In the summer of 1995, a group of lovers of the music of the sea got together on the deck of the windjammer Peking at the South Street Seaport Museum on the East River in New York to sing sea shanties. Now 20 years later, many of the same singers along with a whole new crew will be celebrating the anniversary of that shanty sing this Sunday between 2PM and 5PM at their new home at the the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island. If you are anywhere near New York harbor, it should be a special afternoon. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, but will be there in spirit. From the Noble Maritime press release:
Sponsored by the Folk Music Society of New York, whose members organize monthly sessions at the Noble Maritime Collection, the singing begins at 2 PM and continues until 5 PM. The museum is open by donation, and visitors are welcome to come and listen or sing along with the group.
Liverpudlian Hughie Jones, founder of the group The Spinners, will join the session this month. He was present at the first sea chantey session held aboard the Peking at South Street Seaport Museum in the summer of 1995.
For several years we have followed; virtually, if not literally; the travels of 
I have a definite love-hate relationship with 
When Matt Brooks and his wife Pam Rorke Levy bought the 52ft yawl 
This morning was overcast and threatening rain on the West bank of the Hudson River. Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, it was a sunny, clear day. A Nor’westerly wind was blowing and the air was cool and crisp. That morning, I got a frantic call from my wife who had left for work not too long before. Something terrible had happened in the World Trade Center. She had been on the mezzanine of One World Trade Center when the first plane hit. I left our house and walked literally around the corner to see an ugly black plume of smoke streaming almost horizontally from the North Tower. A few minutes later, while walking with neighbors toward the waterfront, I saw the second plane hit the South tower followed by a billowing orange plume of flame erupting from the opposite side of the building an instant later.
Last Sunday, a 
In her long and varied career, the historic cutter 
One hundred and fifteen years ago today, on September 8, 1900, the city of Galveston Texas was struck by what today would be classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge of 14 feet. Somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people died, making it the deadliest hurricane in US history.
This weekend, the 
On July 10, 1985, 
Recently, 
In 1869, the 