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Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival: “Four Days of Fun”

“The Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, a production of OpSail CONNECTICUT, is a celebration of our state’s maritime heritage, history and spirit of innovation. Working with community partners, our purpose is to draw attention to the important role the sea has played in the formation of our state and nation, and to honor the role schooners played in that development.”

Today was the official opening day of this (free) annual event, which marks the end of “Connecticut’s Coast Guard Summer” and celebrates the area’s rich history with four days of activities including schooner races, boat tours, dockside educational exhibits, a chowder contest, sea shanty performances, and lots of other entertainment.

Friday, Sept. 11 is the official Welcome Ceremony at City Pier at 2pm. And later that evening City Pier will host the Captain’s Ball, honoring UConn President Susan Herbst and saluting the Coast Guard’s Everyday Heroes.

Saturday, Sept. 12 will feature a variety of activities all day, including 24 dockside maritime education exhibits and programs, the Great New London Chowder Challenge, the Whaleboat Race, and the Schooner Race. 8pm is the start of the beautiful Lighted Boat Parade on the Thames River.

For a complete schedule of events, view the Festival Website here.

A cornucopia of sailing and auxiliary vessels are arriving at City Pier and Fort Trumbull, starting today, and you should go and see all of them. Many will be participating in Saturday’s schooner races In Fisher’s Island Sound. For a quick look and history, go to the Festival’s informative web page that shows photos of all the boats and gives brief histories.

But whatever you do, you MUST get to City Pier to see COLUMBIA, a steel hulled replica of the original 1927 Gloucester Fishing Schooner of the same name.

This is an amazing boat, but she will have some stiff competition from last year’s winner, Mystic Seaport’s BRILLIANT, an offshore classroom for the Seaport’s education programs. Also at the City Pier as of today is WHEN & IF, the 63 foot Alden schooner commissioned by General George S. Patton in 1939. Although this elegant and dignified boat is dwarfed by her current neighbor COLUMBIA, she has a friendly and exuberant crew, who told me that if they did not beat COLUMBIA Saturday, “at least we’re going to look awfully cute while we’re trying.”

New London-berthed MYSTIC WHALER and AMISTAD, Connecticut’s Flagship and Tall Ship Ambassador, will also be participating, and their crews are also busy getting ready.

Other ships that have committed to participation at the Festival (some of whom are already here) are the USNS FALL RIVER, a 338-foot Spearhead Class Joint High Speed Vessel. (Pier 7 at Fort Trumbull State Park), and the 130-foot 1931 fireboat JOHN J HARVEY, which will be taking spectators out Saturday to watch the race. HARVEY assisted during such notable fires as the Cunard Line pier fire in 1932, the burning of the NORMANDIE in 1942, and the ammunition ship EL ESTERO during World War II. Coast Guard Cutter IDA LEWIS, a 175-foot Keeper Class coastal buoy tender, is already at Pier 7 at Fort Trumbull and ready to visit.

The MARY E. of Essex, CT is a 75 foot clipper built in 1906, and the ROANN a 60-foot Eastern rig dragger from Mystic, and one of the few remaining examples of fishing vessels that once worked New England waters. In addition to being available for viewing at City Pier during the festival, ROANN will serve as the committee boat for Saturday’s schooner race. The LETTIE G. HOWARD is a fishing schooner and a designated National Historic Landmark. TREE OF LIFE hails from Newport and has circled the globe twice since 2013. Rhode Island’s Tall Ship OLIVER HAZARD PERRY is a 200 foot long, three-masted sailing school.

“For generations, Long Island Sound has been integral to our commerce, industry, and national defense,” said Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman. “Coast Guard Summer and The Maritime Festival are great ways to experience Connecticut’s rich nautical history, and honor the Coast Guard and Naval legacies, and celebrate the men and women who continue to serve.”

And according to retired Coast Guard Admiral Robert Papp, “There is no better place to honor our seafaring history than in New London, future home of the National Coast Guard Museum, and there is no better way to conclude Connecticut’s Coast Guard Summer 2015, as we mark the 225^th anniversary of the United States Coast Guard, than at the 2015 Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival.”

Forts Trumbull and Griswold are highlighted in the news this week

Forts on both sides of the river got a lot of press this week, and with good reason. Thursday’s “Night and Day” section of the New London Day announced the annual commemoration of the Battle of Fort Griswold (September 6, 1781) that will be held at the Ebenezer Avery House, located on the lower part of the fort on Fort Street. Reenactors will be battling it out this Sunday (September 6th of course), the British side featuring—of course—Norwich native Benedict Arnold. The following week the Avery-Copp House on Thames Street will host Groton History Day, and will feature a soldiers’ encampment, a musket firing demonstration, activities and artisan crafts. Both events are free.

But as former submariner Phil Houk reminds us in his “History Around the Corner” article in the Mystic Times, there’s “lots to learn at Fort Trumbull State Park and Museum.” Extolling the virtues of both the site and the exhibit space, Mr Houk writes that “the stone fort has been used over its 225-year history for striking at British invaders and for storage while the site housed a modern research and development center for anti-submarine warfare. It its current form of restoration it should be visited by young and old and its story told.” A state-issued Charter Oak pass (for residents age 65 and older), as well as museum and state park passes obtained from local libraries, allow you to visit sites like Fort Trumbull free of charge; otherwise the admission is $10.

So even though you won’t be able to get there on a water taxi (yet!) why not plan to spend the weekend soaking up history at two incredible forts just minutes away from each other?

Want to know how the Transition Team is doing? Come to a meeting!

The Thames River Heritage Park Transition Team meets every 4^th Wednesday at 8AM at the beautiful Fort Trumbull Visitor/Conference Center, 90 Walbach Street, New London. You’re welcome to attend a meeting to see how progress is coming on establishing the non-profit entity that will eventually be coordinating the Heritage Park’s activities.

Our Water Taxi dreams are coming true

The Day published a great article today on the Water Taxi Planning Sub-Committee’s successful activities over the past few weeks, and you can read it on line with a subscription. Navy Vessels Sought For Water Taxi, by Judy Benson.

With the help of Transition Team Member and Groton City Mayor Marion Galbraith, John Mathias of NAVSEA sent the City’s request for two utility boats to the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services of Norfolk with the strong recommendation that DLA consider the request favorably. This is a huge step towards final approval of the boats, which have been in storage for 11 years and will need a marine survey before being transported to an area marina for retrofitting.

It is the Team’s plan that sometime in the future the City of Groton will turn over the boats to the new non-profit that will be formed to oversee the Thames River Heritage Park’s operations. In the meantime, with the fiduciary help of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, of which Chair Jim Butler is a member, and promised allocations by the participating municipalities, the boats will undergo the first stages in their outfitting and storage in preparation for the 2016 season.

As we mentioned in previous posts, the legislature has also awarded the TRHP and its Transition Team $100,000 annually for two years; much of this allocation will go towards the water taxis and their eventual operation, and the Water Taxi sub-committee is already in discussions with a potential contractor who is well-known, experienced, and respected in the area and would be responsible for all aspects of the taxis’ operation. Together with this contractor the sub-committee is putting together a list of costs and plans that include keeping the boats as close to their original design as possible, so visitors can travel between historic sites on a true Navy utility boat. Very cool.

*This is a standard Navy utility boat that was refurbished in 2006 by civil service mariner crew members for emergency medical aid in San Diego. Photo by MCC Edward Martens.*

At Wednesday’s second meeting of the entire Team, the Organization sub-committee put together a tentative timeline that emphasized the need to definitely have preliminary operations in place by next year, and an established 501 c 3 agency and Board of Directors in place by Memorial Day. We all agreed there was a lot of work to do before then, but we’re going to try and keep as close to this schedule as we can, and by the next summer season we’ll be handing the reins over to the permanent agency overseeing the Thames River Heritage Park. How exciting!

It was a busy weekend along the Thames River

The Fort Griswold Monument in Groton was the site of a ceremony commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II on Friday, August 14^th. Hosted by the City of Groton in conjunction with the SUBVETS, American Legion and Fleet Reserve, the public ceremony honored the courage, sacrifice and service of the men and women of the “greatest generation.” Speakers addressed the ending of the war from the local perspective of civilians, military and Electric Boat.

Fort Griswold with the Groton Monument. The Revolutionary War fort is one of the four anchor sites in the Thames River Heritage Park.

Visit the Day online or Groton’s “Summer in the City” page for more details.

Meanwhile, across the river, New London welcomed the Coast Guard barque Eagle back to its homeport at City Pier after a summer of training exercises, just as New London received its new designation from the US Coast Guard as a “Coast Guard City.” The designation, as noted in the Day, recognizes the long term relationship between New London and the Coast Guard stretching back to 1790. “The event brought together a Who’s Who of Connecticut’s government and Coast Guard officials,” including Vice Admiral Sandra Stosz and City Council President Wade Hyslop, who noted that the designation is “bestowed upon only a handful of cities, and New London is proud to be one of them.”

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