Tall Ships And Trials At Sea: Captain Dan Parrott On Baltimore Clippers, April 1

Chestertown, MD, March 22, 2004 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc., as part of the Maritime Lecture Series, present “Baltimore Clippers: Then and Now,” a lecture by Daniel S. Parrott, former captain of the Pride of Baltimore II and author of Tall Ships Down, Thursday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. A booksigning will follow the lecture.

Parrott is a professional mariner with more than 20 years of experience sailing tall ships all over the world. Holding ocean masters licenses from the United States and Australia, Parrott has served as master for numerous vessels, including Pride of Baltimore II, Harvey Gamage, Bill of Rights and Tole Mour. He holds a master's degree in maritime affairs from the University of Rhode Island and is the author of the critically acclaimed book,Tall Ships Down, which chronicles the final, disastrous voyages of five contemporary tall ships: Pamir (1957), Albatross (1961),Marques (1984), Pride of Baltimore (1986) and Maria Asumpta(1995). Parrott's lecture will trace the evolution of the Baltimore Clipper design from its origins in the early 19th century to the reproductions in use today. In addition, he will discuss the human and technological challenges of building and sailing historical reproductions of tall ships and his view that recent tall ship tragedies at sea that have been deemed acts of god probably resulted from an ignorance or neglect of age-old practices of seamanship.

The Maritime Lecture Series is sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience—an innovative forum for new scholarship about American history drawing on the special historical strengths of Washington College and Chestertown—in partnership with Sultana Projects, Inc., an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board its reproduction 18th century schooner, Sultana.

For more information on upcoming lectures and events at Washington College, visithttp://calendar.washcoll.edu.

Maritime Lecture To Discuss Women And The American Whalefishery, November 7

Chestertown, MD, October 24, 2002 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc. present “QUAKER WIVES AND CAPE HORN WIDOWS: NEW ENGLAND WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN WHALEFISHERY,” a lecture by Lisa Norling, Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. This free talk will be held Thursday, November 7, 2002, in the College's Hynson Lounge, starting at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
The author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, Prof. Norling will discuss the role of women in the American whaling industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that sent hundreds of ships and thousands of men to distant seas on voyages lasting up to five years. Through sources such as women's and men's letters and diaries, shipowners' records, Quaker meeting minutes and other church records, newspapers and magazines, and censuses, Prof. Norling explores the often-overlooked side of this industry, reconstructing the lives of the “Cape Horn widows” left behind onshore and the impact that whaling had on these women's lives and gender roles.
Prof. Norling's talk concludes the 2002 Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th century Schooner Sultana. Contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a list of upcoming events and lectures.

The Race To Save The Monitor: A Maritime History Lecture At Washington College October 10th

Chestertown, MD, September 27, 2002 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc., present THE RACE TO SAVE THE MONITOR, a maritime history lecture by John Broadwater, Ph.D., Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The lecture will be held Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The Civil War brought many advances in weaponry, including naval technology, and the U.S.S. Monitor represented a radical departure from traditional warship design. Powered by steam alone and constructed almost exclusively of iron, the ship's novel low-profile design, heavy armor and revolving gun turret set the stage for modern naval warfare. With the exception of her famous engagement with the Confederate ironclad Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Monitor's brief career was uneventful, and shortly after midnight on December 31, 1862, the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, lost at sea less than a year after her launch. But the Monitor did not fail to impress ship designers and naval personnel around the world: the U.S. Navy built more than 60 Monitor-type vessels during the Civil War, and similar ships were built in other countries.

Dr. Broadwater is the Chief Scientist of the Monitor Expedition 2002 and has been the Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary since 1992. A diver since 1969, Dr. Broadwater has participated in shipwreck dives and investigations throughout the United States and in more than a dozen countries. He also volunteered his services as an archaeologist for expeditions to the Monitor in 1974, 1979 and 1983. Between 1978 and 1989, as Senior Underwater Archaeologist of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, he directed the Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project, which culminated with the complete excavation of a British ship sunk during the last major battle of the American Revolution. A well-known author and lecturer, Dr. Broadwater wrote “Secrets of a Yorktown Shipwreck” for the June 1988 issue of National Geographic, and the book Kwajalein, Lagoon of Found Ships, which chronicles shipwreck investigations in the Marshall Islands. On August 5 of this year, under his direction, the Monitor Expedition successfully raised the ship's unique 160-ton turret from 240 feet of water off of Cape Hatteras. The turret is now submerged in a special tank at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, in order to slow its decay and to allow special research and preservation measures. Dr. Broadwater's lecture will describe the efforts being taken and what remains to be done to save and to preserve the historic Monitor.

Dr. Broadwater's lecture is the third in a four-part Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th Century Schooner Sultana. The series will conclude November 7, 2002, with a lecture by Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry. Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a complete program of events.

Of Piracy And Privateers: A Maritime History Lecture At Washington College September 19

Chestertown, MD, September 10, 2002 — The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College presents "The Pirate and the Gallows; or, A Tale of Two Terrors," a lecture by Marcus Rediker, Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7.30 p.m. in Washington College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Rediker is the author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750, and, with Peter Linebaugh, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. He is the recipient of the American Studies Association's John Hope Franklin Prize, the Organization of American Historians' Merle Curti Social History Award, and most recently, the International Labor History Award.

Rediker's lecture is the second in a four-part Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th Century Schooner Sultana. The series will continue this fall with a lecture October 10, 2002, by John Broadwater, internationally known underwater archaeologist and manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, established to preserve the sunken ironclad U.S.S. Monitor; and a lecture November 7, 2002, by Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry.

Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a complete program of events and times.

The Great Age Of Sail: Ormond Opens Maritime History Lecture Series At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, March 25, 2002 — The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Washington CollegeDepartment of Art and Sultana Projects, Inc., present "MARITIME PAINTING IN THE GREAT AGE OF SAIL," a lecture and slide presentation by Richard Ormond, Samuel H. Kress Professor at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery, Washington, D.C. Prof. Ormond's lecture will be held Monday, April 15, 2002, at 7.30 p.m., Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The former director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, Prof. Ormond attended Brown University in 1961 before going on to Oxford for a degree in history. He is the great nephew of the American painter John Singer Sargent, and author of the book "John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors."

Ormond's lecture is the first in a four-part Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th century schooner Sultana.

The series will continue this fall with lectures by Marcus Rediker, author of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750," and with Peter Linebaugh, "The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic"; John Broadwater, internationally known underwater archaeologist and manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, established to preserve the sunken ironclad U.S.S. Monitor; and Lisa Norling, author of "Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870," discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry. Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, program manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, for a complete program of events and times.

Upcoming Lectures in the Maritime Series at Washington College

September 19, 2002
History Professor Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh, "The Pirate and the Gallows; Or, A Tale of Two Terrors" 7.30 p.m., Washington College, Hynson Lounge

October 10, 2002
John Broadwater, Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, "The Race to Save the Monitor" 7.30 p.m, Washington College, Hynson Lounge

November 7, 2002
Associate Professor Lisa Norling, University of Minnesota, "Quaker Wives and Cape Horn Widows: New England Women and the American Whalefishery" 7.30 p.m., Washington College, Hynson Lounge