Southern Breeze 2007 Summer Issue - (Page 53) shape SHIP story by KATHIE FARNELL photography by C. ROSS MAJESTIC OAK TREES DESTROYED BY HURRICANE KATRINA ARE BECOMING A PART OF AMERICAN HISTORY. T LEFT IMAGE COURTESY OF MYSTIC SEAPORT he Gulf Coast’s majestic live oaks took a beating from Hurricane Katrina. Along the Mississippi Coast, nearly ten percent of the enormous trees were killed or damaged by the storm, their loss adding to the suffering of homeowners who had considered the huge oaks members of the family. Many of the fallen trees were hundreds of years old. Because of their size and mystique, the oaks have acquired almost mythic status as symbols of longevity— one surviving tree, the Patriarch, which has a place of honor outside Mary Mahoney’s Restaurant in Biloxi, sports a plaque giving its age as 2,000 years. Even those trees whose age is estimated at a less-Biblical figure cast huge shadows as icons of a Gulf Coast way of life now literally gone with the wind. In the wake of Katrina’s devastation, however, some of these trees are going on to new lives preserving a piece of America’s maritime history. When Michael O’Farrell of Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport took the call from Mississippi, he wasn’t surprised to hear someone offering him wood from a fallen oak to use in repairs of the Seaport’s historical wooden ships. The Seaport’s repair facility had used wood from trees felled by hurricanes Ivan and Hugo. However, this time was different. “I told the man we’d be glad to get the wood but we couldn’t send a truck all the way to Mississippi for one fallen tree,” said O’Farrell. There was a brief pause, then came the reply: “Mister,” said the caller sadly, “from where I’m standing there’s enough wood to build a fleet.” A view of the world’s only surviving wooden whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan (left), and a view of the Patriarch, one of the Gulf Coast’s surviving majestic live oak trees (right). Summer 2007 53
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