Fiona Shaw, in an excerpt from a new staged reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” This scene features the passage that birthed the expression “albatross around your neck.” The show, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, continues through Dec. 22 at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Poon Lim
Robert Redford was recently nominated for a Golden Globe award for his remarkable one man performance in the movie, “All is Lost.” While Redford’s acting was impressive, the movie was marred by an apparent lack of even a basic understand of offshore sailboats and sailing. (See our review here.) In the movie, the unnamed sailor is ready to give up, declaring “all is lost,” after only a few days in a life-raft. In this context, it seems worthwhile to remember Poon Lim, a Chinese merchant seaman, who survived for 133 days on a wooden life raft in the South Atlantic in 1942, the only survivor of the British steamer, Benlomond, which was torpedoed by German submarine U-172 and sank in minutes.
When designer Anton Willis moved to San Francisco, he had to put his rigid kayak in storage because it didn’t fit in his small city apartment. After four years of design, Willis and his team developed the Oru kayak, a kayak made of a single sheet of corrugated plastic that folds and unfolds like origami. The resulting boat is a 12 feet 6 inches long single kayak with a 25″ beam that weighs only 25 pounds and can be assembled, with practice, in about 5 minutes. When folded, kayak in its case is only 33″ x 29″ x 10″. Quite impressive. When the Oru team did a Kickstarter promotion about a year ago, their goal was to raise $80,000 for the first production run. They met that goal in the first five hours and went on to raise an impressive $443,806 from 730 backers. Here is the Kickstarter video that describes the venture:
Overfishing, particularity deep sea trawling, is doing grave damage to the ocean’s fish population. What can be done about it? A group of celebrities – actors, musicians and artists – are taking off their clothes and posing with dead fish to raise awareness of the problem. It is called Fishlove 2013. How effective is the campaign? To be completely honest, when I see American actor Gillian Anderson with a dead conger eel draped around her neck, my first thought is not necessarily “we must stop deep ocean trawling.” Nevertheless, the photography is artistic and interesting. Click here to see a slideshow. Better yet, click here to sign a petition to help protect deep ocean life.
On a winter’s day, when the temperature here on the banks of the Hudson River is in the low 30s F, but with the wind off the water feels more like the low 20s, there are many reasons to want to pick up and move to sunny and warm, Southern California. And now I’ve found one more — a press release, issued today, from the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Have you ever wanted to learn to sail and maintain a tallship?
Photo: Will Van Dorp
OK, we are a week late and it is snowing outside, but we do want to to wish the schooner Lettie G. Howard the warmest of welcomes now that she has returned to her berth at the South Street Seaport. We also would like to congratulate all the fine folks who worked so hard to bring her home.
Lettie G. Howard is a wooden Fredonia schooner built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts. After a long and productive working life, she was sold to the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968. In February of 2012, the Lettie was drydocked at the Mystic Seaport in CT to repair rot in her keelson. The rot turned out to be far more extensive than originally thought. Through the generosity and hard work of supporters, volunteers and staff, more than $250,000 was raised to rebuilt and return the historic schooner to the New York waterfront. This included an amazing benefit concert featuring Rosanne Cash.
South Korean Aegis destroyer Yulgok YiYi patrols the waters around Socotra Rock, south of Jeju Island, on Dec. 2. Photograph by Yonhap via EPA
On Sunday, the government of South Korea announced that it was extending its air defense zone to include Socotra Rock, a submerged pinnacle in the Yellow Sea. The Korean air defense zone now overlaps with the air defense zones already claimed by both China and Japan and is expected to increase tensions in the region. Both Korea and China had already claimed the rock as part of of each countrys’ “exclusive economic zones,” (EEZ).
On the morning of December 7, 1941, USS Oklahoma was moored at an outside berth in the inner harbor at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor that day, the USS Oklahoma was directly in the flight path of the attacking planes. USS Oklahoma was struck by nine torpedoes and rolled over in roughly 10 minutes. The diagram above shows the sequence of the capsize and the torpedo strikes that doomed the ship and four hundred and twenty-nine of her crew.
The USS Oklahoma was the last ship to be salvaged at Pearl Harbor. The ship weighted about 32,000 metric tons and was rolled almost 180 degrees. To right the ship, the Navy used a salvage technique called parbuckling. Large A frames were mounted along the length of the hull to provide the leverage necessary to roll the ship. The process took roughly four months and was finished in June 1943. The ship was judged too damaged to be repaired. On the tow to a scrap yard in California, the USS Oklahoma sank in a storm in May 1947.
Salvage of the Battleship USS Oklahoma Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor 1942 1942-46
Reports are that Canada is filing a claim to extend its northern sea boundary to encompass an area of over 1 million square miles of Arctic seafloor which includes the North Pole, under provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Canadian are said to have spent the past 10 years and $200 million dollars to document the claim that they are expected to file with the UN today. A preliminary assessment by the US Geological Survey suggests the Arctic seabed may hold as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and natural gas reserves. PressTV reports that “Experts say a decision on the Arctic seafloor is probably 20 years away, with scientific evaluation on Canada’s claim taking roughly five years.”
The Canadians are not alone in their claims. Russia, Denmark, Norway, and the United States all claim overlapping sections of the Arctic seas and sea floor. Of the group, the United States is alone in not having ratified the UNCLOS treaty.
Currently both Russia and Canada are claiming the North Pole. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has provisions and clauses for adjudicating conflicting claims. Disturbingly, however, it does not appear to have a Santa clause. (Sorry.) Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.
Recently, the crew of the the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory‘s submersible Pisces V announced finding the hull of the Japanese mega-submarine I-400 at a depth of 2,300 feet on the sea floor off Hawaii. The huge submarine survived World War II but was scuttled by the United States in the early days of what would become known as the Cold War to prevent the Soviets from gaining access to what was at the time the most advanced submarine technology in the world.
The I-400 was the largest submarine of its day. At 400′ long, the I-400 and its sister vessels would remain the largest submarines ever constructed until the advent of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. The I-400 was also an aircraft carrier, capable of carrying up to three Aichi M6A Seiran bombers in water-tight hangers. The submarines were intended to attack the Panama Canal among other targets. Thee of the huge submarines were built while two others were under construction at the end of the war. All five were brought to Pearl Harbor following Japan’s surrender.
At the end of last May, the Jascon 4 sank in about 100 feet of water off the coast of Nigeria. All twelve of the crew were believed to have drowned. Three days later, divers were sent into the sunken tug to retrieve the bodies. They had recovered four bodies when one diver saw a hand and reached for it, only to be shocked when the hand reached back. Harrison Odjegba Okene, the tug’s cook, had miraculously survived in an air pocket for close to three days. The video of the moment when Okene was found has recently been released. Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
When it came to destroying Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons, there was a problem. No nation wanted to take the weapons and face the risks associated with destroying them on their soil. Under an international agreement brokered by the US, Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons have to be out of the country by a December 31 deadline. The apparent answer is to put the chemical weapons on a ship and destroy the chemicals at sea. The roll-on/roll-off ship MV Cape Ray (T-AKR-9679) is now being outfitting with the U.S. Army’s Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (FDHS). The FDHS was rolled out only this June and is a mobile chemical weapons disposal facility designed to destroy or make inert lethal chemicals and gases.
US prepares ship to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons
The MV Cape Ray, part of the U.S. Maritime Administration’s (MARAD)Ready Reserve Force, will be leased to the Navy. The roll-on/roll-off ship was built in 1977 in Japan for Saudi Arabia’s National Ship Co. as MV Seaspeed Asia. She is one of three sister-ships purchased by the Maritime Administration in 1993 and converted for military use.
What could be nicer than a boat ride on your birthday? Last Sunday, on his 33rd birthday, Samuel Kenneth McDonough allegedly took the Victoria Clipper, a 132′ high speed passenger ferry, for a several hour joy-ride in Seattle’s Elliot Bay. He apparently either climbed over or squeezed through an opening in a fence to reach the $8 million ferry. Once aboard, he found an operating manual and a set of keys and figured out how to start the engines, which apparently is not easy to do. Reuters quotes Darrell Bryan, CEO of Clipper Navigation, the ferry’s owner, “He’s not stupid. We had engineers who have had challenges with starting these engines.” Fortunately, McDonoughdid not master the ferry’s steering, so he apparently drove the ferry in slow circles. At one point the ferry was perilously close to going aground on rocks near the Elliot Bay Marina and also nearly collided with a Washington State Ferries vessel, according to police reports.. The ferry is capable of a top speed of 30 knots and had enough fuel aboard to travel roughly 65 miles, so it is fortunate that McDonough didn’t get the steering figured out. On Monday, a judge set McDonough’s bail at $200,000.
A few hours ago, Stanley Paris, 76, at the helm of the 63′ custom yacht, Kiwi Spirit, sailed from the sea-buoy at St. Augustine, Florida, bound out on a solo, non-stop un-assisted voyage around the globe. Paris will be attempting to beat American yachtsman Dodge Morgan’s 1986 solo-circumnavigation record of 150 days. If he succeeds, he will also be the oldest person to circumnavigate. The voyage, which Paris has planned for the last 4 years, is intended to be completely green, using no hydrocarbons. The Kiwi Spirit does have an engine but will be used only in case of emergencies. We wish you fair winds, Dr. Paris. To track the Kiwi Spirit’s voyage, click here.
At 76, St. Augustine’s Stanley Paris to sail around the world
The photographs are not new, though they were new to me. The story on-line dates back to 2011. Thanks to Carolina Salguero for posting about them on Facebook. The photos are both beautiful and incredible — a naked woman swimming in arctic waters with beluga whales. Of course, the word “incredible,” has two meanings – extraordinary and also impossible to believe. Which meaning should we apply here? Are the photos real?
Anyone who has watched the Pacific Life commercial where humpback whales are seen swimming and breaching across glass skyscrapers understands that graphics composting should not always be taken at face value. Nevertheless, the consensus seems to be that the photos are genuine. The woman is Natalia Avseenko, a 36 year old Russian free-diver. The story behind the photos is fascinating, but sadly, rather darker than the beautiful photos themselves.
Just about two years ago, we posted a time-lapse video of the building of the lugger Greyhound. The video covers a 45 day building period in about ten minutes, starting from the keel, the raising of the frames to the beginning of planking. Here is a video of the end product — the lugger Greyhound under sail in a video shot from aloft by Debbie Purser of Classic Sailing. A beautiful craft, indeed.
On November 29, 1781, the British slave ship Zong was desperately short of potable water, in part due to an error in navigation and in part due to an incompetent cooper. Captain Luke Collingwood, in command of the ship, ordered his crew to throw one-third of the ship’s cargo overboard — a shipment of Africans bound for slavery in Jamaica. Between November 29th and December 1st, 132 Africans, still bound in shackles, were thrown overboard and drowned. The ship and its human cargo had been insured in England for £8,000. After the ship finally arrived in port, the ship’s owners filed an insurance claim for the Africans killed by the officers and crew, claiming general average.
In a dense fog, at about 9:00 AM on May 20, 1899, the 270-foot steamer Florida was nearly cut in half by the George W. Roby. The ship is sitting upright approximately 200 feet below the surface of Lake Huron, off Presque Isle, Michigan. The video below, produced by Michael C. Barnette gives us a look at the remarkably well preserved wreck.
The Damen shipyard in Galati, Romania recently launched a new sail training ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. The three masted steel square masted ship will replace the current Omani sail training ship, Shabab Oman, a wooden three masted barkentine. The ship will be rigged and outfitted at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Flushing (the Netherlands). The new ship was designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, who also designed the Stad Amsterdam, Cisne Branco and the Maltese Falcon.
The side launching of the ship set some hearts a flutter on the internet. Several websites, including those which should know better, featured headlines of “Ship Almost Tips Over During Launch” or ” Schooner Nearly Capsizes During Launch.” No one should panic, however. That is just what a side launch looks like. The ship was in no danger. The engineers got their numbers right. Everything is fine. The video below shows the dramatic launch from three different angles.
In 1951, Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. Published in 1952, the novella won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee when it awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954. It was Hemingway’s last major work of fiction to be published during his lifetime.
The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of Santiago, an aging fisherman, who struggles to catch a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. In 1999, a paint-on-glass animated short film of The Old Man and the Sea, directed by Aleksandr Petrov, was released. The film took two years to make and required over 29,000 hand painted glass frames, slightly more individual paintings than the number of words used by Hemingway to compose the novella. Petrov’s animation won many awards, including the Academy Award for Animated Short Film for 1999. Now by the magic of the internet, Petrov’s animated short film is available on Youtube. A beautiful film. Definitely worth watching.