In November we had quite an influx of researchers to the Museum. I frequently heard some of my colleagues quietly grouching about having to drop what they were doing to assist them but you know what I say? BRING IT ON!
Let’s admit it, despite being one of the larger maritime museums in the United States there’s no freaking way we could employ a subject-matter expert in every single area our collection covers. With this reality in mind, about fifteen or twenty years ago the Museum began shifting from the museum-world norm of having specialist curators who oversee a particular aspect of the collection towards a smaller staff of generalists who are able to research and discuss a broad range of topics. Despite my very long title of Director of Collections Management and Curator of Scientific Instruments if you had to guess my specialty by looking at my blog posts you’d be hard pressed to settle on just one thing.
Having outside experts use our collection to research their own projects is a great thing because even though it’s sometimes inconvenient and frequently time consuming it ALWAYS yields some new information about an object or image in our collection. This was especially the case in November when two researchers, Kevin Foster and Emir Yener, showed up to research Civil War era blockade runners and nineteenth century warships. During their visit, not one but two objects went from being completely unidentified to having full catalog records. We were also able to update many other records with search terms that would make them easier to find.
第一次突破发生在我和凯文（Kevin）通过收藏中寻找封锁跑步者的图像时进行的。由于它在南方的封锁跑步努力中所起的作用，凯文也有兴趣查看百慕大的图像。在访问的第一天，凯文问我是否有爱德华·詹姆斯的艺术品。詹姆斯曾被美国领事雇用给百慕大查尔斯·艾伦（Charles M. Allen），以封锁跑步者的素描，以帮助工会舰队对船只的识别（他们经常更改他们的名字，这样您就不能独自依靠名字）。有趣的是，詹姆斯还将其素描的副本出售给跑步者的船员，从而增加了他的利润，并“证明”了他作为冲突中中立党的地位（至少在他自己的想法！）中。不幸的是，对我们的计算机系统的快速搜索没有给艺术家的名字带来任何结果，但我们确实有几张百慕大的图像。
凯文（Kevin）和我继续插入我们的搜索，每天晚上他都会回到他的酒店，上计算机并寻找其他可能性。在访问凯文（Kevin）访问的第三天早晨，凯文（Kevin）兴奋地到达了博物馆，因为他认为他可能在收藏中找到了詹姆斯（James）的图像。我们跳入计算机，拉出对象的位置并进入存储空间。你知道我们发现了什么吗？凯文是对的！And it’s no wonder we didn’t know we had an artwork by Edward James in the collection–the full extent of the cataloging included exactly three pieces of information: 1) it was a watercolor, 2) it showed St. George’s Bermuda (the image was originally identified as Hamilton but in 2017 I was able to confirm it was St. George’s using Gleason’s Pictorial) and 3) it had an artist’s monogram, which had been interpreted as “JE” not the other way around.
凯文知道很多关于詹姆斯的工作和to provide quite a bit of detail regarding the scene including the relative time period when the event occurred. I immediately went to work reading everything I could on blockade running and Bermuda (which is why it’s taken so long to get this post out!) to fill in some of the details and background story. All of this work has taken us from sad three pieces of information to a fully researched and cataloged object.
詹姆斯的图像显示了百慕大圣乔治港口的英国和美国船只和封锁跑步者。中心的美国军舰在她身后有一团烟雾，这只能意味着两件事：1）她从另一个国家拥有的一个不安全的中立港口炸毁了圣地，或者2）她向她发出致敬。我想我会选择第二。这一特殊事件发生在1862年9月27日，当时有三艘船在表演后海军上将查尔斯·威尔克斯（Charles Wilkes）到达百慕大。船是USSWachusett, USSSonomaand USSTioga.
这些船是七艘“飞行中队”的一部分organized by the Secretary of the Navy “with a view of sweeping from our coast and the neighboring waters the lawless contrabandists who made it a business to violate our blockade and promote the efforts of those who are engaged in schemes to break up our Union and subvert the Government.” Despite this sweeping statement the prime reason for visiting Bermuda was their search for the elusive “290” (CSS阿拉巴马州） - 不在那儿，但这并没有阻止查尔斯·威尔克斯（Charles Wilkes）完全滋扰自己，几乎造成国际外交事件。
WachusettandTiogaentered St. George’s harbor and Wilkes leftSonomacruising outside to intercept any ships that attempted to leave port. Upon entering the port Wilkes was perturbed to find no national flag displayed at the flagstaff on shore and whenWachusettfired the traditional formal salute it was not returned until Wilkes sent an officer ashore.Sonoma’sactivities outside the port, essentially a form of blockade, quickly irritated Bermuda’s governor, Colonel Harry St. George Ord, and after two days he sent a naval lieutenant to tellSonoma’s指挥官托马斯·H·史蒂文斯（Thomas H. Stevens Jr.史蒂文斯拒绝了，这导致了威尔克斯和奥德之间的急剧对应。奥德为延迟承认之后道歉瓦库塞特的salute Wilkes ordered theSonomainto port (October 1st). This further reinforces the dating of the scene as only two US ships appear in the image.
To the left ofWachusettare the steamersMinho(flying what looks like a Swedish flag) and tiny 73-ton瓦希塔（悬挂一个身份不明的房屋国旗）。Minhois easily identified by her weird looking masts. She left Charleston on August 27th with 600 bales of cotton and ten passengers and despite the short trip (she arrived September 1st) managed to run out of coal. The result is clearly described in a September 10th letter from Consul Charles Allen to the US Secretary of State William Seward “TheMinho…a screw steamer of about 300 tons painted light lead color. Her mainmast entirely gone. Fore and mizzen top masts with all spars gone.” Clearly the crew resorted to burning all those wooden bits in an effort to generate enough steam to keep her engines running.
Directly behindMinho’ssmokestack is Ordnance Island. The vessels next to it are probably taking on or discharging cargo. ToMinho’sleft USSTiogais anchored against the wharf, most likely in the process of taking on coal. The American flag flying behind her is the American consulate building (where Edward James lived and worked). Heading back to the center of the artwork the little British flagged vessel sitting at the bow ofWachusett是百慕大政府的蒸汽螺丝游艇警笛. Between them, in the extreme background, is a ship on the horizon. Could this be USSSonomaon “blockade” duty or HMSDesperate(desperately) trying to keepSonomaaway from the port?
The two large vessels to the right of警笛are the blockade runnersGladiatorandHarriet Pinckney.HarrietPinckneywas owned by the Confederate government and had been anchored in St. George’s harbor since August 27th with a shipload of “arms and a field battery” but no sailing orders from Richmond. The 700-ton screw steamshipGladiator在8月23日抵达圣乔治是loaded with 20,240 guns and Enfield rifles, a large quantity of powder, cartridges, caps, shells, cartridge paper, blankets, army cloths, and other items. She’s recognizable by her long black hull sitting low in the water at the stern and her upright stem (that’s the pointy, curvy piece at the front of the ship) that has no billet or figurehead.Gladiatorwas one of the few blockade running vessels that survived the war without getting caught.
At the extreme right in the background sits the forlornMerrimac–the only ship blatantly flaunting her allegiance by flying a Confederate first national flag on her foremast. She was sitting at St. George’s awaiting orders when her owners, Z. C. Pearson and Company, declared bankruptcy. On October 21st, Consul Allen reports thatMerrimacand another vessel (菲比）被扣押并按照“英格兰的命令”。有趣的是，Merrimac9月5日，从伦敦到拿骚的航行时到达了圣乔治。在她的货物中，有3枚8英寸Blakely Rifled Cannon和1100桶火药。什么时候Merrimac皮尔逊（Pearson）的债权人抓住了南方特工（Southern Enters），无法从扣押的轮船上卸下货物。他们通过以7,000英镑的价格购买船和货物来解决问题，并将她置于联邦军械局的控制之下。该船于1863年4月将枪支运送到威尔明顿，并迅速出售。
On October 1st theTiogaheaded out of port and theWachusettandSonomafollowed soon after. Not content to leave all those blockade runners just quietly sitting in port Wilkes stationedTiogaandSonomaoff the port to try and prevent any vessels from escaping. WhenGladiatorleft port she was stopped and boarded but her paperwork was found to be in order and she was allowed to proceed (most likely saved by the presence of a nearby British warship and the fact that the US Navy officers could see other vessels trying to slip from the port and were anxious to stop them!). On October 10th瓦希塔managed to slip out of port but was captured by the USSMemphison the 14th.Minhomanaged to slip past the two blockaders on the night of October 12th but was fired upon by the USSFlambeau当她试图在10月20日进入查尔斯顿港口时，沉没了。迅速用尽燃料，TiogaandSonomaleft Bermuda a short time later.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my post we had a second artwork identified during the same week. Meeting Kevin at the Museum was researcher and Phd candidate Emir Yener from Istanbul University. Emir took a break from his research to look at some of the Turkish items in our collection. One of the images we showed him was a watercolor by artist William John Huggins of an unidentified Turkish vessel. He was immediately able to identify the vessel asPeyk-i Şevket，土耳其蒸汽桨船。
Peyk-i Şevketwas built and launched in 1836 by French businessman Louis Benet in La Ciotat as the 330-ton paddle steamerLePhocéenand was reputedly the first steamship in the Mediterranean. AsLePhocéen这艘船在地中海周围巡游了愉悦。参观马赛，阿尔及尔，突尼斯，马耳他，纳瓦里诺，士麦那，伊斯坦布尔，雅典，马耳他和巴勒莫，然后蒸回到意大利海岸。1838年2月，苏丹·马哈茂德二世（Sultan Mahmoud II）领导下的奥斯曼帝国购买了这艘船并更名为她Peyk-i Şevket, which means ‘Messenger of His Majesty’ or ‘Messenger of Magnificence’. The ship was used to transport goods and passengers between the ports of Istanbul and Izmir.
The benefits of having Kevin and Emir visit keep rolling in. Just this weekend Kevin helped me identify the ship on a piece of china. While researching the list of vessels painted by Edward James I discovered a china plate with an image of a vessel that looked suspiciously like a blockade runner. It was identified as the 205-ton阿德拉built by Caird & Company in 1877. I showed Kevin an image of the plate and he sent an image that showed the阿德拉of 1877 which only had a single smokestack–the ship on our plate had two. He later sent a photograph of a drawing made by Pharmacist’s Mate George H. Rogers of the USS阿德拉,a ship that looks remarkably similar to the vessel on our plate.
You mustlog into post a comment.