Center For Living History, Inc

  Welcome to the Center for Living History, Inc web page. Here you will find the latest information about our Cyane tall ship project and our school living history programs.

 Our current goal is to raise $28,900 to have the ships building plans drawn up and approved. Please go to our donation page to donate via PayPal or by check. We also accept vehicles and boats and can help arrange pick up. We are a 501(c)3 non profit and all donations are tax deductable. Thank you for your support! 

Posted new pics to our Picture page and a new video to Videos page

 We were able to have both ships boats participate in the Sloat Landing reenactment this year. Thanks to the volunteers from the US Navy that are attending DLI (Defense Language Institute). The DLI will help us with as many volunteers as we need in the future and we couldnt have asked for a more enthusiastic crew.

Shipwright Allen Rawl talks with Francis "Nick" DuPont during a visit to the Hagley Museum. Copies of the original plans were delivered to Allen and Nick for further research.

Many thanks to Pacific Grove Lodge #331 and Monterey Lodge #217 for their donations for ships boat repair and uniform purchase. These funds helped us continue our public programs and allowed us to present a more accurate image of the 1840's US Navy Sailor.

Update to the story below regarding Cyane Slave Ship. The USS Cyane was never involved in the transport of Slaves. The Cyane mentioned in the manifest was a smaller merchant ship called a bark.  Tonnage 295.76, Built 1848 in Baltimore MD, Registered San Francisco, ON 5686, Master/Owner James McKenna of San Francisco. The 296 ton wood bark Cyane stranded and was lost at 7:00 p.m. August 23, 1883 while on a whaling cruise in Arctic waters. The crew of 17 was forced to abandon the vessel 5 miles NE of Point Belcher and the vessel went to pieces in a heavy SW gale. We are happy that the USS Cyane has been cleared of this, but plan a display aboard ship to highlight the US Navy efforts against Slave Ships in the Atlantic.

Received some information that The Cyane may have been used as a Slave ship in 1849. This may have been an official effort to appease the South by some politicians. The fact that the Cyane was an active Navy ship, makesfor some interesting further research. The manifest is available on our scanned documents page. You may join our discussion on our Facebook page.

Had a great turnout at the Sloat Landing Ceremony hosted by the Monterey History and Art Asc. 

A big thank you to the Pacific Grove Masonic Lodge #331 for their kind donation of funds for the purpose of outfitting our boats crew uniforms. Commodore Sloat and Stockton were both masons and went on to found the Monterey Masonic Lodge.

Just added a pic of the uniforms being planned to be worn by the ships crew on our pictures page.

We would like to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors: Mr Francis I. DuPont and Dr David Heilman. Francis "Nick" DuPont brings a wealth of family ties and information to the project. Samuel Francis DuPont was Captain of the Cyane in 1846. Dr Heilman is a Child Behavior specialist and will be a great help in planning our At Risk Youth programs.  

We have finally found a picture of Captain Mervine, thanks to an ancestor who sent us the picture. Please go to our pictures page.

I have been reading the book, "Du Pont, The Making of an Admiral." Samuel Francis Du Pont was Capt of the Cyane just after the Monterey Sloat Landing of July 7, 1846. In addition to calling the ship "a noble Corvette", he also said "The Cyane is all I could wish - a fine sea vessel and of large size, with a beautiful cabin." Throughout the chapters he had the highest of praise for the ship including this part when the ship was clearing Cape Horn, heading for Boston. "The Cyane rounded the Cape easily, we came round the west coast of the cape with awful speed, before the north west gales, scudding before seas that make a mans hair stand on end, but this ship is the finest I ever saw for the most dangerous operations. We did not suffer from the cold." 

We received a large packet of copied documents from the Du Pont family. These are copies from Captain Samuel F Du Pont, who was Captain of the ship in 1846. We are scanning the documents now and will be posting some of them here in the next few days.

We are currently completing our business plan which has been requested by potential donors and also required for federal funding. In this current economy, fundraising is difficult at best, so we are using this time to continue our research on the Cyane. We are also using this time to work on our school programs and complete the outfitting for several new programs in the works.

NEW! Check out our Facebook page and become a fan. Follow thisLink.

We are happy to announce the addition of Allen Rawl of Allen C. Rawl, Inc.  Mr Rawl will be our consulting shipwright and a valuable member of our Cyane Tall Ship Project team. Welcome aboard Allen!

To move this project forward we need volunteers with fundraising, grantwriting and corporate sponsership capabilities. We have the plans, Shipwright and several possible building sites, all is needed are the funds to build this ship. Our first goal is to raise $50,000 for the items listed below:

$30,000 for Shipwright Allen Rawl to draw up a prelimanry set of plans.

$4,000 for a scale model of the Cyane for displays and fundraisers.

$7,800 for Uniforms and Equipment for our Sloat landing school program.

$6,500 for maintenance and insurance for our ships boats to get them ready for sail programs.

$1,500 for fliers, brochures, ships plans copies and misc printing.

$400 for mannequins to display costumes during events.

This is just the first step of a journey that will one day see the Cyane in Monterey Bay again. Together we can make this project happen, thank you so much for your interest and support.

 Please Support our Donors and Sponsors!

Masonic Temple Pacific Grove

Central Avenue & Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 (831) 649-1834 ‎