ARGONAUTA The Newsletter of The Canadian Nautical Research Society Volume X Number One January 1993 ARGONAUTA Founded 1984 by Kenneth S. Mackenzie ISSN No. 0843-8544 EDITORS Lewis R. FISCHER Olaf U. JANZEN Gerald E. PANTING MANAGING EDITOR Margaret M. GULLIVER ARGONAUTA EDITORIAL OFFICE Maritime Studies Research Unit Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Nfld. A1C 5S7 Telephones: (709) 737-8424/(709) 737-2602 FAX: (709) 737-4569 ARGONAUTA is published four times per year in January, April, July and October and is edited for the Canadian Nautical Research Society within the Maritime Studies Research Unit at Memorial University of Newfoundland. THE CANADIAN NAUTICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY Honourary President: Niels JANNASCH, Halifax Executive Officers Liaison Committee President: WA.B. DOUGLAS, Ottawa Chair: Fraser M. MCKEE, Markdale Pasl President: Barry M. GOUGH, Waterloo Atlantic: David FLEMMING, Halifax Vice-President: M. Stephen SALMON, Ottawa Quebec: Eileen R. MARCIL, Charlcsbourg Vice-President: Olaf U. JANZEN, Corner Brook Ontario: Maurice D. SMITH, Kingston Councillor: Garth S. WILSON, Ottawa Western: Christon I. ARCHER, Calgary Councillor: John SUMMERS, Toronto Pacific: John MACFARLANE, Victoria Councillor: Marven MOORE, Halifax Arctic: D. Richard VALPY, Yellowknife Councillor: Fraser M. MCKEE, Markdale Secretary: Lewis R. FISCHER, St. John's CNRS MAILING ADDRESS Treasurer: G. Edward REED, Ottawa Assistant Treasurer: Faye KERT, Ottawa P.O. Box 7008, Station J Ottawa, Ontario K2A 3Z6 Annual Membership, which includes four issues of ARGO­ Individual $25 NA UTA and four issues of The Northem Mariner: Institution $50 JANUARY 1993 ARGONAUTA 1 should be reviewed, or that only "good" books should be reviewed. Not only does this give the reviews editor a power CONTENTS he has no desire to wield-- the power to impose his tastes and standards on the membership--it also implies, quite Edilorials 1 incorrectly, that "scholarly" books are, by their nature, "good" Presidenl's Corner 2 books. Finally, it implies that the proper response to weak Mailbag 4 writing is to ignore it. This evades a responsibility to help Arlicles writers and researchers of maritime history by idenlifying in - Shipwrecks of Ottawa 5 a constructive way the flaws in poorly written or researched - Norlhern Seas, Part I 7 books; how else can we better our own efforts? -A Swedish Naval Officer Visits Van- couver Island and Esquimalt in 1866 9 (II) Columns - Swing the Lamps 10 It seems appropriate, in the first issue of this new year, to try - Steam Passenger Vessels 12 something new. Inserted within the pages of this issue of Commentary ARGONAUTA, you will find the familiar information sheet - Ex-sailing vessel barges 13 which we ask you to complete and return to us in time for - Eighty Years After: RMS Titanic 15 the next (April) issue. This is an attempt to reduce both the Argonauta News 16 work and the cost involved in gathering news for ARGO­ Around the Maritime Journals 21 NAUTA. It seems equally appropriate to take a few minutes Argonauta Diary 23 to emphasize once again just how important these informa­ Personal News 27 tion sheets are to our Society. It is the newsletter, far more Archives and Museum News 32 so than our journal or our annual meeting (which relatively Maritime Organization News 34 few of our members can attend), that binds the CNRS toge­ Research Directory Update 34 ther. This is where we read about each other in the "Per­ sonal News,", establish dialogues and conversations with each other through the "Mailbag," learn about interesting news in the "Argonauta News" feature, find out about coming events ARGONAUTA EDITORIALS in the"Argonauta Diary," and learn about what is happening in museums, archives and other institutions that we may be (I) in a position to visit or support in some way. Unfortunately, some of our members view requests for information more as In my other capacity as reviews editor for. 17,e Northern a nuisance than a necessity. It is to them that I offer this Mariner, I often receive books that are not particularly well assurance: No one insists that the infomzation sheets be researched or well written. Many of these books are aimed completed and returned. If you have no news to submit, or if at an uncritical general public which is more inclined to you find such requests for information annoying, by all judge a book by its covers or its pictures than by the quality means pay them no attention. Some of our members are of its writing. One reviewer recently declined an invitation to more active than others. If, however, this is your preference, review such a book, explaining that he would prefer to steer I would ask that you also consider this: if the strength of this clear of "popular stuff." I was sympathetic to this explanation organization is based in part on the success of the newslet­ because I have a theory, a sort of literary equivalent of ter, then the strength of the newsletter depends on the Gresham's Law, that bad books drive good ones out of the cooperation, support, and the willingness of the members to market. Yet I also believe that the journal of the Canadian feed information in to the editors. Perhaps you have a Nautical Research Society must identify such publications, if clipping from a newspaper or, a magazine to contribute (we only as a public service. If our principal mandate is to do reprint articles from newspapers from time to time); promote nautical research, then have we not a duty to perhaps you have a personal reminiscence to share (we have perform, a responsibility to identify and distinguish between had much success with this kind of contribution); perhaps strong and weak examples of such research? We do a you have a suggestion to make or a criticism to offer. By all disservice to ourselves, to the general public, and to the means, send these in. We may not always be able to use writers themselves when we insist that only "scholarly" books what you send us; every issue presents a challenge in 2 ARGONAUTA JANUARY 1993 deciding not only what to include but also what to exclude Enter a California-based commercial enterprise called MAR­ (our space is, after all, limited). But I can assure you, we are DIVE. In July 1991 this group sailed into Canadian waters, always grateful when material is sent to us by our members. accompanied by an armed peace officer from the State of Ohio, and on the basis of a California court order "arrested" PRESIDENT'S CORNER the At/alltie and placed an American flag on the site. The clear intention of MAR-DIVE was to salvage theAt/antic for By WA.B. Douglas profit. Imagine the astonishment and the feeling of helpless­ Ottawa, Ontario ness that Mike Fletcher experienced when he found himself on the wrong end of a suit, by the Government of Ontario, Readers will bear with me, I hope, if I give vent to three for $250,000. Imagine the indignation of any Canadian who complaints in this issue of ARGONAUTA, one concerning heard of this infringement of our waters. Imagine the glee of wrecks, one concerning the Battle of the Atlantic and one the lawyers and the exasperation of the bureaucrats who concerning mariners' memoirs. could see what tangled causes and arguments lay ahead. In March 1985, a young diver wrote to me for advice about One consistent supporter of Mike Fletcher's cause is The the discovery he had made of a wreck in Lake Erie. The Great Lakes Fishennan, a remarkably informative and welI­ divcr's name was Mike Fletcher and the wreck was the edited monthly publication that comes out of Port Stanley, At/alltie, an American side wheeler that went down off Port Ontario. Frank and Nancy Prothero have reported every Dover in 1852. My advice was to consult Robert Grenier of development in this story, and have published an account of Parks' Canada, one of the foremost authorities on under­ the At/antic in their book, Tales ofthe North Shore. I believe water archaeology in the world. Unfortunately, Canadian the time has now come for our society to make itself heard federal and provincial wreck legislation was, and still is, in a on the subject as well. I understand that Ontario has framed state of uncertainty, and very little useful advice could be legislation that would prevent the discouragement, and even given, even by Robert. punishment, of the activities of divers who, like Mike Fletcher, have archaeological licences and who engage in It so happened that in September 1984 Mike Fletcher and bona fide underwater archaeology. Members should write to Scott Bruley, the captain of the vessel from which Mike had their MPs and MLAs urging that such legislation be brought made his dive, presented the bell they believed to be from in at both the provincial and federal levels as soon as the At/alllie to Harry Barrett, past President of the Port possible. I shall propose to the Directors at our next meeting Dover Harbour Museum. "Realising the historic significance that we make a formal submission along these lines to the of the vessel and the danger the bell would be in if left appropriate authorities. aboard, the undersigned [Fletcher and Bruley] brought it to the surface to be held in the museum as the best repository In the meantime, a happy aspect of this story is that the Port for historical artefacts." It was Harry Barrett and the late Dover Harbour Museum, where the ship's bell previously Richard Wright of the Great Lakes Institute at Bowling mentioned can still be found, is nearing completion of a Green, Ohio, who persuaded Mike to talk to me.