Freedom's Glory: the Restoration of the Little Jennie

SCRIPT . FOR THE ONE-HOUR DOCUMENTARY "FREEDOM'S GLORY: THE RE STORATION OF _THE LITTLE J ENNIE" WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY J OHN J. STEVE NS EXECU TIVE PRODUC ER TELETIME VIDEO 2RODUCT IONS Little Jennie jj s page one empty cradle s ho t In this boatshed, an American treasure lie rotting f or eight the boneyard years ••• Too big, too old, too neglected to sell, the marina had finally decided her f ate. But one man was determ ined that thi s historic craft would sail again. man of dest iny shot Thus began a d ramatic and amb iti ous adventure, one that would tax his abilities t o t he fullest and bring together a comm unity to restore the oldest Am erican merchant s ailing vessel in existence, t he Little Jennie. [WORK MONTAGE wi UPBEAT MUSIC] Their goal? To rendevouz in OpSail. '86 with the most stirring testament ever of American freedom: t he Statue of Li berty. [BILLBOARD: "FREEDOM'S GLORY: THE RESTORATION OF THE LITTLE J ENN IE ."] 1 Little Jennie page two -maps dissolve to reveal Centerport Cent erp rt Harbor ••• Tucked away on_ Long I s land 's Nor th Shore, it i s here that William Town s end Perks first fell in love with the Little Jennie. Tom Wisner's "Blow' d and Torn" begi ns ove r film of young Billy jumping in the water "My earliest experience with the Perks interview vessel was when I was a lit tle kid and i t was moored off t he Huntingt on Bay yacht club ••• and just remember being cutaway LJ off shore awestruck as a young boy and swimmiming out to it at night time, playing pirate aboa r d it when the owners weren 't on board." c/u of badge t o At age 21 , Perks became a bay Bill hopping i nto boat const able, a policeman on the waters Bill & partner for his home t own. Never far from his patrolling on the water mind, t hough , was his dream of own i ng the Li ttle J ennie. One day, Sept . 19, 1984·, his dream wa ter s hi mmering on the side of LJ , pan to reveal came true, a dream which would soon trailboards t urn into an obsession ••• "We met down at Knutson's one Gl en LaMay afternoon and he showed me this ' scow' wi cutaways of stills and I had to take a couple steps back of LJ at the shipyard and say I really think this boat is beyond help ••• " 2 Little Jennie page three Gl en LaM ay, a friend of Perks who wider shot of Glen would l a ter pl ay a key role in the restoration. " . •• there was nothing left of the Glen LaMay, perhaps o r iginal equipment . There was VOstills only not hing, no engine, just. basically a hull and a deck and tha t was about it ••• " Perks had purchased the vessel f or one dollar under the provision it be r emoved from the shipyard in 7 days. At the t i me he never real i zed what an historic find the Little Jennie was. " ••• We we nt right t o work on the boat Bill Perks perhaps and started i n wi th a patch of the VO stills vessel ••• put a q uick coat of bottom paint on he r and launched her about 12 hours later, j ust making the tide ••• " still of tug towing LJ A friend ' s t ug boat towed the Little Jennie t o its mooring just off Perks waterfront home. There she floated, with the help of pumps 24 hours a day. It was only 18 months f rom the event . So Perks went right to work •• • 3 Littl e Jennie page four diagram of a bugeye hull The f i rst step in t h e restoration was the integrity of the hUll. For that, t he Little J ennie had to be raised out of the water. video of the crane a nd A home came ra captured t he events of the bulkhead that day. LaMay volunteered a crane f r om t h e LaMay & Sons Construction Comp any. The boat weig h 30 tons , near t h e maximum capac ity of the c r ane, and i t had to be lifted from an awkward pos i tion. "It was t he fee ling of the crane Bill Perks ope r ator •.• that we would b e abl e to succ eed." But what no one h ad a ccounted fo r vide o of att empts at rai sing LJ was the bulkhead , the r e t a ining wall that separates the l and f r om the s e a . After several attemp ts a t r a isin g her, the bulkhead sta rted to g ive way under the mi ghty t onnage of crane and boat. Glen LaMay VO vid eo ";~.It ~ as a ma tter of which wo uld g ive f ir i ~ ~ would t he crane fold or t he bul khead g ive way and the crane fallon t op of the Jennie ••• " 4 Little Jennie page five Wooden planks were placed underneath more a ttempts to r aise her the crane's outrigge rs to distr i bute the weight. But the t ide kept getting l ower, mak ing it mo re and more difficult to raise he r ••• Finally, she was plucked from the mud LJ being swung into he r cradle and swung gingergly int o her restora tion cradle ••• . some more video Otar corn ing around LJ wi board Perks hired Otar Kirkbach, a maste r Norweigan shipbuilder, to begin wor k on the hull ••• VO Otar continuing up " In t he l ate part of t he wi nter , he ladde r into the boat called and asked me i f I coul d s t art around Ma rch ••• l carne around and looked a t it and I recognized t he boat right away ••• (cut t o Otar1s face at - interview) ••• 1 got interested and said, 'Yeh, I'll work on it.'n Little Jennie page seven stills of watertight Three watert ight bulkheads had to be bulkheads and Otta r working down installed . A wat ertight bulkhead is a i n t he hull wall r unning f r om one side of the hull audio of hammer & exertions t o the ot her . It for ms the inne r support structure fo r t he hull and is also i nstalled as a safety measure in case the boat takes on water. stills and video Ot t ar then s ecured b ilge keels of bilge keels to either s i de of t he hull. Bi lge keels are a compromi s e to the original retractable keel but it was a compromise borne of the realities of t im e , money and the shallowness of Cen t e r port Harbor. Perks ' quote "I bel ieve and the people at OpSail believe t hat t his is going to be one of the most historic occasions ever in our a r ea." Perks enthus iasm was infectious and, t hough the early fundraisers--held a t local pubs--netted a total of $250, Operat ion Little Jennie was born .•• Little Jennie page s even ' .. Perks quote "They' r e not j ust cel eb rating Am e rica, t hey're cel ebrating the immig rants, all nati ons . Ships will be comi ng from all ove r the world to celebrate tl is s tatue . If establishing shot of Chesapeake--the bridge Tom Wisner audio " (hum) •• • worki ng out a way to do your d r e am . " Meanwhile Perks dug back through t i me Bill talking to and discovered some startingly f acts Ralph Eshelman about the Little Jennie. It was far older than he had ever imagined , 102 years old. Indeed , upon f urther inves tiga tion, he determined it to be t he oldest remaining Ame rican-built merchant sailing vessel. Tom Wi s ner a udio "This boat was made of lumbe r , etc. b& w sti l l s of oyster oak ribbed and p i ne ••• (hum) n boats, oystermen, etc. still s hot of boat She is a bug ~ye ketch , 61 f eet long, perhaps backed by or i gina lly bu ilt to dredge oysters in old oystermen s ongs from Tom Wisner the Chesapeake Bay. It became apparent t hat the Little Jennie is the tilt down roster of very las t original sai l ing b~geye bug eyes ketch, a particularly Am erican style of craf t because it descends directly' Bill talking wi Ralph Eshelman from the American Indian dugout log canoe •• • Little Jennie page eight ~om Wisner audio " ••• She 's a wood boat , Lord, she's a good boat. " still from book of Large trees were plentiful on the indians hollowing out a log wi fire Chesapeake t hen and t he local i ndians wou l d create canoes by hollowi ng out the logs wit h fire. shot from book of an The European s e ttler s capitalized on early log canoe the design by using more than one log and adding sail s. "They needed l arger space to t ake Ralph Eshelman on larger canoes than the indians needed camera so they would take two canoes and tie them together ••• event uall y we ended cutaways up with t hree l og canoes, then seven log canoes ••• t he ult i ma te wa s when you got canoes tha t were nine l ogs and by that t i me t hey got to be called back to Eshelman bugeyes .

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