“Proud to be Cape Verdean (PTBCV): A Look at Cape Verdeans in the Golden State,” a documentary about the Cape Verdean community in California, will screen on Friday, June 28 @ 7:00 pm at the Corson Maritime Learning Center Theater, 33 William St, New Bedford, Ma. Doors open at 6:00pm.

The event is free to the public. PTBCV captures the essence of the Cape Verdean culture in California through an insightful look at individuals and organizations and their desire to maintain their cultural identity. The music of the Mendes Brothers, John & Ramiro is featured. Actor/Producer Michael Beach lends his voice talents as Narrator.

The writer/producer/director of the film, Mike Costa, has been a professional writer for over 15 years and is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America. His many credits include: Roseanne, The Steve Harvey Show, In the House and The Gregory Hines Show. His interest and experience in documentary film making resulted in collaborative works with other Cape Verdean film makers.

This one-hour documentary offers oral histories in conjunction with interviews, photographs and re-enactments that accurately depict the transition of small family gatherings where Cape Verdeans shared their love of their cuisine and music grew, inspired and eventually shaped the formation of non-profit Cape Verdean organizations dedicated to sustaining the legacy of their racially and linguistically rich culture while maintaining a strong connection to their East Coast ties and their home country of Cape Verde. Experts such as Gina Sanchez-Gibau, PhD, Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Indiana University/IUPUI, James Lopes, noted Cape Verdean Genealogist and Cape Verdean Ambassador to the United States, Fatima Veiga are featured.

This has been a collaborative effort of the entire California Cape Verdean community. The film will screen in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Atlanta, Ohio, California and throughout the Cape Verdean Diaspora. The documentary features Portuguese and French subtitles.

The recent Schooner Ernestina Commission meeting included a visit to Ernestina to review the work being done and to examine concerns yet to be addressed.

Manny Silva, Karl Pastore, Commissioners Laura Pires-Hester and Steve Walsh (l-r) examine the progress on repairs to the fish hold hatch.

Supt. Jen Nersesian, Commissioners Brian Rothschild and Fred Sterner, volunteer Chuck Smiler listen as Karl Pastore explains the fish hold hatch cover will be replaced.

Karl Pastore, South Region Director and Bob Mackenzie, South Coast Director explained the work in progress and planned projects.

The ship's wheel condition was discussed.

The Commissioners also visited the Ernestina workshop stocked with new woodworking equipment.

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The Commission and DCR would like to begin a pilot program to allow volunteers to work

Ernestina's wheel will need to be removed for evaluation to determine the extent of deterioration and the reconstruction necessary.

on Ernestina for more than just the two major annual work days that have been held recently.  DCR will identify projects that will involve a small group of volunteers, or perhaps just one person.  For now the volunteer sessions would be held during the week.  If you have specific skills and are interested in volunteering to work on Ernestina please contact us and indicate your skills and availability.  DCR staff will be identifying projects suitable for volunteers to accomplish.  These may be one day projects or longer term tasks.

The program will be evaluated and if it is effective the Commission hopes that more opportunities for volunteers to work on the ship will be made available in the future.

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Fill in the CONTACT form to volunteer.
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During the holiday vacation week the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park hosted Arctic Day to celebrate Arctic connections of their partners The New Bedford Whaling Museum, Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska, and Schooner Ernestina.  Did you know that Effie M. Morrissey (now Ernestina), sailed by Captain “Bob” Bartlett, spent over 20 years exploring the Arctic, including one voyage through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast to the Bering Sea and western Arctic Ocean?

The Morrissey also served in World War II in Northern waters.

Activities were available all day throughout the Visitors’ Center 33 William St. New Bedford.

Learning about Arctic animals.

Participants learned about some of the people visited by the Morrissey and some of the  animals Captain Bartlett collected to bring back to the United States.

SEMA volunteer Mary Anne McQuillan shows photos of some of the animals carried on the Morrissey from the May 1946 National Geographic Magazine.

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There are more photos on the NMWNHP Facebook page.

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UMass Dartmouth students presented their report to Supt. Jen Nersesian, Commissioner Brian Rothschild and SEMA director Mary Anne McQuillan at a recent Student-Client Reception

The Schooner Ernestina Commission and the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association, Inc. commissioned the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth Charlton College of Business Center for Marketing Research to conduct a marketing survey this fall.  The document will be used in the planning for Ernestina’s future operations and programming.

We thank Dr. Nora Garmin Barnes,  Director of the Center for Marketing Research, for offering this invaluable service to Ernestina’s future.

We congratulate the students, Michelle Carpenter, Melyssa Centeno, Chelsey Doiron, Stephanie Louzada and Chandler York for their excellent report.

The Commission will commission a second project to be conducted during the Spring semester.  This study will analyze the demand for services that Ernestina could provide.  The students will start with a list of potential programs and events that is generated from looking at (1) past uses of Ernestina, (2) how other ships are being employed (i.e. information from last semester’s market research), and (3) other desired or potential future uses — including educational, friend-raising and revenue-generating uses (as well as combinations thereof), from hour-long dockside programs to multi-day sails.  From this they will research and analyze who the target audiences for these uses might be, how likely that audience would be to use Ernestina, and what they would be willing to pay.  With an understanding of the demand and potential return on the various activities Ernestina might undertake, the Commission, SEMA, DCR and the Ernestina community can then use this information to build a suite of programming that will help ensure a sustainable and dynamic future for a restored, sailing Ernestina.

SEMA will support the Commission again by paying 50% of the Center’s fee.

Tom Lopes documented the Ernestina Forum in 2010 photo credit Frank Pina

Tom Lopes was posthumously honored as The Standard-Times 2012 New Bedford Man of the Year. Tom is most deserving of this honor. We miss his enthusiastic support of Ernestina.  Follow the link to the article.

At this time of year, our mailboxes are often flooded with year-end appeals from the various organizations we support, including SEMA. This year, however, things are a little different here, and so we are not asking you for a year-end contribution.

We are preparing for a major capital campaign in the spring, which has been kick-started by the Hildreth Stewart Charitable Foundation, led by SEMA Vice President Bob Hildreth. He announced earlier this year that the Foundation will provide $700,000 toward the repairs to Ernestina, with the conditions that SEMA will raise $700,000 in matching funds and that the ship will be operated as an educational enterprise.

And, there are more exciting developments to report:

•  Through the generosity of SEMA’s donors, we were able to purchase a new foremast for the ship last summer, and the rigging is currently being repaired.

•   In addition to the $700,000 challenge gift, other substantial donors from across the globe have come forward and expressed an interest in ensuring a sustained, lively (sailing!) future for Ernestina.

•  The agencies and organizations committed to her stewardship (including DCR, the Ernestina Commission and the National Park Service) are working collaboratively and have made great progress this year positioning Ernestina to take advantage of funding and operational opportunities.
•  SEMA recently developed a “Vision Statement,” which clearly articulates our plan for the ship.  The main focus of the vision is that Ernestina will be an educational service provider in and around Massachusetts, reborn in the best way possible within the next two years.
Please visit www.ernestina.org to read the “Vision Statement” in its entirety and share it on your social networks.

Because of these developments, I feel more secure about Ernestina’s future today than I did three years ago when SEMA began this journey. While this is not an appeal, if you had planned to give SEMA a 2012 tax-deductible donation, we will most gratefully receive it at www.ernestina.org or by mail at the address listed below.

Thank you for your continued support and for being a voice for Ernestina, our national treasure.
Wishing you and yours a joyous holiday season,

Julius Britto
President, Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association

P.O. Box 2995

New Bedford, MA  02741

Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association Vision Statement

SEMA’s Mission
The Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association, Inc. (SEMA) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with the purpose of raising funds to provide for the maintenance, equipment, manning, programming and operation of the Schooner Ernestina ex Effie M. Morrissey as a sail training vessel, school ship, and educational enterprise.

SEMA’s Role
On October 30, 2010, over 200 diverse peoples — from as far as Newfoundland and Philadelphia — sailors, Cape Verdean-Americans, civic and business leaders, educators and students convened at the New Bedford Whaling Museum to discuss the future of the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey. The resounding consensus was that “something special happens” when you are aboard Ernestina-Morrissey; she is a “one-of-a-kind” historic ship that we cannot allow to deteriorate.

While SEMA’s main purpose is to raise funds, SEMA also plays an important role as a convener and voice for the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey’s various constituents. SEMA believes it is increasingly important, as the ship has increasing maintenance needs, that it is publicly known how SEMA envisions the ship’s future. SEMA offers a vision to help consolidate the various reasons why SEMA and many others are committed to supporting this historic vessel, despite the fact that the organization does not own or operate it. SEMA offers the vision now because time is of the essence – the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey needs attention quickly before her maintenance situation worsens.

SEMA’s Vision
The long history of this vessel reflects many facets of Massachusetts’ past and present from global maritime trade, fishing, exploration and science, shipbuilding, war-time service, to sail training and education. Indeed, the most recent active years of her history have been in educational service for students of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

SEMA’s vision is to see this unique function, as an educational service provider in and around Massachusetts, reborn in the best way possible within the next two years. SEMA feels strongly, based on information from maritime experts, that the wisest and most effective path to Ernestina-Morrissey’s rebirth is one that results in a ship that is actively sailing. It is important to SEMA and Ernestina-Morrissey’s many supporters that all her histories are honored in her educational service:

1)       Grand Banks fishing schooner

2)       Arctic explorer

3)       U.S. Naval ship

4)       Cape Verdean trans-Atlantic packet

Action Steps
SEMA believes that the critical, time-sensitive task of defining resources required for Ernestina-Morrissey’s restoration should encompass a thorough and skillful refit and concurrent development of the finest educational and sailing programs possible.
In the next six months, the following actions are necessary to produce SEMA’s vision:

1)       A partnership (Memorandum of Understanding or similar document) where SEMA will have a voice regarding the use of the ship.

2)       A convening of the various entities with an interest in the ship’s future, resulting in a proposal that will outline a repair and long-term maintenance plan as well as future educational uses of the ship.

3)       Unearthing a large matching donation(s) to the $700,000 challenge gift put forth by the Hildreth Stewart Charitable Foundation, presumably resulting from the aforementioned long-term maintenance and usage proposal.

There are difficult steps that need to be taken, but once we move forward, Ernestina-Morrissey will shine brighter as an experiential and inspirational beacon of Massachusetts’ global maritime heritage for generations to come.

click the photo to read the account of how this photo was taken

On December 10, 1912 Frederick William Wallace boarded the “Morrissey” for what would become her “Record Run” from Portland, ME and Yarmouth, NS.

“From the dock in Portland to anchor in Yarmouth, she had made the 200 mile passage in 20 hours – an average of 10 miles per hour. The mainsail and jib were on her for four hours of that period; for eight-and-a-half hours she carried foresail and jumbo only, and the last seven-and-a-half hours of the passage was made under foresail alone. Allowing for the time working our of Portland and into Yarmouth, the easy 25-mile jog from off the Lurcher into Yarmouth, the old hooker must have been travelling 16 knots at times. In the sea that was running, it took a stoutly-built and well-geared vessel to average 10 miles an hour under the conditions prevailing.”  from Wallace’s “Roving Fisherman”

Wallace had his camera along as well as his notebooks and took some amazing photos of the voyage.  Some can be found in the book “A Camera on the Banks”.  An archive of photos and negatives is held by The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, NS.

Furling the jib

Wallace also penned a ballad “The Log of the Record Run” “with the names changed to protect the innocent” which is still sung in chantey fests today!

This kind of history can’t be found in any replica, support the “real thing” today!