History

Ancient, modern, a child’s first stepl History can be a happening to remember , or like today, can be a moment to be noted. My computer is on a live stream of the moving of Battleship Texas from San Jacinto to the drydock in Galveston for repairs and restoration. Each step of the twelve hour journey is fraught (I spend my whole life looking for an opportunity to use that word) with problems resulting from strain on the fragile one hundred ten year hull. Guard tugs are towing and protecting and only a few specially designated boats with high ranking officials are able to follow at a distance to minimize waves and disruptions.

Just a few words of background to validate her specialness. Texas was commissioned in 1913. During her lifetime, she has transported troops in two wars, been a training vessel, and was part of the landing ships on D-Day, helping rescue the Rangers who were trapped on the cliff. She was decommissioned in 1948 and with the help from nickels from school children was given a home at San Jacinto Historical Site. There she became part of our family memory. The summer of 1969, a friend and I did field trips with our combined brood of six from age 8 to 10 months. One stop was a picnic and then a tour of the Texas. One adult led going down steep narrow stairs to see small dark sleeping spaces and another adult encouraged the last ones who were holding on tight to a rail as they took steps.

Even though we live in air and easily watch planes move through space above us, a certain mystic and danger surrounds being out on the water. We revere the boats that can displace enough of the liquid to float and can name ones from special times. The USS Constitution is the oldest ship still commissioned and is used for education purposes in Boston Harbor. I thought of a line in Emerson’s poem ,”Aye, tear her tattered ensign down, long has it waved on high,” as a flag stirred in a morning breeze on the Houston Ship Channel. The earliest Books of Common Prayer had special offerings acknowledging God’s control over land and sea and requesting safety for travelers. A full chorus singing The Navy Hymn provides solemnity for any occasion. May the twelve hours of this move of Texas be blessed by the request of the Psalmist so many years agol

He stilled the storm to a whisper;
    the waves of the sea were hushed.
 They were glad when it grew calm,
    and he guided them to their desired haven.

Psalm 107:29 – 30