The Shackleton or Leonard Hussey’s Banjo Reborn

Posted on by August 18, 2013
Photo: www.nmmc.co.uk

Photo: www.nmmc.co.uk

When the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition‘s three-masted barquentine,  Endurance, was crushed in the Antarctic ice,  expedition leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton, allowed each man to take off only two pounds of possessions, including their boots. The only exception Shackleton made was Leonard Hussey’s banjo, which weighed 12 pounds. Hussey was the meteorologist on board the Endurance and was an accomplished banjo player who had entertained the crew with weekly performances on his five string zither banjo Shackleton insisted that Hussey should take the banjo along for the sake of maintaining the crew’s morale. Shackleton told Hussey: “It’s vital mental medicine, and we shall need it.”  While waiting for rescue, Hussey played popular tunes to entertain the crew every night during their ordeal.  Leonard Hussey returned to England with the banjo and donated it to the National Maritime Museum.

The banjo has been the subject of several documentaries and at least one lawsuit.  It is now also the inspiration for a new project to build “The Shackleton,” the first affordable British-made banjo in 60 years. The Great British Banjo Company has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise £30,000 to fund the only low-cost banjo genuinely manufactured in Britain, and the first production banjo to be manufactured in Britain for decades.

Ship Happens! Visualizing the Oliver Hazard Perry and the OHP Photo Blog

Posted on by August 17, 2013

OHP2Captain Richard Bailey recently posted a sketch by Scott Kennedy of what the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will look like under sail.  Click here or on the thumbnail to go to the blog post.  “Scott has made paintings and drawings of the sea and ships since the mid sixties and many times has been hailed as the “Mariners Artist”. Known by many for his numerous illustrations in books and magazines, his work captures both modern-day and historic maritime subjects on East and West Coasts of the United States and around the globe.”  Click here to see more of Scott Kennedy’s work.

Captain Bailey also recently posted on how one one can view the progress of the ship as she is completed in Narraganset Bay Shipyard.  Click here to see the photo blog of the steady progress on Rhode Island’s Tall Ship. When completed in 2014, the 196’ three-masted, square-rigged tall ship SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will be the largest civilian training vessel in North America and the first ocean-going, full-rigged ship built in the United States in more than 100 years.

Shipworms, Whale Bones and Shackleton’s Endurance

Posted on by August 16, 2013
Endurance3

Shackleton’s Endurance

The press recently has been full of headlines about Ernest Shackleton‘s ill-fated ship, Endurance.  The Christian Science Monitor asks, “What happened to Shackleton’s sunken ship?”  Radio New Zealand answers the question with “Shackleton’s ship could still be in good condition.”  The Raw Story takes a slightly different tack with “Scientists investigate the fate of ‘Endurance’ – explorer Ernest Shackleton’s sunken ship.”  If you read the articles, however, it quickly becomes clear that they have relatively little to do with Shackleton or the Endurance, the explorer’s ship crushed by Antarctic ice, and everything with do with shipworms.  Apparently the writers were concerned that readers might not care about ship worms, so they all lead with Shackleton.

The real news is that scientists have recently discovered that shipworms do not live in waters of the Antarctic.  Wooden ships, including but not limited to Shackleton’s Endurance, may be well preserved, or at least not eaten by worms, on the ocean floor where they sank.  For marine archaeologists, this could be a really big deal.

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Beware the Red-Bellied Pacu? Testicle-Biting Fish Invading Denmark?

Posted on by August 15, 2013

pacu_2643102bThe headline in Live Science sounds like the premise for a bad SyFi channel made-for-cable movie – Testicle-Biting Fish  Invading Denmark.  It turns out that a Danish fisherman caught, what is believed to be, a red-bellied pacu, an omnivorous South American freshwater fish related to the piranha, in the Oresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden.   The fish have what are described as “uncannily human-looking teeth.”  The fish caught in Denmark was quite small at less than 8 inches (20 cenitmenters) long, but can grow much larger. Some pacu can reach three feet long and weigh as much as 55 pounds.

The fish are also rumoured to bite human testicles, earning it the nickname “ball-cutter.”  Whether there is any truth to this rumor is unclear.   Though widely repeated, at least one expert has dismissed the claim as a myth.  The claim seems to be traceable only as far back as December 2011, when two fisherman in Papua New Guinea are reported to have died from loss of blood after being castrated by something in the water. The report came from Jeremy Wade, a British “extreme” angler, who featured the story on his reality TV show River Monsters, on the Animal Planet cable channel, owned by the Discovery Channel.

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Massive Explosion & Fire Sinks Indian Submarine INS Sindhurakshak at Dock in Mumbai

Posted on by August 14, 2013

INS_Sindhurakshak_(S63)A massive explosion, followed by a fire, has partially sunk the Indian Navy’s diesel electric submarine INS Sindhurakshak early this morning at the Mumbai naval dockyard. Eighteen officers and sailors were reported to be aboard at the time of the explosion and have not been accounted for. Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony has alluded to fatalities, though there is no further word on the fate of the missing sailors. The blast on the Sindhurakshak is also reported to have done minor damage to another submarine docked nearby, the sister vessel, INS Sindhuratna. Both submarines are Russian Kilo class vessels.

The INS Sindhurakshak had only recently returned from Russia following a two and a half year refit, overhaul and upgrade.  The retrofit followed a 2010 fire in which one sailor was killed and two others were injured. Navy officials reported that the fire had been caused by an explosion in the submarine’s battery compartment, which occured due to a faulty battery valve that leaked hydrogen gas.  There are reports that the batteries on the Sindhurakshak were being charged at the time of the explosion.

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Religious Zeal No Substitute for Seamanship – Extremist Family Rescued in the Pacific

Posted on by August 16, 2013
Gastonguay

Photo: Las Últimas Noticias

A family of religious extremists was rescued from their damaged sailboat after becoming lost for many weeks in the Pacific and has been flown back to the United States.

In May, Sean and Hannah Gastonguay, with Sean’s father, Mike, and their 3-year-old and 8-month-old baby daughters, set sail from San Diego bound for the Pacific nation of Kiribati, a group of islands just off the equator and the international date line about halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

Hannah is quoted by the Washington Post, saying that “her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don’t believe in “abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church,” she said….  Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with.”’   Continue reading →

Baja by Erick Higuera – Amazing Award Winning Short

Posted on by August 12, 2013

Erick Higuera’s short film, Baja – the Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Winner Howard Hall Award for Outstanding Achievement 2013. An amazing film.

Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Winner Howard Hall Award 2013

“Baja” project, finally completed after a year of hard work and dedication, it was made to show and share with you the amazing and beautiful creatures that inhabit its waters.…

Margaret Muir’s Admiralty Orders Released – Floating Gold Free for Three Days!

Posted on by August 11, 2013

adordscoverTo celebrate the launch of Margaret Muir’s Admiralty Orders – Book 3 in her Oliver Quintrell series, the first book of the series, Floating Gold is free on Amazon for the next three days.  In our review, we called Floating Gold “a wonderful blend of classic Georgian naval fiction, a mystery/thriller and a grand treasure hunt.”  Download a free copy to get a taste for the wonderfully entertaining series.

I am looking forward to reading Admiralty Orders.  From its Amazon page: Book 3 in the Oliver Quintrell Series, sees Captain Quintrell facing life-threatening events over which he has no control. Ordered to sail to Gibraltar in the late summer of 1804, his ship soon becomes hemmed in, not by Spanish gunboats or French ships of the line, but by the Quarantine Regulations which close the port around him. Unable to halt the loss of life from a raging epidemic, he strives to do his part to help save the Colony when it is at its most vulnerable. 

India Joins the Nuclear Sub Club – INS Arihant, First Indian Built Nuclear Sub Ready for Sea Trials

Posted on by August 10, 2013
Arihant_class-(1)

INS Arihant

Until recently only China, France, the United States, Britain and Russia have built and operated nuclear submarines. With the 6,000-ton INS Arihant ready for sea trials, India has joined this elite club.  The submarine will be the first Indian-built nuclear submarine to enter the country’s fleet.   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is quoted, saying that he was “delighted to learn that the nuclear propulsion reactor on board INS Arihant, India’s first indigenous nuclear powered submarine, has now achieved criticality”.   Criticality refers to the point at which a nuclear reaction is self-sustaining. Arihant is powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor and can reach 44 kilometres an hour (24 knots), according to defense officials. It will carry a 95-member crew.

Arihant  is the first of four nuclear submarines built or under construction at Hindustan Shipyard Limited.   In 2011, India took the Nerpa, a Russian nuclear submarine, into its fleet.  The Akula-II class submarine was acquired from Russia under a ten year lease, with an option to buy.  See our previous post, The Strange and Tragic Delivery of the Russian Submarine Nerpa.

The Discovery Channel Makes You Stupid – Sharks, Lies, and Videotape

Posted on by August 10, 2013

It is now official. Watching the Discovery Channel makes you stupid, or at the very least, can leave you less informed than when you started watching.  A poll shows that more than 70% of those who watched the Discovery Channel’s fake “documentary,”  Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, believe that megalodon is still swimming in the world’s oceans, despite having gone extinct two million years ago.

70% Of People Still Believe Megalodon Exists After Watching Discovery Channel’s Fake Documentary

Here is the Daily Show’s John Oliver on Sharks, Lies, and Videotape

Barque Picton Castle to the Rescue but No Luck for Yacht Gobo

Posted on by August 8, 2013
Barque Picton Castle

Barque Picton Castle

An Austrian couple, identified only as Irene and Christian, made a distress call last week, on July 31, from their Jeanneau Sun Legende 41, Gobo, in the South Pacific. The three masted barque Picton Castle, sailing in the Cook Islands, charted a course for the vessel in distress and traveled 29 hours and 330 km to reach the couple.  When they arrived, Captain Daniel Moreland sent the ship’s chief mate Paul Bracken and chief engineer Alex Marts over to determine what the problems were on the Gobo.  Bracken repaired damaged rigging while Marts repaired the raw-water pump and installed an electric auxiliary bilge pump. With these repairs in place the yacht continued on its way. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the tale.

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Joan Druett’s The Elephant Voyage – Free Today and Tomorrow on Kindle!

Posted on by August 7, 2013

Joan Druett’s The Elephant Voyage is free today and tomorrow, August 7 -8, on Kindle.

The Elephant Voyage is a fascinating historical account of a crew who find themselves castaway on a desolate, wind-swept sub-Antarctic island, while on an ill-fated voyage to hunt elephant seals in the late 19th century. Their rescue and at least partial redemption also tells a tale of the lively and complex world of colonial New Zealand at the dawn of the 20th century. A wonderful book. By all means, go download a free copy!

V.E. Ulett’s Captain Blackwell’s Prize – A Review

Posted on by January 22, 2014

cbprize2B2ebookthumbV.E. Ulett’s novel, Captain Blackwell’s Prize begins in battle. As the British board a larger Spanish ship, they discover that the boy wielding a sword next to the Spanish captain is indeed a woman. The novel develops into an unexpected love story between a Royal Navy captain and a beautiful, fiery, young woman, forced to make her own way in a dangerous world, relying on her wits and charm. Set largely on a Royal Navy frigate, against a backdrop of sea battles and storm, the novel vividly captures the confined shipboard world, as well as the constraints of the larger Georgian society.

What makes Captain Blackwell’s Prize so entertaining is that it falls equally well in the categories of nautical adventure and historical romance. It is the sort of novel that readers of C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian can enjoy along with fans of Jane Austen and Daphne du Maurier. Ulett succeeds in capturing both sides of her story. She spins the adventure with the proper attention to maritime detail and historical setting that a reader of books about the sea properly expects. Likewise for readers of romance, her characters are fully drawn with the fears, doubts and passion of a burgeoning relationship, despite the obstacles placed before them. A fun and fascinating read. Highly recommended.

Captain Blackwell’s Prize is available as an ebook, an audio book and will soon be available in print.

Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives – Will Discovery Channel Fiction as Fact Come Back to Bite Them?

Posted on by August 6, 2013
Image: Pilgrim Studios

Image: Pilgrim Studios

In June, we posted about two fake documentaries about mermaids, aired by the Animal Planet, which is owned by the Discovery Channel.  Despite being presented as fact, the mermaid documentaries were entirely fictional.  There was a brief disclaimer in the closing credits, though it seems unlikely that anyone noticed.  Apparently, the Discovery Channel is perfectly happy to present fiction as fact if it helps in the ratings.  Recently, they were at it again with their presentation of “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives” another wholly fictional “documentary” which suggests that the long extinct giant shark, megalodon, which lived approximately 28 to 1.5 million years ago, is still swimming around in the ocean attacking fishing boats and what not.

The  fictional “documentary” kicked off the ever popular Discovery Channel “Shark Week” and got the highest ratings ever for a Shark Week episode, 4.8 million viewers and a 2.6 rating with adults 25-54. Then something very interesting happened.  The internet erupted in a feeding frenzy of angry viewers, stirring up the world of social media like sharks around a chum bucket.  Apparently many Shark Week fans are really interested in sharks, real sharks, not badly produced fantasy sharks, so when Discovery Channel broadcasts this sort of fiction with actors standing in for scientists and fake press conferences about shark attacks that never took place, many viewers were annoyed, angry, pissed off, really not happy.

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Turn a Blind Eye by Alaric Bond – A Review

Posted on by August 5, 2013

Alaric6Alaric Bond, in his latest novel, Turn A Blind Eye, vividly captures the complex and often contradictory world of a seaside village caught between loyalty, prosperity, treachery and murder. It is 1801, on the coast of Sussex. England is at war with the French and its own countrymen. Commander Griffin, new to the customs service has much to learn. He commands the light but agile revenue cutter Bee in action against the often more heavily gunned French and their local smuggler allies. The even greater danger, however, may be ashore. At least at sea, he has a reasonable idea who is his enemy. Ashore, who can be trusted and who cannot, is not quite so clear.

The local fishermen can earn far more smuggling than they can catching fish. Nevertheless, for the fishing village, it may be a devil’s bargain as the ruthless criminal gang behind the smuggling operation may demand a higher price than the village is willing to pay.  For how long with they be able to simply “turn a blind eye?”

More that just nautical adventure, Turn A Blind Eye is a richly nuanced portrait of a fishing village trapped between criminals and the Crown. The novel blends vivid action at sea with gripping intrigue ashore as the young commander battles a ruthless gang of smugglers, while never quite knowing who is friend and who is foe. Turn A Blind Eye is a fascinating tale told by a master storyteller. Highly recommended.

Alaric Bond is the author of the Fighting Sail series of books published by Fireship Press.

Hardtackers’ Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates – A Review

Posted on by August 4, 2013

hardtackersThe Hardtacker Shanty Crew, a seven-man shanty crew based in Columbus, Ohio, released a great new CD a few months ago, Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates, which features a wonderful mix of shanties and sea songs, old and new.  The twenty one songs range from traditional shanties and forebitters such as Whiskey Johnny, Congo River, Sally Brown and the Cornish Leaving Shanty to more modern tunes, such as Stan Roger’s Barrett’s Privateers and Dramamine, a wonderful parody of Whup Jamborree.  Dramamine is a song any sailor who has ever been seasick will instantly relate to.  The Hardtackers don’t ignore fresh water either, including the songs The E-Ri-Ee Was A’risin’ and Fifteen Miles On the Erie Canal.

These days shanties and sea songs are often accompanied by instruments ranging from guitars and mandolins to full orchestration. The Hardtackers’ music has none of that. Their shanties are as they were sung in the age of sail. Strong voices and close harmonies carry the music along very well indeed.  Adding any sort of accompaniment would feel extraneous.

Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates is just great fun. It is a fine collection of sea songs, well sung, and nearly impossible not to sing along to. Highly recommended. Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates is available on Amazon and CD Baby.

Culture Watch – More Sharknado & Mermaids as the New Vampires

Posted on by August 3, 2013

Waterhouse_a_mermaidIt is a strange world out there. We have previously posted about Sharknado, which recently caused quite a stir on Twitter and other social networking sites. A sequel is planned, apparently, this time set in New York. I am not so sure about that one. Sharks raining from the sky in Brooklyn. Fuggedaboutit. In the mean time, it appears that Sharknado is inching its way toward cult film status, with midnight showings on big screens around the country. Some are predicting that Sharknado will prove to be this generation’s Rocky Horror.  I am skeptical, but time will tell.

For the last several years, vampires have been the cool kids on the block. They have been all over television from reruns of Dark Shadows to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to True Blood, as well as countless movies.  Vampires established a strong niche in Young Adult books even before Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga re-energized the living dead as a teen-aged love interest.

Now it seems, there is rogue wave of predictions that mermaids are replacing vampires as the hot cultural cult icon.  This is not entirely new.  Back in 2011, US Today announced “Mermaids surface as the next big thing,” and last January, Huffign Post predicted, The New Wave for Women and Girls: IN Mermaids, OUT Vampires.

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All is Lost – Robert Redford as Singlehander Struggling to Survive

Posted on by August 2, 2013

Every time I read about a major casualty on a container ship, I think about the containers lost over the side, many of which continue to float, hazards to navigation to any boat about their size. All the evidence suggests that the Irish sail training vessel, Asgard II, sank in the Bay of Biscay in 2008 after striking a semi-submerged container.

In what looks like a truly remarkable movie, All is Lost, Robert Redford portrays a single handed sailor whose 39-foot sail boat is struck by a floating shipping container while 1,700 miles off Sumatra. The unnamed singlehander performs what repairs he can before being overwhelmed by a storm. The 107 minute long movie has essentially no dialog and only one cast member, Redford.  When the movie was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Redford received a standing ovation for his performance.  The trailer is absolutely gripping. All is Lost is due to be released in October.

On Herman Melville’s Birthday – A Virtual Pilgrimage to His Birthplace

Posted on by August 1, 2013
Meliville Memorial, 6 Pearl Street, Photo: Wally Gobetz

Meliville Memorial, 6 Pearl Street, Photo: Wally Gobetz

Herman Melville was born on this day, August 1, in 1819, in a boarding house on the site of 6 Pearl Street, in the Financial District of lower Manhattan in New York City.  I invite you to join me in a virtual pilgrimage to his birth place.

The boarding house where Melville was born is long gone. A 42 floor gleaming glass and metal skyscraper, 17 State Street, rises where the building once stood. One photographer referred to the building as a “great white whale.” Nevertheless, there is a plaque and bronze bust of Melville roughly on the site of the original structure.

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Joan Druett’s The Elephant Voyage – A Review

Posted on by July 31, 2013

Joan Druett’s The Elephant Voyage is a fascinating historical account of sailors who find themselves castaway on a desolate, wind-swept sub-Antarctic island, while on an ill-fated voyage to hunt elephant seals in the late 19th century.  Their rescue and at least partial redemption also tells a tale of the lively and complex world of colonial New Zealand at the dawn of the 20th century.

In 1883, New Bedford, Captain Sanford Miner and his investors, outfit the schooner Sarah W. Hunt and recruit a crew with no real sailing experience, yet who are nevertheless logged as able seamen. Captain Miner and his green crew set sail and successfully navigate to Macquarie Island, a tiny speck halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica, only to find the beaches deserted, with not an elephant seal to be seen. They sail on to Campbell Island, another tiny but rugged rock in the Southern Ocean, where they find a safe anchorage for the schooner. The captain sends the mates and crew off to search for seals along the shore in two whale boats. A storm blows up and one boat is blown out to sea, never to be seen again, while the other just barely manages to row back to the island.  After several days of arduous rowing, they make it back to where the schooner had been anchored, only to find it gone.

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