Thanksgiving at sea

The Science Buzz site from the Science Museum of Minnesota has an article about a fun Thanksgiving at sea. Dinner was made for 114 people from a dozen different countries, and the table was festive with food sculptures and fruit statues.

Maritime art at Christie's

On Dec. 3, Christie's will hold a maritime art auction in New York. (Sale no. 2067.)

Even if you're not in the market to buy a painting, do check out their auction site. You can limit the list of artworks by many factors including medium, artist, origin, and date. And clicking on a thumbnail of the work brings up a detailed page that allows you to "Enlarge & zoom" in on the image--the images load quickly and once zoomed, are easily panned for detailed examination.

You can also explore further by entering "maritime" into their keyword search box; it will retrieve all the items in this auction, plus maritime-themed items from other sales.

Straddling the world of the written word

Joan Druett, author of eighteen wonderful books, has a delightful blog, Straddling the world of the written word (now appearing in our blog list). Many of the posts deal with things maritime, but she also discusses the broader world of books, libraries, and publishing.

And don't miss the whisperings from Spy Mouse!

Casco Bay Boaters

There's a new blog in our resources list, Casco Bay Boaters. It's a great resource, even for those not boating in Casco Bay--the links under the "Charts" and "Weather & Tides" tabs are excellent. (There are even links about the phases of the moon.) There are also interesting original posts on many maritime topics, as well as highlights from other blogs, on everything having to do with the sea.

Alexander Selkirk & Robinson Crusoe

The recent news about the evidence of Alexander Silkirk's campsite on the island of Aguas Buenas (renamed Robinson Crusoe Island) reignited my interest in the debate over his connection to Defoe's character Robinson Crusoe. A CUNY website, Alexander Selkirk, has a thorough discussion of Selkirk in the context of other readings on castaways, and links to the BBC's excellent article on Selkirk and his possible connection to Crusoe.

Although this site hasn't been updated since 2002, it was developed as part of a course in the 18th century English novel that has lots of great resources and reading lists. Even the paper topics are still there--check them out if you're looking for suggested ways to approach the book.

Harvard opts out

There has been a lot of coverage and analysis of the recent Google Books settlement with publishers and authors, but it's finally had an impact on the maritime world: see Jennifer Howard's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Harvard Says No Thanks to Google Deal for Scanning In-Copyright Works." Harvard's libraries contain a wealth of material on business, including the shipping industry, and their reasons for opting out include concerns over prices and quality. I believe this is very good news, as they are committed to exploring "other ways to open up its collections more broadly for the common good."

I read about this on the Open Content Alliance blog--the folks behind the Open Library catalog and the Internet Archive. These are becoming essential resources. If you're interested in digital books, start with the Open Library--it's an easy-to-use catalog that includes the over 1 million digital books at the Internet Archive. (You can limit your search to "scanned books only" right under the home page's search box.) If you're interested in other formats (audio, video, etc.), head directly to the Internet Archive, which also includes the WayBack Machine. If something you're interested in has disappeared from the web, chances are you can find it archived in the WayBack Machine.

Google Books is still a useful tool; it still functions as a multiple text index and includes many books still under copyright which, if you're lucky, show the snippet view of the passage that interests you. But I start with the Open Library and the Internet Archive; they present each book in multiple formats, and soon will release the next version of their online flip-book reader (which I was lucky enough to see last week, and which is a pleasure to use).

The portrait of a skeleton pirate

The story of the painting of the cover of Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides has been told by the artist, James Gurney. Perhaps better known for his Dinotopia books, he writes and illustrates Gurney Journey primarily for artists and writers, but it is also interesting for readers who've ever wondered about a cover illustration, or just how one might get a realistic animated skeleton model.

Transcience and Woolf

The BBC has run a story on the newly released recordings from the British Library, featuring some of the greatest writers of the past century, including the complete version of the only known recording of Virginia Woolf. (A two-minute excerpt is available with the article, and over seven minutes of her "Eulogy to words" is available on the BBC Four's Interviews site.)

What has this to do with maritime history? Her novel, To the Lighthouse, has often been called a meditation on transience. Lighthouses, beacons of life-saving, remind us always of the transience of life; of the need for the light because of the loss of life at that site.

Woolf's living voice--lost. This recording? We strive to preserve it not only through the British Library's staff's care, but through publication and wide distribution of many, many copies.

The sea? Eternal?

Have a happy Halloween

"Ye ghost ship," from the Library of Congress' Prints & Photographs online catalog, which currently provides access to over 50% of the Division's holdings.

Thirty-one ancient ships

I'm becoming a big fan of the CBC's Dispatches (which I listen to on KALW). In their show from Oct. 20-26, 2008, the segment "Bosporus big dig" takes us to the construction area for a tunnel beneath the Bosporus Strait, which is a site for stunning archaeological discoveries, including, to date, thirty-one ships dating from the 4th to the 10th centuries.

Meribeth Deen's report is factual without being dry, educational without being pedantic. She conveys the tension of conducting painstaking investigation under the world's scrutiny; when completed, this project will end the "Bosporus bottleneck," and it will be possible to take the train from China to London.

Call For Papers - Coriolis

Coriolis: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies is seeking English language scholarly manuscripts for publication in a new on-line, fully indexed journal published in conjunction with the National Maritime Digital Library, hosted at Mystic Seaport with support from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation.

Named after the physical forces that drive global ocean currents and human activities on the seas, Coriolis welcomes studies in history, literature, art, music, archaeology, and environmental studies from researchers all over the world. The journal particularly seeks anglophonic manuscripts from scholars working outside the North Atlantic/North American regions, including Africa, the Indian Ocean basin, Australia, the Pacific basin, and South America. Papers that explore interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Submitted manuscripts will be fully peer-reviewed by university faculty and researchers active in the manuscript's relevant field.

Coriolis will launch in February of 2009 and can be found at http://ijms.nmdl.org

For more information, contact Paul O'Pecko (paul.opecko@mysticseaport.org) or Andrew German, (andy.german@mysticseaport.org), Editors, Mystic Seaport Museum.

Section Editors:

History:
Joshua Smith, Associate Professor of Humanities, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

Arts (Literature, Art, Music):
Daniel Brayton, Assistant Professor of English and American Literatures, Middlebury College

Environmental Studies:
Matthew McKenzie, Assistant Professor of History, University of Connecticut

Seafood Watch sushi pocket guide is out!

It's here! The sushi pocket guide is available online, for download, and via mail order (all for free) from Seafood Watch's sushi website.

From there, select the "Animals & Activities" link, and choose the "Podcast, Videos and Webcams" to go to the E-Quarium. The Outer Bay Cam is a real treat--if you're luck, the Giant Pacific Bluefin Tuna will swim by. (For help in finding it, open the Outer Bay Spotting Guide, and don't miss the little blue fish links next to the animal's name--it's a link to an excellent online field guide.)

Preservation at work and at home

Are you confronted with preservation issues on the job, but money for training is scarce? Or absent? Preservation 101 is a free online course from the Northeast Document Conservation Center--itself a wealth of free information on preservation and conservation, including Resources for private and family collections, a short, must-read overview for anyone who confronted with preservation issues at home.

And who isn't? The information presented isn't just applicable to medieval manuscripts; have any digital photos? Want to still have those digital photos? Check out the site.

Want to know more? My favorite collection of conservation information for all audiences: COOL--COnservation OnLine. It's all there, from citations to the scientific research behind aging testing to what to with a myriad of objects found in the home, to how to locate a professional conservator.

CFP: Rethinking the Maritime Museum

The excellent museum studies blog, The Attic, gleans many items of interest to the maritime museum world, including the recent CFP, Rethinking the Maritime Museum from H-Museum. From the Department of Museum Studies' research students, University of Leicester, UK, The Attic has many items of international interest, and now appears in MaritimeCompass' list of recommended blogs (on your right, if you're reading this on our site). Be sure to follow their link to the Museological Review--there's a lot of interesting reading there on cultural heritage.

Princess TaiPing

On Friday Oct. 10, I was biking in to work through Aquatic Park as usual, and luckily I had a camera with me. I never expected to see a junk that wasn't the Grace Quan in Aquatic Park, and little did I know about the treat that lay in store.

Yesterday at our staff meeting, we were privileged to hear a presentation by Nelson Liu (Liu Ning-sheng), captain of the Princess TaiPing, and Angela Chao (Chai Hsiu-Ying). Fifty-four feet long, drawing only about six and a half feet, they sailed into Eureka on Oct. 3, crossing the Pacific in 69 days. They hope to sail down the Pacific Coast of North America, and return to China--if they do, they will making the first documented round-trip voyage of a junk under sail, since the Free China who crossed the Pacific 50 years ago never made it back.

A replica of a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) war junk, her keel was laid on Jan. 20, 2007, and she was built using completely traditional techniques, and as historically accurate as possible. She was even launched traditionally, with a custom-built winch, later donated to a maritime museum. Now this war junk is on a mission of peace and living history--if she is successful, it is hoped she will continue her mission of peace and education through donating her to a maritime museum.

Now she is in San Francisco at the Hyde St. Pier, open to the public, until the end of the month (possibly Oct. 28), from there, continuing on to Hawaii. Visit her if you can--how often does one get the chance to step aboard a Ming Dynasty war junk?

Resources:

• Official Princess Taiping website, available in three languages, including English
  
• Taiwan Journal article from Oct. 10, 2008
  
• Eureka Reporter article from Oct. 5, 2008
  
• San Francisco Chronicle article published Oct. 16, 2008, with many color photos and a video
  
• SF Weekly slideshow
  

Poverty on the beach

Please read Peter Mello's excellent post on poverty in the maritime world, which he wrote to participate in Blog Action Day 2008.

His title, "Shipbreaking/People Breaking" says it all.

Ports, Forts & Sports

The Call for Papers is out for the 2009 Annual Conference of the North American Society for Oceanic History, Steamship Historical Society of America and National Maritime Historical Society, "Ports, Forts and Sports: Maritime Economy, Defense and Recreation through Time and across Space." If you missed the announcement on H-Maritime, you may not have heard that papers from graduate students are especially encouraged and solicited--so get writing, and build that CV!

Top ten whale titles

The latest top ten list from the Guardian brings us Philip Hoare's top ten whale tales. The author of Leviathan, or The Whale starts his list with Moby Dick, but continues with more obscure titles including nonfiction covering various disciplines, poetry, and even a guidebook to marine mammals.

The article even links to the BBC's The Hunt for Moby-Dick if you're looking for an audio-visual exploration of this leviathan of whaling literature.

Any Takers?

JFK's yacht "Manitou" is for sale for$1.3 million. A 62-foot Sparkman and Stephens-designed yawl built by M.M. Davis and Sons in Solomons Island in 1937 "Manitou" was President John F. Kennedy's sailing White House.

While Franklin D. Roosevelt's U.S.S Sequoia is perhaps the most famous presidential yacht there are several others. Most listed on the Presidential yachts page.

Sailing again with the Canadians

The CBC's Dispatches program is addressing maritime matters again this week; the story for Oct. 6/12, 2008 features David McGuffin's interviews concerning piracy off of Somalia. He provides an interesting overview of the international issues as well as details as he speaks with those on the scene, including those on board the Ville de Québec. The conversation continues with Roger Middleton discussing causes, details of the pirates' tactics, the limitations of defenses, and suggestions for possible solutions.