When I left Westinghouse in July 1980 to start the Kuma voyage many friends came to wish me well and, “Godspeed.” One such friend was Capt. Richards T Miller USN (ret) Webb ‘ 40, a fellow alumnus. Dick had been a tier above my boss at Westinghouse Oceanic Division. In fact it was for Dick’s retirement I had a draftsman draw a collage of significant projects in his life. I also gave the departing speech. Now for my retirement Dick gave me a piece of the schooner yacht America which I still have. White oak from the keelson stained very dark, and a copper plate made from one of her copper fastenings. These fastenings had been melted and reformed as plaques.
You perhaps know the story, America had been given to the USNA and was stored ashore at the Annapolis Yacht Yard, under a protective roof which collapsed in a snow storm. There was a war going on and she was scrapped. Capt. Miller & others at the yard could not let her die without due recognition of what she was. After all she brought the “Auld Mug” the America’s Cup to the New York Yacht Club in 1851 after beating the fleet around the Isle of Wight so far ahead that when Queen Victoria asked, “Who’s second?” The embarrassed reply, “none in sight.”
Schooner “America”
1851 – 1941
Keelson
Annapolis Yacht Yard
1/31/42
This plaque made from the keelson is a rectangular piece of white oak stained dark brown. 5” x 2” x ½” thick on which a 1 ½” x 2 ½” copper plaque is mounted, appropriately with brass escutcheon pins.
One of the men who was instrumental in having this memento made was Cap’n Dick Hartge, the Boat Building Supervisor at the yard, master boat builder, designer of the Chesapeake 20 and other boats.. In summers of 1952 & 53 (my 8th and 9th grade summers, I served an apprenticeship under Cap ‘n Dick.
Vignettes 