9/11 maritime history exhibit opens on the New York waterfront

PortSide NewYork, a waterfront-themed non-profit organization, is mounting a multimedia exhibit and presentation about the extraordinary and little-known role that mariners played in the aftermath of  the September 11th attacks, from evacuation to rubble removal. The Coast Guard estimated that, on the morning of 9/11, between 350,000 and 500,000 people were evacuated from lower Manhattan by water during just a few hours.

Particularly noteworthy is that the process was started spontaneously by the operators of the boats themselves.  Within hours, five Coast Guard cutters, 12 small boats, and more than 100 public and private vessels operated on scene. For four days following the attacks, the boats continued to provide rescue workers with fuel, crucial supplies, and river water for firefighting.

The marine role continued, largely unsung, for months as all the rubble. 2,400 barges or 93,346 trucks' worth was removed from Manhattan by water, save for the ritual last column which left by truck. The fact that it was removed by water made it possible to finish the job in just eight months and spare the city incredible truck traffic. In creating the exhibit, PortSide NewYork makes the point the maritime 9/11 story has workaday implications for New York City as it develops new plans for its waterfront.

The exhibit will be mounted on a ship docked at a pier from which Ground Zero rubble was removed.  PortSide will mount the exhibit on the former U.S. Lighthouse Tender Lilac, at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25, at North Moore Street, New York City in partnership with the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project.

The exhibit will include photography and oral history by the award-winning photojournalist Carolina Salguero, who went on to found PortSide NewYork, plus contributions from vessel crews, and other institutions.

Read more: 9/11 maritime history exhibit opens on the New York waterfront

Battleship Cove museum launches immersive exhibit on Pearl Harbor attack

Battleship Cove, the Fall River, Mass.-based maritime museum which includes five World War II-era capital ships, has launched a new immersive exhibit about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Titled "The Pearl Harbor Experience," the exhibit recreates the environment of the Pearl Harbor naval base on Oahu, Hawaii, and gives visitors the sense of becoming an "eyewitness to history," according to a news release.

"Approaching planes roar, machine guns chatter, falling bombs explode and a torpedo streaks through the water toward the USS Massachusetts, which plays the part of the battleships actually moored at Pearl Harbor," the release says. "It is Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, and you are there."

"If you can't get to Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor is coming to you," said Brad King, the museum's executive director. "We are introducing an exciting new experience seldom found within the museum world."

The Pearl Harbor Experience is designed to entertain while encouraging visitors to learn more about the lessons of Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States in the war on the side of the Allies against Japan. The exhibit encompasses the outdoor spaces along the museum's waterfront location, including portions of the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy and the battleship USS Massachusetts. The exhibit opened on August 12.

Admission to the exhibit is included with general admission to the museum. The exhibit will run several times a day through the summer. More information about the exhibit is available at www.battleshipcove.org.

Review: Maritime history of the Klondike Gold Rush told at new Seattle exhibit

Routes to Fortune: The Klondike Gold Rush and Maritime Seattle. Curated by Chris Fiala Erlich. Installed at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park: Seattle Unit. Free admission.

In 1897, the United States was in the grip of an economic depression caused by a Wall Street financial panic four years earlier, in 1893. In Seattle, business was dull, unemployment high, and prospects dim, that is, until the arrival of the steamer Portland on July 17, 1897. It carried miners from the Klondike region of the Yukon River in far northwest Canada, near the Alaska border. And the miners carried $700,000 in gold. The Klondike Gold Rush was on.

Crucial to the story of the stampede is Seattle’s maritime connections to Alaska, and a new exhibit at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park’s Seattle unit tells the story of a key maritime moment in US history: the emergence of Seattle as a important US port. Seattle established itself as the gateway to riches in the gold fields, and as merchants outfitted the 70,000 miners who flocked to the outpost on Puget Sound, shipbuilders rushed to construct the ships to ferry them to the Yukon. One builder, Moran Brothers, launched a dozen 175-foot steamers in response to demand.

If new ships weren’t available, owners pressed older boats into service. Some of these craft earned the nickname “coffin ships,” because they and their passengers sometimes found their ends on the rough coast of the Inside Passage to Alaska.

The exhibit takes up a large room in the park (though the park is actually a refurbished hotel once used by Klondike miners). Large photos, maps, and panels supplemented by maritime artifacts, including a log book from the Moran Brothers shipyard, flesh out the tale. Recorded sounds (not of the period) add to the nautical atmosphere. Unlike other rooms in the park, which have interactive touch screens and hands-on areas to explore Gold Rush history, the Routes to Fortune exhibit lacks features to engage young children.

Gold rushes are often a story of hope and new beginnings after a period of personal or societal stagnation not very different from the country’s current doldrums. After a visit to the Routes to Fortune exhibit, you’ll wonder whether a new rush might be just around the corner.

Below: Johnny Horton's country song "North to Alaska" was featured in a 1960 movie of the same name starring John Wayne and Stewart Granger. (via YouTube)