I Like....Museums (maritime, of course)

It's been a slow month for maritime news. Lots of new exhibits, but no real news. I've been focusing on new methods of delievering information via the web and developing web 2.0 technologies (i.e. ways of getting information back from our users). In the course of that I ran across this site called I Like...Museums.

It's a site that provides info about museums but...not by museum but by topic. For instance they have an I Like....ships trail, and an I Like...maritime trail.

But the cool thing is that users can create the trails and comment on the museums. Which makes interesting reading not only for others, but also for museum personnel.

btw...if you want something fun to do in your spare time...search http://www.flickr.com/ for your favorite maritime museum...you might be surprised what visitors post pictures of.

Speaking of the Titanic

A few entries ago I commented on the popularity of the Titanic exhibit presently being held in Denver. Today's BBC reports on a new Titanic development - an unused ticket. This appears to be the second such ticket in existence, the first having been uncovered in 2003. I'm going to link to the BBC story here instead of relaying all the details because if you're really interested they kindly supply a series of links on the right of the page to more Titanic stories.

New Collection Online

Penobscot Marine Museum now has an education site and searchable catalog. Users can search and see collection items in a nice interface. Students and teachers can learn about maritime history and culture in nine education modules. There is also a journal of a 16-year-old boy who sailed from Belfast to California and back in 1866.

I haven't had too much time to really explore but that's no reason not to share it!

http://www.penobscotbayhistory.org/

Titanic Rescue Log Sells for $102,000 at Christie's in New York

From Bloomberg.com

June 28 (Bloomberg) -- A log book from the cable ship Mackay-Bennett detailing the grisly efforts to recover corpses from the Titanic fetched $102,000 today at Christie's International in New York -- more than double its $50,000 high estimate.

The unidentified winning bidder, dressed in a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, dashed from the room as soon as the gavel went down.

The brittle, mottled book, with neat pencil inscriptions, was the most expensive item in a 224-lot Ocean Liner sale that tallied $718,680. The auction, which included vintage travel posters, a silver ice bucket from the Normandie and slew of ship paintings, was estimated to bring as much as $928,000.

Meanwhile - back on the web -

There is an interesting and lengthy discusion underweigh at titanic.com on the Denver Titanic Artifact Exhibit.

Day 2 - Happy July!

Saturday at the WoodenBoat Show was a very good day. More boats and even more people. Bear and Bull, the sandbaggers are here, and some great radio controlled sailboats which were great fun to play with. Mostly we talked to people about the Ships Plans Collection, the range, the detail, the process for ordering, etc., but if we had prepared differently, there is so much more we could have brought to the show.

Around noon word spread that we will have a chance to do just that. The WoodenBoat Show will be returning to Mystic Seaport next year. Same weekend, so mark your calendar.

I did finally manage to get a beer around 4:00 (no Fins in sight - but I'll keep looking), and a couple more at the WoodenBoat reception. Then in true summer fashion had some margaritas and walked around town. Now I've got to make that long commute back to the grounds for the final day.