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The Seafarers
Windjammers
Offers a nostalgic and enlightening look at the last great sailing ships through essays, anecdotes, paintings, and contemporary photographs
Hardcover
First published May 1, 2004
47 people want to read
About the author
Oliver E. Allen
28 booksObituary (http://tribecatrib.com/content/oliver...)
A former writer and editor for Life magazine and later editor at Time-Life Books, Oliver Ellsworth Allen authored more than a dozen books, including two histories of New York City: “New York, New York” and “The Tiger,” a history of Tammany Hall. But in Tribeca, where he moved to a Hudson Street loft overlooking Duane Park with his wife Deborah in 1982, Allen was best known for his Tribeca Trib column, “Old Tribeca,” and for his volunteer contributions to the community as co-founder of Friends of Duane Park. He also was part of a small group whose work led to the designation of Tribeca’s four historic districts.
In the 1980s, Allen joined a band of local activists that dug into the history of Tribeca’s buildings and published “The Texture of Tribeca,” by architectural historian Andrew Dolkart. The volume, illustrated with photos by Allen, provided the Landmarks Preservation Commission with the research it needed to designate Tribeca’s historic districts in 1991 and 1992.
Approached in 1994 by neighbor Lynn Ellsworth to help with her idea of restoring dilapidated Duane Park, Allen and wife Deborah were her first recruits to what was to become Friends of Duane Park.
“I called him up and he invited me over,” Ellsworth recalled during a Friends fundraising event in 2010 to honor Allen. “I explained the project and Oliver got on board immediately and it started from there.”
Like Ellsworth, Trib editor Carl Glassman was introduced to Allen by longtime Tribeca resident Jean Grillo, who told him, “You must speak to Oliver Allen,” when she heard that he and his wife April Koral were launching a new neighborhood paper.
“He didn’t know us from Adam and he knew we could only pay him a very modest fee,” Glassman recalled, “yet he immediately said he would be happy to write articles about the neighborhood’s history. That was the luckiest moment in the life of the Trib.”
Allen’s first “Old Tribeca” article appeared in the Trib’s first issue in September 1994 and the column turned out to be immensely popular. Many of the pieces were anthologized in two books, “Tales of Old Tribeca” and “Tribeca: A Pictorial History.”
“Oliver’s irrepressible enthusiasm and sense of wonder about our neighborhood and its history was contagious. He conveyed it both in person and in his writing,” said Ellsworth, founder and president of the architectural preservation group, Tribeca Trust. “He was a real defender of its many beauties and insistent on accuracy.” She called Allen “that increasingly rare kind of person” who believed in the “necessity and duty” of volunteering at the most local level.
“For him it was both a civic responsibility and a source of genuine pleasure,” she said. “He inspired those around him to follow in his footsteps. In doing all that, Oliver built, on a daily basis, that most fleeting of things: a sense of community.”
Karie Parker Davidson, a Friends of Duane Park board member, recalled Allen as “funny, curious, insightful and determined to improve his knowledge in any field.”
“On a recent visit,” she recalled, “he was learning about micro-tones, a form of intermediate musical notes as he explained it, and was re-reading classics by Dickens and Dostoyevsky all while keeping up with The New York Times and The New Yorker.”
Working in the Duane Park garden until he was 92, Parker Davidson said, “he also taught youngsters how to pot plants on Earth Day, and slung a 150-foot hose hooked up to the fire hydrant to hand-water the garden in its infancy. For years he trimmed the hedges, met the rodentologists, and kept the Parks Department historians on their toes.” (The full text of Parker Davidson's remembrance is below.)
Jane Freeman, who visited Allen frequently, wrote in an email: “Despite physical confinement in the last years, his scope of intellect and humanity remained unbounded. In the John Adams biog
A former writer and editor for Life magazine and later editor at Time-Life Books, Oliver Ellsworth Allen authored more than a dozen books, including two histories of New York City: “New York, New York” and “The Tiger,” a history of Tammany Hall. But in Tribeca, where he moved to a Hudson Street loft overlooking Duane Park with his wife Deborah in 1982, Allen was best known for his Tribeca Trib column, “Old Tribeca,” and for his volunteer contributions to the community as co-founder of Friends of Duane Park. He also was part of a small group whose work led to the designation of Tribeca’s four historic districts.
In the 1980s, Allen joined a band of local activists that dug into the history of Tribeca’s buildings and published “The Texture of Tribeca,” by architectural historian Andrew Dolkart. The volume, illustrated with photos by Allen, provided the Landmarks Preservation Commission with the research it needed to designate Tribeca’s historic districts in 1991 and 1992.
Approached in 1994 by neighbor Lynn Ellsworth to help with her idea of restoring dilapidated Duane Park, Allen and wife Deborah were her first recruits to what was to become Friends of Duane Park.
“I called him up and he invited me over,” Ellsworth recalled during a Friends fundraising event in 2010 to honor Allen. “I explained the project and Oliver got on board immediately and it started from there.”
Like Ellsworth, Trib editor Carl Glassman was introduced to Allen by longtime Tribeca resident Jean Grillo, who told him, “You must speak to Oliver Allen,” when she heard that he and his wife April Koral were launching a new neighborhood paper.
“He didn’t know us from Adam and he knew we could only pay him a very modest fee,” Glassman recalled, “yet he immediately said he would be happy to write articles about the neighborhood’s history. That was the luckiest moment in the life of the Trib.”
Allen’s first “Old Tribeca” article appeared in the Trib’s first issue in September 1994 and the column turned out to be immensely popular. Many of the pieces were anthologized in two books, “Tales of Old Tribeca” and “Tribeca: A Pictorial History.”
“Oliver’s irrepressible enthusiasm and sense of wonder about our neighborhood and its history was contagious. He conveyed it both in person and in his writing,” said Ellsworth, founder and president of the architectural preservation group, Tribeca Trust. “He was a real defender of its many beauties and insistent on accuracy.” She called Allen “that increasingly rare kind of person” who believed in the “necessity and duty” of volunteering at the most local level.
“For him it was both a civic responsibility and a source of genuine pleasure,” she said. “He inspired those around him to follow in his footsteps. In doing all that, Oliver built, on a daily basis, that most fleeting of things: a sense of community.”
Karie Parker Davidson, a Friends of Duane Park board member, recalled Allen as “funny, curious, insightful and determined to improve his knowledge in any field.”
“On a recent visit,” she recalled, “he was learning about micro-tones, a form of intermediate musical notes as he explained it, and was re-reading classics by Dickens and Dostoyevsky all while keeping up with The New York Times and The New Yorker.”
Working in the Duane Park garden until he was 92, Parker Davidson said, “he also taught youngsters how to pot plants on Earth Day, and slung a 150-foot hose hooked up to the fire hydrant to hand-water the garden in its infancy. For years he trimmed the hedges, met the rodentologists, and kept the Parks Department historians on their toes.” (The full text of Parker Davidson's remembrance is below.)
Jane Freeman, who visited Allen frequently, wrote in an email: “Despite physical confinement in the last years, his scope of intellect and humanity remained unbounded. In the John Adams biog
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 25, 2018
Really loved this book. I've read Venetians, Frigates, and Pacific Navigators, and this is so far my favourite. The Windjammers existed in an amazing period in transportation History. Steam and diesel were just becoming widely used, but the Windjammers were able to operate more independently of coaling and fueling stations. This book really gives insightful and fascinating tales from the waning days of the Age of Sail!
Speaking of adventure and excitement, have you ever dreamed of serving aboard a Sovereign, Galaxy, Intrepid, or Excelsior class ship? How about a Starbase or Planetary Outpost. Ever want to attend Starfleet Academy? Do you like Star Trek and Roleplaying? Then the USF is the place to be!
Founded in 1995, the United Space Federation is one of the oldest Star Trek role-playing groups around. We currently have over a dozen realtime IRC chat-based and Play-by-Post Simulations in action that will provide you with an excellent opportunity for adventure and excitement among the stars!
If you are interested in the Star Trek universe and consider yourself imaginative, then the USF is for you! Visit us at www.sector001.com today to find out more about our group and the many sims that comprise the USF!
Speaking of adventure and excitement, have you ever dreamed of serving aboard a Sovereign, Galaxy, Intrepid, or Excelsior class ship? How about a Starbase or Planetary Outpost. Ever want to attend Starfleet Academy? Do you like Star Trek and Roleplaying? Then the USF is the place to be!
Founded in 1995, the United Space Federation is one of the oldest Star Trek role-playing groups around. We currently have over a dozen realtime IRC chat-based and Play-by-Post Simulations in action that will provide you with an excellent opportunity for adventure and excitement among the stars!
If you are interested in the Star Trek universe and consider yourself imaginative, then the USF is for you! Visit us at www.sector001.com today to find out more about our group and the many sims that comprise the USF!
February 5, 2020
An entertaining read about the last class of commercial cargo-carrying sailing ships: the windjammers. The windjammers were huge, steel cousins to the clipper ships. The were able to stay in service long into the 20th century by concentrating on long haul trips carrying bulk cargoes.
Like all of the books in this series by Time-Life, "The Windjammers" is filled with interesting pictures and anecdotes along with the main narrative. Very suitable for young adults with an interest in ships and the sea.
Like all of the books in this series by Time-Life, "The Windjammers" is filled with interesting pictures and anecdotes along with the main narrative. Very suitable for young adults with an interest in ships and the sea.
September 21, 2018
Couldn't even finish this.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews