In Bristol Fashion

About the Book

The author has compiled an adventure memoir in photo essay form, recalling when he worked as volunteer 1975-1980 aboard historic ships of the San Francisco Maritime Museum.  He learned from the crew of the Cape Horn square-rigger Balclutha (1886), now moored permanently at the end of the Hyde Street Pier.  He later went on to become president of the Friends of the Eppleton Hall Society, which operated the steam side-paddle estuary tug, Eppleton Hall (1914).  She had steamed over from England 1969-1970 by officers of the maritime museum.

The beloved tug had many daring and amusing jaunts on San Francisco Bay, with one long trip to Lost Isle, on the San Joaquin River near Stockton, CA. This ugly duckling was loved by those volunteers and families who made her operational.  Her notoriety was such that the captain of the Queen Elizabeth 2 gave the tug a commemorative crystal when that great liner made her first visit to San Francisco in April 1978.

About that time the author was the West Coast liaison for Sea History magazine, the publication of the National Maritime Historical Society in Peekskill, NY.  The tug was retired when the maritime museum was later turned over to the National Park Service.

The book closes with the author’s lively account when, in June 1980, he was guest aboard the U.S. Coast Guard square-rigger Eagle, when she sailed, with scuppers awash, from Boston’s OpSail to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

From the introduction by Peter Stanford, President Emeritus of the NMHS…”The book’s title, In Bristol Fashion, is the seaman’s universal expression of the highest mark for a job done in true seamanly fashion – a well-earned tribute to the people from varied walks of life who saved an abandoned treasure, to a spirit that shines through this book.”

About the Author

William E Burgess, Jr, has an interest in sailing ships that dates back to his childhood in Massachusetts, when he first admired the old ships at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, during a family visit there. As a youngster he often explored the shores of the Connecticut River and swimming holes in ponds and lakes near his hometown in West Springfield. Later, as a young working man in the New York City area, he once took his 12 foot runabout around Manhattan Island. He would also take it to explore the upper reaches of the Hudson River. He was thrilled whenever a tall ship visited the city.

It was his California years that brought Bill to the sea, when he discovered the Balclutha and the Eppleton Hall, and all the ships that became a part of the San Francisco Maritime Museum.

Bill retired as a disability claim investigator after 41 years in the insurance field. He now lives with his wife Patti and dog Jake in Arlington, Texas. Several years ago they cleared five acres of land and installed a cabin in Buffalo Springs, Texas, in the very heart of Cross Timbers country, to be near kin. They love it when their kids and grandkids come to visit. The ranchers sometimes let him work cattle as the ear tag man.

Several years ago Bill helped found a United Methodist street ministry in Arlington, and, later, the Arlington Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which is sponsored by Homeland Security for citizen disaster preparedness.  

Bill has previously chronicled his sea adventures in Bay & Delta Yachtsman (Alameda, California) and Sea History magazine (Peekskill, New York). “In Bristol Fashion” is his first literary venture in book form.