ephemera
by: Pamela Apkarian-Russell
 

SHIPS AND BOATS, WHATEVER FLOATS

Knowing how precise collectors are, I find it amazing that they will so generalize. I do know that some dealers
have a small section of boats or ships, but the all-inclusive section unless fairly small is like a sinking ship, totally
unmanageable. There are canoes, rowboats, battle ships, inland steamers, ferries, paddle steamers, submarines, air
craft carriers, sail boats, steamships, ocean liners and a flotilla of other types of water transportation including
rafts.

There are enthusiasts for all of these and sometime specialists within a specialty, as in: sailboats-Americas
Cup-Clipper ships-Pirate ships-sailing yachts etc, which all have sails. The more specific you are in your request,
the easier it is for you to access what you are looking for. If you are looking for menus from a Cunnard line, tell
the
dealer that is what you are looking for. If in fact you truly want menus, inclusive of restaurants and railroads, then
that is a different story. Dealers usually know their stock. Don’t waste your time aimlessly looking about. Every
paper dealer files and catalogues differently. Just requesting boats or ships won’t do. Beside the large dinner
menus which were changed every day on the luxury liners, there were smaller menus attached via perforation to
the
bottom of postcards. The idea being you tore it off, circled the items you selected to dine upon, and kept the top
part of the card which you could then mail. Finding these intact is unusual.

Railroads and airplanes also had menu cards. Often the graphics on the menus was exceptional and were collected
from the day they were new. The quality of the menu depended on which class you were traveling and how
classy a liner on which you were traveling. Interiors of the liners are rarer by far than exteriors. Ocean Liner
collectors usually collect everything and if allowed to, would purchase the liner itself. When you see some of the
interiors of these long gone cities afloat you can understand why. Look what the first class nursery looked like!
Interiors of liners like the Ille de France are stunning. The china and silverware can be treasures.

The Titanic is the most overpriced commodity on the market. Make sure it is not a reproduction before you
purchase as there are many expertly done fakes floating about as flotsam and jetsam -- and if you purchase them
for the prices we have seen, you have been scuppered. This liner has been hyped for quite awhile and prices have
gone up the wall. If you want a real sleeper and a historical one at that, the Lusitania has some very rare cards.
The sinking of this liner by the Germans, laden with passengers, was an outrage and one of the reasons America
got into WWI. The Reinmaker poster of the little girl and her doll floating like a rag amidst the debris affected the
American public as a catalyst. This was a strategic blunder on Germany’s part, which wanted America to come in
on their side. It was as brutal and stupid as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which propelled us into WWII and had
the same effect.

The names of certain battleships will always be remembered. The Arizona was sunk in Pearl Harbor, and the
intertwined destines of the Bismarck and the Hood even made it into song. The Maine sank in Havana Harbor
with Admiral Dewey and his boys reminding America to "Remember the Maine." Some events and incidents
capture the imagination.

There are few rowboats and canoes or even motor boats that one reads about, but catalogues of old Town Canoe,
Criss Craft, and Evenrude are a few that did produce ephemera. Catalogues showing the style and models are very
desirable. Advertising in any form, from clocks to postcards, have a hard core following. Even as I write this
column, with the fate of the sunken Russian submarine’s crew still tottering on the brink of disaster, one can only
imagine how many have sunk to Davy Jones’s Locker since the days of the Monitor and Merrimack. Submarines
and aircraft carriers are not as profuse as battleships but there are some interesting ones including a captured
German one!

If there is anything as graceful, elegant, or romantic as a square-rigger, I should like to know what it is. The
history of America is woven through with sailing ships. Sailing ships brought emigrants including the Pilgrims to
America. Sailing ships kept us in touch with the rest of the world, economically and culturally. Sailing ships gave
us adventure on the high seas and stories of pirates, and if they did not exist, where would Edward Rowe Snow
be? For that matter what would Tyrone Power, or Sinbad the Sailor, or Errol Flynn, or any swashbuckler be? How
could thousands of tourists visit the USS Constitution every year? If you have ever had the opportunity to be
out on the ocean in one, feeling the cold wind on your face and the slapping of the waves against the sides, or
felt the incredible roll and swell beneath her, well there is just nothing like it. No wonder so many collectors are in
love with the clipper ships and other sailing vessels. Books innumerable have been written on them and
postcards by the thousands.

One rare item is the early pre-1900 clipper ship cards. For over thirty years I have looked for the clipper ship "the
Salem Witch" and have only found the reproductions. That alone is enough to make it a $500 card! Visit museums
like the Maritime museum or the Peabody Essex and you will see many painting and prints on the subject. Is it
possible to go to any coastal town in New England without seeing depictions of sailing ships with their sails full,
looking majestic? And just what did happen to the Mary Celeste? What about Ocean Born Mary and the pirate
that left this babe in arms not only a wedding present but also life -- and the life of those on the captured ship she
was on? Spanish Galleons full of gold, and casket girls, whalers killing off species so that we could have oil in our
lamps; it’s all part of the social history and fabric of this country.

Of course, there are other types of boats like paddleboat steamers and rowboats. One could go on and on about
the different types of vehicles afloat, but as we are almost ashore, just one more. Oxford against Cambridge in the
UK, and Yale versus Harvard in the US. The programs for the latter could be a collection all by themselves.
Daemon Runyon, a great American writer, often wrote of the lunacy surrounding these sculling events-races.
Though they are hilarious gems of American literature, they are not that far from the truth. School rivalries ran as
high in the 19th and 20th centuries as they did when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were arguing over them
during their lives. (They died within hours of each other and Adams not realizing Jefferson had already died, said
with regret, "Jefferson still lives." The two even fought over grammar in the Declaration of Independence!) School
rivalries have always been fierce -- but never so much as when the races took place. Row, row, row, your boat --
gently? Down the stream.