Officer Rhonda Dalrymple and DIGICEL CEO E. Jay Saunders who recently brought in the first hybrid automobile to talk about what we need to know and do about the seriousness of climate change on a low lying archipelago. You can’t hide from it now that it is official.

 

How Culture Works 9PM Wednesday night WIV Channel 4


Here is a letter from Federation members Eileen and Geoff  Mander, who have been cruising the Turkish Coast in their “Ocean Gem of Plymouth”.

 

Sorry we’ve not been in touch much this summer, but this part of Turkey has really bad internet connections, often they don’t work and when they do they’re very slow.   On top of that it’s been stiflingly hot, sometimes as much as 50degC.  It has been so enervating that all we have been able to do is lounge around with the minimum clothing we can get away with (this is an Islamic country) and jump in the water as often as possible.  Sitting at a computer for any length of time, even one with a connection that works has just been too much like hard work.

 


Having said that it’s been a superb summer, one of the most interesting so far. We’ve visited what seems like an endless number of beautiful places, discovered the remains of old civilisations that we knew nothing of before and made a bunch of new friends.  I won’t try to fill you in on all the details now as it would take too long, but perhaps when we next meet up.  But you would of course love it over here, if for no other reason than it is a real Mecca for wooden boats.  SW Turkey is home to a type of boat called a ‘gullet’. The name is a corruption of the French word for Schooner, and although the traditional gullet is schooner rigged most now are ketches (although some have three or four masts).  They are almost all built out of wood, usually pine, so their life expectancy is only modest, usually not more than 30 years.  There are literally thousands of them around this coast, and new ones are being built all over the place.  They are present in such healthy numbers because they are an integral part of the Turkish tourist experience.  Although they spend the high summer chugging around on engine power, in the autumn they start to air their sails.  In Bodrum in October there is an annual regatta where hundreds of gullets, ranging in size from 18 up to 60 metres in length spend a few days carreering around a course under sail and in many cases only marginally in control, before returning to port in the evenings for a bout of sustained raki poisoning. It’s quite an experience.


We’ve enjoyed reading your emails and seeing pictures of young Sam.  We’re looking forward to meeting him when we next get back to Provo although at the moment I’m not sure when that will be, as our house is still rented.
Our sailing season is over now for this year so the boat is currently stationary in a marina in Marmaris, Turkey that is imaginatively called Marmaris Yacht Marina.  Eileen went back to England a few weeks ago and I’m overseeing some reasonable extensive additions to the boat (solar panels etc).  The quality of work here is good but you have to keep a sharp eye on what is actually being done; you can’t afford to just go away and let them get on with it.   It’s a huge place, with over 2,000 boats, most packed like sardines onto spaces in the yard.  There are also a large number of liveaboards spending the winter here so it has a quite active social scene.  Friday evenings can see up to 200 people crammed into the on site boozer with an atmosphere that is reminiscent of a students union bar.

We hope to hold a meeting of the Research and Education Committee next week under the leadership of  Honourable Dr. Carlton Mills. This two very large areas of  endeavour and this initial list reflects the need to many sub-committees of those interested in the categories we have only started to define:

 


Fluyt and Bezaanjacht

 

FIRST DRAFT
30 Aug 07- London
 
Introduction

In 1619 a Dutch shipwright named Jacob Jacobson was shipwrecked off Bermuda. He made it ashore and was hired by the then Governor Butler to instruct settlers in boat building, initiating a boat and ship building tradition that eventually formed the basis for Bermuda’s seafaring and trading prosperity.
For a lot of visitors to the Turks and Caicos Islands they are like a lot of other Caribbean destinations that have a history of colonial rule then an absence of the reasons for that rule that produces a void in the national personality of the country as a nation. There is the tendency not to acquaint yourself with any real history and rely upon those within immediate contact to let one in on what this country is…
 
The history of the Turks and Caicos Islands began being written by the hands of captains who sailed into this archipelago’s waters on vessels specifically designed to get there against the prevailing winds and currents from a distant archipelago called Bermuda. The vessels that brought the first settlers were called Bermuda Sloops. This is the beginning of a book that tells how and why we have the descendants of those masterful designs in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
 
The Innovative Dutch Ship Designers

With the overthrow of Spanish domination in the late years of the Sixteenth and early in the Seventeenth Centuries the United Provinces of the Netherlands established political independence, the first middle class structure in history, and became an economic force through the innovation of vessel design. They also exploited in almost every way possible  the uses of their mobile innovations, even to the extent of inventing marine insurance that covered their quickly built ships that were not meant for long life, but would secure short term investments in the construction of those vessels and a continuance of commerce.
 
That is a lot to say in a single paragraph but in a very few years these delta people, through an appreciation of the importance of technological change put themselves on the cutting edge of European social development, emerging after about twenty five years from being oppressed rebellious subjects of an imperial power to the wealthiest republic in the world. In this new Republic every time a new twist was made to technology that seemed practical an infrastructure was created to maximize the profit of that twist and spread it amongst its trade guild creative population.
 
Rapid population growth was one of the critical factors that aided their rise in economic power. Because of their need for other skills and their tolerant religious beliefs extensive immigration of skilled labour and free thinkers were drawn to their newly levied lands. These newcomers brought with them an atmosphere of adventure which resulted in the creation and expansion into many fields of business activity. One area that had the greatest adventurous appeal was the pull of the exotic, the quest for a more varied product to trade for the products in hand. In the Sixteenth Century trade meant the Far East and the New World to the West.
 
Economic growth in the Netherlands was so rapid that the Dutch found themselves guiding a fountainhead into spaces that only pattern and systems kept in check, and it worked. This brought out a quite a bit of anxiety in the other countries that still held monarchies and royal hierarchies. The Netherlands became a country that needed to prosper in order to pay for its own military protection. Even this it did through a dependence upon the sea and its navy as well as an efficient mercenary army.
 
Business became a necessary part of the defense of the nation, warranting a increased appreciation for the value of new techniques, through which businesses prospered and the country remained safe.
 
An early epitome of this quest for a business combination with military awareness was incorporated in the Dutch Fluyt, a well armed commercial vessel of medium size but great maneuverability. The Fluyt was a product of innovation in the shipyard as opposed to the accepted practices on the architects’ drawing board. This freedom of eye including the lateen sail with the square sail as a normal practice and set the Dutch built ship at a high mark in European shipbuilding. The Dutch produced faster, lighter and more maneuverable vessels for less cost and worked with smaller crews.
 
Though the first book on shipbuilding, Instruccion Nauthica, was published in Mexico City by Doctor Diego Garcia de Palacio in 1587, the technical Dutch did not produce an academic work on ship construction until Nicoleas Witsert in 1671. Between 1570 and 1630 the Dutch shipyards had no time for theory they just worked at completely changing the direction of ship design and construction. By 1630 the rest of Europe caught up with their innovations in large and medium ship design, so Dutch innovative shipbuilding took a swing toward the smaller cargo carrier and fishing vessel.
 
“Most of the developments of the years from 1630 to the end of the republic were either a direct result of following the implications of fluyt design or of the adoption of inventions and advances first made on small inland or coastal vessels later found suitable for seagoing three-masters.” 
- Richard W. Ungar, Dutch Shipbuilding before 1800
 
Usually, most historians refer to the Bezaanjacht as the forerunner of the true fore and aft rig but actually before that design came both the Boyer and Flyboat. The Boyer was double-ended and heavily built but mainly was used for river and coastal trading. The Flyboat became the Hekboot and was renown for speed and maneuverability. Speed came into play to produce the Jacht from these designs. The Jacht literally translated into a vessel that chased. Around 1600 Jachts were small armed patrol boats that were fast.
 
The famous name changing event that made Jachts into Yachts came in 1660 when a elaborate Jacht was presented to King Charles II as a tribute to his succession to the throne of England. Jacht racing in the Republic with Speeljachten dates from the early 17th Century but was quickly adopted in England and Speeljachten designs were copied by English shipwrights and these two masted boats were called Yachts and used originally in England exclusively for the wealthy as competitive toys in a sport called yacht racing.
 
The spritsail rig configuration was used on both the mainmast and the mizzen of the Dutch Jachts until the 1630s when the Bezaanjacht was created using a gaff rig and eventually a shorter gaff called a shoulder o’mutton rig, with the addition of a jib but the subtraction of the mizzen sail. A square sail would sometimes be used on the main mast above the main sail. Strangely enough this working sailing configuration, the true fore and aft rig, was developed from the sporting sailing configuration instead of the other way around.
 
This was the forerunner of the Bermuda Sloop.