Written by Paul Thompson
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today we take you to visit another unusual museum inNew York City, the South Street Seaport.
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VOICE ONE:
On September Second, Sixteen-Oh-Nine, British Captain HenryHudson was sailing along the east coast of North America. He orderedhis ship into the opening of a wide river. Mister Hudson was workingfor the Dutch East India Company. He was looking for a way acrossNorth America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. What hefound was one of the best natural ports in North America.
Less than sixteen years later, settlers supported by the newDutch West India Company arrived near the opening of the sameriverâ¦now called the Hudson River. They had come to stay. They beganbuilding homes on the southern end of an island called Manhattan.They also began building a port. Forty years later, the Dutch gaveup their claim to the area to the British.
VOICE TWO:
The new British rulers named the area after James, the Duke ofYork. The area became New York. The British added to the small port.The area began to grow quickly. By the year Seventeen-Forty-Seventhe people of the little port owned ninety-nine ships.
Less than twenty years later there were more than four-hundredships in the port. The little city continued to grow very quickly.Today, New York is the largest city in the United States and one ofthe largest in the world.
VOICE ONE:
Early maps of Manhattan show a street across the southern end ofManhattan Island. The settlers built a wall there as protection.They named it Wall Street. Another was named Water Street. A thirdstreet was called Pearl. The street closest to the water was namedSouth Street.
Wall Street now is known around the world as the financial centerof the United States. South Street, Water Street and Pearl Streetare still there, too. It is within this area of Manhattan that someof the first European settlers tried to develop businesses in NorthAmerica. Today it is the home of the South Street Seaport Museum.
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VOICE TWO:
If you say the word "museum" most people think of a largebuilding that holds objects that are important to history. The SouthStreet Seaport Museum has such a building, but it includes muchmore. The Museum is a group of buildings, streets, homes, businessesand eating-places. It also is a dock area for several ships thatonce sailed the oceans of the world. The Museum is a continuing workthat will not be completed for many years.
A visit to the South Street Seaport Museum should start at thecorner of South Street and Fulton Street. On this corner, you cansee much of Fulton Street. If you look across South Street you cansee two huge sailing ships, the Peking and the Wavertree. A littlemore than a hundred years ago, goods were carried around the worldby thousands of huge ships powered by wind in their sails. Todaythere are only a few such ships, including the two that belong tothe Seaport Museum.
VOICE ONE:
To the left of the ships is the Fulton Street Fish Market. Buyersand sellers of fish worked have worked here sinceEighteen-Twenty-Two. Very early each morning tons of fish arrivehere. So do hundreds of trucks and crowds of people.
Fish are bought, sold and transported to eating-places all overthe United States. The buyers and sellers speak several differentlanguages. You can hear shouts in English, Italian, Chinese, Koreanand Japanese.
VOICE TWO:
Most visitors to the South Street Seaport Museum come to see theships. The Peking is a huge sailing ship. It is one of the largestsailing ships left from a time when these were the only ships on theseas. It is more than one-hundred-two meters long. It has four tallwood masts that hold up its many cloth sails.
The Peking looks very new. It is not. In fact, it is ninety yearsold. It was made at the ship-building company of Blohm and Voss inGermany in Nineteen-Eleven. It took workers at the South StreetSeaport Museum twelve years of very hard work to make the ship looknew.
VOICE ONE:
Next to the Peking is the Wavertree. It is almost as large. TheWavertree was built in the British port of Southampton. It was builtfor the R-W Leyland and Company of Liverpool.
The Leyland Company used it for many years to carry goods andsome passengers from Britain to the United States. It also carriedgoods to India, Australia, and South America.
A severe storm almost sank the Wavertree in Nineteen-Ten near thecoast of Cape Horn, at the end of South America. The ship was keptin that area and used for storage for many years.
Officials of the South Street Museum found the Wavertree inBuenos Aires, Argentina, in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. A year later, Museumofficials decided to buy the old ship and take it to New York.
VOICE TWO:
Workers began rebuilding the huge ship in Nineteen-Seventy. Thework continues today. Progress is extremely slow because of the costand the amount of work needed to rebuild a ship the size of theWavertree. For example, workers had to re-build the three, tallwooden masts that hold the ship's sails. Each mast had to be builtspecially for the Wavertree.
The work is extremely hard. It can also be very dangerous. Peoplewho work on the masts often work many meters above the deck of theship.
VOICE ONE:
Sal Polisi (PO-LEE-SEE) is an artist. All of his unusual art iscut out of wood. Mister Polisi is a wood carver. He makes signs forthe South Street Sea Port Museum. He also makes woodcarvings for theWavertree and the Peking.
Sailing ships like the Wavertree had a large woodcarving called afigurehead on the very front of the ship. A figurehead helpedidentify a ship. It could be a carving of an animal or a human orperhaps a bird. The Wavertree's figurehead is a woman.
Sal Polisi used a very small and very old photograph of theWavertree to reproduce the figurehead. It took several years tocomplete the huge statue of the woman. It weighs more thanthree-hundred-sixty kilograms.
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VOICE TWO:
The South Street Seaport Museum also repairs the many oldbuildings that are part of the museum. The museum officials try tomake them look as they did hundreds of years ago.
One good example of this kind of repair work is the museum'sBowne and Company Stationers. This building was home to a company ofthat name more than one-hundred years ago. Bowne Stationers printedpaper documents such as tickets, timetables of trains and boats, andbusiness papers. The museum repaired the building and printing nowcontinues in it.
VOICE ONE:
Today, computers control most printing. At the museum's Bowne andCompany printing shop, all of the printing is done the same way itwas done a hundred or more years ago. The workers use hand operatedmachinery that produces specially printed materials. Visitors canhave the museum shop print something just for them.
A woman and man who are about to get married can get the Bowneand Company Stationers to print their wedding announcements. Thelittle shop produces unusual and beautiful work.
VOICE TWO:
Officials of the South Street Seaport Museum are busy repairing alarge group of buildings called Schemerhorn Row. A family with thatname first owned the buildings more than two-hundred years ago. Thebuildings will be the home of a museum show called "World Port NewYork." This new show will follow the history of the South Streetarea for more than seven-thousand years.
"World Port New York" will have objects that belonged to thefirst humans that lived in the area. It will show the earlydevelopment of the area by the first settlers.
The new part of the museum will show drawings and pictures of theSouth Street buildings and ship docking area, as they looked morethan one-hundred years ago. It will show how the little port helpedthe great city of New York develop into an important center of worldtrade.
VOICE ONE:
The oldest buildings of the new "World Port New York" show have along and interesting history. The oldest was built inSeventeen-Twenty-Six. Many people have lived in some of thebuildings. Other buildings have sheltered businesses, hotels andeating-places. They have been used to store goods brought by shipsfrom all over the world.
The old buildings, like the rest of the South Street SeaportMuseum, will continue into the future as a living link with thepast.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Ourdirector was Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. Thisis Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.