News From Fort Schuyler
May 5, 2001 - Volume 5, No. 17
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW - Welcomed back as SST 2001 Ship's Librarian is
Dr. RALPH J. FOLCARELLI, making his fifth cruise since he first signed
aboard the EMPIRE STATE IV in 1972. Dr. Folcarelli brings to the "library on
the tanktop" a distinguished career as librarian, author, humorist,
professor, and academic administrator (he is the retired Dean of the Palmer
School of Library and Information Science at C. W. Post, Long Island
University.)The newest thing in the Ship's Library is a DVD player. Included
in the DVD or VHS titles selected and purchased by the library in recent
weeks were Academy Award winners: "Erin Brockovich", "Gladiator", "Cider
House Rules", and "American Beauty".
PHILADELPHIA STORY - You must be from Philadelphia if you know where to
find the Rocky statue and how to spell Schuylkill. (You thought Schuyler was
bad ?) You don't have to be from Philly to visit the Training Ship EMPIRE
STATE VI at its berth on Penn's landing on Friday May 25 from 18:00 to
20:00. All the details are at: http://www.fsmaa.org
The ship will arrive at Penn's Landing around noon on Friday, 25th May. A
cocktail party will be held in the evening, but by invitation only due to
limited space available. It is suggested that if you have not been
sent an invitation in the mail by SUNY Maritime College or by the Chapter,
you consider visiting the ship for an "OPEN HOUSE" tour on Saturday or
Sunday from 10am until 6pm to see the ship and the cadets. The ship sails on
Monday morning, Memorial Day, at approximately 10am for the Canary Islands,
Denmark and Scotland.
If you have any question, please call John Reynolds at the Delaware Valley
Alumni Chapter, 215-931-4440.
RING FIGURE - Recent items in NFFS about the wording of the alma mater and
the punctuation of the ST. MARY'S, reminded traditionalist PETE BACI, Class
of 1964, that "...when I was a cadet, the members of my class voted to
replace the ST. MARY'S on the side of our class ring with a replica of the
N.S. SAVANNAH. Nuclear powered merchant ships were thought to be the coming
thing, but as we now know, the SAVANNAH turned out to be a while elephant
and its career was relatively short lived. [Visit
www.asme.org/history/roster/H087.html ] When I was meeting with the
representative from Jostens, the ring manufacturer, I voiced my displeasure
about not having the sailing ship on my ring. He said that they could make
one for me with the sailing ship and, as far as I know, I am the only member
of the Class of 1964 whose rings bears the likeness of the ST. MARY'S. I don't
know whether subsequent classes kept the SAVANNAH or went back to the ST.
MARY'S, but I am glad that it appears on my ring." [What ship is on those
post-1965 class rings ?]
REMEMBERING 15 JUNE 19O4 - The Maritime Industry Museum will join with the
NYC Parks Department for a memorial ceremony in Manhattan on Friday, June
15, to honor the victims of the GENERAL SLOCUM. The number of people who
died in the fire and stranding of the GENERAL SLOCUM was staggering, even by
today's reckoning. More than a thousand people perished as this excursion
steamer burned and finally beached on North Brother Island, which is some
five miles down the East River from Fort Schuyler. According to the museum
press releases: "The disaster was the largest fire fatality in New York City
history and the second worst inland waters disaster in the nation's history.
The ceremony will be held in Tompkins Square Park, East 9th Street and
Avenue B, by the Slocum Memorial Fountain. It was in this lower East Side
neighborhood that the dead, mostly women and children, from the SLOCUM
lived. Mrs. Adella L. Wotherspoon, 97, one of two living survivors for the
GENERAL SLOCUM disaster will place a wreath in front of the fountain." [See
www.ezl.com/~fireball/Disaster12.htm ;and
www.greatshipwrecks.com/others.html ]
CUMINGS OF THE NEWPORT - In 1928 a graduate of the New York Nautical School,
SCHUYLER CUMINGS, Class of 1909, was front page news for his role in the
rescue of 125 passengers from the British liner VESTRIS off the Virginia
Capes. The contemporary records of this event are contained in Personal
Papers of Schuyler F. Cumings which were donated to the archives by his
grandson, J.D. Cumings.
The VESTRIS rescue unfolds through a sheaf of original radiograms
beginning on 12 November as Cumings brought his vessel toward the distressed
VESTRIS: "Have you seen the VESTRIS and do you need our assistance ?" to his
first sighting of the VESTRIS on 13 November, followed by communiques
describing rescue efforts, desperate messages sent by anxious relatives and
friends of VESTRIS passengers seeking news of survivors, and finally ending
with queries from new services offering financial remuneration in exchange
for first-hand accounts and photos of the rescue. These original radiograms,
supplemented by shipboard records, and Cumings' official reports of the
rescue and eyewitness accounts, offer a tale as exciting as many novels
about the sea. Cumings was decorated by George V of England for his valor.
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