Noble Maritime Collection celebrates National Maritime Day

On Saturday May 20th, the Staten Island based Noble Maritime Collection, a maritime museum on the grounds of the famous old sailors’ retirement home, Sailors’ Snug Harbor, celebrated National Maritime Day.

Visitors received a cup of grog, compliments of Pusser’s Rum, to toast all mariners, living & dead, who devoted their lives to the American maritime industry and its defense.

National Maritime Day is a tradition established by Congress in 1933. Congress designated May 22 as National maritime Day to recognize the importance of the U.S. Merchant Marine, and requested that the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its appropriate observance.

Each year, the men and women of the U.S. maritime transportation system move more than 2 billion tons of cargo along our waterways and across the open seas. Many of the raw materials Americans purchase are transported by merchant vessels, and merchant mariners ship agricultural products and finished goods in and out of the United States every day.

Merchant mariners have also served in every conflict in our Nation's history. The U.S. Merchant Marine helps provide our Nation's Armed Forces with crucial supplies and equipment. Men and women demonstrate courage, love of country, and devotion to duty. National Maritime Day especially honors those who died in defense of the United States.

“Sailors’ Snug Harbor exists because of the love and respect Captain Robert Randall had for all mariners. We want to continue to honor their memory and toast them with a cup of grog, a staple in sailors’ lives,” said Erin Urban, Executive Director of the Noble Maritime Collection.

Many of the seaman who came to reside at Sailors’ Snug Harbor had spent most of their lives within shipboard communities and grew accustomed to a daily ration of grog, a half pint of rum or whiskey mixed with water. They found it difficult to adjust to life at the retirement home and public drunkenness was a common occurrence. They were lectured about the evils of rum drinking, and when talk failed to correct their behavior, physical barriers were erected: first a wooden fence and in 1842, and then the handsome landmark seven-foot iron fence in place today.

The fence did not end the problem completely, but it helped define the site and contributed to the perception of it as a place apart.

The museum’s latest exhibition is Tide Lines, a collection of prints by eleven contemporary artists offering views of the Staten Island waterfront. Their collective works include etchings, mezzotints, linocuts, lithographs, and woodcuts.

Salt Mountain, an exhibition inspired by Atlantic Salt’s 60,000 ton pile of salt on Richmond Terrace will explore the substance of salt, its harvesting, distribution, and uses.

The exhibition will open with a cocktail reception with the fourteen participating artists on Friday, June 16th from seven until nine PM.

The museum’s permanent exhibitions include Noble’s Houseboat Studio, where he created paintings, drawings and lithographs for over 40 years.

A Dormitory Room is the recreation of a bedroom that shows what life was like for the mariners who lived there, and the Writing Room in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Gallery is a recreation of the original room where Sailors’ Snug Harbor residents gathered.

Ship model enthusiasts can enjoy the many hand-made models on display throughout the museum. The collection includes such ships as the RMS Titanic, RMS Lusitania, RMS Mauretainia, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth, SS United States, HMS Hood, KM Bismark, IJNS Akagi, the Potemkine, the Cutty Sark, and the Mayflower.

For more information: www.noblemaritime.org