,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.