New Orleans Oaks Put to Mystic Use
Oaks felled by Katrina to help rebuild a mystic ship
The New York Times
October 16, 2005
Connecticut
Hurricane's Fallen Oaks Rejuvenate a Mystic Ship
By JOE WOJTAS
WHEN Quentin Snediker, the director of the Mystic Seaport shipyard returned from a trip to California earlier this month, he had 40 telephone and e-mail messages from victims of recent hurricanes. But they weren't looking for help. They wanted to help him.
With fallen live oaks littering roads and yards from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., residents were contacting the museum because they had heard, through news media reports and word of mouth, that it needed the trees for the $3.5 million restoration of the Charles W. Morgan, the whaling ship that is the centerpiece of the museum. These were special trees, hundreds of years old and the preferred wood of the shipbuilders who made the nation's whaling fleet in the 18th and 19th centuries. And the trees grow predominantly in the Southeast, especially in the areas where the hurricane hit.
One of the offers came from Charles Lobrano and his wife, Sandra, of Long Beach, Miss. An 800-year-old live oak that measures 34 feet in circumference had almost hit their home when it fell during the storm. The Lobranos had come to love the grand evergreen oak trees that grew on their property and were heartbroken when the largest came down.
"You just looked at this tree and realized it was 800 years old," said Mr. Lobrano, an anesthesiologist. "You get pretty attached to them. My wife saw that old, majestic tree lying on its side and she just wanted to preserve it somehow. She wanted to see someone make use of it."
So today, Mr. Snediker was expected to head South to inspect trees and began organizing the logistics of cutting, loading and trucking the logs back to Mystic. This is not the first time that hurricane victims have offered wood to the museum for the project. Last year after hurricanes hit Florida, the museum trucked several loads of live oak from Pensacola and Melbourne after residents there learned of the Morgan project.
Between that wood and the new donations, Mr. Snediker said, the museum will have all the wood it needs, about 200 large trees' worth, to replace the framing of the ship, work that will begin next year.
"The fact that people thought about us in their time of need is what surprised me the most," he said.
The Lobranos notified the museum after Ms. Lobrano's cousin contacted the U.S.S. Constitution, the Navy warship on display in Boston, because he knew live oak was used to build that ship. Mr. Lobrano said the Constitution had no need for the wood, but officials there suggested they contact the U.S.S. Constellation, another tall ship in Baltimore. He said people there knew Mr. Snediker was looking for wood for the Morgan and suggested a call to Mystic Seaport.
Mr. Lobrano, who said he planned to eventually visit the museum to see how their wood helped restore the Morgan, sent Mr. Snediker an e-mail message with photos of his wife sitting on the fallen tree.
"If you need live oak this would be an absolute gold mine," he wrote to Mr. Snediker.
Ms. Lobrano, meanwhile, contacted the mayors of nearby Gulfport and Pass Christian, Miss., trying to make sure some of the large oaks felled by the storm were not cleared until Mr. Snediker could arrive.
In Coden, Ala., Glen Perry, a marine surveyor, said he was looking for a use for the 250-year-old live oak that finally collapsed in his father-in-law's yard a few weeks after being battered by Hurricane Katrina.
Like many of the people offering their trees, he was led to Mystic Seaport after first contacting the Constitution. Others in his area joined the effort after a local television station broadcast a report about his offer to have the tree used to rebuild the Morgan.
"Your whole childhood you see these trees, and they grow so slow they never seem to change," he said. "You get attached to them. We didn't want them to end up on a bonfire and burned up. We wanted them to go to a good use."
Plans for the three-year project also call for replacing some of the exterior planking just above and below the waterline. In all, about 30 percent of the hull will be replaced.
The museum still needs yellow pine for some of the work. Mr. Snediker said the species has been heavily deforested throughout the Southeast and it is rare to find the large trees that will yield the 40-foot-long boards the museum needs. He has made contacts throughout the region hoping to find yellow pines felled by the storm.
While the museum could use other wood besides live oak and yellow pine, Mr. Snediker said, it is committed to being as historically accurate as possible.
"It's a national historic landmark vessel, so we have an obligation to be as authentic as possible and maintain its historical integrity," he said.
When the project is complete, the ship will still contain about 20 percent of its original wood.
The Morgan had been restored in the 1970's. The Mystic museum hauled the ship out of its sand berth on the Mystic River and repaired the hull so it could float at its current dock. A decade later the museum restored the deck, bow and stern. Periodic work is needed to preserve the vessel and protect it from the ravages of salt water.
Visitors will be able to watch a 14-member team restore the vessel, and museum officials said they hoped it will attract people the way the construction of the schooner Amistad did in the late 1990's.
The Morgan was built in 1841 in New Bedford, Mass, and operated out of that port as well as San Francisco, which gave it easy access to the Pacific whaling grounds. It made 37 voyages over its 80-year career.
With the decline of the whaling industry, it was put on display in South Dartmouth, Mass. It was then acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1941 and has gone on to become the symbol of the museum and one of its most popular attractions. Most days its sails are raised and museum guides talk about life aboard the ship.
Barbara McNamara of Germantown, Tenn., sent the museum photos of the huge live oaks on her family's former property in Coden that had been damaged by the storm. One of her ancestors started a plantation there in 1726 and one oak damaged by Hurricane Katrina was thought to have been a few hundred years old even then. She said she had read a local newspaper article sent by a relative about a Coden resident's donating his tree to the museum.
"I just wanted you to know how grateful I am that your company will be able to salvage this old tree," she wrote. "The knowledge that it will be used to refurbish the tall ships is heartwarming - and in essence the old tree will continue living."
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The New York Times
October 16, 2005
Connecticut
Hurricane's Fallen Oaks Rejuvenate a Mystic Ship
By JOE WOJTAS
WHEN Quentin Snediker, the director of the Mystic Seaport shipyard returned from a trip to California earlier this month, he had 40 telephone and e-mail messages from victims of recent hurricanes. But they weren't looking for help. They wanted to help him.
With fallen live oaks littering roads and yards from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., residents were contacting the museum because they had heard, through news media reports and word of mouth, that it needed the trees for the $3.5 million restoration of the Charles W. Morgan, the whaling ship that is the centerpiece of the museum. These were special trees, hundreds of years old and the preferred wood of the shipbuilders who made the nation's whaling fleet in the 18th and 19th centuries. And the trees grow predominantly in the Southeast, especially in the areas where the hurricane hit.
One of the offers came from Charles Lobrano and his wife, Sandra, of Long Beach, Miss. An 800-year-old live oak that measures 34 feet in circumference had almost hit their home when it fell during the storm. The Lobranos had come to love the grand evergreen oak trees that grew on their property and were heartbroken when the largest came down.
"You just looked at this tree and realized it was 800 years old," said Mr. Lobrano, an anesthesiologist. "You get pretty attached to them. My wife saw that old, majestic tree lying on its side and she just wanted to preserve it somehow. She wanted to see someone make use of it."
So today, Mr. Snediker was expected to head South to inspect trees and began organizing the logistics of cutting, loading and trucking the logs back to Mystic. This is not the first time that hurricane victims have offered wood to the museum for the project. Last year after hurricanes hit Florida, the museum trucked several loads of live oak from Pensacola and Melbourne after residents there learned of the Morgan project.
Between that wood and the new donations, Mr. Snediker said, the museum will have all the wood it needs, about 200 large trees' worth, to replace the framing of the ship, work that will begin next year.
"The fact that people thought about us in their time of need is what surprised me the most," he said.
The Lobranos notified the museum after Ms. Lobrano's cousin contacted the U.S.S. Constitution, the Navy warship on display in Boston, because he knew live oak was used to build that ship. Mr. Lobrano said the Constitution had no need for the wood, but officials there suggested they contact the U.S.S. Constellation, another tall ship in Baltimore. He said people there knew Mr. Snediker was looking for wood for the Morgan and suggested a call to Mystic Seaport.
Mr. Lobrano, who said he planned to eventually visit the museum to see how their wood helped restore the Morgan, sent Mr. Snediker an e-mail message with photos of his wife sitting on the fallen tree.
"If you need live oak this would be an absolute gold mine," he wrote to Mr. Snediker.
Ms. Lobrano, meanwhile, contacted the mayors of nearby Gulfport and Pass Christian, Miss., trying to make sure some of the large oaks felled by the storm were not cleared until Mr. Snediker could arrive.
In Coden, Ala., Glen Perry, a marine surveyor, said he was looking for a use for the 250-year-old live oak that finally collapsed in his father-in-law's yard a few weeks after being battered by Hurricane Katrina.
Like many of the people offering their trees, he was led to Mystic Seaport after first contacting the Constitution. Others in his area joined the effort after a local television station broadcast a report about his offer to have the tree used to rebuild the Morgan.
"Your whole childhood you see these trees, and they grow so slow they never seem to change," he said. "You get attached to them. We didn't want them to end up on a bonfire and burned up. We wanted them to go to a good use."
Plans for the three-year project also call for replacing some of the exterior planking just above and below the waterline. In all, about 30 percent of the hull will be replaced.
The museum still needs yellow pine for some of the work. Mr. Snediker said the species has been heavily deforested throughout the Southeast and it is rare to find the large trees that will yield the 40-foot-long boards the museum needs. He has made contacts throughout the region hoping to find yellow pines felled by the storm.
While the museum could use other wood besides live oak and yellow pine, Mr. Snediker said, it is committed to being as historically accurate as possible.
"It's a national historic landmark vessel, so we have an obligation to be as authentic as possible and maintain its historical integrity," he said.
When the project is complete, the ship will still contain about 20 percent of its original wood.
The Morgan had been restored in the 1970's. The Mystic museum hauled the ship out of its sand berth on the Mystic River and repaired the hull so it could float at its current dock. A decade later the museum restored the deck, bow and stern. Periodic work is needed to preserve the vessel and protect it from the ravages of salt water.
Visitors will be able to watch a 14-member team restore the vessel, and museum officials said they hoped it will attract people the way the construction of the schooner Amistad did in the late 1990's.
The Morgan was built in 1841 in New Bedford, Mass, and operated out of that port as well as San Francisco, which gave it easy access to the Pacific whaling grounds. It made 37 voyages over its 80-year career.
With the decline of the whaling industry, it was put on display in South Dartmouth, Mass. It was then acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1941 and has gone on to become the symbol of the museum and one of its most popular attractions. Most days its sails are raised and museum guides talk about life aboard the ship.
Barbara McNamara of Germantown, Tenn., sent the museum photos of the huge live oaks on her family's former property in Coden that had been damaged by the storm. One of her ancestors started a plantation there in 1726 and one oak damaged by Hurricane Katrina was thought to have been a few hundred years old even then. She said she had read a local newspaper article sent by a relative about a Coden resident's donating his tree to the museum.
"I just wanted you to know how grateful I am that your company will be able to salvage this old tree," she wrote. "The knowledge that it will be used to refurbish the tall ships is heartwarming - and in essence the old tree will continue living."
* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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posted by Joe Paris at Saturday, October 29, 2005
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