,l t, ,'f '[' 1i

HISTORY OF THE SCHOONER BLACK DOUGLAS

On June 9, 1930, oorothy Ripley Rosbling smashed a bottle of champagnB across the bow of lhe bea.niful 3-masted schoon€r, B/ack Douglas, and sent her gliding down the ways into the K€nn€b€c River in Mains. Buill at the Balh lron Works for Roben G. Roebling, lhe Elack Douglas took the RoeHings on an adventurous maiden voyage around ths tip of South America, through the iceJaden Straits of Magellan. Soon thersafter, Robsrt Rosbling settlsd his young family on tho nonhern end of Skidaway, a bsautiluf and isolat€d barrier island off the coasl of G€orgia, and lhe Black Douglas, moorcd in the Skidaway River, bscam€ the family's homs while buildings were consirucied on lhe Roebling's Modena Plantation. The boat b€came a familiar landmark to Savannahians and to yachtsmen navigating ths lnland Waterway, who marksd their approach to Savannah by sighting lhe Black Douglas's three 120' masts gleaming againsl the Georgia sky.

ln September 1941, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the boat for use in seal research in the Aleutian lslands. After refitting at Mingledorff's shipyard in Savannah, lhe Black Douglas was en rout€ to her new base in Ssaule whsn the Japanese attacked Pead Harbor. A Japaness submarine fired on lhe Black Douglas oft lhe coast of California, and the U.S. Navy responded. Guns raplac€d masts, sailors replaced scientists, and lhe Black Douglas entered lhe seruic€ of her country as a patrol vosssl under the 13th Naval Dislrict, guarding Seattle's vital Neah Bay.

From 1947-1949, with Dr. Victor Schetfor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in charge, she fullilled her original ssal researdl mission. The govgrnment lhen assigned her to the comprehensive Scripps.Southwest Fisheries CalCOFl ocaanic survey. For 18 years she plied the Pacific from Washington slate to gaja, Mexico, as the flagship of th€ir research fl€et.

As the B/ack Douglas completed her scientific mission in the late '1960's, Roben Roebling initialed a scientific mission on the Georgia coast by donating his Modsna Plantation to the state ol Gsorgia for ths establishment ot a maine research institution, the Skidaway lnstitute of Oceanography. As the young inslituls grew and diversified, lhe Black Douglas expedenced exciting changes of pace and slyle herself. Having served as a luxury yacht and home for lhe Roebling family, a Navy war vessel, and a sci€ntitic research craft, she took som€ well-earn€d time off in the Caribbean, hunting for sunken lreasure with her new own€r.

By ths early 1970s, however, lhe Black Douglas had begun to show hsr age. Th6 intonsity ol her use ovsr th€ years had lett her scarred, weathered, and broken, her blacksn€d hull a mockery of her once proud name. But the sturdy workmanship of the anisans who buill her served her well. Her life was not over. ln 1972, the Stoll family, owners of the Flint preparalory school based in Sarasota, Florida, bought, rebuilt, and renamed her. With hsr masts restor€d, she sailsd, once again, under tha new nams t9 Orgsf, and with her panner ship lhe Te Vega, seryed as a sailing classroom for 85 students, who sludied onboard as thsy learned to sail the ships to Europ€an ports and to historic sites along the Mediterranean coast.

ln 1982, lhe Flint School disbanded and lhe Black Douglas was sold again. She was laken to Abeking and Rasmussen shipyard in G€rmany where she was extensiv€ly rebuilt and restored to becoms oncs morg a proud and beautiful luxury schooner, sailing under lhe name Aquarius.

On the weekend of June 9, 1996, the Aquarius/Black Douglas will return for lhe first lime to her home on the north end of Skidaway lsland and tie up at the same dock she l€ft in 1941. And so she comes full circle, lo celebrate the Centennial Olympic gamss in Georgia, to celebrat€ her 66th binhday, and lo bestow her name on a succ€ssor, a new research vessel for the Skidaway lnslitute of Oceanography, the Black Douglas //, soon to be built by lntermarine ol Savannah,..the fomer Mingledorff shipyard. THE S. S. BLACK DOUGLAS ''HER FINEST HOUR'' WHO COULD HAVE PREDTCTED HER FIITURE ? WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED THE SYNERGISTIC RESULT OF THE FLTNM SCHOOT MOVTNG ON BOARD?

With t,he christening on Monday, June 9, 1-930, the 1-73 ' three masLed staysail schooner at Bath, Maine was apparently bequeathed with a heritage f rom t,he Lsth cenLury. So many times in her future this seemed Eo direct, t,his beautiful vessel as if she had assumed. a life of her own. Mr. Robert Roebling wrote to us that he had enj oyed the legend of the Black Douglas as a child and it, had stuck with him. 'rf wanted a name (for t,he ship) . . .that sounded vigorous. Mr. Main, t,he old Scottish vice president of Bat,h fron Works cont,ributed a carrred knight bust for a f igurehead. " So, t,he BLACK DOUGLAS was launched, and t,he family heritage of sErong tradit,ions of ttvalues and challengestr was renewed in the life of the ship some perhaps from Will Douglas himself. Those of you who do not know the story will have to read the fict,ionalized buE wonderfully documented novel BLACK DOUG-LAS by Niget Tranter t (f958-L973 Coronet gooks/Hodder Paperbacks unit,ed Kingdom/rgelrq 0 340 t6465 2) , I to grasp Lhe color and signif icance of t,his start,lingly accurate metaphor. It, was William Doug1as, the 8Eh Earl of ScoEland, who in the 1-5th cent,ury succeeded (if only for a few years) in bringing a life saving product,ive order ouE of uhe barbaric chaos Lhat had all buL destroyed ScoLland not only through civil dissension but invasions by the grasping English. Having read Tranler' s book, the choice of the name might, indeed help you to recogn|ze the metaphor of how a ship could come alive as you trace Ehe evenLs that rescued the S. S. Black Douglas from her darkest, hour in L972 Eo her fut,ure as you witness Eoday.

THE IIYOUNG'' S. S" BLACK DOUGLAS Born in t,he labor pains of the Great, Depression, she was t'over- built" which provided t,he necessary survival qualities reguired of any great life. She most certainly Laught, those of her various conunands and crews that it is quality design and craftsmanship t,hat enables human deLermination to persevere. You have heard how she challenged the southern Lip of Sout,h America, the Japanese, t,heir submarine, and survived t,he hazards of the Spanish Main. OUR PARTfCITLAR STORY begins with her rescue from t,he lesser quality trworkers" in t,he Ft. Lauderdale ship yard. This was perhaps the first break in t,he Black Douglas tradition of pride in accomplishment, a reflection of the pride those Ft. Lauderdale shipyard workers didn't have in their own work as they applied the doublers, installed Lhe generaLors and ostensibly completed lhe tasks thaL would make her seaworthy once again. Just three, one engineer plus a skin-headed electrician and his bushy haired, bushy bearded buddy the kids promptly named "No Hairrt and t'Mohair", were the only ones not making book and giving odds E,hat we would not make it, across the Atlantic Ocean. After frustraLing and unbelievable delays we at lasL gave fhe 400 RPM Ent,erprise engine her day long dock side test run in September 1"972. The following morning, we slipped her lines and headed out the sea channel . The BLACK DOUGL,AS and her t,ruly int,repid crew of twelve ignored the shipyard Launts, vowing that whatever happened, t,he ship would never Lurn back to t,he U.S. She would accomplish her mission. And of course she had t,o since son Jim had given Els, his bride of five months, her honeymoon trip on our first schoolship, Te Vega, formerly St,anford Universit,y's oceanographic research vessel . The two were also presented wit,h a ready made family of school students, most of whom had already flown Lo Holland in September to board t,he t,wo ships f or t,he school year. We arrived rf on an October 26th midnight , to greet them " camping out, on Te vega, (built to accommodate only about fifty bodies) . I suspect Els still wond.ers just how they surrrived. having children ages 1-0 to 20 board with them while stil} on their honeymoon. She may never have been aware of the urgency wiLh which Ehe old miliEary version of Ehe Black Douglas was cruising at t,imes t,hrough 3 0 ' seas to her rescue . THE FLINT SCHOOL The circumstance EhaE cauged us t,o create the Flint School arose from t,he general collapse of government controlled education in America in the L960's. That school had in turn evolved from an outstandingly successful summer boarding camp and water safety program that, parent,s report,ed had been t,he motivaLion for their childrenr s increased accomplishment in their 1ocal accredited school experiences. The academic successes of the school program were increasingly t,hreatened by what, we came to identify as I'conLaminants Lo t,he consciousness'r. The growth of anLi-education attitudes by 1969 prompted us to look for a some sorL of barrier in order Lo isolat,e t,he school atrnosphere. Chain link fences and guard dogs cerLainly are not conducive to educational inqrriry, but we were aII comfortable on the watef . Water, and lot,s of iE seemed to be t,he answer. Why not take the school to sea? By t,he summer of L970 we were able Eo acquire the 155' Te Vega. wit,h son Jim as Captain and daughter Gail to handle the galley department keeping everyone well fed, wo loaded books, chalk boards, students and sailed away ! Anchoring in protected bays for water skiing each morning, language barriers, no f.\/s, all

!, provided perfect protection against, intellectual contamination and greaF,ly mot,ivated development of inquiring minds. It was the very opposit.e of accrqdit,ed education then and as now. Word of mout,h refemals conLinued to increase school applieat,ions as t,he sLudent, erew sailed Te Vega from the Amazon River Eo the Fjords of Norway to the Greek Isles. As t,he national averagres of the American accredited school SAT scores collapsed, (about 90 points) the rising scores of Ehe FlinL School led to waiting lists . We needed anot,her ship I Af ter much looking, Ehe existence of the Black Douglas was brought to our atLenLion.

IT WAS A LIFE SAVER FOR THE BI"ACK DOUGLAS AS WELL AS THE FLIIiTT scHool, Betty and I chartered a plane and flew t,o Salt Key wich ship broker Don Patton. You have seen t,he lines of the beautiful hull that we had to see hidden behind the scars disguised by t,he Wor1d War II conversion and giovernment grear. Of course we had a special help since Don Patton had located and given us a copy of the sail plan as she was at the original launching. While Don Patton was looking at all t,he work to be done, w€ spent the day figuring space for classrooms, galley and mess hall configuration, and most import,ant of all, counting the bunks t,hat could be installed. Let me introduce you to the lady who was willing to help salvage the Black Douglas. Again, like t,he luck of Will Douglas t,o have a far sighE,ed and practical mother, so the Flint School could not have been withouL Bet,ty saying, "W€ can do this. rr We were standing on t,he porL deck at the galley door . Don Patton was saying, "No, don I t . There is f ar t,oo much to be done. " And we were recalling Capt. Irving Johnson of the Yankee and National Geographic fame responding Lo our question about putLing our sehool aboard a sailing ship with a t'No. Not with academics. There is Loo much mainEenance. " Again, I asked Betty if she really wanted. to tackle such a project. Don't telI me women aren't the superior of Lhe species! ttYEs she said, , LET ' S ! 't And j ust, one of Ehe results of that *Yes'r is the t73 ' sailing ship tied to t,he dock nearby, because if we hadn'L rescued her, she wouldn't like1y be there t,oday. THE SECRET OF OUR SUCCESS wa6 making use of the very reaqons given why we shouldn' t, attempt t,he double salvage ef f ort, of boUh ship and students. FTRST OF ALL, PERHAPS TT WAS BETNG TOLD WE COULDN'T DO IT!

But we recognized the wisdom in the st,atement that 'tman underst,and.s little of that, with which he has no part in t,he rnaking. " f L was t,he responsibilities required aboard ship thaE inspired personal accomplishment. with each one on board

c/] responsible for the maintenance of a deck station, Ehe idea of maintenance was firmly recognized. (And each cadet' s academic progress could be read in t,he condition of his/her deck station. ) The chipping of rusL, shining of the brass, st,anding watch, consLantly checking t,he engine room, bringing the ship back up to yacht condition, proved Eo be fhe moLivation for academic excellence. Each cadet was assigned to eit,her Alpha, Bet,a or Delta watch so that one chird of the crew was on deck while under sail. Anchor and engine room watch were constant when in port,. Of course sE,udents also rotated fhrough the five day galley procedures waiting tables, washing dishes as well as joining the rest of the crew on 17 :00 hours deck stations and wash down. I want you to know t,hat, bef ore t,he last year of school , t,he brass was shining, and lhe bilges under the generators and main engine vrrere painted whiLe and kepE clean ! From Ehe occassional black night in rough seas, each of t.hose cadets learned t,hat "Life is not a dress rehearsal , this iS iE ! '' An imposition on academics? More 1ike1y a moLivat,ion. StudenLs couId, and many did, take home as many as eleven solid academic credit,s a year. Many sEudents returned f or a second and t,hird year some a fourth. SAT score r'learning incremenLs'r for all students were t,hree times higher than the national averages of American accredited schools . College bound students increment,al scores were as much as ten times the nat,ional averages . Several students who graduated wit,h us af ter t,wo or t,hree years, Look college entrance exams and ncomped" out on their freshman year ent,ering on a sophomore leve1 . This was while t,he government, accredited schools were reducing t,heir production of very able student,s by 48* and their high averagre students by 36t . Now, thaL is a school t,he Black Douglas himself would have enj oyed aL,tending. I know this is gett,ing Eoo long and Mr. RoebLing told me to keep it, short, buL t,he value of this vital heritage is found in a principle we had incorporated in Flint School's founding, but, which we found bet,ter expressed in a May '87 Roebling Co. Workers publieation.I' It is especially important Lhat, we quot,e it on t,he occasion of Ehe BD' s 55th birt,hday: rrwe see before us an instance of t,hat continuity of efforE which be it called experience or tradition or accumulated skil1 plays an unmistakable part, in the progress of Lhe arts. More is at issue than t,he mere survival of shop craf t,, or of name , ot of commercial acumen. . . IL is fair to conclude that virile t,radit,ion has a value that we cannot afford to neglect though such tradition of course can never remain virile unless recreated every day by the same kind of effort, and idealism as that of its founders. " +'l!

Thank you Rip and Eudora for letting us brag a little bit about your Roebling famlly providing those Ewo vital elements, the quality of the original consLruction of the ship and the idea of quality family heritage which Loday's generat,ion so casually discards and wonders why it suffers so much pain. And To t"he Capt (of Aquarius) keep your conrnand ship-shape and Bristol fashion for some of these Flint School students might, wanL to come by and inspect her brass and bilges some day.

1,928 words -*'#l

MOD ENA PLANTATION WggT ILUTF DRIVE '! r3l.t oF Hopg SAVANNAH, GEOFIG|A 31406 May'l , 1975

Captai n George Stol 1 School Ship TE QUEST Pos te Res tante Guadeloupe .Island Dear George:

My wife and I rea'l 1y appreci ated your great, 1 ong I etter of Apri I 6th. After the reci tati on of your 1 abors , I don't see how you have time for wri ti ng I etters . I suppose I forget how much s tearn I had when I was younger but I fel t quite €X- hausted afte:r reading .your account. 0ne thing I believe you have explain€d, although not di rectly in answer to my question, is that you are obviously the f ounder, owner and headmas ter of Fl i nt School . The on'l v question nolv is the name Flint and I would guess it in honor of Captain Fl int (pirate ?) " This brings up your quest i on about the name BLACK DOUGLAS. Al I of my boats' names b eg a n with "8". Actua1ly, we did not settle on a name before she rvas al'l pl ated. As you guessed, I had had the BLACK D0 UGLAS legend read to me as a child and the name somehow stuck witn t I me for what reason I cannot say. Anyway I wanted a nam e tha t everybody cou'l d pronounce, and one that sounded vigorou 5. This one seemed to h'i t the spot; everybody l'i ked it and ,of course, it was always called THE D0UGLAS. I told y0u about Mr. Main, i.he o'l d Scottis;, vice-president at Bath Ironw orks throwing in a carved knight bust for a figurehead .

Now for the pi ctures. These are great. The bi 1 ge keel s are original design and can ,be seen on photos of her launching at Bath. Somehow or other on our wey down the Patagoni an channe'l s f rom Val po. to Punta Arenas the port bi I ge keel broke I oose at i ts forward end, curl ed down and kept snappi ng more and more ri vets as i t thrished around. t.Ie thought i t mi ght work back to the prope'l 'l er so we ran a wi re cabl e around the hu I I to keep from further damage . At Pu nta Arenas we were hauled out on a spring tide but they did not complete the riveting in time to r'efloat on that tide. Henc€, we spent ?8 days in a hote'l waf ting foi the next spring tide. I am glad you have the wonderful bi nnacl e. Nothi ng that fancy was in the contract. I forget where I f irst saw it, either at 2-

{egus or Kelvin & t'lhite ln lower l*lanhattan. Anyhotr, I gave it to myself as a present. It tYas Just forward-of ltre iFter s teeri ng s tati on.

The teak companion hatch at the break of the forecas tl e i s ori gi nal . The wood I ooks to be in terrible shape and I wor- der if you were ab'l e to save it.

I gave a twenty-dot I a r gold piece to some representative of the designers for the bui lder to place under the mai n mast. My wife te'l ls me that either Mr, Main or Mr. Newell asked her for a penny to pl ace under the mast. I was not with her at the moment but she says she handed over a penny. I always had thought there was a coi n under the rnast. The.coTpanion hatch at the break of the poop looks to be in good shape from both the deck view and the below deck view where it bottoms on the landing. This view of the landing looks prelty much as it did exiept for the absence of the- hqndrai'l (wal nut) and of your mi izen mast whi ch was jacketed wi th wa'l nut s J ats that f ormed a rack f or rods and guns . The lPace forward of the mi zzen was our di ni ng room wi ih a ti 1 t- ing table. The sides of the dining room op.ned onto two state rooms on each side with a bath between. At the forward end of the di ni ng room was a companion I eadi ng up to the chart room and radio shack (one teak panel'l ed deckhouse room contain- i ng !he master 9yro, chart drawers , chronometers , transmi tter, etc.). There was a settee in the ihart room; veiy cozy. At' the foot of the chart room companion'stair a passage way led forward to pantry ga'l ley crew quarters. Back to the landing it looks as though the Iittle day lavatory still opens on the starboard side. THE D0UGLAS would only make about l'l knots under power. Go'i ng from Trinidad to Panama Canal under sail alone we 'l ogged 1?-1/2 'l Tal k about a wi I d ri de, our captai n wanted to ea ve Guayaqui 1 (Ecuador) at sundown to keep fiom payi ng another day port charges. The river was ebbing in a torrent. Dea d horses and trees vtere rushing down stream. I thought it was a crazy undertaki ng but he sai d i t was no troub'l e at al'l . Then i t started to rain in torrents. About l0 P.M he ca.m e be'l ow and asked us to come and help him.. The mate and I took beari ngs constantly and the captain was plotting them. Bi g spar buoys were lying horizontal , the current was so strong. l'le had to motor wi th fu I I RPMs to keep s teerage way. After a few hours we reached the wi de part of the ri ver and the pre ssure 'l et up.

One reason my captain dissuaded me from considering CRESSIDA was caused by supersti tion. Shortly before we inspected her she had been fumi gated and s omehow or other one of the crew -J-

members was as I eep i n hi s bunk and, of course, he rtas gassed to, death.

You have done a wonderf u'l job recond i ti oni ng the of d DOUGLAS . EYeIy!h!ng looks neat and shipshape. hle had wire ha'lyards with fibre cordage spliced to the wf re for winching ahO be- laying. It lvas not unti'l I went to City Island to-fetch the D0UGLAS down here that I hi red a mate who showed me how to spl i ce wi re and hemp together. From the photos i t I ooks to me as though you have eliminated the wire comp'l etely. 0f course, these new artificial fibres have sufficient- strength to dl tpense wi th wi re runn'i ng riggi ng. I imagi ne your maits are hol I ow steel . The D0UGLAS hid sot t a Dougl as fi r sti cks, the tal'l est solid spars ever stepped. The wood was very soft and h,e had a time with washers on the eye bolts sinking- into the wood; also the shroud loopsrfor the yard failed to band the hounds wi th meta I s I eeves .

David McCullough's book is truly exceJlent, I had quite a .qorre:pondence with him and have a copy sutographed by him. {ut.y Roebling is the widow of Siegfried Roeblf ng whosL grand- father was the hero of the Great Bridg€, Colonei tlashington !o.!ling.. My grandfather was li{ashington's younger brother Ferdi nand a'l so menti oned i n the Great Bri dgb. Bob Mi ni s has never mentioned talking with you. This is not surprising for the slmple reason that I am hardly ever in the city and ionsE- guent'ly see very little of him. During our second year at Harvard, Minfs and I both lived in Rusiell Hall. I just happened to notice your letterhead of the qUEST SHIPPING C0RP0RATI0N. That looks like quite a undertaking by itself wi thou t havi ng a yeaF-Erround schoo'l to persona'l 1y supervi se. You must be a big operator.

t^lith best w'i shes, I am Si ncerely yours, .'+/t- Robert C. Roebl i ng

RCR /ny

*t +rl lLl I p,t"lr roo I Trow{v+c/lrtf wcl d.r1 fi//tScX , "'/ '^o/rntq-/ TrQwbil+ ,fio 1, Ca^6be l! , S, T sof )est T luur, €c:*ts d,i I 4/ro/ ,