Charles D. Boddy, Jr., AP
Commander
Robert Martin, P
Executive Officer
Administrative Officers
Charles G. Morris, AP
Education Officer
Barbara Bergin, AP,
Treasurer
Carol A. Backman,
Secretary
Kenneth J. Backman,
Administrative Officer
At Large Members
Peter Devlin
Robert Manning
October 2009
COMMANDER’S MESSAGE
Our days grow short, boats are reappearing in
garages, driveways, sheds, and back yards. Summer’s
sun has ceded itself to harvest moons, as it inevitably
does. As we robustly venture into fall, let’s refocus on
improving our boating skills and knowledge in
anticipation of next year’s voyages.
Take a glance at the wonderful seminar offerings
this fall! A USPS seminar focuses on improving one
aspect of our boating skills, and, while comprehensive,
does not take a large investment of time-only one
evening. Successful completion of any seminars results
in issuance of a certificate of completion, and some
seminars will qualify you for some of the new USPS
navigation certifications.
From trailering to anchoring, Merrimac River
offers it all. Please review our course schedule and plan
to spend an evening with some good, friendly boaters
honing up your skills.
Happy Boating!
Sincerely, Charlie Boddy, Cdr.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
1984-25 Years Ago
The year was 1984. FM radio was crowded with New Wave and Punk Rock
music, neck ties were skinny, Ronald Reagan was President, a wall divided East Berlin
from the West, and everyone had “big hair”. The events and styles of 1984 may have
long passed, but some 1984 trends continue.
In 1984, Merrimac River Sail and Power Squadron member Andrew Frackiewicz
took his public boating course and enrolled in the USPS. This year, Andy was presented
with his 25 year member’s pin by DEO H. Dexter Hyland, III at a recent meeting of the
JN class. The pin is awarded by national in recognition of the 25th renewal of a
member’s annual enrollment. Next time you see Andy, give him a pat on the back for an
achievement long in the making!
EDUCATION REPORT CARD
Dex Hyland continues his whirlwind teaching tour, with another Junior
Navigation course meeting Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9pm at his office. Currently
attending are: Andrew Frackiewicz, Bob Manning, Bob Martin, and Joy Mills. There is
room for you, too!
The Seamanship class was a success! All students successfully passed the
course requirements and earned themselves a new grade. Success goes to Peter Devlin,
Bob Manning, Bob Martin, and Joy Mills.
Dex Hyland’s spring 2009 Junior Navigation course was also successful,
graduating both Dave Calkins and Jack Micklovich to the esteemed grade of Junior
Navigator. These are the first new JNs we have had in Merrimac River in a good while.
The course work is intense, and these two hearty sailors made the mark. They certainly
deserve both our congratulations and admiration.
Hear ye! Hear ye! Dust off those sextants! Senior Navigator is coming in
January. The class promises to include many recent JNs. If you earned JN a while back,
and want to settle in for a fun class amongst the stars [of both types, celestial and
celebrity] then get in touch with Dex Hyland to reserve a chair and a textbook!
DIDTRICT 18 FALL CONFERENCE PLANNED FOR JUNE 7, 2009
The District 18 Fall Conference is scheduled for October 17, 2009 at Jubilee
Yacht Club in Beverly. Details to follow when confirmed.
Ben Butler’s Toothpick ---DRAFT
(U.S. Coast Guard Day Beacon 10)
http://www.wickedlocal.com/newburyport/news/x1393556457/Butler-did-it-withThe-Toothpick
Photo: Larry Paul
Benjamin Franklin Butler
General / Congressman / Governor / Candidate for President / Lawyer / Industrialist

Copyright  Larry Paul
By Larry Paul 2009
Newburyport Massachusetts
.
Chicago: Puritan Press Co., 1894
Black Rocks Salisbury Massachusetts
August 1873 News clipping: “ I, with a companion, was fishing for
tomcods, abreast of Black Rocks, when a government boat came into the
river and anchored nearby, and six men, including two masons dressed
in white overhalls, stepped into a tender, and were rowed ashore. We
recognized the leader of the party as Congressman Butler. We knew
him by the cast in one eye, and by the cartoons in the papers. He directed
the location of the foundation, and it was quickly leveled off”.
1873, in his 55th year, Congressman Benjamin Franklin Butler who then hailed from
Washington, Lowell and Annisquam Massachusetts, supervised the construction of a
pyramid shaped channel marker at Black Rocks, Salisbury Massachusetts. Butler’s
interest in this navigation aid was, as a founding member of the Pentucket Navigation
Company, to direct ships safely through the channels to the docks in Newburyport, and
further up river to Lowell.
Black Rocks are located at the Massachusetts Salisbury Beach Reservation, a few
hundred yards inside the mouth of the Merrimack River, and about two miles from the
Range lights in Newburyport Harbor. Upwards to two hundred harbor seals can be seen
resting on the rocks at low tide, and roll off to seek their meals when the tide begins to
cover the rocks.
Latitude: 42-49'14'' N Longitude: 070-49'35'' W Photo: Larry Paul
How did Butler’s Toothpick get its name?
The most colorful explanation I heard when I was visiting Fort Fisher in North Carolina.
Fort Fisher, a Civil War museum, is located at the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
Fort Fisher was important to the Confederates in that the Cape Fear River was how
Supplies being shipped from England gained access to the port of Wilmington.
A Museum guide there, and a “War between the States” history expert, after relating his
disdain for General Butler, suggested that the name “Butler’s Toothpick” was because
Butler had a big mouth!
General Butler, directing a great military fiasco, unsuccessfully attempted to blow up Fort
Fisher with a large barge laden with explosives. The soldiers in the fort were astounded at
the display of fireworks which did not harm the fort at all.
Bay View Annisquam Massachusetts
The year 1873 was when Butler purchased “Bay View” at Annisquam (Gloucester)
Massachusetts, and there, ever the industrialist, noticed the fine granite, which could be
quarried there, established the Cape Ann Granite Company. This granite was used in the
construction of the Dog Bars breakwater at Eastern Point Gloucester, and also in many
buildings locally and in Washington DC.
Coincidentally, the pedestal and rip rap of Ben Butler’s Toothpick is of massive granite
blocks, which have firmly resisted New England storms for 135 years.
Did Butler supply the Granite?
1873 was the year that range lights were constructed in Newburyport. These lights align
with Ben Butler’s Toothpick, and with each other to guide ships into the harbor,
which have many opportunities to bottom out or run afoul of rocks. Butler also
supervised their construction
1873 and 1874 were the years that Congress was debating the Civil Rights Act, which
was enacted in 1875. Ben Butler had a career of always siding with common people and
the down trodden. In 1851 he went up against the mill owners in Lowell and influenced
the passing of the 10-hour workday law.
A prominent attorney in Lowell, Mass., Butler served two terms in the state legislature
(1853, 1859). In the American Civil War he commanded Fort Monroe, Va., where he
refused to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, calling them "contraband of war," an
interpretation later upheld by the government. He oversaw the occupation of New
Orleans in 1862 but was recalled because of his harsh rule. He led the Union army in
Virginia, but after several defeats he was relieved of his command in 1865. In the U.S.
House of Representatives (1867 – 75, 1877 – 79), he was a Radical Republican
prominent in the impeachment trial of Pres. Andrew Johnson. He switched parties in
1878 to support the Greenback movement and later served as governor of Massachusetts
(1882 – 84).
(Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)
Benjamin Franklin Butler born, Nov. 5, 1818, Deerfield, NH
(Excerpted from: “Men of Our Day”; By L. P. Brockett, M. D- Published by Ziegler and McCurdy, 1872)
Charlotte Seelye Butler hoped her son would become a minister. He was sent to
Waterbury College (later renamed Colby College) in Maine instead of his first choice, the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But his experience at the strict Baptist-Calvinist
College only increased his distaste for the religion, and he was happy to graduate in 1838.
He decided to study law, and clerked at a Lowell practice, as was the custom before law
schools came into being. For extra money, he taught at a small school for juvenile
delinquents, and gained renown for his track record there in rehabilitating the boys.
Admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, he began practicing in Lowell and quickly
gained a reputation as a tenacious courtroom opponent. His business grew along with his
formidable reputation, and he soon opened an office in Boston. Butler defended criminals
and injured workers alike, and prepared the patent documents for Elias Howe's sewing
machine with such thoroughness that the Singer Sewing Machine Company was later
forced to pay Howe lifetime royalties.
The Butler Flag
The Butler Flag being rolled for storage by Mary Williamson. Courtesy: Textile Conservation Center/American Textile
History Museum. © Textile Conservation Center
On the 21st of February, 1866, the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts,
introduced to the officers of the Senate Mr. D. W. C. Farrington, agent of the United
States Bunting Company at Lowell, Mass., who presented to them, for the use of the
Senate, a flag manufactured by that company, twenty-one feet fly by twelve feet hoist. It
is believed to be the first real American flag ever raised over the Capitol of the United
States. Heretofore all our flags have been manufactured from English bunting, and every
effort made to substitute a domestic texture capable of resisting the wind and the air has
signally failed. General Butler having ascertained this fact at the Navy Department, and
having an interest in the United States Bunting Company in his own town, informed
Captain Fox that he believed that company had produced a fabric that would be superior
to the foreign article. A test was accordingly ordered by the Navy Department, fully
realizing the confident anticipations of General Butler, and proving the American bunting
to be better in color and in quality than the English product The General wrote to the
secretary of the Senate for authority to make a present of one of these flags, to be raised
over that body. That officer having consulted Mr. Forster, president pro tempore, the
General's proposition was accepted, and to day the flag was placed in the hands of the
sergeant-at- arms. To-morrow morning it will be hoisted to the senatorial flag-staff, and
unfurled to the breeze." — Philadelphia Press, Feb. 23, 1866.
Refused to Return Escaped Slaves, and declaring them free by virtue of their being
considered “Contraband”
Butler, with lawyerly practicality, settled one of the thorniest questions for the Union
army: in the midst of war, slaves were escaping from their owners and crossing enemy
lines to seek refuge. Most Union generals returned the slaves, who were simply
considered property, to their owners. But when three came to Fortress Monroe, Butler fed
them and put them to work. When a Confederate major arrived the next day with a truce
flag to request their return (they belonged to one of his colonels) Butler refused, citing
that the state of Virginia had seceded from the Union, and Butler was not obligated to
obey the laws of a foreign country now. He declared the slaves contraband, or illegal
goods, which enraged slave owners, since it gave the slaves a new legal status. It also
gave the Union army a legal basis for providing them food and shelter. Soon, word
spread and Butler's fort was sheltering nearly a thousand escaped slaves.
Beast Of New Orleans
In the spring of 1862, Butler was named military governor for the city of New Orleans,
which had recently been taken by Union ships. The population, under martial law, was
unruly and hostile, and the business establishment there had flourished before its
subjugation as one of the few ports from which trade with Europe was still possible. In
order to avoid an outbreak of the fatal yellow fever that had killed his father, Butler took
draconian steps to clean up the city, outlawing litter and pumping out the rudimentary
sewer system. Still, New Orleans remained antagonistic, and Butler seemed to enjoy the
near-autocratic powers his post allowed him. He did agonize, however, when he ordered
the court-martial of a New Orleans man who had hauled down the U.S. flag at the
symbolic U.S. Mint building, where the Confederate flag had recently flown. The rebel
press hailed the man as a hero, and Butler ignored death threats on his own life and
signed the death warrant. Years later, he intervened to help the family keep its house, and
found a government job for the man's widow.
Benjamin Butler's New Orleans "Woman's Order May 15 1862
Following the Battle of New Orleans, Butler established himself as military commander
of that city on May 1, 1862. Known as the "Woman's Order," it provoked a storm of
protest at home and abroad, and was a cause of Butler's removal from command of New
Orleans on December 16, 1862.
Butler's General Order No. 28
“As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to
repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New
Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and
courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall,
by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any
officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held
liable to be treated as a woman of the town, plying her avocation”.
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
One of the major problems that confronted by Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler on his
occupation of New Orleans in April of 1862, was the abuse his soldiers endured from
patriotic Confederate women. Bitterly resentful of the Union occupation, whenever any
of Butler's men were present they would contemptuously gather in their skirts, cross
streets, flee rooms, cast hateful glances, or make derisive comments. Some sang spirited
renditions of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" and other Confederate songs, or spat on soldiers'
uniforms, while teaching their children to do the same. One woman emptied a chamber
pot on Capt. David C. Farragut from her window shortly after the mayor surrendered the
city to him. Evidence of the disdain for Butler in the South is chamber pots, which, as
current day collector’s items, have his image, imprinted in the bowl.
Excerpt of two-hour speech made by General Benjamin Franklin Butler
to Congress in 1874 in favor of passage of Civil Rights Act.
“I came into command again in Virginia in 1863. I there
organized twenty-five regiments, with some that were sent to me,
and disciplined them. Still all my brother officers of the Regular
Army said my colored soldiers would not fight; and I felt it was
necessary that they should fight to show that their race were
capable of the duties of citizens; for one of the highest duties of
citizens is to defend their own liberties and their country's flag and
honor.
On the 29th of September, 1864, I was ordered by the
Commanding General of the armies to cross the James River at
two points and attack the enemy's line of works; one in the center
of their line, Fort Harrison, the other a strong work guarding their
left flank at New Market Heights; and there are men on this floor
12
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
who will remember that day, I doubt not, as I do myself. I gave
the center of the line to the white troops, the Eighteenth Corps,
under General Ord, and they attacked one very strong work and
carried it gallantly. I went myself with the colored troops to attack
the enemy at New Market Heights; which was the key to the
enemy's flank on the north side of James River. That work was a
redoubt built on the top of a hill of some considerable elevation;
then running down into a marsh; in that marsh was a brook; then
rising again to a plain which gently rolled away toward the river.
On that plain, when the flash of dawn was breaking, I placed a
column of three thousand colored troops, in close column by
division, right in front, with guns at "right shoulder shift." I said,
"That work must be taken by the weight of your column; no shot
must be fired;" and to prevent their firing I had the caps taken
from the nipples of their guns. Then I said, "Your cry, when you
charge, will be, ' Remember Fort Pillow!" and as the sun rose up
in the heavens the order was given, "Forward," and they marched
forward, steadily as if on parade—went down the hill, across the
marsh, and as they got into the brook they came within range of
the enemy's fire, which vigorously opened upon them. They broke
a little as they forded the brook, and the column wavered. 0, it was
a moment of intensest anxiety, but they formed again as they
reached the firm ground, marching steadily on with closed ranks
under the enemy's fire, until the head of the column reached the
first line of abatis, some one hundred and fifty yards from the
enemy's work. Then the ax-men ran to the front to out away the
heavy obstructions of defense, while one thousand men of the
enemy, with their artillery concentrated, poured from the redoubt
a heavy fire upon the head of the column hardly wider than the
Clerk's desk. The ax-men went down under that murderous fire;
other strong hands grasp the axes in their stead, and the abatis is
cut away. Again, at double-quick, the column goes forward to
within fifty yards of the fort, to meet there another line of abatis.
The column halts, and there a very fire of hell is pouring upon
them. The abatis resists and holds; the head of the column seems
literally to melt away under the rain of shot and shell; the flags of
the leading regiments go down, but a brave black hand seizes the
colors; they are up again and wave their starry light over the storm
of battle; again the ax-men fall, but strong hands and willing
hearts 'seize the heavy, sharpened trees and drag them away, and
the column rushes forward, and with a shout which now rings in
13
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
my ear, go over that redoubt like a flash, and the enemy never
stop running for four miles. [Applause on the floor and in the
galleries.]
It became my painful duty, sir, to follow in the track of that
charging column, and there, in a space not wider than the Clerk's
desk and three hundred yards long, lay the dead bodies of five
hundred and forty-three of my colored comrades, fallen in defense
of their country, who had offered up their lives to uphold its flag
and its honor as a willing sacrifice; and as I rode along among
them, guiding my horse this way and that way lest he should
profane with his hoofs what seemed to me the sacred dead, and as
I looked 'on their bronzed faces upturned in the shining sun to
heaven as if in mute appeal against the wrongs of the country for
which they had given their lives, and whose flag had only been to
them a flag of stripes on which no star of glory had ever shone for
them—feeling I had wronged them in the past and believing what
was the future of my country to them—among my dead comrades
there I swore to myself a solemn oath, "May my right hand forget
its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I ever
fail to defend the rights of these men who have given their blood
for me and my country this day and for their race forever'" and,
God helping me, I will keep that oath”. [Great applause on the
floor and in the galleries.]
(An American Antiquarian Society Online Resource
Curated by Lucia Z. Knoles, Professor of English, Assumption College)
The “Colored Medal”
Butler had a “Colored Medal” struck which holds the distinction of being the only
medal ever struck for African American troops.
The Butler Medal, officially known as the Army of the James Medal, was named for
General Benjamin F. Butler, who commissioned a medal to honor African American
troops in his command for gallantry during the Battle of Newmarket Heights on
September 29, 1864. The medal is silver, inscribed on the obverse with “Ferro Ilis
Libertas Perveniet” and on the reverse with “Distinguished Courage Campaign Before
Richmond 1864.” This particular medal is blank, having no engraving along the rim
identifying the recipient, his company, and regiment. It is one of two belonging to the
Armed Forces History Collection. Butler had it struck in silver by Tiffany’s of New
York.
14
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
Armed Forces History Collection
Candidate for President
Butler espoused the Greenback Party during his post-war career, too, and made it
to Congress a final time in 1878 on that party's ticket. The Greenbacks, named for
their support of a currency expansion program, allied with labor groups and
pushed for a number of progressive causes, including women's suffrage and a
graduated income tax.
The Schooner America.
In 1873, Butler purchased the schooner America and took good care of her, sailing her
the last twenty years of his life out of Ipswich Bay at Annisquam (Gloucester)
Massachusetts.
15
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
Detroit collection- Library of Congress
In conclusion:
(Excerpted from: “Men of Our Day”; By L. P. Brockett, M. D- Published by Ziegler and McCurdy, 1872)
“The courage, pugnacity, fertility of genius, and patriotism, which enter so largely into
the composition of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER, are his by inheritance. His
grandfather, Captain Zephaniah Butler, of Woodbury, Connecticut, fought under General
Wolfe at Quebec, and served in the Continental army, during the entire war of the
Revolution; while the general's father, John Butler, of Deerfield, New Hampshire, was a
captain of dragoons in the war of 1812, and served for a while under General Jackson at
New Orleans. And our hero's mother was of that doughty race of Scotch-Irish origin, to
which belonged Colonel Cilley (also an ancestor of General Butler) "who, at the battle of
Bennington, commanded a company that had never seen a cannon, and who, to quiet their
apprehensions, sat astride of one while it was discharged."
General Butler is in fact a singular compound. He has many good traits; we believe he
means to be patriotic, and sincerely thinks that the measures he urges are for the good of
the country. He is unscrupulous, eager for power, and ready to adopt almost any means to
obtain it; but though he has been often charged with venality and corruption, and a
favorite taunt of his adversaries has been "the spoons," referring to his rigid measures of
confiscation in New Orleans, and the supposed wealth he obtained by plunder there, we
are satisfied that he is not guilty of taking bribes or of any frauds in his civil
administration (during the war, or his congressional career since). Had he been thus
corrupt, there were abundant opportunities to have proved it conclusively; but every suit
where it has been attempted to prove anything of the sort has utterly broken down, not
from his skill in managing it, but from absolute lack of proof.
The general is so erratic, and so careless of the means by which he accomplishes his
purposes, that he will always have enemies, in the party with which he acts, and in that
which he opposes. He is, in fact, an Ishmaelite, and about as dangerous to his friends as
to his foe”.
Benjamin Franklin Butler died Jan. 11, 1893, Washington, D.C.,
Buried in Lowell Massachusetts, which was his primary residence, and where he lived
from 10 years old, apprenticed as a lawyer and conducted many manufacturing
enterprises.
Notes:
16
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
Richard S. West, Jr., Lincoln’s Scapegoat General:
A Life of Benjamin F. Butler, 1818–1893 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965); Hans Louis Trefousse,
Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1957); and Chester G.
Hearn,
When the Devil Came Down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1997).
William C. Holbrook, A Narrative of the Services of the Officers and Enlisted Men of the 7th Regiment of Vermont Volunteers
from 1862 to 1866 (New York: American Bank Note Co., 1882), ).
Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major General Benjamin F. Butler:
B. F. Butler's Residence, Lowell, Mass
B. F. Butler's Residence, Lowell, Mass
17
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
Squadron Name
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Course Type
(Seminar or
Boating Class)
Boating Class
Boating Class
Seminar
Seminar
Seminar
Seminar
Seminar
Boating Class
Boating Class
Boating Class
Seminar
Course Name
ABC-3
ABC-3
Trailering
Anchoring
Charting
GPS
VHF Radio
ABC-3
ABC-3
ABC-3
1-Close quarter
maneuvering
2-How boats
behave, & Seas
3-Handling at sea
18
Instructor
Start Date
Start
Time
Charles Morris
Paul Flagg
Bob Manning
TBD
Charles Morris
Charles Morris
George Ingram
Charles Morris
Jack Micklovich
Paul Flagg
Charles Morris
Jack Micklovich
Paul Flagg
Bob Martin
Joy Mills
9/15/2009
9/29/2009
10/26/2009
11/14/2009
1/9/2010
1/16/2010
2/13/2010
3/2/2010
3/4/2010
3/9/2010
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
6:30 PM
9:00 AM
9:00 AM
9:00 AM
9:00 AM
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
3/27/2010
9:00 AM
Merrimac River Sail & Power Squadron
Merrimac River
Boating Class
Merrimac River
Merrimac River
Seminar
Seminar
Merrimac River
Seminar
Merrimac River
Seminar
ABC-3
Mariners Compass
Paddle Smart
Hurricanes &
Boats
Radar
19
Charles Morris
Jack Micklovich 4/10/2010
TBD
TBD
TBD
George Ingram
George Kimball
9:00 AM
4/26/2010
5/15/2010
6:30 PM
9:00 AM
7/19/2010
6:30 PM
9/11/2010
9:00 AM