This Friday, January 25th, from 8 to 10PM, a waterfront tradition will be returning to Brooklyn. The first of planned monthly shanty sings will be held at the Brooklyn Lyceum. All lovers of the music of the sea are welcome. This Friday’s session is being held in memory of Howie Leifer, who recently died of cancer. Howie was long-time member of the sea shanty community in New York, as well as a wonderful entertainer and gifted puppeteer.
The Brooklyn Lyceum is at 227 4th Avenue on the corner of President Street, in Brooklyn, New York. Accessible by subway on the R train to Union Street. Hot chocolate and mulled wine will be served to help keep away the cold. Cost: $5.00
The three masted iron barque 
Recent winter storms have washed ashore four large, barrel-shaped pieces of lard onto the beach at St.Cyrus nature reserve in Scotland. They are believed to be from the wreck of a merchant vessel that was bombed in WW II. Therese Alampo, St Cyrus reserve manager, said, “The depth of the swell during the storms we had over the holidays must have broke apart the shipwreck some more and caused the lard to escape….The lard was covered in the largest barnacles I’ve ever seen. Animals, including my dog, have certainly enjoyed the lard, and it still looks and smells good enough to have a fry up with.” Personally, I would prefer to avoid “fry ups” with barnacle covered lard, but perhaps I am being too picky. Thanks to Niall Sinclair for passing the news along.
Four years ago, the luxury liner 
The minesweeper 
When I first visited New York’s South Street Seaport in the early 70s, it was a fairly lonely place. There was no shopping mall on Pier 17 and the high-end chain-stores like Guess, Abecrombe and Fitch and Brookstone had not yet been attracted to the historic buildings along Fulton, Water and Front Streets. Many of the old warehouses and boarding houses were still shuttered.
The Norwegian shipyard Fjellstrand and Siemens are developing the world’s first electrically powered car ferry. Starting in 2015, the 80-meter ferry will will operate across the Sognefjord between the towns of Lavik and Oppedal. The ferry will have the capacity to carry 120 cars and 360 passengers. Remarkably the batteries which power the ferry will be able to recharge in only 10 minutes.
If the reporting is accurate, this doesn’t seem like the argument that Carnival should be making.