SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF

JVNB1972 The 102-year­ old Hatteras THE PROGRAM OF THE INSTITUTE Li ght. The Seamen's Church Institute of New York, an agency of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York, is a unique It's hard to deny that there are many organization devoted to the well-being and special interests reasons for the grisly "graveyard" so­ of active merchant seamen. briquet attached to Cape Hatteras - More than 753,000 such seamen of all nationalities, races what with well over 600 hulks of wreck­ and creeds come into the Port of New York every year. To ed ships resting on the beach or bottom many of them the Institute is their shore center in port and of the area. remains their polestar while they transit the distant oceans But it seems that its days as an ac- of the earth. tive ship cemetery have ceased. For First established in 1834 as a floating chapel in New York since 1942-43, the peak years of the harbor, the Institute offers a wide range of recreational and Atlantic prowlings of Nazi U-boats, educational services for the mariner, including counseling there have been only two major mari­ and the help of five chaplains in emergency situations. time disasters in the area, and neither Each year 2,300 ships with 96,600 men aboard put in at of these was really close to Hatteras Port Newark, where time ashore is extremely limited. itself. Here in the very middle of huge, sprawl­ One mishap occurred when the tank- ing Port Newark pulsing with activity of er Texaco Oklahoma broke up in heavy container-shipping, SCI has provided an seas 130 miles off the coast, and the oasis known as the Mariners Internation­ other when the tug Marjorie McAllis­ al Center which offers seamen a recrea­ ter went down in a violent storm 17 tional center especially constructed and miles off Cape Lookout_ land south of Delaware) to detour designed, operated in a special way for The reason for the relative absence north/ south coastal traffic. But it's not the very special needs of the men. An out­ of groundings and sinkings in recent only its position that is a navigational standing feature is a soccer field (lighted years lies in more efficient navigational problem. There's the shoal water. Dan­ at night) for games between ship teams. Port Newark, N.J. aids. The Hatteras area hasn't gerous shoals lurk off both Cape Look­ Although 55 % of the overall Institute budget is met by changed ; it still means trouble for out and Cape Hatteras. But those off income from seamen and the public, the cost of the special navigators. Modern technology has Hatteras are the ones with the real services comes from endowment and contributions. Contri­ simply made shipping safer. But it isn't killer reputation. butions are tax deductible. an easy job. Diamond Shoals they're called, but A look at the area tells why. Cape these diamonds are hardly anybody's Hatteras is the easternmost land point best friend. This area is devilishly de­ on a chain of barrier islands called the ceptive, a constantly shifting, sandy Outer and Lower Banks. These, in com­ shoal stretching some 25 miles out to LOOKOUT The Rev. J ohn M. Mulligan, D.O. D i )'cct 01" bination, form the sea and in some places no deeper than Vol. 63 No. 5 June 1972 Harold G. P etersen coast, the Outer Banks making up the three feet. It is so deadly that the navi­ Copyright 1972 Editor northern chain which runs south from gational charts for the area simply Publis hed monthl y with exce ption of July·August and , pokes out into the Atlantic don't show any depth because of "the Febru ary-Ma rch wh en bi-monthl y, Contributions to the SEA ME N'S CH UR CH Se amen's Church In stitute of New York of $5 .00 or more (thirty miles east of the mainland) as changeable nature of the area" and INSTITUTE OF NE W YOR K include a year's subsc ripti on to The Lookout. Single sub· state - "Navigation is extremely haz­ 15 State Street, New Yo rk, N.Y. 10004 script io ns are $2.00 annuall y. Single copie s 50¢. Addi · the Cape, hooks back to the southwest Telephone: 269-271 0 tional postage for Canada , latin Ame ric a, Spai n, $1.00 ; and ends up as Cape Lookout, about ardous to all types of craft." T he Right Reverend oth er foreign, $3.00 . Second class postage paid at New And as if course changes and shoal Horace \V . B. Donegan, D.O., D.C.L. York , N. Y. two-thirds of the way down North Honorary Prcsidell t water aren't enough for mariners to COVER: Grizzled face of the man "print­ Carolina. The Lower Banks. make up J ohn C. Winslow ed in" on the ocean-scoured timbers of the rest of the chain, terminating as contend with, there are ocean currents P resident the wrecked Laura A. Barnes on the as well- specifically the Gulf Stream, Cape Hatteras beach is said to resemble Cape Fear almost at the South Caro­ the vessel's former captain. lina border. that great salt river that flows out from This whole island chain juts out in­ between the Florida Keys and Cuba to the Atlantic far enough (Hatteras and on up the coastline of the United is the easternmost of any American States. by H. R. Berridge 3 o e day in 1880 a ship bound for the Uni;ed States was approximately 400 miles out from Glasgow when some of IJfSE~TS the crew noticed sever~ l l~rge butter­ flies flying round the nggmg. When these alighted on the deck, RT four of the butterflies were captured d from the description the men gave, ~~e insects were later identified as Sr;R specimens of the common black and orange-red Milkweed or Monarch but- by Cecil Kent terfly. ginia t o Tilbury. They flew inland on This is a North American species arrival at Tilbury, but entomologists that migrates in fl ights of thousands are now certain this powerful insect from Canada and the USA in autumn also deliberately migrates from North southwards to Mexico, returning to America to new areas, perhaps during Photo taken on the day the Diamond Shoals Light Platform was formally commissioned. a population explosion. In this way it Lightship is making a ceremonial circle of the new station before it formally retires. their North American habitats the fol­ lowing Spring. Occasionally they ar­ has spread across the Pacific to the As it gets near the Outer Banks, it although the present building dates rive in Britain, the first known occa- Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Aus­ gets very near land; in some places to back only 102 years. It raises its black tralia and Indonesia and across the At­ within ten miles. And since the velocity and white spirals 208 feet high to a lantic to the Azores and the Canary of the stream is about two-and-one-half light that can be seen 22 miles out t o Islands. knots, it's no wonder some unwary ves­ sea. Although our knowledge of bird mi­ sels taking advantage of its northerly Other Outer Banks are gration across the sea is considerable, flow used to end up in trouble on the the Currituck Beach Light, 163 feet that of insects has remained much of banks. high; the Bodie Island Light, 163 feet ; a mystery. In recent years, however, a And finally, there's the weather. The the Ocracoke Light, 75 feet and the lot has been learned, partly through Hatteras area is renowned for its Cape Lookout Light, 169 feet high. ships' crew members following ento­ gales: September 1944 - wind velocity Beams from these lights have ranges mology as a hobby or being interested 110 m.p.h., all instruments get whisked of from 14 to 19 miles. enough to record what they see on rec­ away; March 1962 - wind and waves Lighthouses on shore, however, can sion being in 1876, and since then two ord cards and forward these to societies carve out a 500 foot-wide inlet north do only part of the job in as treacher­ hundred have been r ecorded, chiefly in or individuals carrying out investiga­ of Buxton village, literally slicing Hat­ ous an area as Hatteras. When hazards autumn months. The puzzle is how do tions into insect migration. teras Island in two; 1967 - a water­ like Diamond Shoals extend out to sea they get there safely from the North The crews of Britain's Trinity House spout collides with the Diamond Shoals as far as they do, something else is American mainland ? lightships and men have al­ Light Platform, carrying away all an­ needed. It is likely that during their migra­ so provided a large amount of informa­ tennas and smashing most of the win­ For a long time the answer was the tory movement southward along the tion on insect movements. For example, dows. lightship; lightship service off Hatter­ eastern coast of the USA some of the ten lightships on the east and south But in the face of all that Hatteras as started in 1854. But as in almost huge flight are carried out to sea by coast alone recorded 400 cases of insect can dish out, it is the obstinate per­ everything, a better way has been westerly wind cur rents and being flights. sistence of navigational aids like t he fo und. Light vessels had their limita­ large, unmistakable insects (the wing Probably for thousands of years in­ light platform that has so effectively tions. They swung at anchor, thus not span is four inches in the male) some sects have been crossing the seas from cut down marine disasters. maintaining a constant position. They of them survive the crossing, but they one land mass to another, but whether The oldest type of navigational aid occasionally drifted or dragged anchor are unlikely to reproduce because their this is done through a hit-or-miss around the banks is the traditional and sometimes suffered mechanical fo od plant, milkweed, does not grow in chance of reaching another habitat or lighthouse - the tall, light-t opped t ow­ breakdown and had to be relieved. As a Britain. whether they have some mysterious in­ . er built on the shore. The oldest, tallest matter of fact, one Diamond Shoals No doubt some of the Monarchs have stinct of land elsewhere is unl}nown. and one of the most graceful to be light vessel was even torpedoed by a been given a "lift" at sea by conveni­ Christopher Columbus in June, 1494, found anywhere is tue Hatter as Light U-boat in 1918. ently available ships bound for British when at a position near western Cuba, itself. Some sort of light structure has So, in an effort t o provide a more ports; for example, two specimens were recorded a huge mass of butterflies ap­ st ood on Hatteras Island since 1798, permanent setup, the Coast Guard, on seen on board a ship bound from Vir- proaching from the Amer ican main- 4 (Continued on page 7) 5 land in "such immense swarms as even ranean area to Britain. A curiously 1847, and more recently on the Lin­ to darken the sky." placed example of the Convolvus Hawk colnshire coast in 1952. Another mystery was the Camber­ moth was captured by a crew member Dragonflies, which are very fast well B eauty, a beautiful rarity that a ship 350 miles northwest of the fliers, also migrate across the sea, even on . . t' th does not breed in Britain, yet it appears Azores in 1880. ThIs mlgra mg mo the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. there from time to time in late sum­ has a wing-span of 41/ 2 inches, but an­ On the night of April 11th, 1896, when mer. It is probably shipborne, as they other moth, the Diamond Backed, also the S.S. Victoria was about 900 miles have been seen in considerable numbers migratory, has a wing span of only from Australia and 300 miles south­ flying around ships loading timber in one-half inch across, yet it has passed east of the Cocos-Keeling islands in the Finland, possibly attracted by the sap fishing boats fifteen miles off the coast South Indian Ocean, a flight of an Af­ exuding from the wood and thus acci­ of Northumberland, U.K., crossed the rican dragonflies alighted on the ves­ dentally stowaway in the timber stacks Mediterranean, and in 1933 a large sel from a westerly direction during a until they reach Britain and the un­ swarm of these tiny creatures arrived heavy rainstorm. Next morning they loading of the timber again disturbs two ships arrived in St. Johns just over on the East Dudgeon lightship 22 miles were gone. them. They are also known to migrate a fortnight later, this species was com­ northeast of Norfolk, U.K. Whither they were bound is un­ across the Baltic and the North Sea. mon on Newfoundland, so the flight Beetles and aphids have been trap­ known. Bycontinued research and keep­ The Painted Lady butterfly is a mi­ seen far out at sea could have come ped while windborne in towing-kites ing of records, however, we may even­ grant species whose home is in North from either country. above the North Sea when over a hun­ tually learn more of the how and why Africa. There it sometimes occurs in Storms have frequently been blamed dred miles from land. Beetles also delib­ such varying types of sometimes seem­ huge swarms and presumably quits its for the appearance of insects at sea. erately migrate. Large numbers of 7- ingly fragile insects deliberately set habitats and limited food supply, leav­ In one case, at 4 p.m. on December 4th, spot Ladybird beetles arrived on the off to cross large expanses of sea and ing only a nucleus to continue the spe­ 1832, Charles Darwin on H.M.S. B eagle southeast coast of England, from the ocean, and, more important, how fre­ cies, surplus butterflies being liable to off the Argentine coast witnessed a direction of Belgium and France, in quently they succeed. venture to any part of the world. large flight of butterflies approaching When the Great Eastern was laying on the edge of a storm. The insect mass the trans-Atlantic cable about 1,100 was estimated to be a mile wide, un­ miles west of Ireland and 500 miles known miles in length, at a height of east of Newfoundland in August, 1865, about 600 feet. some Painted Lady butterflies were The butterflies seen flying nearby. were the South These butterflies were then known to A merican Clouded be swarming in Ireland, and when the Yellow, a migratory (Continued from page 4) species, and Darwin CAPE HAHEHAS thought those he November 7, 1966, commissioned the And, in addition to these lights, mar­ saw were migrating Diamond Shoals Light Station, located iners in the Banks area can turn for and the assistance 13 miles out to sea from Cape Hatteras. help to radio beacons, Loran stations of the storm coinci­ This structure, a Texas tower, rests and an intricate but well-maintained dental. The chief point against wind on four steel legs driven 156 feet into system of buoyage. and stormy weather as responsible for the ocean bottom. The main deck is 25 Then too, modern vessels give them­ the majority of insects being seen at feet above the water and has a top selves added protection through equip­ sea is that wind would not-be able to which is used for a helipad as well as a ment carried on board. Such things as differentiate between one species and catch basin for rain water to furnish radar and electronic depth finders en­ another. If carried away by a strong the needs of the crew. able navigators to tell almost at a wind it would be expected the mass Six coastguardsmen regularly man glance when they're approaching haz­ would contain numerous large and the station, ensuring the display of a ards. small insects, whereas these flights are light of up to 4,500,000 candlepower These then, are the things that do mostly always of one species. visible for a distance of 17 miles. And the job - giving ships safe passage Moths, even quite small species, also although the structure is designed to past the jutting capes, the sandy shoals, migrate across the sea. The large wing­ withstand the worst that Hatteras the strong currents and the foul gales spanned strong-flying Hawk moths fre­ gales can hurl at it, provision has been of Hatteras - now a graveyard whose quently arrive at lightships when mi­ made for automatic operation should gates seemed to be closed, hopefully grating from Europe and the Mediter- the crew have to be taken off. for good. 6 7 by George Berens S. S. Titanic

There is an old adage that truth is He did not become a success in the on her trial trip she had steamed at a She was the Titanic, starting on her stranger than fiction. And it has been jewelry business, and finally sought to rate of twenty-five knots ... In short maiden voyage. Bound for New York, said that fiction is fact distorted by make a sideline, writing fiction, earn she was a floating city, containing she was fated never to reach there, but art to make it more entertaining. money for him. within her steel walls all that tends to to be involved in the worst and most Both these declarations are substan­ In this he met with some success, minimize the dangers and discomforts publicized sea disaster of all time. Four tially true, but there is one fictional sea having many stories published in mag­ of the Atlantic voyage, all that makes days after she left her berth in South­ story that belies both. In a way it is azines. Considering his limited educa­ life enjoyable. Unsinkable, indestruct­ ampton, when she was just south of the most incredible tale of the sea ever tion, his stories show a remarkable ible, she carried as few boats as would the Grand Banks, steaming full ahead written. grasp of literary form and the use of satisfy the laws. These, twenty four in in fog, she struck an iceberg. It was written by a not-so-well­ language, though he never became a number, would hold five hundred Two hours later she sank, and 1503 known seaman-author, Morgan Robert­ really famous author. people." of the persons aboard went to an ocean son. Born in Oswego, New York, in Many of Robertson's stories are un­ This mammoth passenger ship left grave. (It will be remembered that a 1861, with a father who was a Great usual. Nearly all are tales of ships and New York with some three thousand light tower atop the old home of the Lakes shipmaster, Robertson's first the sea, sailing ships, steamships, war­ aboard, passengers and crew. The story Seamen's Church Institute at 25 South youthful experience was in vessels on ships. Most are accounts of adventure involved some strange behavior of per­ Street, was dedicated as a memorial to the Lakes. with seafaring characters well des­ sons aboard the giant liner; and of the the Titanic.) But he longed for the open ocean, cribed. wreck of the 'floating city.' So what is so incredible about Mor­ and soon left home to seek employment Some might be regarded as off-beat, In fog, just south of the Grand gan Robertson's story? Just this - his in deep-sea ships. He was sixteen then. involving spiritual, mystical and psy­ Banks, steaming full ahead, " ... a story of the giant English superliner For the next ten years he served in chological aspects. All give proof of his shout from the crow's nest split the that struck an iceberg and sank was ocean-going vessels, and he must have vivid imagination, and his background air: 'Ice' yelled the lookout; 'ice entitled, 'The Wreck of the Titan." The been an intelligent and proficient sea­ as a seaman. In a letter to him that ahead. Iceberg. Right under the bows." details given in his account of the loss man for, despite lack of formal educa­ famed sea-author, Joseph Conrad, In seconds the speeding liner crashed of the Titan are almost exactly the tion, he rose to be first mate. wrote: "Indeed, my dear sir, you are into the floating mountain of ice, and same as the actual facts in the loss of He left the sea in 1886 and, after a first-rate seaman." This coming from in less than an hour she sank, her 'in­ the White Star liner Titanic. some training, entered the jewelry an experienced shipmaster indicates destructible' hull split open. Most of So? Hasn't it been said that fiction business in New York City. In his writ­ the authenticity of Robertson's yarns. her passengers and crew perished. is fact distorted by art to make it more ings Morgan Robertson reveals some Of them all, the one that is most in­ Well, what's so incredible about entertaining? Yes; but Morgan Rob­ traits of personality unusual in sea­ credible is the story of a new Atlantic that? One remembers that thete really ertson's well-put-together novelette farers, and this probably accounts for superliner. Of her Robertson wrote: was a fine big superliner, of the latest about the loss of the Titan was written his leaving the sea. He was an avid "She was the largest craft afloat and construction, claimed to be unsinkable, in 1898! Over a decade before the Ti­ reader, endowed with the type of mind the greatest OE the works of men . .. that steamed out of Southampton, Eng­ tanic met her terrible fate. Some have which refuses to accept anything as She was eight hundred feet long, of land, on April 10, 1912, 60 years ago, questioned this date, but I think the unassailable truth. He despised dogma­ seventy thousand tons displacement, with 1310 passengers and a crew of mention of sails on two masts of the tism. seventy five thousand horsepower, and 898 aboard. Titan proves the correctness of it. 8 9 Every day at 2 :30 except Saturday, was practically paved with plaques visitors are welcome to a tour of the commemorating donors, but the new bottom five stories, where they may building has done something that must ee all sorts of ship models, bowsprit be seen by all plaque-bedeviled organi­ s rnaments and bells, including one zation officials. All plaques, hundreds ~rom the N ormandie. They are also of them, are fastened to a pole that shown the classrooms, the really lovely runs the entire five-floor stairwell in library - heavy on marine tomes - an ingenious column that is artistic and the cafeteria and dining room, and tells all to those who really want open to the public. to know. Sheer genius. The old institute, at 25 South Street,

One of the Institute's distinguished members of its Board of Managers was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, elect­ ed to the Board in 1908, and who never resigned his membership. At his death the Board entered a Resolution into the Minutes of its regular meeting of April 26, 1945, a copy of which was sent to the Roosevelt family. The Institute recently had the Reso­ lution and some Roosevelt family let­ ters mounted in a glass case in the SCI library. A portion of the Resolution reads: Captain Archie Horka who went to passenger service by the packet ship " Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an en­ sea at seventeen, was honored at a James Munroe in 1818. thusiastic young yachtsman and fish­ He was elected a Vice-President of the luncheon of the Shipwrites (New York It was the first time that a ship ad­ erman worked as a law clerk with Mr. Institute in 1929. marine writers' club) April 10 at the vertised its sailing schedule and de­ Edmund Lincoln Baylies, President of Both from Albany and from Wash­ Institute in recognition of his years of parted on time regardless whether or the Institute, upon whose suggestion ington his official acts and statements service to the maritime industry. not she was fully loaded. he was elected in 1908 a member of the gave abundant evidence of his contin­ A former master with In the picture are, from left: Captain Board of Managers. Serving on legisla­ ued interest in merchant seamen and Lines, he was tendered the James Mun­ Archie Horka, Mrs. Emily Schait, tion committees he was of great assist­ maritime affairs, as witnessed by the roe Award which commemorates the John Horka, Dr. John M. Mulligan, ance to the Reverend Dr. Archibald R. establishment of the United States start of regular international cargo and SCI Director. Mansfield, at that time Superintendent Maritime Commission and likewise of of the Institute, in his fight against the May 22nd as National Maritime Day, vicious exploitation of sailors. the latter marked by annual proclama­ Among his activities he represented tions in the interest of the American the Institute on the State Board of Merchant Marine. Commissioners for Licensing Sailors' The Nation and the world have lost The following appeared recently in Church Institute of New York and its Hotels and Boarding Houses. He con­ The N ew York Times in a column writ­ a leader. Merchant seamen have lost a modern, four-year-old 23-story head­ tinued his active interest and attend­ ten by reporter Richard F . Shepard: friend." quarters at 15 State Street, opposite ance until appointed Assistant Secre­ Standing at side of case : Chaplain Maritime seafaring, which seems to Battery Park. The building can house taryof the Navy by President Wilson. Miller M. Crag on, Jr., of SCI staff. be every day more of a vanishing art, 300 beached merchant sailors, give is the only reason for the Seamen's them rest, nourishment and training.

10 11 . t . " ~

On a wet, windswept day in 1939, a after much detective work, the ship and it seemed they were proved right. the ship and crew. A fire was the pop­ man named Arthur Repetto, who lived f rom which the fi gurehead came was A ship's figurehead should never be ular suggestion, with the crew aban­ on the island of Tristan da Cunha, in identified - and proved the supersti­ taken off deliberately unless there is doning ship, but this would most likely the Atlantic Ocean, was searching the tions of sailors who saw her sail. a good reason, because didn't she "see" have been seen and also the figurehead rocky shore and numerous caves on the On February 8th, 1938, the German the way across the water for the ship? would almost certainly show signs of remote British colony gathering drift­ training ship Admiral Karp/anger set F or a mont h all must have gone well burning. wood for his fire. sail from Port Germain, southern Aus­ on the Admiral Karp/anger. There was A mysterious illness? But then At Cave Point he entered a gloomy tralia, bound for Britain, with a com­ no hint of trouble when she radioed on surely someone could have got to the cavern and thought what he saw in the plement of German merchant seamen March 12th, 1938, that her position radio? Perhaps the crew abandoned poor light was the drowned body of a cadets on board. It was the first voyage was approximately 300 miles south­ for some reason then disappeared in woman. Closer examination, however, f or the ship, claimed then to be one of south-west of New Zealand, but that the lonely seas, but the ship could rea­ revealed it was a ship's figurehead. It the world's most beautiful sailing ves­ was t he last t hat was heard of the ship. sonably have been expected to drift on. was an incredibly beautiful piece of sels afloat, as a means of giving these Ever after there was complete silence. Whatever fate dealt them it was sud­ skilled carving. The hair of the woman young men a real taste of life in these Ships set out to sear ch and others were den and overwhelming - and the only was swept back from her forehead and conditions at sea. questioned that had been within range wi tness, the figurehead, will never be from the shoulders hung a long, flowing Originally, the ship, a four-masted of the area at t he time and later. There able to tell what did happen. cloak, with the folds of it held in her barque, had sailed under the name of were no bad weather conditions, no ice­ left hand. L'Avenir, after being built in Belgium bergs in t he area. The ship was known In the other hand there was a lily. in 1908. After a career at sea she had to be in a good physical condition. Bracelets were on each arm and around been bought by the Hamburg-Ameri­ Yet the figurehead that had been NEW BOARD MEMBER her neck was a pearl necklace. The ka Line. Her new owners decided to stowed out of sight in the paint store carving was still in fine condition, even rename her the Admiral Karp/anger. was destined not to share the same fate Seth B. French, Jr., vice president for Otis though it must have been in the water Superstitious seamen have for centur­ as the ship she had adorned. When Elevator Company, has been elected to the a long time. It had not been scratched ies claimed changing a ship's name in­ calamity overcame the vessel, the fig­ Board of Managers of the Institute. or battered and the paintwork was as vited bad luck. urehead must have broken free and He joined the U. S. Naval Reserve in 1941 good as if it had only been done yes­ Then the new owners decided to re­ floated to the surface. Then began its and served on active duty from 1941 to 1945, terday. move the woman figurehead. It was 7000 mile journey across the South retiring from the Reserve with the rank of Commander. The figurehead was carried, with the stowed away in the ship's paint store Pacific, round Cape Horn, carried along Mr. French is a member of the Board of help of other islanders Repetto had out of sight, but still aboard the ill­ by the force of the currents, until be­ Managers of St. Barnabas Hospital; a vestry­ summoned, back to the island settle­ fated ship. When news of this reached ing cast up high and dry in the cavern man and assistant treasurer of St. John's ment and enquiries started about the the veteran seamen they foretold the on Tristan da Cunha. Episcopal Church of Lattington, L. I.; a mem­ origin of the figurehead. Eventually, ship was now certain for disaster - There have been many conjectures ber of the adviSOry council of the Episcopal about what awful disaster overtook Church Foundation and of Holland Lodge. by John Britton 12 13 rRom Till SIA

from being drowned by carrying her to explanation of his origin was made. We know that the seals are a group magick," but it is not known why they the island, where they fell in love and The man must have soon died be­ of carnivorous animals with a stream­ were given this power. lived together. cause "the shirt of the barbarous man lined, fish-like body, having the limbs On the Orkneys and Shetland Is­ A variation of this belief in other that was in the boat" with the canoe, modified into swimming paddles. lands, off the northern tip of Scotland, parts of Scandinavia, Shetlands, Ire­ paddle and harpoon were given to Edin­ In the past, due to these mammals there are many folk legends of the Silk­ land, Orkneys and Western Isles, is that burgh University. In 1730 another in­ living, at certain seasons, both in the ies, as the seals are known there, trans­ drowned people were able to assume stance occurred when "a hairy man sea and on land, around them arose forming themselves into human beings the shape of seal-men and seal-women speaking a language no one could un­ strange beliefs. and reverting to seal shape afterwards. during the day, but at night could shed derstand" was driven ashore in a canoe The chief of these is that they were In one tale a Shetland fisherman was their seal skins and become human in near Aberdeen. human beings able to take the form of shipwrecked on an island off the north ' form during the hours of darkness, According to a writer at the time, the seal whenever they wanted to, or, Scandinavian coast hundreds of miles even going ashore, though they had to "He lived but three days, though all as seals, could shed their coat to assume from his home. return to the sea at sunrise. possible care was taken to recover human shape. These legends are On walking inland he found a cottage Those who did not do so in time him." strongest in the folklore of countries and knocked on the door. A woman were supposedly the seals seen on the Who were these strange "barbarous that have centuries of association with opened it who he was astounded to rec­ offshore rocks and islands or stranded men," the Finn-folk? Almost certainly the sea. ognize as his own sister. But she had on the rugged coastline. they were either a separate but related Some of the families inhabiting the disappeared mysteriously twenty years On the north Scandinavian coast of race of Eskimos living in the Scandi­ west coast of Ireland and offshore is­ earlier. His sister was preparing a meal Norway and Sweden and the offshore navian regions, or Eskimos that delib­ lands, until comparatively recent times, and while she and the fisherman-bro­ islands of the area, there was a strange erately ventured or were carried off were even proud to claim ancestry ther were sitting eating at the table race of people known as the Finn-folk, course far beyond Greenland and the from the seal-folk. the door opened and into the room who moved about on the various fjords North American continent. Irish folklore has suggested those shuffled a large seal. and sea in canoes covered with seal An Eskimo sitting in a kayak from with the surnames O'Flaherty, O'Sulli­ It made its way into another room skin. These Finn-folk were often a distance would appear to be sitting van, Coneely, and MacnaMara (Son of and closed the door. A short time after­ sighted on the sea in the Shetlands, upon the surface of the sea or half the Sea) are directly descended from wards the door of this room opened Orkneys and Hebrides, near the West immersed in the water and easily mis­ them and these families in particular again and there stood the woman's Ireland coast and remoter Northern taken for people like seals. It has been would never dare kill a seal because husband, a seal-man, who bid the fish­ Isles during the 17th and 18th cen­ suggested this may be the origin of they would be destroying one of their erman welcome on his sister's behalf. turies. seal-men, too. own family. How the woman got to the island was At the end of the 17th century one The Eskimos would appear a strange The Coneelys were originally sup­ explained by her having been on some was "catched in Orkney" by a Dr. race entirely different when seen by posed to have been the first people able rocks that day twenty years ago, slip­ James Wallace, son of a Church min­ the islands' local superstitious inhabi­ to transform themselves from human ped and fallen into the sea and been ister. The man in it was examined by tants, and by their mode of transport into seal-men and seal-women. This swept away. Fortunately the seal-man the Royal College of Physicians of and visiting from the sea would soon occurred in ancient times during "art- had been passing and prevented her Edinburgh, in September, 1696, but no give rise to beliefs in seal-folk.

14 15 SeaJnen's Church Institute of N. Y. 15 State Street Nevv York, N. Y. 10004

Addre" CorrectIOn Reque'ted

AFTERNOON IN BATTERY PARK

Over blue continent of sea stretches the vast blue tent of sky. You almost hear time winging by, dropping you, dropping me into the years.

Leaves on plane and aspen trees gossip the afternoon away. Two Arrow-shirted old Chinese gossiping too, relish the day. I watch the piers

where a ferry, homing to its slip, heels to a master's knowing rein, self-satisfied, having made the trip as planned, as timed by the master brain. Across the bay,

gasping for breath, a tugboat drags nine barges loaded with cement. A pleasure craft chuff-chuffs and brags that it carries life. The sea Is rent by spray.

An afternoon escapes the piers, sloughs off the discipline of years, slips down the bay. Jennie M. Palen