Seasoned Sailing Crew Keeps History Afloat : Restoration: The salvaged flagship used by Commodore Perry in the War of 1812 on Lake Erie is manned by people with their own rich backgrounds. One volunteer is 86 years old.

The brig Niagara was a soggy, rotting hulk when crews raised Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s flagship from the Lake Erie mud in 1913.

Louis Hannah, then 4 years old, watched the salvage work with his mother from the shore of Misery Bay.

“It was just a pile of junk,” he said of the ship.

Now Hannah is 86. And restorations have made the old ship young again. The ship that saw battle in the War of 1812 is a “living” museum of the 19th Century on the lake.

Hannah is part of the ship’s company each time the ship sails into history.

He’s been a crew member aboard the 200-foot restored wooden sailing ship since 1991. Hannah is one of a handful of old salts who season the crew of 40, said volunteer coordinator Patrick Claxton.

“It adds some leaven to the mix,” said Claxton, 67. “We need the young animals to get up and wrestle with the sails and do the grunt work. But the older people bring their knowledge aboard.”

The twin-masted ship’s crew, with 16 professional sailors and 24 volunteers, includes several teen-agers.

At dockside in Erie and during calls in Great Lakes ports, crew members carry out maintenance to keep the ship in shape.

Hannah said he and the other volunteers spend four hours sanding, varnishing and painting for every hour they sail.

“They won’t let me climb the rigging,” he said. “It’s not that I’m afraid, they just won’t let me up there.”

But Claxton said the older crew members contribute just as much below as they would aloft. They often act as guides, telling the Niagara’s tale.

“I’d like to think the older people are a little better at that since they know more, and they have a little more patience with people,” he said.

The original Niagara was part of a fleet of six vessels built for the U.S. Navy.

On Sept. 10, 1813, Perry engaged British ships near Put In Bay, Ohio, in the Battle of Erie. Perry transferred to the Niagara to continue fighting after the flagship Lawrence was disabled.

Perry forced a British surrender, reporting to his superiors from the Niagara, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”

The Navy purposely sank the ship in 1820. By the time salvage work began almost a century later, there wasn’t much left.

Erie residents restored the ship for the 1913 anniversary of the battle. And the state began a major restoration in 1931.

But by the 1980s, the Niagara was again deteriorating. Using some of the original 1813 timbers, restorers went to work again. The third incarnation of the Niagara was commissioned in 1990.

“It’s an exact copy of the original--or as near as they could come,” said Peggy Stow, 80.

Born in Manchester, England, Stow met her late husband during World War II. She settled with him near Erie in 1947, and the two sailed the lake for decades in their 35-foot boat.

“I was green when I started sailing. I’ve since learned all the tricks of the trade,” she said.

Like the rest of the crew, Stow takes her turn in the galley, stands watch as a lookout, keeps the log, swabs decks and participates in man-overboard and lifeboat drills.

“She’s quite a girl,” Claxton said of Stow. “She’s willing to do everything she’s able to do. About the only thing she can’t do is climb the rigging.”

But navigating the five miles of tricky ropes aloft isn’t the only dangerous duty. Hard weather on the lake makes it hazardous for everyone aboard.

“Lake Erie is shallow and it gets rough real fast,” said Hannah.

Stow recalls a difficult night on watch when a violent storm rocked the ship and brought lightning flashes dangerously close to the ship’s 100-foot masts.

“I thought one of the masts would be struck at any time,” she said.

But the senior swab said she’s undaunted and not about to give up on her life afloat.

“It’s going to come to a halt someday, but until it does, I’m going to really live it,” Stow said.