Skip to main content

A Ship By Any Other Name

April 2023
1min read

On the cover of the October, 1966, AMERICAN HERITAGE , there was a detail from a painting; bv William Rimmer showing Mrs. Leopold Bamberger about to be rescued at sea. The whole painting was reproduced on page 54 of that issue, with a caption describing the rescue vessel as a “schooner.”

Well, we haven’t received so many indignant letters since we ran an article saying that George Washington never took communion. The seagoing fraternity were thoroughly aroused, and a good many wrote in to say that that was no schooner, it was a ship . Indeed, some of them were much more precise than that, for example: “I have no means of knowing whether the real Shanunga was a schooner, catamaran, or dhow, but this I do know, that the vessel so beautifully depicted is a full-rigged ship, hove to under topsails, topgallant sails, spanker and fore-topmast staysail, with courses clewed up and royals furled. … I suggest that your nautical editor, if you have one, be hanged at the yardarm.”

Upon checking, we find that our nautical editor was on vacation the week that caption was written, sailing a Sunfish on Long Island Sound; so he has been granted a reprieve. The rest of us around here hardly know a barque from a bight, and we should have been more careful. In penance, we reproduce herewith a couple of nineteenth-century engravings that show the difference between a schooner (left, fore-and-aft rigged) and a ship (above, square-rigged).

We take a possibly perverse satisfaction in noting that there was something else askew about the offending picture caption—and only two of our correspondents, so far, have caught it. The caption calls the rescue ship the Shanunga , on the basis of information supplied by the Florence Lewison Gallery, where the painting hangs; but if you look closely at her (ahem) starboard trail board, you can see that the artist spelled the name Chenanga .

Let us offer the following etymological information to those interested. In the i84o’s there was a highly unsuccessful branch of the Erie Canal known as the Chenango, running through about a hundred miles of south-central New York. From that, according to the lexicographers, came a rare Americanism, shenango , meaning a roustabout, or casual dock worker; possibly it may also be the source of shenanigan , which contrary to earlier opinion is now thought to be of American rather than Irish origin. Can it be that Mrs. Bamberger’s rescue ship is tied in with all this in some way? Let us know if you find out.

The Editors

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "February 1967"

Authored by: The Editors

It has been called the Redwood Empire, and it stretched along Northern California's fog-shrouded coast, but its reign is imperiled.

Authored by: Richard O’Connor

A Negro cavalry regiment was John J. Pershing’s “home” in the service. From it came his nickname, and he never lost his affection for—or failed to champion—the valorous colored troopers he led.

Authored by: Stephen Hess

Faced with war, famine, and bloody revolution, a political wheel horse turned into a first-class ambassador.

Authored by: Lucius Beebe

To a culinary wilderness Fred Harvey brought civilized cooking—and pretty girls to serve it.

Authored by: James Cameron Phifer

A choice between life and honor is a fearful one for any man. Here is the unforgettable story of how it was made by a twenty-one-year-old Confederate private.

Authored by: Lately Thomas

The 1910 race for the mayoralty of New York looked like a tough one.

Authored by: Louis W. Koenig

The idea goes back to the very beginnings of our national history. Then as now, it was built upon human relationships, and these—as Mr. Jefferson found to his sorrow—make a fragile foundation.

Authored by: W. Storrs Lee

The horrors of Connecticut's maximum-security dungeon at Simsbury were notorious even abroad. Yet time and again its inmates proved that, with a clever escape plan, stone walls do not a prison make.

Authored by: George M. Heinzman

Surrounded, starving, far from help, Major Forsyth and his gallant little band of scouts prepared to face wave after wave of Indians.

Authored by: William G. Mcloughlin

Advertising, that magic lantern of the American psyche, found a new way to sell the exploding national market in the Gilded Age—and in full color.

Featured Articles

The world’s most prominent actress risked her career by standing up to one of Hollywood’s mega-studios, proving that behind the beauty was also a very savvy businesswoman. 

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.