Flagship Niagara League Announces Essay Competition for Area High School Students

Erie, Pa – The Flagship Niagara League, the Erie non-profit organization which supports the Flagship Niagara and the Erie Maritime Museum today announced an essay competition open to all Erie County area high school students. The competition, open to current 11^th and 12^th grade students from Erie County’s thirteen school districts and private schools, will ask students to reply to the following prompt: “Why Niagara Matters to Erie”. The winning student will receive a three week sailing passage on Niagara valued at $1,350. The five finalists will have their essays featured on the Flagship Niagara’s website and will receive complimentary passes for four people to the Erie Maritime Museum.

Students are asked to write an essay of approximately 500 words; single spaced with a 12 point font. They are to describe why they think that the Flagship Niagara is an important resource for Erie County and northwestern Pennsylvania. Writers are encouraged to learn more about the Niagara’s history and current goals by visiting the Flagship Niagara’s website at: www.flagshipniagara.org

The essays will be reviewed and judged by the Flagship Niagara League’s Education Committee. The contest will remain open until March 19^th @ 5:00 p.m. EST. Essays are to be emailed to the following address: essay.flagshipniagara@yahoo.com
Judging will take place during late March and early April. The winner will be announced on: Friday, April 16^th 2010.

The winner of the essay competition will have several three week windows to choose from during the 2010 sailing season (May-August).

Questions can be directed towards:
Mr. Bill Sutton, Executive Director
Flagship Niagara League
bsutton@flagshipniagara.org
814-452-2744x225

Gill Bibby to Talk About Ghost Ships at Erie Maritime Museum
Click Here to Download Flyer

            The Erie Maritime Museum Speaker Series presents Ghost Ships on Saturday, March 20, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hirt Auditorium at Blasco Library.  The Chairman of the Hamilton/Scourge Society, Gill Bibby, will talk about the ongoing underwater archeological studies being done on the wrecks of Hamilton and Scourge, two US Navy vessels capsized in a line squall on Lake Ontario on August 8, 1813.  Mr. Bibby’s presentation will include the most recent underwater video released, showing the current condition of the two vessels.

            In 1971, the Hamilton-Scourge Project was launched to look for the two ships.  The first sonar images of the ships were seen in 1975, both vessels upright on the lake floor.  Hulls were intact; masts, topmasts, and bowsprits in place.  They were perfectly preserved with all artifacts in fresh water, utter darkness, and near-freezing temperatures.  In Summer of 1980, Jacques Cousteau arranged for the photography of Hamilton.  In 1982, photographs of Scourge were first taken.  Study continues on both vessels to this day, and Mr. Bibby’s talk will bring us the latest information about them.

            Both of these ships were originally constructed as merchant schooners on Lake Ontario.  Hamilton was originally an American ship named Diana, after the ancient goddess of the hunt whose image graces her prow.  This exquisite carving is still breathtaking in the underwater images obtained by archeologists.  She was purchased by the US Navy as it prepared for conflict on the lakes in 1812.  Scourge was originally a Canadian ship named Lord Nelson.  This vessel was captured by our Navy in violation of the Embargo Act in1812, then renamed, and put into service as part of the Navy’s Lake Ontario squadron.

            The squall that sunk them is vividly described in James Fennimore Cooper’s classic Ned Myers; or, A Life Before the Mast.  The capsizing of these two vessels was one of the largest losses of life on the lakes during the War of 1812.  Fifty-three men died; there were only nineteen survivors.  Ned Myers was a sailor on Scourge who had survived the disaster.

            Hamilton and Scourge are important to study because both were constructed in the middle of a transitional period in shipbuilding.  In the early part of the 19^th Century, schooner hulls grew sharper bowed, and masts were raked back, as mariners searched for speed under sail.  Studying these vessels will help teach us more about shipbuilding in this era.

The Erie Maritime Museum's Speaker Series continues with this month's presentation “Dreamer, the Beauty of Sail” on Saturday, February 27, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hirt Auditorium at Blasco Library.  Local sail maker Dave Bierig and Niagara's own shipwright Bob Arlet will talk about the rescue and restoration of the 55 foot Alden-built Ketch Dreamer.

            Erie residents have had the pleasure of watching the sparkle of Dreamer's wake on Lake Erie since her restoration and launch in October, 2006, but most don't realize how close this 80 year old vessel came to being lost forever.  Abandoned by her owner in Buffalo, New York, the beauty of her classic lines caught Bierig's eye in in the Fall of 2004, despite the grey and weathered wood of her exterior.  She would remain exposed to the elements, tied up for another year and a half in litigation before she could be brought to the Erie Yacht Club yard and work begun.

            Dreamer had been restored by an earlier owner, Joe Gelsominio, in the 1980's, before sailing her for many years.  His work on the cabin interior of the boat was a gem within the decaying hull, along with a good engine, a new generator, other modern features.

            Designed by John G. Alden, Dreamer was built and launched in 1929 by the Reed-Cook Marine Construction Company of East Boothbay, Maine.  Now gracing the fresh waters of Lake Erie, she originally sailed the salt waters of the Atlantic, and survived a 1938 New England hurricane.

            The presentation will include photos of Dreamer's restoration and launch.  The talk is open to the public free of
charge.

Click Here to Download Flyer

Erie Maritime Museum Presents Tom Kastle in Concert
Click Here to Download Poster

            The Erie Maritime Museum invites you to join us for an afternoon program of information and maritime music on Saturday, March 6, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hirt Auditorium at the Blasco Library.  Shake off the wintertime blues and blahs with a lively concert/lecture titled “The Great Lakes Scows of New Zealand”, featuring Tom Kastle.

            Like Erie, Auckland, New Zealand, has its own resident tall ship – actually, two of them!  Their museum scow Ted Ashby was built in 1993, representative of some 130 scows built in the north of New Zealand between 1883 and 1925.  The New Zealand scows’ design was based on the American Great Lakes design, and fittingly, the first one made was christened Lake Erie.  Even though these vessels disappeared from our own Great Lakes over 100 years ago, they continued on across the world as the ubiquitous wooden working vessel through the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.

            Tom Kastle has spent over two decades on the road and on the water as a singer, tall ship sailor and captain, songwriter, and teller of tales, both personal and those steeped in long tradition.  As half of the maritime folk duo “Tom & Chris Kastle”, he toured throughout the United States, as well as Ireland, Scotland, Poland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, delighting audiences while producing 11 recordings and a soundtrack for PBS (WTTW, Chicago).

            After taking most of a year off to captain a tall ship in South Haven, Michigan, Tom has relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, and is about to release his first solo CD, Across the Centerline.  His program in Erie follows his participation in this year’s Chicago Maritime Festival (February 22 – 27) at the Chicago History Museum.

            Tickets are available in advance at the Erie Maritime Museum Giftshop, or at the door.  Adults $7, Seniors and Flagship Niagara League Members $5, Children $3.

9:30 AM Ice Carving Demonstration

2- 3:30 PM McDowell Jazz Band performing
Music from 1940's - Current

3:30 PM Gingerbread U.S. Brig Niagara Drawing
** ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT THE FLAGSHIP NIAGARA LEAGUE

7:00 PM Casino Night featuring
- wheel of Fortune for prizes
- Black Jack for prizes
-Texas Hold'em for prizes

Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be provided
There is no charge for this event

Located in the Niagara Village Office Park at the
intersection of Interchange and Zuck Roads
Pull into either entrance and follow the circle around to the back.

Flagship Niagara League

"Don't Give Up The Ship Night"

Friday, February 26, 2010 @ 7PM

Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the BayHawks office or by redeeming the coupon the night of the game. All Main Level seats are just $10 and at least $3 from every ticket sold will come back to the Flagship Niagara League.
BayHawks Office: (814) 790-5600 • Email: tickets@nbaerie.com • Visit: www.ErieBayHawks.com

Click Here to download Coupon

Click Here to Download Flyer

http://www.prweb.com/releases/us-brig-niagara/volunteers/prweb3425074.htm

Welcome to all new Volunteers, as well as to all old friends! All Training sessions will take place on Thursday mornings at 10:00am in the Erie Maritime Museum Orientation Theater.  This year, sessions will have two parts: a presentation of the topic followed by a tour of part of the museum floor with an opportunity to discuss and apply what we've learned.
This is open to the public who are interested in becoming a volunteer as well.

Click Here for Schedule

                                            Ahoy, Flagship Niagara League Members

Would you be interested in a one-day coach trip to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, to see the island from which Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet launched the Battle of Lake Erie?
The daytrip would coincide with Niagara's visit to Put-in-Bay in late May.  It would be a unique  opportunity to see our ship at that historic location.
We'd depart Erie early in the morning so that we could spend most of the day touring the Perry Memorial area, having lunch, seeing related sights and stopping for dinner on the way home.

The cost would be under $100 per person for FNL members.  Round-trip bus service, transportation on the island, tour guides and admission would be included.  Lunch and dinner would be the responsibility of participants.
If you'd like to take this daytrip, please indicate your interest:  paulette@velocity.net.
We'll follow up with details if there is sufficient interest.
Thanks in advance and Don't Give Up the Ship!

Bus Scott’s Cameras in New Exhibit at
The Erie Maritime Museum

 
        The Erie Maritime Museum has put three of Craig “Bus” Scott’s aerial cameras, as well as tools and memorabilia, on display as part of The Living Bayfront exhibit in the museum’s West Wing Gallery.
 
        The Living Bayfront exhibit includes several aerial photographs of Erie Harbor, as made by Bus Scott for the Erie Port Authority in the 1940s and 50s.  This display, opening on January 2, 2010, spotlights Scott’s personal story as an aviator and as the photographer best known for his aerial work published in Erie’s Newspapers.
 
        Items displayed are courtesy of the Scott Museum and Gallery.  The public is invited to view the exhibit as part of their visit to the Erie Maritime Museum through June.