By Ashley McLeod, staff writer
Feb 12, 2016, 12:48
CHESTERFIELD — A replica of a late 16th-century British sailing ship will soon call Henricus home sweet home.
Following almost seven years of hard work and determination by Dennis Strawderman and Ron Blackburn, members of the Henricus Citie Militia, the ship is well on the path to coming to the area.
The saga of the Sea Lion began in 1985, on Chautauqua Lake in New York, where the ship was commissioned and first sailed the water.
“They found ancient books and tombs and drawings of how the ships were actually made, so they designed the ship exactly in the way that somebody in the late 16th, early 17th century would have designed the ship,” said Strawderman.
Ernest E. Cowen of Mayville, N.Y., began the project. Cowen came up with the idea, designed the vessel, and saw to its completion.
The ship was built using trees from a forest of 400-year-old live oaks, which is what ships in the late 16th and early 17th century would have been made of.
The team building the ship also created 10 bronze cannons, each with the sea lion emblem on them. The ship is a replica of a late 16th century/early 17th century English square-rigged sailing ship and is similar in size and appearance to the vessels that brought settlers to America.
The length of the ship unsparred is 63 feet, the mainmast is 58 feet tall, and the displacement of the ship is 56 tons.
The ship was used to sail around the lake, whether it was groups of children, adults, or couples that wanted to experience the ride.
In 1992, the ship was sold and traveled to Barcelona Harbor, and then to Buffalo, where it stayed for a few years.
Then, in 1999 during an ice storm, the ship tipped enough from the weight of the ice to allow water to begin to pour on board. Pumps on the ship weren’t working properly, and the ship sank to the bottom of Lake Erie.
A diving club in the area became interested in the ship, which was sitting at the bottom of the lake, and began diving and exploring the wreckage. Led by Ted Genco, the team spent a year working on trying to get the ship back to the top of the lake.
The began by removing the ballast from the bottom of the ship, including all of the metal, which was placed to stabilize the ship when sailing. The team them filled the hull of the ship with large barrels, pumping them full of air in order to attempt to raise the vessel.
Fortunately for the group, the ship began to rise.
Once slightly above water, the team pumped out the remaining water inside the ship, and the Sea Lion was alive once more.
During its time on the bottom of the lake, part of the ship had become detached, and masts had been broken. They pieced the ship together and then sailed a return trip to Barcelona Harbor, where it stayed for a while.
Strawderman, a history buff and volunteer with Henricus, had been researching 17th-century ships for years. In 2009, he aided in bringing a 31-foot merchant vessel to Henricus, the Phoenix, and spent a few years with a team repairing the vessel.
“But that’s nothing compared to a real sailing ship that was capable of crossing the ocean,” said Strawderman.
In his studies, Strawderman found that parks with ships were more successful than those without.
“People go to a park and they see a ship there, and that’s a real draw. Both of those things add weight to one another,” said Strawderman.
One day while looking through research, Strawderman saw a photo of the Sea Lion.
“I came across photographs of a somewhat lonely-looking ship sitting up near Barcelona Harbor on a huge cradle. It was just sitting there like a big model ship, and it was just beautiful. It was one of the most beautiful ships I had ever seen,” said Strawderman.
Looking at the photograph, he noticed that the etchings on the ship were very accurate to ships from the 16th and 17th centuries.
After seeing the ship, Strawderman contacted the people in New York, and he and Blackburn took a trip to see the vessel in person. They decided then that the ship was perfect to bring home to Henricus. After almost seven years, and a lot of back and forth between New York and Virginia, the ship was finally passed over to the Sea Lion Foundation in Virginia.
Strawderman believes that having a ship at Henricus adds an important part of history to the park, and to the history of the area.
“All of this was made possible because of a change to types of ships that were made in the 16th century. It became possible to navigate across the ocean because of the type of sails they had, and the type of hulls they had and the development of the ships,” said Strawderman.
Before the development of these types of ships, a lot of navigation was done close to land, where people could see the shore still. The development of these types of ships helped allow explorers to venture further and further away from the shore.
Those on boats were also better able to defend themselves against natives than those traveling on land. Ships were protected by the water and also were built with cannons to use against attackers.
The addition of the Sea Lion to Henricus adds another part of history for people to explore and learn more about.
The ship is currently still in New York, in Albany at Scarano Boat Builders, one of the major builders and restorers of replica vessels in the United States. The company will stabilize the deck of the ship, making it more secure.
Following this, the ship will come to Henricus, where more renovations will be made, including replacing the forecastle and sterncastle, the parts that rise into the air from the deck. There will also be cosmetic work done to the ship to restore its original beauty.
According to Strawderman, the ship will be placed in a cradle, and positioned next to the bluff in Henricus, next to a landing, so when people walk down to the water they will be able to fully view the ship.
The 63-foot long ship will be moved to Henricus within the year, according to Strawderman.
