a review of "Seaworthy" [44]

Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea by Linda Greenlaw
(Viking, ISBN 978-0-670-02192-5)

I make no secret of a certain fondness for things of the sea, and no secret that one of my favorite author about the sea is Linda Greenlaw.
She first became know to us when Sebastian Junger's, in his 1997 best-seller, "The Perfect Storm," called her "not only one of the only women in the business ... but one of the best captains, period, on the entire East Coast." For many of us, that book was the beginning of a certain fascination with long line swordfishing and several books since then by Ms. Greenlaw have fueled our interest. Happily, with the publication of Seaworthy, we have another installment in the story.

It has been ten years since Greenlaw last captained a swordfishing boat and her life has taken some different turns. She returned to Isle au Haut, Maine, took up lobster fishing, became the guardian of a teenage girl and wrote 3 non-fiction books about fishing, a delightful cookbook with her mother and two mystery novels. But still, when she got the call offering her a position as the caption of thw Seahawk, to undertake a 2 month fishing trip in the fall of 2008 for swordfish, it is not an exaggeration to say that she jumped at the chance.

"At sea—it's more a feeling than it is a place.
It was this feeling, the state of being at sea, that I hadn't experienced in ten years. This sensation is the result of living the total contradiction of burden and freedom. I am the captain, I thought. The freedom to make all decisions, unquestioned and without input, was something that I had missed during my sabbatical. To be held ultimately, although not solely, responsible for the lives and livelihoods of a loyal and capable crew was strangely exhilarating and empowering. But high hopes and expectations were weighty loads. It's the willingness, and not the ability, to bear that burden that separates captains from their crew. Right here and right now, as the Seahawk plodded along, I was fondly embracing the burden of that responsibility. Just being on the boat made me feel good."

She signed up a eager crew of four experienced men, several of them her good friends and set out to pick up their boat. And so began the problems.

The Seahawk turned out to be...

"the rustiest of buckets, with sprung, busted and ancient equipment guaranteed to fail at any critical moment."

..and it was pretty much downhill from there. An engine breakdown that require a tow to Nova Scotia, constant equipment problems, the electrocution of a crew member and the near drowning of another...no, things are never dull on the Grand Banks. But perhaps the highlight of the story...and a great story it is...is Greenlaw's arrest by Canadian authorities, complete with handcuffs and a cell and a fine that left her actually owing money after two months work.

And yet for all that, we have no doubt that if she gets that call again, she will be packing her bag. Greenlaw is one of those few that maybe feel more at home on the deck of a boat a 1000 miles from home, waves crashing over them, than anywhere else. And that is maybe the most interesting aspect of her books for me, what makes these people, again and again, return to the sea. For all her new commitments and changes in her life, she can not get it out her blood, the thrill, the challenge of it all.

"Every time I believed I had swordfish figured out, they threw me a curve. They're clever, and elusive, and mysterious. Swordfish and I first engaged in this game of hide and seek in 1979. And thirty years later we're both still in the game."

Greenlaw wonders, at the beginning of her journey, how she will fare, captaining a swordfishing boat after a decade away, whether she will be up to the challenge. She is changed, yes. She is older, more mellow, more introspective. But she is, happily for the reader, as humorous as ever, as good a proponent of this industry as there is, and an excellent storyteller, totally Seaworthy.

The Lighthouse's Tale

I offer, for your listening pleasure, my very favorite lighthouse song, music by the group Nickel Creek. It is actually a very, very sad song, but I love it and I hope that you enjoy it.
This might be a fictional account of a lighthouse and it's keeper and their sad story, but I think that it partially captures the sense of history connected to lighthouses which is part of why they interest me.
And every lighthouse has so many interesting tales to tell...

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield

America's Oldest Lighthouse

Today we are off to northern NJ...well, relatively north, to visit the Queen of lighthouses. Perhaps that should be the King of lighthouses, considering the symbolism of the towers and all. Yes, the King of lighthouses, Sandy Hook, the oldest existing, continually working lighthouse in the Unites States.

There is evidence that the need for a lighthouse at this sandy spit of land, that extends up to form the south end of the entrance into NY harbor, was discussed as early as 1679. Ships had to sail very close to Sandy Hook to follow the natural channel and there were numerous shipwrecks over the years, but it was not until there were several shipwrecks in a very short period of time, in early 1761, costing over £21,000 in lost of ships and merchandise, that a number of NY merchants approached the His Majesty’s Council, requesting that a lighthouse be built. The government decided to hold two lotteries, raising £3000 each, to buy four acres of the sandy land and to contract to build a tower.

Little is know about the mason who designed and built it, a Mr. Isaac Conro, except that he built a very strong and lasting structure that has survived lightening hits, and cannonball attacks and hurricanes for over two hundred years and still stands in excellent condition. It was built of rubblestone, stuccoed over and years late, lined with brick. Construction was started in 1763 and the light was first seen in what was then called the New York Lighthouse on June 11, 1764, the country's fifth lighthouse. As described in the New York Mercury newspaper ...

“On Monday Evening last the New York Lighthouse erected at Sandy Hook was lighted for the first time. The House is of an Octagonal Figure, having eight equal sides; the Diameter at the Base is 29 Feet and at the top of the Wall 15 Feet. The lanthorn is 7 Feet high; the circumference 33 Feet. The whole constructure of the Lanthorn is Iron; the top covered with copper. There are 48 Oil Blazes. The Building from the surface is Nine Stories; the whole from the Bottom to Top 103 Feet.”

Of course, it was not many yearsthat the nation was in the midst of the Revolutionary War and Sandy Hook was to be in the thick of it. The New York Congress decided to either destroy the tower or at least render the light useless by dismantling it, so as to make a British attack on New York Harbor more difficult. It seems that Major William Malcolm was successful in taking the light apart, but the British repaired it within a few months, leading to a daring attack by ship by Benjamin Tupper, in an attempt by the colonists to once again make the light useless. Happily, the attacks by cannon proved unsuccessful against the structure. After an hour, he “found the walls so firm that the cannon fire could make no impression” and Sandy Hook would remain under British control for most of the rest of the war.

After the war, there was a dispute over ownership of the lighthouse between the States of New York and New Jersey, which was settled in 1789 when the federal government took over control of all U.S. Lighthouses, saying..

“The necessary support, maintenance and repairs of all lighthouses beacons, buoys, and public piers erected, placed or sunk before the passing of this act, at the entrance of, or within any bay, inlet, harbor or port of the United States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe, shall be defrayed out of the treasury of the United States."

And so it has remained for Sandy Hook up to the present day.

The original copper oil lamps were replace with Argand lamps in 1812, with eighteen 21” reflectors, and then the lighthouse received a fixed, third-order Fresnel lens in 1856, which remains in use today. It was also the first American lighthouse to be lit by electric incandescent lamps in 1889 and today is illuminated by a 1000 watt bulb, that emits 45,000 candle-power, and that is visible for almost 20 miles out to sea.

Oddly, Sandy Hook, unlike many other lighthouses, is in no danger from the encroaching sea. When it was first built, it was about 500 feet from the ocean, but the strong current at the inlet has deposited more and more sand on the hook over the years and today the light is over a mile from the water. History has not left the tower alone out there on that spit of land either. In the 1890's the government built Fort Hancock next to the tower, which while deserted today, was for many years the site of massive gun batteries to defend NY harbor. The Nike missiles once there can be seen on display on the roadside as you drive in to the Gateway National Recreation Area, the Federal park that encompasses the entire area today. Now the National Park Service controls the lighthouse and all the surrounding buildings but the light itself is still maintained by the Coast Guard, who has a station at the far northwest corner of the hook.

On June 11, 1964, the lighthouse was declared a National Historic Landmark, on the 200th anniversary of the night it was first lighted, and you can see the plaque marking that day mounted on the side of the tower.

It is a beautiful and stately lighthouse, well worth a visit, as is the whole Gateway National Recreation Area, in which it is located. There are a number of beaches, open for swimming and very popular in the summer and available for surf fishing year round. There are miles of bike and hiking trails, several observation towers which promise views of NY city when the weather is clear and amazing views of huge ships, very close offshore, sailing into the harbor year round. You can also see any number of pleasure crafts and fishing boats just off the beaches on a fine day, as I can attest.
The Park also includes the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory, established in 2001 by the New Jersey Audubon Society, in what is one of New Jersey's best year-around birding locations and you can check their website for a list of activities they offer.

So, whenever you go, bring your binoculars and your camera and a picnic lunch.

a pause for a poem by John Masefield

A Wanderer's Song

A wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels,
I am tired of brick and stone and rumbling wagon-wheels;
I hunger for the sea's edge, the limit of the land,
Where the wild old Atlantic is shouting on the sand.

Oh I'll be going, leaving the noises of the street,
To where a lifting foresail-foot is yanking at the sheet;
To a windy, tossing anchorage where yawls and ketches ride,
Oh I'l be going, going, until I meet the tide.

And first I'll hear the sea-wind, the mewing of the gulls,
The clucking, sucking of the sea about the rusty hulls,
The songs at the capstan at the hooker warping out,
And then the heart of me'll know I'm there or thereabout.

Oh I am sick of brick and stone, the heart of me is sick,
For windy green, unquiet sea, the realm of Moby Dick;
And I'll be going, going, from the roaring of the wheels,
For a wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels.

John Masefield

Lucy the Elephant...Lucy the Elephant...Down by the Sea

Once upon a time....no, this is not a fairy tale, stick with me here for a minute folks....once upon a time, the acres and acres and miles and miles of land along the New Jersey shore were pretty empty. Hard to believe if you have ever sat in traffic on a Saturday morning on the Garden State Parkway, trying to head south to the beach, but true nevertheless. In the late 1800's, a man named James Lafferty was the owner of many of those empty acres in what was then called South Atlantic City, the present day city of Margate, a few miles south of the then growing seaside playground of Atlantic City. In an attempt to draw potential buyers to the scrub pine and dune grass covered land, he had the idea to built an attraction. A BIG attraction...a great wooden Elephant.

He thought it was such a grand idea that he patented it on December 5, 1882. “My invention consists of a building in the form of an animal, the body of which is floored and divided into rooms...the legs contain the stairs which lead to the body...”. And so was born the wonderful structure that now bears the name Lucy the Elephant.

Lucy stand in a feeding position, her trunk down and in a barrel...filled with peanuts perhaps. She is 65 feet tall, her ears 17 feet long and 10 feet wide with tusks that are 22 feet long. But as impressive as she is, Lucy is not the only Giant Elephant that once resided at the shore. Mr. Lafferty also constructed a smaller relative, the 40 ft. tall Light of Asia, down at the tip of NJ, in Cape May, and what must have been the most incredible Elephantine Colossus, which measured 122 feet tall, in Coney Island, NY. Sadly, neither had Lucy's good luck at survival. Within 13 years Asia was in such bad shape that she she was torn down and 'cremated' and the Giant Colossus burned to the ground in 1896, just 12 years after her construction. It seems fire is very bad for an elephant, especially if you are made of wood.
But Lucy survives, and as I can attest, is looking very, very good these days, for all her 127 years. She had some grand years early on, attracting famous visitors. In the year of 1916 alone, President and Mrs. Wilson, John J. Astor, the Duponts of Delaware, Henry Ford and the Rajah of Bhong were just a few to sign her guest book. Lucy was run as a tourist attraction through the years, along with a nearby hotel, bathhouse, and beer garden, until 1970, when the family that owner her since 1887, the Gertzens, moved to Florida and donated her to the city of Margate.

Unfortunately, by that point, many, many years of neglect had take their toll on our once elegant elephant friend and she was in a very sad state of repairs. When the land she was on was sold to build to a developer to build condos, she was slated to be torn down. If it was not for a group of residents that raised the money to move her...and that was quite the sight as I remember... to a city owned lot and started her repairs, she would have been lost. But raise the money they have, 1.5 million dollars to this date, to repair and maintain her. The salt air is terrible on an elephants skin you know, especially if your skin is over 12,000 sq. feet of metal, and she requires a new paint job about every two years to keep her beautiful...and rust free.

Oddly, you will see if you visit her and climb up the winding staircases in her rear legs to enter her main room, they painted her interior walls a nice rosy pink. It is because, as our guide pointed out, “That would be the color of the inside of a real elephant”.

In 1976, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior recognized Lucy as a National Historic Landmark, recognizing her historic significance, and hopefully she will remain, as she has for over a century and a quarter now, with her feet in the sandy beach, her eyes staring out to sea, for many years to come.

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on the roofs and walls
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

...on the way to Cape May

Lighthouses hold a particular fascination for many of us. Maybe the image of a foggy, stormy night, the sea wild, gale force winds, a ship in a perilous situation, with only the beacon of the lighthouse to keep it from going aground.
Or maybe it is the fact that they are often very attractive structures in beautiful oceanfront locations...lol

The Cape May lighthouse is not the first lighthouse I ever visited as a child, nor is it the first one that I ever climbed. That distinction belong to the Absecon lighthouse, which we will have to 'visit' in the future. But Cape May is probably still my favorite.

Part of the reason for that might be it's location. Just a short drive from the charming Victorian city of Cape May, the lighthouse is actually located in the small nearby town of Cape May Point. Surround by the Delaware Bay on one side and the Cape May Point State Park on the other, it is always a place for a pleasant day's visit. You can take a walk through the trails and boardwalk of the park to ponds and wetland areas full of wildlife. You can check out the count of migrating birds at the observation deck, you can walk on the beach and search for Cape May diamonds...actually pieces of clear quartz that wash up on shore and are polished by the water. And just off shore of Sunset Beach are the remains of a sunken concrete ship and you will often get a view of the ferries on their way to or from Lewes, Delaware.
oh...the ferry...there is another nice way to spend the day...

But foremost we are here for the lighthouse!
The present tower is actually the third one at the Point. The first, in 1823, was built on land that eroded, the second, in 1847 was so poorly built it had to be torn down and the third and present one was built in 1859 and has been in operation ever since. For those that like their statistics...to quote Wikipedia...
“The tower is 157 feet 6 inches tall, from the ground to the tower's cast iron spiral staircase. There are 217 steps from the ground to the top, with 199 steps in the tower's cast iron spiral staircase. The lighthouse has two separate walls. The outside wall is cone-shaped, and is 3 feet 10 inches thick at the bottom, and 1 foot 6 inches thick at the top. The inside wall is cylinder with 8.5-inch thick walls which support the spiral staircase. The walls were designed to withstand winds several times above hurricane force.”

The number of steps are correct. I know because I counted them as I climbed...counted and gasped for breath. It was nice of the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, who leases the tower from the Coast Guard and runs the visitor operations, to have installed various historical displays at each window landing as you climb up. That way you can pause to read them..and catch your breath...without appearing like too much of an out of shape wimp.
Even if you are.
There is a wonderful view from the top, of Cape May and the ships in the Bay and on a clear day, Delaware, across the water.