This week, Book Expo America and Book-Con, collectively among of the largest book publishing events in the world, are being held in New York City, on the Hudson River in the Javit’s Center. (My novel, The Shantyman, is one of seemingly countless books on display.)
It seems a good time to ask the question, “Why did New York become the book publishing center of the United States? Why not Philadelphia, or Boston or Chicago? The answer may be piracy, packet ships and the Erie Canal.
Great news. PortSide NewYork and the tanker Mary A. Whalen have found a long-term berth at Brooklyn’s Atlantic basin. For the last several years, the non-profit based on the historic tanker has not had a berth accessible to the public. Now with public access PortSide will begin new programming by the Fall of 2015. From the PortSide NewYork press release:
The morning of Friday, May 29, 2015, the tanker MARY A. WHALEN will be towed to the south end of Pier 11 in Atlantic Basin in Red Hook, Brooklyn. PortSide would like to thank our friends at Vane Brothers for donating this tow. Vane is operating from the same location where the MARY A. WHALEN began her working life at the former site of Ira S. Bushey & Sons and is in the same business moving fuel.
“A fabulously gripping sailor’s yarn.”
The Shantyman was recently reviewed by Kirkus Reviews. I am pleased to say that gave it a Kirkus Star. What does that mean? (I didn’t know either.) “The Kirkus Star is one of the most prestigious designations in the book industry. Look for the icon to discover books of exceptional merit.” An excerpt from the review: “Spilman’s colorful, well-researched novel will enthrall both sailing enthusiasts and landlubbers. A fabulously gripping sailor’s yarn.”
With eloquent accuracy, Spilman’s novel captures the life of a 19th-century sailor.
Sometimes restoring a historic ship involves starting at the keel and working up, or the deck and working down. And sometimes it involves rediscovering the ship one piece at a time. That was the case this year when three missing parts came home to the ex-USCG Cutter Liliac. An account by Museum Director, Mary Habstritt:
The Voice Tube: One day in February last year, our Museum Director got an email asking, “Is LILAC missing a voice tube from her bridge?” The ship was missing the mouthpiece to that very voice tube, but, how did the writer know to ask that question? He had it, of course. Ed Hlywa did, however, come by it honestly, buying it for $10 in the 1980s from LILAC’s last owner, Henry Houck. He says, “I always assumed that LILAC was heading to a shipbreaker and that I was preserving a little bit of nautical history.” Reminiscing one day, he Googled “LILAC Falling Creek” and was amazed to discover that she had survived and that the Lilac Preservation Project was working to restore her. Ed graciously offered to return this little piece of history, saying, “It has served me well and if you hold it to your ear, you may be able to still hear the orders being called down to the engine room.”
There is good and bad news about California blue whales. The good news is that the number of whales along the west coast of North America has rebounded to close to levels prior to whaling. The bad news is that blue whales are in ever greater danger of dying from run down by ships. Blue whales can be difficult to see from the bridge of a ship and, for reasons not well understood, the blue whales do not necessarily move to avoid the oncoming ships. A recent, pioneering study may suggest a reason why. The whales may have evolved to be simply too large. As reported by Takepart:
The short answer, according to a first-of-its-kind study, is that they have never learned to steer clear of big objects like ships. The largest animal that’s ever lived, at more than 100 feet long and 320,000 pounds, the blue whale for 30 million years never had to move out of anything’s way.
Earlier this month, salvors reported finding a 50 kg silver bar off the coast of Madagascar, which they believed to be part of Captain Kidd‘s treasure lost in the sinking of the Adventure Galley in 1698. The salvors are confident that they will find more silver in the wreck. Whether they will remains to be seen. In most historical accounts, after the ship became so rotten as to be unseaworthy, Captain Kidd stripped the Adventure Galley of anything worthwhile down to the hinges on the ship’s cabin door. Kidd and his crew then sailed away on the Adventure Prize. If Kidd stripped the ship, it seems unlikely that he would leave a large treasure of silver behind.
Captain William Kidd was a most unusual pirate, if he was a pirate at all. Before 1696, Captain Kidd was a successful merchant and privateer. Born in Dundee, Scotland in 1645, Kidd married a young English widow, Sarah Bradley Cox Oort, in 1691, who was also one of the wealthiest women in New York City at the time. They lived in a large house on Pearl Street with their two daughters. Kidd was a member and financial supporter of his church. Block and tackles from his ship are said to have been used to raise the spire on the Trinity Church in New York.
Royal Clipper Photo: Star Clipper
Exciting news! Star Clippers is now building what will be the world’s largest square-rigged passenger ship. The new ship, the fourth in the Star Clippers fleet, is expected to launch mid-2017. Modeled after the five masted France II of 1912, the ship will be larger than the current world’s largest square rigged ship, the company’s five-masted Royal Clipper. Star Clippers also operates the sister ships, Star Clipper and Star Flyer, which are four masted barquentines.
In 2012, Sonya Baumstein, biked from Mexico to San Francisco. In 2013 she used a standup paddleboard to travel across the Bering Strait. In the winter of 2011, she rowed 2,600 miles with three male rowers from Spain to Barbados. She is now attempting to row the 6,000 miles alone from Choshi, Japan, to San Francisco, California — without a support vessel. The 30 year old from Orlando set off Sunday on her epic voyage. Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.
Fleet Week 2015 kicked off with with a parade of three U.S. Navy ships, four U.S. Naval Academy yard patrol boats, and two U.S. Coast Guard cutters. More than 1,800 servicemen and women are participating, and activities and events will last through next Monday.
If you are in the neighborhood tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 12:30PM, you may wish to stop by the “bon-voyage” party on Pier 17 in New York’s South Street Seaport for the Wavertree, as she slips her lines and is towed across the harbor to Caddell Dry Dock in Staten Island. The Wavertree, built in Southampton, England in 1885, was one of the last large ships to be built in wrought iron and is one of the few survivors. She will be undergoing a $10.5 million, almost year long, drydocking and refurbishment.
Captain Jonathan Boulware, Executive Director of the South Street Seaport Museum outlined the scope of the refurbishment at the New York Shiplore Meeting last Monday. He said that approximately 20 plates would be replaced below the waterline. The existing concrete ballast will be removed and replaced with a pumpable fixed ballast system. The tween deck will be replated. The main deck will be replaced with a steel deck which will then be clad in wood. Boulware acknowledged that this was a compromise. The original ship’s main deck was wood over iron frames, which is difficult to maintain and to keep watertight. The new metal deck will make preserving the ship easier and ultimately less expensive.
Last night, the USS Constitution was shifted to Dry Dock #1 at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston. The ship, the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat, will be undergoing a three year refurbishment. USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” entered service in the U.S. Navy on Oct. 21, 1797 and remains a commissioned U.S. Navy warship. Since 1907, the ship has been on display opening her decks to the public. An interview with Naval History and Heritage Command Director Sam Cox.
Click for a larger image
If you are near New York harbor tomorrow be sure to stop by from 6 — 9 PM, for a reception to launch the LILAC Art Series on the historic ex-Coast Guard Cutter Lilac. The LILAC Art Series is a three month art exhibition by 25 artists with a focus on three themes inspired by the ship’s story – “Steam”, “Work + Labor” and “Restoration/Reinvention.” Open free to the public. Regular hours on the Cutter Lilac resume on May 23, 2015. Also, stop by on Memorial Day for birthday cake celebrating LILAC’s 82nd year!
Photo: Ellen M. Banner
Just over a week ago, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management granted conditional approval for Shell to begin exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea in the Alaskan Arctic. Last Thursday, the Polar Pioneer, a semi-submersible drilling rig, owned by Transocean, but operated by Shell, arrived in Seattle. This weekend protesters, calling themselves “Shell-No kayak-tavists,” joined in the “Paddle in Seattle” in a fleet of hundreds of kayaks, canoes, paddle boards and other small vessels, swarmed near the massive drilling rig, to send a message to Shell opposing their continued attempts at Arctic drilling. One of the primary concerns about Arctic drilling is that the harsh conditions make oil spills likely and extremely difficult to clean up. The damage to the Arctic environment could be severe.
Almost a week ago, three beluga whales were spotted in Rhode Island’s Narraganset Bay. Normally the white whales would be expected to stay much farther north. Teams of scientists from the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration watched video of the whales and traveled to Jamestown, RI, to see the beluga whales first hand, by boat. Why the whales are so far south is a bit of a mystery. They usually do not travel much farther south than the St. Lawrence river in Canada. As reported by WNPR: “The fact that there are three whales is even more unusual,” said Tracy Romano, a biologist at Mystic Aquarium….
Photo: Graeme Smith
From May 9th through 13th, Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the US, was host to 12,000 visitors during the Volvo Ocean Race Stopover in Newport, RI. The contrast between the new tall ship and the carbon fiber racing sleds could not have been more stark. Six high-tech Volvo Ocean racers were tied up on one side of the pier, at Fort Adams in Newport harbor, while on the other side of the dock, the three masted square rigged Sailing School Vessel Oliver Hazard Perry towered over then all. The Perry has a sparred length of close to 200′ and her masts soar 120′ from the deck. The Volvo Ocean 65s are 72′ overall with single masts reaching 99 feet above the water. The contrast didn’t end with the difference between the Perry and the racing yachts. Visitors to the ship had the chance to walk through the ship and see our progress and the contrast of a traditional rig above deck and modern features below.
Last November, we posted about the restoration of the schooner Nathaniel Bowditch, by its new owners, Noah and Jane Barnes at the Lyman Morse Boatbuilders yard in Thomaston. Here is a short article and video about the rather extensive rebuilding of the Nathaniel Bowditch. Seeing the scope of the rebuilding, one might conclude that wooden schooners are a bit like the axe that never wears out, just as long as you keep replacing the head and the handle.
The U.S.C.G. Cutter Lilac, America’s only steam-powered lighthouse tender, is reopening on May 19th at her berth on Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 at West Street and N. Moore Street in New York. This season, the historic ship will host the Lilac Arts Series from May 19 to August 15, 2015. To celebrate the new exhibition, the ship will host a reception on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, 6-9pm. If you are in the neighborhood be sure to stop by.
The exhibit will focus on three themes inspired by the ship’s story – “Steam”, “Work + Labor” and “Restoration/Reinvention“. The visual art exhibition will feature the work of over 25 artists within the ship’s unique spaces, including several site-specific installations. In addition to the exhibition, the Lilac will host performances, artist talks, film screenings, readings, community activities and educational events. The schedule of events is available on the Lilac Arts Series website at www.lilacarts.org. The exhibition and events are all free and open to the public.
In the general category of “you can’t make this stuff up,” the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS), a group dedicated to the study and promotion of peace, released details of their “Singing Sailor Campaign.”
Last October, we posted about a reported incursion into Swedish waters by what was believed to be a foreign and probably Russian submarine. See our post “Swedish Navy Still Hunting Mystery Submarine.” The Swedish Navy searched for the submarine but couldn’t locate it. In the wake of this failure to track down the submarine intruder, there have been calls for increased military spending in Sweden.
SPAS is suggesting a different approach. They have proposed the “Singing Sailor subsurface defense system,” which would involve lowering submarine message buoys featuring an animated dancing sailor attired only in underwear and a sailors cap, with the messenge, “Welcome to Sweden, Gay Since 1944.” The buoy would also send the Morse code message, ‘This way if you are gay.’ Given that Russia has recently been increasingly homophobic in its policies, this otherwise welcoming message might be enough to turn Russian subs away. See the video after the page break.
Pigs leap from a diving platform at Shiyan Lake in Changsha, Hunan Province. Photo: Hunan Daily
A few years ago, we posted about a new competitive sport in which dogs compete by jumping off docks. Apparently, the competitions are continuing. The DockDogs website describes it as the “The World’s Premier Canine Aquatics Competition.” As no other canine aquatics competitions come to mind, they are probably right. Dogs diving off docks is definitely preferable to the old American carnival attraction, diving horses. Now we hear that Chinese farmers have introduced diving pigs into the mix. Apparently, in addition to being a source of entertainment, the farmers claim that it provides exercise and makes the pigs healthier, as well as making the pork taste better.
The New York Times Sinosphere blog reports: Images on the Internet and reports in newspapers suggest that creating a leaping, amphibious pig is another realm where China, which raises more than half the world’s pigs, can claim global pre-eminence. Online photos show piglets prodded to dive off a bridge into a lake. Others show a spotted-pig triathlon of diving, swimming and hurdling.
The State of Hawaii has notified the Friends of Falls of Clyde, the organization responsible for rescuing the historic ship of the same name, that the state plans to terminate its permit which allows the ship to be docked for free. “They received the ship from the Bishop Museum with the understanding it would go into dry dock quickly. It has been 6 years and it doesn’t appear we are any closer to putting it into dry dock,” said Hawaii State Department of Transportation Deputy Director Darrell Young. If anything, the organization’s finances have grown worse over time and the ship continues to deteriorate.
Falls of Clyde is the last four-masted full-rigged iron ship and the only surviving sailing oil tanker. The ship was launched in 1878 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, for the Fall Line. She became a museum ship in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1971, but was never properly maintained. In 2008, the Bishop Museum, which had control of the ship, was preparing to tow her out sea and scuttle her. In September 2008, the Friends of the Falls of Clyde, a non-profit group of volunteers, acquired the ship. Unfortunately, the organization has been longer on promises than on performance. For six years, they have been promising that they would be dry docking the ship, as the first step toward restoration, yet nothing seems to be happening.