Black Ball Line Redux

Confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Interesting sites online:

"The Oblong Box" short story of travel on a 19th century passenger ship, by Edgar Allen Poe, with, believe it or not, a reference to DaVinci's "Last Supper". He once lived in the cottage now on the Grand Concourse in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City though he reposes in Baltimore, Maryland, his demise still a mystery.

Webb Institute: Who Was William Webb? He was a world famous 19th century shipbuilder in Manhattan, NY, who "unfortunately" built state-of-the-art vessels for foreign nations, as the US government thought otherwise. Today a small undergraduate college of naval architecture is in Glen Cove, NY on Long Island, there now for 111 years.

The Sextant | The Online Community of Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology

Maritime Quest

Wreck Diving Magazine Home Page

Pride of Baltimore When Mount Tambora, in today's Indonesia, a volcano, exploded in 1815, the summer of 1816 became a "year without summer" (Wikipedia) as the ash circulated the Earth blocking the sunlight from reaching the ground. Baltimore, Maryland became an important port as the effects of the cold were not felt as extreme in the south, and many foodstuffs were traded to the north through trans-shipment in the port of Baltimore. The Yankees are playing in Baltimore today. Stony Brook University also has a yearly Alumni event there at the major league baseball field.

"Mechanics wore coats in July" it was recorded by the shipbuilders of Setauket, the "mechanics" what the people building ships were referred to. The Brookhaven Town landmarked First Congregational Church in Centereach, NY, built by transplanted "Setauketeers" to "New Village" built some of the church using nautical architecture techniques it seems. Setauket, NY is in a Brookhaven Town designated historic district, the reason I did some research on the Captain Brewster Hawkins House, there I think, new roof, septic system and sandbox for Dr. John and Deborah Lee.

I worked in 1978 in Fort McHenry in the "Inner Harbor" of Baltimore and made the yearly trip to the abandoned Fort Carroll, out under the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It was before the Rouse development, which also came later to the South Street Seaport. Fort Carroll its said, an artificial island with disappearing gun mounts, was built, its said with a steam pile driver designed by Robert E. Lee once Commandant of the West Point Military Academy, and responsible for the capture and hanging of John Brown in the raid on the Harpers Ferry Federal Arsenal, West Virginia. "A small town in northeastern West Virginia that was the site of a raid in 1859 by the abolitionist John Brown and his followers who captured an arsenal that was located there." John Brown is buried in the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation maintained "John Brown Farm" in North Elba, NY in the Adirondacks.

There's a photo online of a computer-generated bridge that's been proposed to span partly over Fort McHenry National Monument (and in some places "Shrine") to shorten the trip around the harbor to get from one side of the city to the other.

The English-to-American Dictionary