Galveston Historical Foundation Appoints James White as Director of Texas Seaport Museum

Galveston Historical Foundation announces the appointment of James “Jamie” White as Director of the Texas Seaport Museum, home of the restored 1877 sailing vessel Elissa and several other vessels. A master rigger, White has more than 30 years of experience in the historic sailing ship community, leading the restoration, rigging and maintenance of dozens of restored vessels and replicas around the U. S. and in the United Kingdom. He has a 100-ton Master’s license from the U. S. Coast Guard, and has logged more than 30,000 miles at sea aboard traditional sailing vessels. He begins his new duties at Texas Seaport Museum October 1.

“Jamie brings an amazing depth of experience, both in rigging and maintaining traditional ships like Elissa, and in working in maritime museum environments. He has earned tremendous credibility in the world of tall ships,” said Dwayne Jones, GHF’s executive director. “We are very fortunate to have him aboard.”

No stranger to Elissa, White spent six months in 1988 at the Texas Seaport Museum overhauling the ship’s rig and preparing her for sea, while acting as a sail training officer before her annual sea trials. He returned 20 years later in 2008 to survey the rig after the stresses of Hurricane Ike, re-tensioning shrouds and again supervising preparations for the 2009 sea trials, which were carried out on schedule.

Aside from stints as master rigger with the restoration in Philadelphia/Camden, New Jersey, of the Moshulu, a massive 1906 four-masted bark, and the restoration in Scotland of the three-masted bark Glenlee, White’s principal occupation since 1990 has been as Lead Rigger, and since 2000, Historic Ships Rigging Foreman with the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, a unit of the National Park Service. There he was responsible for the rigging of a fleet of historic ships, including the 1883 full-rigger Balclutha.

White has lectured on the traditional rigging of square-rigged ships at the University of St. Andrews, the oldest university in Scotland, and has consulted with the Bishop Museum in Honolulu on the re-rigging of the four-masted full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde, among other projects.

“Elissa is absolutely the gold standard for maritime restoration,” said White. “She has a human and manageable scale, and unlike the large square-riggers in New York and San Francisco, she sails. A ship that stays tied to the dock becomes dead iron. Elissa is very much alive.”

“The reason for Elissa’s continued success for nearly 30 years, I think, is the amazing enthusiasm of the volunteers,” said White. “It’s so different from any other program I’ve been associated with. In working with Elissa’s volunteers, I feel I have a part in passing on an unbroken chain of knowledge going back for millennia.”

The George and Cynthia Mitchell Foundation contribute to the support of the Texas Seaport Museum director.

In addition to overseeing the maintenance and repairs of the Texas Seaport Museum’s vessels and shore facilities, White is especially charged to assist in Galveston Historical Foundation’s upcoming fundraising campaign, which will raise the capital funds needed to make major repairs and restorations and to establish, it is hoped, an endowment fund to help assure Elissa’s future.