CFP: Charting the Inland Seas: Recent Studies in Great Lakes Maritime Research

North American Society for Oceanic History & Canadian Nautical Research Society invite you to participate by presenting a paper at the conference. Please submit an abstract including name, affiliation, location, telephone, fax, and email address, title of the paper, and a brief description of it contents not to exceed 200 words. Submissions must be received no later than March 31st, 2006. (Conference is June 1-4, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum)

Please send abstracts to:
Victor T. Mastone, Director
Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources
Coastal Zone Management
251 Causeway Street, Suite 800
Boston, MA 02114-2136

Tel.: 617-626-1141
Fax: 617-626-1240
Email: victor.mastone@state.ma.us

Record Setting

In the 32-year history of the Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Race, no boat has ever exceeded 500 nautical miles in 24 hours whilst racing. Until Sunday that is, when a day and a half after race start, Sébastien Josse and the crew of ABN Amro Two put down an impressive new record of 504 miles, equating to an average speed of exactly 21 knots. The previous record was held by last race winners, illbruck, who set a distance of 480 miles on a fast passage across the Atlantic. ABN Amro Two's 500 miles is just a touch short of the all-out sailing record of 535 miles, set by Movistar earlier
this year during a delivery trip.

Full story from Scuttlebutt

Official Whitbread/Volvo Race site

Conference: International Congress of Maritime Museums

Last week Aukland, New Zealand hosted the 27th Triennial ICMM Conference. Taking part in this session were delegates from Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, Jersey, France, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Argentina, Canada and the Bahamas. According to a story in The New Zealand Herald the Congress featured several excellent speakers on a wide variety of international subjects.

Closing and Restoration: San Francisco Maritime Museum

Beginning sometime next year the Streamline Moderne Building of the San Francisco Maritime Museum will be closed for repairs that are expected to last roughly 18 months.

It’s funny. I ran by this building once while I was late for a meeting at the Library and never noticed its unique design – which is more than obvious from the photo.

Full story in the San Francisco Examiner

This just in: It will cost $3.5 million to complete the renovations. Federal dollars will pay for the renovations beginning in June and finishing by the end of 2007.

Anniversary-Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

November 10 marks the 30th anniversary of the sinking of one of the most famous of the Great Lakes freighters. Measuring 729 feet, the Great Lakes Engineering Works launched the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1958 and she cruised the Lakes for 17 years.

As many in the maritime community are more than familiar with the story - take the quiz posted on Timothy Craig McCall's comprehensive S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald website. This website is an amazing collection of facts, related events, oral history transcripts with people involved in the sinking, the lyrics to Gordon Lightfoot's song, and just about any other thing that could by associated with the Fitzgerald.

Maritime Heritage Education Conference

The National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Va will be the site of a conference bringing together educators and promoting the sharing of “maritime heritage related partnerships, programs and products”.

From November 18-10, 2005 sessions ranging from “Successful Strategies for Engaging Families” to “Boatbuilding in Key West: Past and Future” will be running in blocks of four concurrent sessions.

The Conference also includes a tour of the Mariners Museum, a “Spirit of Norfolk” Dinner Cruise and a keynote presentation by Dr. Robert Ballard.

For more information check out the conference website.

When Pirates Attack

Popular love of pirates collided with reality recently when modern day Somalians attacked a U.S cruise ship. Attacks the following day on a large bulk carrier and a roll-on roll-off cargo ship prompted the International Maritime Bureau to issue a warning and to advise all ships in the area to coordinate patrols.

Simultaneous with the IMB’s actions the British Maritime officers union, NUMAST, has called for a multinational naval task force to be established to protect ships in piracy-prone areas.

The IMB said the latest incidents brought the total number of attacks to 28 since mid-March after two years of relative calm.

Exhibit: Ships for Victory

The Digital Library of Georgia has just launched an online exhibit of photographs of the J.A. Jones Construction Company and Library Ships in Brunswick, Georgia.

From the site:

The online collection consists of eighty-four black-and-white photographs from the J.A. Jones Construction Company collection at the Brunswick-Glynn County Library that depict the company’s World War II cargo ship building activities in its Brunswick, Georgia shipyard from 1943 to 1945. The images document the life cycle of the Liberty and Knot ships built in Brunswick: from keel-laying and hull construction to christening and launch. Construction techniques are visible in many of the photographs, and several images feature the shipyard’s male and female laborers and management staff. In addition, the launch photographs feature ship sponsors and other dignitaries. Of particular note is a series of photographs depicting Christmas Day, 1944, when the shipyard workers volunteered to work through the holiday, donating their time-and-a-half pay as a Christmas gift to the nation.

CFP: International Log Boat Symposium

The Council of American Maritime Museums and The Museum Small Craft Association have issued a call for papers for the International Log Boat Symposium and invite all interested presenters to submit an abstract by February 17, 2006 to:

Paul Fontenoy
Curator of Maritime Research
North Carolina Maritime Museum
315 Front Street
Beaufort NC 28516

The Symposium will be held April 6-8 at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina.

For more information contact Paul Fontenoy. paul.fontenoy@ncmail.net

Research Fellowship- John Carter Brown Library

The deadline for submission of both Long-Term and Short-Term application materials is January 10, 2006.

THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY will award approximately twenty-five Research Fellowships for the year June 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007. Sponsorship of research at the John Carter Brown Library is reserved exclusively for scholars whose work is centered on the colonial history of the Americas, North and South, including all aspects of the European, African, and Native American involvement.

For more information

To download an application

Temporary Closing

The Operational Archives Branch of the Naval Historical Center will be closed to unofficial researchers from 1 November 2005 until 1 March 2006 to complete processing projects.

Phone: (202) 433-3224; Fax (202) 433-2833

2006 NASOH Meeting

Mark your calendars now for NASOH's Charting the Inland Seas: Recent Studies in Great Lakes Research to be held June 1-4, 2006 at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In addition to great presentations the meeting features tours of the Denis Sullivan, a 138' Great Lakes schooner, Rogers Street Fishing Village, and the Door County Maritime Museum. The event is hosted by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, recently named the Wisconsin state Maritime Museum.

Moby 360

Coming up this weekend on NPR's Studio 360 is a rebroadcast of the 2004 Peabody Award winning show on "Moby Dick". From an interview with Ray Bradbury, author of the Gregory Peck film adaptation to Laurie Anderson's opera, to Moby-Dude, a play about a teenager's summarization of the novel, 360's host Kurt Anderson discusses the many influences Melville's great white novel has had on American culture.

No need to wait for the broadcast however, you can catch it at Ishmael, Ahab, Moby.

Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War

Or...more on the common sailor. The University of North Carolina Press recently published Michael J. Bennett's study of Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War. Unlike Union solder's who joined the army for ideological reason, Bennett argues that sailors enlisted because of "practical circumstances formed within the realities of class ethnicity, and race." Relying on diaries and letters, as well as statisical enlistment information this book provides an interesting picture of why and who formed the bulk of the Union Navy.

This book is also the winner of the 2004 John Lyman Award for U.S. Naval History as presented by the North American Society for Oceanic History

Fire and Water: The CIGNA Firefighting and Maritime Collection

Here's a new and interesting twist on museum exhibits; exhibit the processing of a collection. The National Museum of American History invites visitors to observe staff processing one of their newest collections which includes maritime and firefiring paintings such as the one above - "The Great Fire at Chicago, October 8th, 1871" by Currier and Ives.

Fire and Water

Afternoon Break

A few posts ago detailed several events commomerating Trafalgar Day, one of the most noteable being Adnams special ale. The Adnams company not only makes a good beer, and a good website, they also have a rather fun game for us to play. Go to Win Adnams Prints - and good luck!

Job Posting - Education and Volunteer Assistant Santa Barbara, CA

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is seeking to hire a full-time Education and Volunteer Assistant. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum's mission is to educate the community and visitors about the unique maritime history of California's central coast through interactive and hands-on educational programs such as the Spirit of Dana Point Tall Ship Education Program. Over the past 8 years the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has been privileged to offer such exciting programs as the Wyland Ocean Challenge, multiple Surf Film Series' highlighting new and classic surf films, an engaging lecture series and adult education program, the Tall Ship Education Program, the JASON Project, and much more. The Education and Volunteer Assistant works intimately with the Education Coordinator on all education projects and is highly involved in the planning and execution of all programs.

All interested applicants, please email Education Coordinator, Stephanie Griesmer, at sgriesmer@sbmm.org or call (805) 962-8404 ext. 109

Le Griffon

Le Griffon is considered to have been the first actual ship on the Upper Great Lakes and the most recent to wind up in a court battle. The Great Lakes Exploration Group and the state of Michigan are arguing over ownership of a wreck believed to be that of Le Griffon. While the matter still remains undecided the parties have agreed to jointly begin exploration. Chicago Sun Times Article.

According to Wikipedia Le Griffon "The ship was launched in the Niagara River as a forty-five ton Barque with five guns. On its maiden voyage in 1679 it was sailed across Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. On its return trip it vanished with all six crew members and a load of furs"

Your history: Maritime History

The hundreds of thousands of common sailors who formed the backbone of early North American commerce are virtually invisible. Unless they were among the very few who left diaries and letters of their travels they have disappeared from the historical record for all except the very dedicated researcher willing to spend countless hours pouring over fading reels of microfilm containing the crew lists. While more and more museums, maritime or otherwise have exhibits focused on the experience of the common man, as opposed to the leading class, captains, etc. very few if any have identified all the participants by name.

Now however there are a few notable exceptions:

New London Crew List Database: 1803-1878

Young Men and the Sea: Salem Databases

Black Sailors Research Project

The research potential is enormous!

The Magic of Antarctic Colours

"For most people, thoughts of historical exploration in Antarctica typically center on dogs, skis, snowshoes, and people in fur, not paintbrushes or sketch pads." However it was common for explorers of polar regions to be accompanied by artists who would visually record those dogs, skis, snowshoes, people and polar sites for research and for popular distribution in books and articles. The "Magic of Antarctic Colours" exhibits the vibrantly painted works of David Abbey Paige, an artist who accompanied Byrd on his 1933 expedition.

The Gallery page of the exhibit provides a quick overview of the Magic. The full size images are just as intense, the pastels giving an etheral edge to each piece.