February 2010 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11.


ANDREW J. NESDALL PASSES OVER THE BAR Waterfront News


It is extremely unfortunate that daily newspapers and families do take the time to adequately document certain people’s pass- ing.


Recently the maritime world lost Andrew J. Nesdall, who had a very long and interest- ing to life. The following is what was pub- lished in a daily newspaper.


Andrew J. Nesdall


NESDALL, Andrew J. Of Waban and Wayland, Jan. 4, 2010. Beloved husband of Sarah (O’Hearn) Nesdall. Devoted father of Clare Nesdall of Bolton. Brother of Anna Herche, Winifred Keller, and Frances St. John, all of New York, Catherine Murphy of PA and the late Margaret O’Connor. Grand- father of Maria, Catherine and Emily Scholomann. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Funeral from the Duckett- J.S.Waterman & Sons Home of Memorial Tribute, 656 Boston Post Rd., Rt. 20, SUDBURY, Mon., Jan. 11, at 9:00 a.m. fol- lowed by a Funeral Mass at St. Anselm Church, 100 Landham Rd., Sudbury, at 10:00 o’clock. Relatives and friends kindly invited to attend. Visiting hours at the funeral home will be Sun., 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Late US Army Veteran. For additional information, tributes and guest book, please visit www.mem.com. Duckett-J.S. Waterman & Sons Sudbury, MA 978/443-5777


But there was so much that Nesdall did while in this world that was not documented. Several notable people who knew Nesdall commented on a history group’s emailings on his passing.


The first came from Bud Warren, who wrote: “I was saddened to hear today of the death on January 4th was 95.


of Andrew J. Nesdall. He


“As a young man, Andy sailed before the mast on SEVEN SEAS and was part of a team that de-rigged TUSITALA, seminal expereinces from which grew a lifetime of maritime excellence. He collected photo- graphs, corresponded voluminously with seafarers and sefarding savants around the world, drew intricately accurate vessel plans and lively illustrations of sailors at work on deck and in the rigging, wrote important and caring introductions to maritime books, painted breathtaking oils of ships at sea. His love of the sea and wind-driven ships never lagged. He was one of a band of brothers [Charlie Morgan, Biff Bowker, John Leavitt,


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Lew Parker and others] who in the 1930s, 40s and 50s prowled the waterfronts of Boston and New York and San Francisco, recording details of an ever-shrinking population of laid up wooden ships and working schooners. They’d gather to swap stories, look at each other’s photographs and bemoan the loss of a way of life.


“I met Andy early in my maritime career, at a Maine Maritime Museum symposium; he was gentle and supportive to this aspiring researcher and to others, now a new genera- tion carrying on in the heritage he lived so gracefully and graciously. He corresponded by snailmail with many of us who live on email and MARHST. Several years ago I saved nearly a hundred MARHST postings about what to me was an abstruse sail-handling detail - the hardward of releasing foretack - and mailed the whole batch to Andy because I knew he’d be interested. He poured over them, made voluminous notes, and one evening talked through the file for nearly an hour, delighted to be sharing what he knew so intimately and so obviously cared about so deeply. He is missed.”


Bill Bunting added, “I think it is fair to say that likely no one in recent times had a more detailed knowledge of latter-day 19th cen- tury merchant square-riggers then did Andy. While he was interested in American clippers if they had the good fortune to survive into the post-Civil War years and to be photo- graphed, he was no clipper fanatic. He was not greatly interested in whale ships, or in naval vessels, or even in packet ships. To maintain his great friendships with Lew Parker, Charley Morgan, and Biff Bowker, he certainly was knowledgeable about big coasting schooners, but they did not make his pulse quicken.


“Andy’s consuming passion — and it was no less than that — was reserved for square-riggers, especially the handsome and able post-Civil War New England-built ships and barks now known as Down Easters, and for the gracefully modeled British composite, iron, and steel square-riggers (including tea clippers), especially if by Russell & Co. And he also knew a good deal about larger Cana- dian, German, French, Norwegian, Swedish, and Italian square-riggers of that era. “Andy was the rivet-counter’s rivet- counter, but in the best sense — especially if the rivets showed up in a photo of a cabin interior! When the Hestor collection of hun- dreds of 8x10 glass negatives of unidentified


deck and cabin views, and crew portraits, mostly taken aboard British and European sailing ships at Seattle, surfaced, Karl Kortum sent Andy a set of contacts. Before long Andy had figured out the cabin joinery and deck details typical of different builders, and with the aid of shipping lists, had identified and dated many, if not most, of the vessels, and many captains.


“And Andy also understood WHY ships were built. As a professional drafts- man, Andy took busman’s holidays to Scot- land to make beautiful tracings of vessel plans. And in the US (where hull designs were rendered in wood) he measured, took the lines off, and identified numerous half-mod-


els for museums and private owners.


“Andy was relent- less in his pursuit of even seemingly very minor rigging details. Needless to say, there were very few rigged models or drawings or paintings of square-rig- gers that escaped his critical eye.


“Andy might well have become a noted marine artist, distin- guished not only for the accurate ship details, but also for his artful treatment of sky, sea, and shadows. The theft of an early portfolio was a setback he took greatly to heart, and, after he married, he needed a secure career.


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The drawings and the paintings that he made over the years for family and friends are of museum quality.


“Andy and I met 47 years ago, when I was a high school student. In recent years ours became a friendship by telephone. One of the nice things about a conversation with Andy was that he always got right to the point. And it was never about him.” Nathan Lipfert, librarian and curator of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, con- cluded by saying, “I met Andy in 1971, when I first came to work at Maine Maritime Mu- seum, then called Bath Marine Museum. He


Continued on Page 14.


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