Those Grand Old Schooners gotta pay the rent
Happy 100th, Martha! (And sorry ‘bout the rent)
Rhodyfest is grand. But, for this old salt, Port Townsend’s finest hour occurs in September, during the Wooden Boat Festival, when those magnificent schooners Martha and Adventuress and their handsome cousins hoist sails and parade along the waterfront.
For a few spectacular minutes, the seascape is dominated by some of the most elegant vessels ever to grace any sea, sleek low-slung hulls powered by acres of trapezoidal sails assembled into bulging swept wings soaring silently past the docks.
It’s an annual reminder that our little corner of the nation has turned itself into a world class tall-ship seaport. Like the courthouse tower or the Point Wilson Lighthouse, those grand old schooners have sailed into the heart of our civic identity.
And while they may look like fat cats’ toys, Martha and Adventuress are both serious-minded non-profits that each year put hundreds of kids through hands-on training in maritime skills and environmental science.
So why can’t we return the favor and give them a break? But we’ll get back to that.
Schooners will be back at center stage this weekend, when devotees gather down at the Northwest Maritime Center dock to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Schooner Martha. Birthdays, even centennials, come and go. But, for a wood-hulled, wood-sparred schooner with a rare pedigree, a century is a very big deal.
And Martha, with her 84-foot silhouette, sweeping sheer line and brilliant brightwork, is truly the fairest of them all. Step below into the main salon, with its sedate, mahogany cabinetry, and you are transported into another world.
There are reasons that schooners are so easy on the eyes. The twin masts and gaff rigging allow six or seven sails of various sizes and shapes to merge into one spectacular wing.
But schooners were invented for more practical reasons. The Age of Exploration sailed on square-rigged ships, with sails hung from horizontal spars. They were big and carried lots of freight. But they had two major handicaps: they needed dozens of crew to handle those sails, and they couldn’t sail into the wind.
Smaller sloops, with “Marconi” sails attached directly to the masts, sailed far better to windward, but they were too small for ocean voyages.
Schooners were the compromise. With two (or more) sloop-like masts, usually the same height, they could carry enough sail to cross oceans. They pointed well into the wind, and the sails could be handled from the decks by a small crew.
“The Americans employed schooners handsomely against the British in the Revolutionary War,” says Capt. Robert d’Arcy, skipper of the Martha. “They were smaller, but they could sail to weather where the British couldn’t.”
For the same reasons, New England fishermen rode schooners to and from the Grand Banks, and Puget Sound merchants favored them for shipping lumber to California.
By 1900, steamships ruled the oceans, and schooners became pleasure craft. Martha and Adventuress were both built early in the century as yachts for rich businessmen.
Martha was launched in San Francisco in 1907 as the city began to dig out from the 1906 quake. Over the years, she had a series of owners, ranging from actor James Cagney to the Four Winds Camp on Orcas Island.
Ten years ago, d’Arcy took over. He’s a master mariner and a second generation shipwright who sharpened his skills at Mystic Seaport. Since then, I’ve looked in periodically, and watched how a grand old sailing ship is kept alive.
The interior, wheel and virtually everything below the waterline – the planking, frames, even the fastenings – are all original, d’Arcy says. But much of what you see above the waterline is the work of the skipper.
For years, he wintered at South Lake Union, tying up next to the decrepit lumber schooner Wawona. The contrast between the two projects was a lesson in the nature of maritime heritage. Year after year, taxpayers and well-meaning donors have poured money down the hatches of the Wawona, and the ship is in worse shape than ever. D’Arcy, meanwhile, had no money, so he rolled his sleeves and did it himself. He has rebuilt the transom, replaced decks, beams, ribs and much of the planking. There are new rails, new framing, new gunnels, new engine...
“I did 90 percent of the work,” he says. “But there’s always more to be done. She needs new bottom planking and fastenings. That work begins this fall.”
It’s another reminder that, contrary to popular wisdom, ships do not have souls. They are mere constructions that, left alone, will quickly rot. Boats merely reflect the soul and passions of the people that build, maintain and sail them.
That is what should be celebrated on the waterfront this week.
And wouldn’t it be great if the fellas down at the Port of Port Townsend joined in that celebration, rather than sending another stiff moorage bill.
Last year, Martha and Adventuress coughed up more than $20,000 in moorage fees to the Port. That’s a huge bite out of their tight, nonprofit budgets -- enough to take more boatloads of kids out on the sound for an unforgettable week.
Neither d’Arcy nor Catherine Collins, director of Sound Experience, which runs Adventuress, wants to whine about their moorage fees. So I’ll whine for them: Why are we taxpayers making these extraordinary ships pay full freight?
It’s a matter of fairness, says Deputy Port Director Jim Pivarnik. “I’m a huge fan of those schooners, and they’re great people. But we have to be even-handed. It all comes down to supply and demand. There are other vessels out there, 127 boats on the waiting list for moorage.”
Understood. The port is not a charitable institution. It’s a publicly-run business, and it must be run as a business.
So forget aesthetics. Let’s take a hard, business-minded look at Martha and Adventuress. How are they different from dozens of other boats down there? Let me count the ways:
1. They are fulltime educational institutions that work with local schools, the Sea Scouts and others. On those rare occasions they charter themselves out, it’s to raise a few bucks to get a few more kids on the water.
2. They are major tourist attractions – every bit as much as Fort Worden or the Rose Theater. Make no mistake, people visit Port Townsend in part because they crave a closer look at those magnificent schooners. This may explain why the Port of Port Townsend uses a photo of the Adventuress as the backdrop to its Internet home page.
3. They employ real people in real jobs. The pay isn’t great, but there are a dozen or more salty souls who are able to live and work here because of those grand schooners.
4. They support the maritime trades, including the port itself.
5. There is competition out there. All those years that Martha moored at South Lake Union, the city of Seattle never charged a dime for moorage. And Seattle would take him back in a minute.. Tacoma would love to lure one or both schooners to its docks, and already provides space for the Sea Scouts and their smaller schooner for a dollar a year. “Don’t get me wrong,” d’Arcy says, “Martha is a Port Townsend vessel. We’re not going anywhere. But the port isn’t making it easy.”
6. Unlike the private yachts, those schooners are out sailing most of the summer, when competition for moorage is greatest.
7. They are legitimate nonprofits serving a very public purpose. Neither has ever made money.
8. They are historic landmarks. Adventuress has the official designation, and Martha should have.
9. As sailing ships, they don’t guzzle gas or change anyone’s climate.
Finally, Martha and Adventuress are unique. No other vessel will ever meet those standards.
Stan Cummings, the new director of the Northwest Maritime Center at Hudson Point, had years of experience running a nonprofit seaport in Orange County, California, and admits he is baffled by the port’s hardline stance.
“Icons like Martha and Adventuress are critical marketing tools for economic development of the marine trades and the rest of the PT community,” he says. “They are marketing assets beyond price.”
And what do they get for all this? The port generously does not charge for the space occupied by their bowsprits. Other than that, those grand old schooners pay full moorage, the same rate some Microsoft millionaire pays to park his rocketship yacht with the tinted windows and the “no trespassing” signs.
Which apparently is Port Townsend’s special way of twirling its moustache and saying: “Happy hundredth, Martha!”
