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ELISSA
An Iron Barque of 1877

The Finest Restoration

“For nearly three decades, the 1877 sailing ship Elissa has been widely recognized as one of the finest maritime preservation projects in the world. Unlike some tall ships of today, the Elissa is not a replica but an authentic survivor from the Age of Sail. Over her century long commercial history, she carried cargos to ports around the world for a succession of owners. Her working life as a freighter came to an end in Piraeus, Greece where she was rescued from the salvage yard by a variety of ship preservationists who refused to let her die. The story of Elissa’s discovery and restoration by the Galveston Historical Foundation is nothing short of miraculous.” – Kurt Voss ‘Galveston’s the ELISSA – The Tall Ship of Texas’ (Arcadia Publishing).

Growing up in Annapolis in the 1950’s, Saturday mornings sailing the wooden Naval Academy yawls, canoeing in college creek after school, looking out over the harbor at the oyster draggers drying their sails, I thought the fishing fleets of the world still worked under sail. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be a harpooner like the ones in Moby Dick or follow in the wake of that moment’s hero, Irving Johnson as he circumnavigated his Yankee for National Geographic.

Serving an apprenticeship in a small Connecticut shipyard, and another building musical instruments in Rhode Island, I eventually ‘found a home’, as sailors say, at South Street Seaport Museum in New York, simultaneously a carpenter on the big ships: WAVERTREE and PEKING, and curating the Museum’s model collection. Rigging restaurants between ships and maritime museums I carpetbagged the concept of historic ship restoration to Galveston, Texas. The idea caught fire and I found myself at the head of a rescue crew of volunteers off to Piraeus, Greece picking up the ELISSA torch from Peter Throckmorton and Karl Kortum. Now restored as leading light of the Texas Seaport Museum, new generations carry on her traditions. According to Peter Stanford, president emeritus of the National Maritime Historical Society: “Indeed, the restoration of this graceful barque of 1877 is reckoned by many to be the finest restoration of an active sailing ship extant.”

From Texas to Mexico – a newly passed captain taking a break from ELISSA, swimming in the turquoise Caribbean in front of the pre-Columbian Castillo at Tulum, the maritime historian in me asks, “Why is this building here; so precariously perched on cliff’s edge?” The search for an answer results in my first National Geographic grant for an investigation by Pilar Luna and her team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and subsequent documentation by the Discovery & History Channels. Tulum turns out to be the oldest, most sophisticated lighthouse in the Americas.

And now, pitched up on the Arabian Peninsula in the UAE, observing how perhaps the last dhows for the East African Trade are a building. And why is Wadi Hiluw so special? Does the topography produce a Bernoulli Effect that fanned the flames for the Copper Age? Always the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. Can’t stop asking now…

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Foundation Website

AVATARA
A Future History

“Do you know about the Hindu concept of the Avatar?”

“A little, tell me more.”

“Well, every five to seven hundred years some self-realized being comes along to kick humankind up to the next spiritual level. A new religion usually grows up around each succeeding Avatar. Their vision replaces the old values. The new sect spreads, matures, undergoes transformations, until the former True Religion is replaced by the new. Then it too grows old, atrophies and becomes less and less relevant as humanity evolves - until the appearance of the next Avatar.

Krishna, the Buddha, perhaps Confucius, certainly the Christ, and maybe Mohammed are all separated by the magic five to seven hundred year cycle. We seem to be missing an Avatar for the 15^th century. Was it Leonardo or St. Francis? We are due for another One just about now.

Only this time, perhaps for the first time, the ‘Avatara’ is a woman. Not one woman, or two, but three. This is their story…

The World:

Imagine a world in which ‘progress’ is more about choice than an irresistible force. China, Brazil and Africa have moved to center stage, making many Americans regret that their time of power was not a time of glory. What a shame that their leadership during those heady years as the world’s most mighty nation was not used to lay down a set of rules ensuring justice for all and a sustainable future free from dependence on ever decreasing resources and increasingly precious oil. Now, the world’s last standing superpower finds the playing field has tipped!

The Islands:

Once upon a time… there was an American President with a soft spot in his heart for the Hawaiian Islands. During his last days in office, he signed an Executive Order recognizing the Indigenous Hawaiian People as the 574^th Tribal Nation within the Territorial United States. The Hawaii State Legislature named large portions of Maui, all of Kauai and Niihau, and part of Oahu with the Iolani palace as their ‘Reservation’ on the promise that the ‘natives’ would consider gambling. They considered it; didn’t like it, and restricted it to cruise ships. This did help tourism to the islands as air travel became environmentally unsupportable and prohibitively expensive in the continuous economic contraction of the 21^st century.

They elected their own Queens, Kings, Chiefs and councils whose first and principal task was to sift through their legends and histories for the best qualities inherent in the Hawaiian people; and decide whether and how to preserve these characteristics. How could they maintain the indomitable warrior spirit that inspired the greatest voyages in human history without war and avoid the over exploitation of limited resources that led to starvation and cannibalism? And to select from the modern world those things worth keeping – from direct democracy in local matters, to keeping food cold without electricity.

The Girls:

Evolution is not only the slow, seemingly random combination of genes and adaptations, there is Cultural Evolution as well. Every race gets what it deserves from preceding generations. Leadership is a direct result of their society’s values. The Islanders’ search for their past was aided by Lelani, a royal, whose prodigious memory was enhanced by genetic recall of the women in her line going back a thousand years.

She joins an Island-sponsored sail training and research vessel, the TUSITALA II, to learn about the flooding world, and to rediscover traditional Island Navigation that helped her ancestors populate the Pacific – a variation of which provides their power guiding the commercial shipping in a modern world suffering from energy shortages, hunger and political unrest. The entire planet is convulsed by cataclysmic weather affecting celestial navigation. A ‘small nuclear accident’ wipes out nearly all the satellites significantly altering communications and trade.

Aboard the TUSITALA II, Lani forms a special relationship with Franci, a minor chief’s daughter from the worldlier island Kingdom of Tonga. Together with Lani’s childhood companion Esperanza al Noor, they discover that they have the power to influence the weather, to make rain and rainbows. Other, less benign forces work out their secret and want to control it.

This is their story from just a little ways into the future. This future is not so far away…In fact, it starts now!

http://oceanavatar.com/

El Castillo at TULUM

The Secret of TULUM

Tulum may have served as a port city for the Maya site of Coba as there is a sacbe road connecting the two. However, it was more likely a principal way station along a Putun Maya ocean trade route stretching from Panama in the South to Champoton on the Gulf of Mexico to the North. Called the Phoenicians of the New World by archaeologist Eric Thompson, the Putun had a monopoly on Western Caribbean sea trade in the year 1000CE (Fig.1).

Tulum’s location to the Southwest of the principal Putun entrepot of Cozumel Island meant that large, ocean going canoes could depart for Cozumel almost no matter what the weather, nor how strong the Northbound current, which forms the beginnings of the mighty Gulf Stream, was running at the time. The substantial landside fortifications of Tulum are more in keeping with coastal island’s requirement for a secure port on the mainland (Fig. 2), as the modern municipality of Isla Mujeres maintains Punta Sam and Cozumel formerly administered Playa del Carmen.

The Secret of Tulum was rediscovered in 1982 by amateur nautical archaeologist Michael Creamer. In 1984, representing the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) he joined an expedition led by Pilar Luna of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology’s Nautical Archaeology and History (INAH) funded by a grant from National Geographic. Professor Luna’s team conducted experiments that conclusively proved Tulum’s El Castillo served as an aid navigating the narrow gap in the offshore coral reef (Fig. 3) that protects Tulum’s convenient landing beach (Fig 2). The experiments were later successfully repeated on several occasions and documented on film for Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious Universe –‘The Mysterious Maya for Discovery Channel’ (English)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWCIZoD0VvU,

and History Channel (Spanish)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMo0Wri2-zw.

How does the oldest lighthouse in the New World work? El Castillo, the principal structure at Tulum, consists of two pairs of very sophisticated horizontal range lights – a day signal and a night signal (Fig. 4). Both sets work equally well Northbound or Southbound from beyond the world’s second longest barrier reef to safely guide a vessel through the natural reef opening.

The day signals are a pair of windows in the first floor stone work on either side of the main tower. During daylight hours, the sky is visible through them from beyond the reef opening. As long as the Windows appear of uniform width the approaching vessel is within the safe channel. If one window appears to be reduced in width, the vessel’s course must be altered towards the narrowing window or it will come to grief on the reef or one of the several coral heads on either side of the channel within the reef confines.

The night signals are two windows situated in the upper floor of the Castillo tower (Fig 5). The South Window measures about 45cm x 45cm and projects a light beam wider than the safe reef opening. The North Window, slightly taller and narrower projects a light beam exactly the width of the reef opening (Fig. 6). When one sees the single light from the South Window from offshore of the reef, it is time to ‘Get ready!’ When light from the North window becomes visible, ‘Get set!’ The moment both lights are equally brilliant; GO! As with the Day Signals, due to the thickness of the stone walls through which the light beams are projected, the beam of light decreases and increases as one deviates from, or returns to the main channel – very sophisticated indeed!

The Putun Maya ocean going canoes of the Post Classic period had raised bows and sterns (Fig 7 after Hammond, and Fig. 8 after Morris). Even if they were of expanded dugout construction (planked up canoes were unknown) yielding the most freeboard possible from a single log, the freeboard would still have been rather low and the vessels easily swamped, especially when turning to enter through the reef even in moderate seas. Cargos of cacao, copper, jade, obsidian and quetzal feathers were of immense value, as were the royal passengers bound for the sacred temples of Ixchel on Cozumel and Isla Mujeres. Thus, the substantial investment in a navigational aid such as the one described at Tulum would have been justified. Since the rediscovery of Tulum’s true function, today’s Mexican fishermen look over their shoulders at El Castillo to check their bearings when exiting through the reef channel and use the day signals when returning home.

Putun Maya Trade Routes