Marblehead christens new maritime museum

MARBLEHEAD – An appreciative audience of Marbleheaders turned out Saturday for the dedication of the new Marblehead Maritime Museum – so many that the Historic Commission had to move some of the ceremonies into the selectmen’s meeting room to handle the crowd.Marblehead’s newest museum, located across the hall from the selectmen’s meeting room, tells the story of the town’s contributions to the Navy, the Merchant Marines, fishing and yachting.Museum contents were a special gift from Dr. Ray Cole Jr., a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War who rose to the rank of lieutenant commander. He is also a Historical Commission member. The well-known retired dentist donated his collection of maritime memorabilia to the town in January, along with $250,000 for the upkeep of the museum room.Historical Commission spokesman Wayne Butler gave the larger-than-anticipated crowd a thumbnail biography of Cole, who was born in 1921 in Marblehead’s Mary Alley Hospital, graduated Marblehead High in 1939 and graduated Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and married his wife Dorothy in June 1945. Cole was the director of several banks and author of several books about Marblehead and has four children, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Cole’s wife died in 1983 and for 20-plus years he has enjoyed the companionship of Lorraine Allison of Salem.The collection includes a number of paintings of ships named for Marblehead and its historic figures, created on commission by Marblehead artist Samuel Hanks Bryant.Historical Commission member Nancy Graves told the crowd that Bryant was an illustrator for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co. for years and his work appears in several of C.S. Forester’s books about the fictitious exploits of 19th Century British naval hero Horatio Hornblower.Historical Commission member William Conly, a former selectman, told the crowd about the ships Bryant painted, which include the Navy’s three USS Marbleheads: the Civil War gunboat, the Spanish American War cruiser and the World War II cruiser.Frequently punctuating his remarks with the question, “Does that sound familiar?” Conly then told the audience about the seven Navy ships named for Marbleheaders, including the Tucker, named for Commodore Samuel Tucker, who captured 30 British ships in battle.When the time came for questions, the only one to stand was Gary Kissal, who operates the Marblehead Dory and Schooner Museum, a Virginia native who said he knew Cole for 20 years. Kissal joked that the first day they met he told Cole that he was from Virginia, “where all American History took place.”Cole, whose life has been dedicated to correcting such misapprehensions, could only say one thing when asked for a comment: “This is a bunch of beautiful Marbleheaders.” The crowd applauded.