News From Fort Schuyler

February 22, 2002 - Volume 6, No. 7

PEDIGREED ANCHOR - Two members of the Class of 1958, HARRY RAUSCH and CONSTANTINE GEORGIOPOULOS, immediately responded to last week's query about the origin of the anchor on Riesenberg Field. Harry wrote, "I think it came from an old US Navy vessel that was used years ago by the Naval Reserve and the vessel was tied up somewhere on the Lower East River..." Constantine adds, "If my memory serves me accurately, the anchor was salvaged from the former USS PRAIRIE STATE (ex-USS ILLINOIS). After graduation from the United States Naval Academy in the early part of the 20th century, ENS CALVIN T. DURGIN USN was assigned to the USS ILLINOIS. When time arrived to scrap the USS PRAIRIE STATE in the 1950's, VADM Calvin T. Durgin USN (Ret) was President of the Maritime College. The anchor was delivered to the Maritime College to commemorate Admiral Durgin's service to the United States Navy."

According to the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the battleship ILLINOIS (BB-7), commissioned in 1901, sailed in the Great White Fleet's 1908-09 cruise around the world, was laid up in 1919, and loaned to the State of New York in 1921. "ILLINOIS was fitted out as a floating armory at New York Navy Yard in 1924 and was assigned to the New York Naval Reserve. She remained there for more than 30 years, though reclassified IX-15 8 January 1941 and renamed PRAIRIE STATE... During World War II she served as a U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen Training School at New York. ... PRAIRIE STATE...was towed to Baltimore and sold for scrap ..18 May 1956." [The Ancient Mariners, an organization of WWII alumni of this school, even has a website at www.uwm.edu/People/lmr3/ ]

Constantine provides a link to photographs of the ILLINOIS taken by noted photographer, Berenice Abbott (www.mcny.org/abbott/a251-3.htm). The accompanying text on this Museum of the City of New York web page states that the decommissioned battleship was "...converted into an armory, with a large barn-like shed built upon the hull. Renamed the USS PRAIRIE STATE, the nation's largest floating armory was docked at Manhattan's 135th Street Pier on the Hudson River [near the present site of the North River Sewage Plant - www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/northri.html - on top of which is Riverbank State Park, " the only park of its kind in the Western Hemisphere" - www.nysparks.state.ny.us/passport/ ] The floating armory remained in place until 1951, when it was relocated to 25th Street on the East River and eventually scrapped." That's our anchor.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS - The Second Annual "HAP" PARNHAM Cup Monomoy Race, sponsored by the Student Propeller Club, will be held down at the waterfront after classes on Friday, April 12. Last year eight campus clubs and organizations took to the boats for this cup. (See NFFS 3/24/01 and 4/22/01 at the Alumni Association website for last year's race.)

RECOMMENDED READING - The 28 January issue of the Journal of Commerce's, JoC Week, contained a feature by Chris Dupin titled, "Redrawing the Map." The author, contending that "politics, economics, and technology will determine which trade routes will thrive and which will be left behind by history," interviews leading academics and shipping industry executives to get an idea of what the next generation of shipping might look like. JOSE FEMENIA, Class of 1964, Chairman of the Engineering Department at King's Point, suggests studying "the feasibility of a fleet of large, ice-breaking, nuclear-powered container ships plying the Arctic Ocean." Another expert notes that Panama is thinking about building locks for ships quadruple the size of today's - something that would change ships and trade routes, while others focus on the potential for transshipping, hub-and-spoke systems, the balancing of cargo movements as middle classes grow in developing countries, and the development of high speed ships. Femenia's colleague at KP, GERHARDT MULLER, Class of 1965, who teaches Maritime Transportation and Logistics, posits that "tomorrow's trade map may be crisscrossed by many more lines. Routes that today are secondary - between cities such as Shanghai and Sao Paolo - may grow in importance." Muller also sees that U.S. coastwise shipping "eventually will catch fire and the Interstate 95 and Interstate 5 corridors along the East and West Coast could be complemented by 'O-95' and 'O-5' coastal shipping services." [Couldn't this article serve as the basis for an interesting conference at a graduate school?]

FINAL WORD - "I have an issue with your last paragraph in which you describe yourself as 'former Librarian,'" writes DAN LEVIN, Class of 1975. "When I retire, I will still be an electrical engineer. You may be the former Head Librarian of SUNYMC, but you will always be Librarian Richard Corson." [Point taken.]