Top 10 expatriate tales

The Guardian has a new top ten list, Malcolm Pryce's top 10 expatriate tales. The article opens with a mention of Pryce finishing his first novel on a cargo ship, coloring the whole list with the air of a sea voyage.

The list is wide-ranging, but of particular interest is no. 4, The Discovery of Tahiti; a journal of the second voyage of HMS Dolphin round the world under the command of Captain Wallis, RN, in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768, written by her master George Robertson.

Philosophical Transacations, vol. 1

Volume 1 of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is now available on Project Gutenberg and makes for fascinating reading. "For Anno 1665, and 1666," it contains such maritime treasures as "An Appendix to the Directions for Seamen, bound for far Voyages," (from which the image at left was taken), "Of the New American Whale-fishing about the Bermudas," and "Certain Problems touching some Points of Navigation."

There are also discussions related to the making of telescopes and barometers, as well as articles related to the discovery of a "permanent Spott" on Jupiter, such as this one from the issue for "Munday, March 6. 1664/5:"

A Spot in one of the Belts of Jupiter.

The Ingenious Mr. Hook did, some moneths since, intimate to a friend of his, that he had, with an excellent twelve foot Telescope, observed, some days before, he than spoke of it, (videl. on the ninth of May, 1664, about 9 of the clock at night) a small Spot in the biggest of the 3 obscurer Belts of Jupiter, and that, observing it from time to time, he found, that within 2 hours after, the said Spot had moved from East to West, about half the length of the Diameter of Jupiter.

The Ingenious Mr. Hook indeed.

Conference and journal announcement

Massachusetts Maritime Academy will host a Maritime Conference in the Humanities Oct. 23-25, 2009.

The conference details are already up on their website as is the call for papers (deadline is July 1, 2009). Their CFP also mentions a new journal:

The Maritime Conference Program Committee invites individual paper proposals and full panels (three proposals and a chair) on any aspect of the individual's or civilization's relationship with the sea through literature, history, or culture. Papers or panels may address such areas as literary writers and the sea from any period in American or global history; exploration; whaling; merchant or naval history; personal narratives of life at sea; survival literature; war at sea; the visual artist and the sea; poetry and the sea; or any other subject addressing our engagement with the sea through the humanities.

Selected conference papers will be published in the premier issue of the Academy's new annual peer-reviewed journal, The Nautilus: A Maritime Journal of Literature, History, and Culture, forthcoming in 2010.

I look forward to seeing the journal!

Sea chanties on June 5

The second episode of Voicebox will air on KALW on Friday night, June 5, 2009, from 10:00-11:00pm PST, and according to host Cloe Veltman's blog for the show:

This week, Chloe dives into the salty depths of maritime music to explore the voices of some of the world’s greatest sea chantey artists. Special guest Walter Askew, front man of the sea music band Salty Walt and the Rattlin’ Ratlines, sings live in the studio and explains that there’s more to sea music than “what shall we do with the drunken sailor.”

As far as I know, the show isn't podcast, so if you're interested, tune in--KALW's live stream is available in multiple formats.

TIA: I'm not just a fan of KALW, I'm a member. If you like what you hear, consider a donation (no matter how small--they really stretch their pennies) or look under the "Local" column on their homepage for other ways to support & connect to the station.

Hodges painting acquired by Whitby

A watercolor by William Hodges, who sailed with Captain Cook, entitled "Matavai Bay," has been acquired by the Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby (UK). The Artdaily.org article about the painting has a lovely, large graphic of the painting, and the Culture24 article has some further details.

Seas the Moment

The May 11, 2009 episode of "Are We Alone?," the science radio show from SETI, is all about how our oceans are changing. The show is rather folksy and chatty, as usual, but this episode, "Seas the Moment," is as educational as every episode that they air.

I enjoyed listening to Sylvia Earle, who is, according to the this episode's site, "Oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, founder of DeepSearch Foundation, and author of Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas (National Geographic Atlas)," and who, I believe, could make even the most complicated oceanographic concept understandable to even the smallest child. The show is well worth a listen.

Lost Franklin clock found

On Canada.com is a Canwest News Service article by Randy Boswell, "Lost timepiece from Franklin Expedition found." The chronometer has "inexplicably surfaced" in Britain, and its story is fascinating. Boswell also reports that staff at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich are hurrying to unravel that mystery as quickly as possible, as the timepiece will be on display within days of this article's publication.

It might be worth watching the NMM's website for updates!

Aquatic Park Bathhouse murals

This view of the lobby of the Aquatic Park Bathhouse (also known as the Maritime Museum building) in San Francisco was taken by my talented coworker, Tim Campbell (and is posted here with his kind permission). The work on the conservation of Hilaire Hiler's murals progresses, and is a delight to behold--the colors on the cleaned portions of the murals are breathtaking.

More information on the larger Aquatic Park rehabilitation project is available at the San Francisco Maritime NHP's website, and more information on the building is at the Library of Congress' Built in America site, which presents the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey, (1933-Present)--just search for: Aquatic Park Bathhouse

Lorri Glover on the Sea Venture

The Virginia Historical Society has put up Lorri Glover's recent Banner Series lecture, "The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America." (.mp3, ca. 40 min.) With Daniel Blake Smith, Lorri Glover is the author of The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown about the wreck of the Sea Venture in Bermuda in 1609, and its wide implications. Ms. Glover's lecture is entertaining and educational and just one of many history lectures available online from the Society.

The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has even more information on Jamestown and Bermuda, including the Sea Venture, on their Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies site (mounted in conjunction with their exhibit which runs from March 1-October 15, 2009)--you can scroll down or use the left-bar navigation for links to relevant audio, video, and textual materials.

A look at nautical pulp fiction

It's a sunny day. You're reclining on a deck chair--possibly on the beach, possibly on the deck of a cruise ship making for an island port where the palm fronds sway in the cool breezes. Nap taken, you reach for one of the books nearby. Which would you rather read? Moby Dick, or "A lusty tale of the South Pacific ... The Strumpet Sea?" How about, "Adventurer, lover, rogue, spy--he was a Buccaneer Surgeon!" Do you want to find out "What makes Onionhead run? Food or sex?" Too romantic? Perhaps you'd rather try, "The adventures of George Abercrombie Fox--the toughest bastard in the Royal Navy!"

It's taken a long time, but best-sellers are making their way into research libraries, including ours. Public librarians have long known that these are the books in demand with the reading public, but it's taken longer for research libraries to realize that best-sellers, even pulp novels, have something to offer researchers.

How long? About a hundred and fifty years. Pulp fiction periodicals have been published since the mid-19th century, and the Library of Congress' Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds dime novels dating back to the 1860s. But scholarly attention has developed slowly...

This is the beginning of another article that I wrote for our Library Friends' Relative Bearings on the recently acquired Eberhardt Collection. You can read the rest of it in the .pdf version of the newsletter (p. 1 and 4).

Mary Lee Fowler in D.C.

If you're in the Washington, D.C. (USA) area on Thursday, May 14, consider spending your lunch break at the Navy Memorial where Mary Lee Fowler will be discussing and signing her book, Full Fathom Five: a Daughter's Search. The event is free and open to the public, part of the Memorial’s "Authors on Deck" Series of Navy-related Book Lectures.

Ms. Fowler's book won Honorable Mention in Non-Fiction at the 2009 Maine Literature Awards--more information on her book and the event is available at the Navy Memorial's events site.

(My thanks to André Sobocinski for sending the lecture announcement.)

Indigenous boats blog

My thanks to Bob Holtzman for writing to tell me about his wonderful blog, Indigenous Boats: Small Craft Outside the Western Tradition. His posts are a pleasure to read and include beautiful graphics, and the alphabetic list of labels makes navigating the site, and the traditions represented, very easy.

He also links to lots of books, and I hope he writes more book reviews--they're well considered and entertaining. Start by reading Raft Wackos.

Infopeople

Infopeople is a familiar organization to many California library workers, but perhaps lesser known outside the state. They hold fantastic training sessions at low or no cost for California library workers, and make dozens of archived webcasts and webinars available to the world--for free. There are many of interest to those outside of library settings covering topics such as volunteering, technology, leadership and research skills. Many other resources are available on their site, including past training materials, podcasts, etc.

They've also compiled a great search tools page, that lists favorite resources by topic and leads to a custom best search tools site which lists multiple search engines on one page.

LJ's Darwin reading list

This year is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Want to read it, but unsure which edition might be the best? A recommendation is included in Library Journal's article, "Charles Darwin at 200 : celebrate evolution's father with these seven titles."

The article is an annotated bibliography which includes ISBN numbers (for quick searching on your favorite book site) and price. Want to find the titles? To find the books in a library, check out worldcat.org or to purchase the book new, check out IndieBound to purchase from an independent bookseller (just copy & paste that ISBN number, or any other search terms, in the search box). Buying used books? My favorite sites are Abebooks for a bargain, and TomFolio for nicer or collectible editions.

And which edition does LJ recommend? Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition. Sterling. 2008. c.538p. ed. by David Quammen. illus. index. ISBN 978-1-4027-5639-9. $35.

North Atlantic Fisheries History Conference, Norfolk, Va.

Dr. Ingo Heidbrink has sent along an announcement for the 12th North Atlantic Fisheries History Conference, taking place 19-22 August 2009 in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). More information is available from the North Atlantic Fisheries History Association. The invitation:

North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA)
Old Dominion University, Department of History
Invitation:
12th North Atlantic Fisheries History Conference
19-22 August 2009 in Norfolk, VA (USA)
The North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA) and the Department of History at Old
Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, VA invites you to participate in the 12th North Atlantic
Fisheries History Conference to be held from 19-22 August 2009 in Norfolk, VA (USA). This
meeting is designed to stimulate scholarly exchange between researchers at all levels (from
graduate students to senior scientists) and in all disciplines that relate to the long-term
development of fishing activity and its impact on the marine environment.
The special theme of the conference will be:
Fisheries Management in a Historical Perspective
In addition to seven thematic sessions with scholarly papers there will be a roundtable on archival
sources and fisheries history research and the launching of NAFHA’s big book (A History of the
North Atlantic Fisheries: Volume 1 – From Early Times to the mid-19th Century).
To register for the conference, please return the attached registration form via fax or e-mail.
Registration deadline is: June 15th 2009.
The conference fee (including all sessions, coffee-breaks, conference-dinner, etc.) is 180.—US$
for NAFHA-members, 210.—US$ for non-members for registration and payment before June 1st
2009 and (210.—US$ NAFHA members, 240.—US$ non-members for registration and payment
after June 1st 2009)
For a limited number of participants, especially young colleagues and colleagues from developing
countries, the conference fee might be partly or completely waived. Such a waiver requires
application before June 1st 2009.
The North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA)
is an international, interdisciplinary organization that aims to enhance our knowledge and
understanding of the historical development of the fisheries conducted in the North Atlantic.
NAFHA meets its aim by fostering research activity, chiefly through the promotion of conferences
that bring together established and emerging scholars to examine socio-cultural, economic,
political and environmental aspects of commercial fishing activity over the last millennium. The
findings of these conferences, together with monographs and reference works, are disseminated
in the Association’s publication series, Studia Atlantica. For further information, visit
www.hull.ac.uk/nafha
The History Department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA
is one of very few North American university departments with a focus on maritime history.
Research is conducted into global maritime history and the fisheries history of the Atlantic region.
Faculty members include renowned specialists in this field, who participate in the intercollegiate,
interdisciplinary Maritime Consortium at ODU. This brings together scholars from various
disciplines, including the humanities, sciences, social sciences and professional schools, all of
whom are concerned with maritime and marine affairs.
Norfolk, VA is a major seaport of the USA located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A rich
local history of fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean as well as maritime
industries, marine research institutions, government agencies like NOAA, the USCG and
maritime museums and collections like the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, VA characterize
the region.
Please forward this conference announcement / invitation to all colleagues who might be
interested in the 12th NAFHA conference in Norfolk, VA on 19-22 August 2009.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information at: iheidbri@odu.edu
Looking forward to seeing you in Norfolk, VA, in August 2009!
Dr. Ingo Heidbrink
-NAFHA Presidency & Conference Organizer-
Associate Professor – Department of History
Old Dominion University - Norfolk, VA
e-mail: iheidbri@odu.edu
Phone: 1-757-683-3656 or skype: ingo.heidbrink
North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA)
Old Dominion University, Department of History
12th North Atlantic Fisheries History Conference
19-22 August 2009 in Norfolk, VA (USA)
Preliminary Program
Tuesday, August 18th :
Registration and get-together Reception
Wednesday, August 19th
9:30 – 11:00 Welcome and Introduction
11:30 – 13:00 Session I - The “Science” of Fisheries Management
Chair: David J. Starkey
Petter Holm:
Legitimacy and privatization:
Fisheries management and the role of the fishermen in society
Sydney Holt:
The Evolution of the Objectives, Science and Procedures of Fisheries Management
Katharina Jantzen:
The evolution of incentive-based quota management in North Atlantic cod fisheries
14:30 – 16:00 Session II - Fisheries: Resources, Politics, and Conflict
Chair: Maura Hametz
Will Bryan:
“The Strength of the Scup Ticket”:
The Politics of Fishery Regulation in Rhode Island, 1870-1872
Christopher Magra:
Oceanic Resource Extraction and Conflict in the Revolutionary Era
Christine Overgaard:
Managing Dutch cod fishery in the 1800s
16:30 – 18:00 Session III - Fisheries “Lifecycles”: Stocks and Management
Chair: Matthew McKenzie
Piers Crocker:
The Protection of Stocks of Norwegian Brisling 1900-2008
Ernesto Lopez:
The Anchovy in the Bay of Biscay. The Birth and the Death of a Fishery (1880-2008)
Soeren Byskov:
Trawling for the Danish Fishmeal c.1970-2008
Fisheries management in a sector with bad reputation
Thursday, August 20th
9:30 – 11:00 Session IV - Norwegian Fisheries’ Management
Chair: Aarstein Svihus
Paal Christensen:
The role of fisheries management in the history of the Norwegian fisheries, 1970-2005
Bjoern-Petter Finstad:
The Lofoten Law of 1897 and the Finnmark Law of 2009 –
A comparison between two Norwegian management regimes
Jan Petter Johnsen:
Management and cybernatization in Norwegian fisheries
11:30 – 13:00 Session V - Fishieries Policy in European Commerce
Chair: Lars U. Scholl
Gaute Heyerdahl:
The Creation of the European Communities Common Fisheries Policy, 1963-1970.
Chris Reid, Morten Karnoe Sondergaard:
Bilateral trade and fisheries development: the 1933 Anglo-Danish Trade Agreement
Olga Wisniewska:
Liver-oil logistics – norwegian fish-oil trade with Stettin in the end of XIXth century.
14:15 – 16:15 Session VI - Cultural Aspects of Fisheries History
Chair: Annette Finley-Croswhite
Dag Hundstad:
“Marcus the Fisherman” – Coastal Tourism and Regional Identity
Ole Sparenberg:
The Fischbratküche: „Fish ‘n’ Chips“ in Germany, 1924-1939
Robert Gear:
The Changing Role of Management in Shetland’s Pelagic Fishing Industry 1945-2005
Collin Davis:
Transatlantic Women: Fishermen’s Wives’ Organizations in Gloucester and Hull
16:15 – 18:00 Program with the United States Coast Guard
18:00 – 20:00 Reception
Friday, August 21st
9:30 – 11:00 Session VII - Seas of Change: Fisheries and Modernization
Chair: Ingo Heidbrink
Matthew McKenzie:
“Curbing Commodification: Biology, Culture, and Management in the
Southern NewEngland Colonial Inshore Fisheries.”
Aarstein Svihus:
Modernisation, rationalization of the fishing fleet and the
fishermen’s political response,1950-1990s
Brian McSorely:
Seas of Change: Redefining New England’s Fishing Community
11:30 – 13:00 Roundtable Archival Sources and Fisheries History Research
(Organized by Bill Thiesen, USCG)
14:30 – 18:00 NAFHA Internal Meetings
18:00 Conference Dinner
Saturday, August 22nd
9:30 – 16:00 Post-Conference Tour: Mariners’ Museum and USS MONITOR - Center
18:00 – 22:00 Farewell Reception

Princess Taiping update

Sakkis, a friend of one of Princess Taiping's crew members, Hugh Morrow, took time to leave a comment here. He has a nice post with a video on his blog, "Mr. Cakes mishapps and misadventures." He prompted me to look for some updates.

I was able to dig up the following news stories that cover different aspects of the incident:

• Wrecked vessel's crew wants investigation into sea strike (Apr. 29, 2009) Story with details of the accident from crew members.
  
• Foiled voyage crew visit commission (Apr. 28, 2009) Story about the crew's visit to the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, and their intent to file a reasonable compensation claim.
  
• Princess Taiping's crew to tell their voyage in Xiamen, (Apr. 29, 2009) Story about Hugh Morrow, who left the ship in Okinawa.
  

In addition, The Old Salt Blog has an update with a link to the details on the freighter, the Champion Express.

Discovering Hiler

This is an article that I wrote for the April 2009 issue of our Friends of the Library newsletter, Relative Bearings, on our library's holdings related to Hilaire Hiler, the artist who not only painted the murals in the Aquatic Park Building at SF Maritime NHP, but was in charge of all the artwork in the remarkable WPA building. I reprint it here because his contribution to maritime art seems little known.


Discovering Hiler
by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian
Reprinted from: Relative Bearings, issue 13 (Apr. 2009), p. 1-2.

Until recently, the library's holdings on Hilaire Hiler were sparse: his Notes on the Technique of Painting (1969), a few mentions in one volume of his friend Henry Miller's The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, and a pam file. When interest in Hiler was spurred by the second phase of the Museum restoration, we discovered this wasn't sufficient. For an artist so concerned with conveying his ideas in words as well as pictures, this wasn't sufficient.

This current phase of Museum restoration includes conservation of Hilaire Hiler's colorful murals evoking the lost Pacific continent of Mu. (Hiler is also responsible for the beautiful room, originally the Ladies' Lounge, that he called "The Prismatarium," as it functioned in relation to color the way a planetarium functions for the heavens.) In conjunction with completion of the first phase of restoration, the main floor of the Museum building has also been opened for public tours (which are wonderful and highly recommended--call the Visitor Center for more information, 415-447-5000). After taking the tour myself, I wanted to learn more, and discovered some monographs in the pam file--I individually cataloged them in order to increase their visibility. These were two very small volumes with sparse information--but one of them had a bibliography.

Debbie Grace, as the Technical Services Library Technician, has a talent for locating out-of-print books in excellent condition at reasonable prices. Working through the bibliography, as well as following online leads, we discovered that Hiler was a prolific author, writing often about painting and color theory, and that the Library lacked many important works. (See below for a complete list of our holdings.)

We also discovered that Hiler was quite an interesting figure. Born Hiler Harzberg in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 16, 1898, he and his entire family later formally changed their surname to Hiler due to the increasing amount of hostility and prejudice against Jews. In his youth Hiler attended the Rhode Island School of Design but later enrolled in the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in accordance with his father's wishes. Many articles in Time magazine talk about the Hilers, including Hilaire's flunking out of Wharton, being told by two Philadelphia art schools that he can't draw, and pursuing piano and the saxophone before eventually making his way to Paris (despite being forcibly removed from a Europe-bound freighter by his dad's private detectives).

In Paris he played jazz, often with a live monkey on his back, and was part of the first jazz band ever to play in Germany. He came to co-own a jazz club that was closed down after the inadvertent ejection of a Senegalese Prince; he reopened the club, inviting every black in Paris to the opening.

In regards to art, he was steeped in post-cubist movements, and came to be recognized as a leader of the Precisionist movement, writing on abstract art, costume, and color and design theory. He moved to San Francisco in the 1930s, was commissioned by the WPA to paint our murals and was an active artist in California before starting the Hiler College in Santa Fe in 1944. Well traveled, he died in Paris in 1966. Several posthumous retrospectives have been held, and perhaps his stature as an artist is best expressed by an anonymous writer in Time:

"All his life he wanted to be a painter, but virtually his only formal education in the arts was a few lessons on the saxophone. Serious critics have praised his work, night-club proprietors have admired his murals, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Mrs. John Work Garrett have bought his paintings." --"Hilermono," Time, Monday, Mar. 23, 1936.

Sources and selected bibliography (Library holdings noted):

Churchward, James. The Lost Continent of Mu: Motherland of Man. (not held by the Library)

Guthrie, Julian, "Maritime Museum restoration reveals hidden art," San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, October 3, 2008, p. B-1, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/BAQ6135E0E.DTL

Hiler color harmony chart and color mixing guide. In the Library at: r ND1510.H55 1900z

[Hiler, Hilaire file] In the Library at: p NA3860.H5 pam

Hiler, Hilaire. Aquatic Park building decoration. In the Library in: p NA3860.H5 pam

Hiler, Hilaire. Color harmony and pigments. In the Library at: rr ND1510.H545 1942, with accompanying chart.

Hiler, Hilaire. Notes on the technique of painting. In the Library at: ND1500.H5 1969

Hiler, Hilaire. The painter's pocket-book of methods and materials. In the Library at: ND1500.H53 1962

Hiler, Hilaire. Why abstract? In the Library at: p N6494.A2 H55 1962

Hiler, Hilaire. Why expressionism? (Includes: Manifesto of psychromatic design) In the Library at: r ND196.E9 H55 1946

Regan, Michael. Hilaire Hiler, 1898-1966. In the Library at: ND237.H59 R44 1976

Time magazine articles are available for free online from the 1920s on at http://www.time.com/ and include: "Hiler hits out" (Monday, Apr. 5, 1943), "Hilermono" (Mar. 23, 1936), "Sea murals" (Monday, Feb. 6, 1939), and "Why abstract?" (Monday, Oct. 1, 1945)

Waldemar, George. Hilaire Hiler et la vision panoramique. In the Library at: p ND237.H59 W35 1932

Major archival collections of Hiler's include those held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and by the Zimmerman Library, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.

For more information, consult the library catalog, http://library.nps.gov/ or http://www.worldcat.org/

Princess Taiping crew rescued but junk lost

I read the BBC news article & watched the video with a heavy heart. The crew was so kind myself and my husband when we visited them and their beautiful junk at the Hyde Street Pier here in San Francisco. They even made us tea. They took the time to give such an interesting and fun presentation to us at our staff meeting.

I am so sorry for the loss of their craft. My heart goes out to Nelson, Angela and the crew, and everyone who gave so much of themselves to the Princess Taiping.

More stories in the Taipei Times and at the Hawaii Health Guide site.

The Linda Hall Library

The Linda Hall Library website has some wonderful resources. Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the library is, according to its site:

...the largest privately funded library of science, engineering and technology in the world open to the public. The Library is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive physical, life science, engineering and technology collections, reliable library services, a host of other programs including a fellowship program, educational programs, and an ongoing series of public lectures, events and exhibitions.

Of particular interest are the online exhibitions which include, "Ice: A Victorian Romance," "Out of this World: The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas," and "Voyages: Scientific Circumnavigations 1679-1859."

Europeana

Europeana is not just an excellent resource for images, but for texts, videos, even sounds. There are resources from previous centuries all the way up through 2004 (that I found)--chronological browsing is available through the "Timeline" link at the top of the page, or "Timeline navigator" at the bottom. To see the participating institutions, select "Partners," to see them listed by material type and location. The advanced search option is worth checking out--it doesn't take the time to direct you to another page, but quickly changes the search box to the advanced search options.

Even better, the interface is available in multiple languages--not just a few of the most spoken European languages, but I counted 26 different languages.

Is there maritime content? Oh, yes. Lots.