Seaport Museum’s ships will be stay downtown in deal with city and state, say sources – NYPOST.com
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http://bowsprite.wordpress.com/
Thanks Brian for forwarding the story
Tag: Lettie G
Lettie G Howard and New York City Seaport Museum In Dire Financial Condition
This was sent along by my buddy Bowsprite. The NYC Seaport Museum hosts the Lettie Howard-The Schooner which many people consider to have the most historical significance to Gloucester.
Her Lettie G Painting-
The first public trickle of info came from this paper no one had heard of, DNA:
http://www.dnainfo.com/20110210/downtown/seaport-museum-struggles-stay-afloat
http://www.dnainfo.com/20101224/downtown/seaport-museum-may-look-sell-off-historic-schooner
http://www.dnainfo.com/places/seaport-museum-new-york
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/arts/design/19seaport.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all
However, hope exists: Peter Stanford, the founding member of the museum, and a committed group of people who love the ships have presented a marketing and funding plan in an effort to save the neglected fleet.
With programs that include Visiting Ship Programs, education of the history of the vessels and the piers, arts of the sailor, exhibition of local and current nautical artists, and participation in OpSail 2012, the group would accomplish things that the current museum have not done.
Among the proposed is that “…the schooner Lettie G. Howard (1893), scheduled for sale by the Seaport Museum,
be retained as a dockside exhibit ship. The museum had ruled against this
because they felt the wooden schooner, would be damaged by jostling against the
pier due to wakes stirred up by passing harbor traffic. This concern, however,
is contradicted by ten years’ prior experience, between 1968 and 1978, when the
Howard was open to the public at pierside with her hull in worse shape than it
is today.
be retained as a dockside exhibit ship. The museum had ruled against this
because they felt the wooden schooner, would be damaged by jostling against the
pier due to wakes stirred up by passing harbor traffic. This concern, however,
is contradicted by ten years’ prior experience, between 1968 and 1978, when the
Howard was open to the public at pierside with her hull in worse shape than it
is today.
We recommend that she be placed at a landing stage on Pier 16, with a fisheries
display aboard as she had 30-odd years ago.
The ship fished out of the Fulton Fish Market, in which the public is showing
great interest, and there is a rich trove of photos of similar Gloucester
schooners readily available, including photos of these vessels fishing under
sail at sea, which have been published in a well-known book, Men, Fish and
Boats, to which we hold the rights and the original photos now on file in Mystic
Seaport.”
It has always been the people who love the ships who have kept them afloat.
They have never been needed more right now.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Chickity Check It! Bowsprite: A New York Harbor Sketchbook
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I know it’s from *blech* New York, but this blog has some fantastic photos, watercolors and stories from *blech* New York harbor. Well worth a look. If you are a schooner lover it’s a must visit.
Hedre’s a funny post about “Fishing Boats”- http://bowsprite.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/fishing-boats/
There’s also some beautiful watercolors of the Lettie G- http://bowsprite.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/the-schooners-of-new-york-harbor/
The author lists the Lettie G as the “Schooner Howard G. Lettie”.
I always thought it was the Lettie G Howard, goes to show how much I know about these boats.
For my posts on schooners including the Lettie G when she was in Gloucester click this text
Good Morning Gloucester 