Last year the National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) published a fascinating booklet, John Stobart and the Ships of South Street, which features the pre-eminent maritime artist’s paintings of ships arriving or departing from New York’s South Street docks.
At first the presentation struck me as odd. The NMHS describes it as a booklet rather than a book, which is apt, as it is soft cover and only twenty four pages. John Stobart’s work is best enjoyed at full size. The prints of his paintings are breathtaking and worthy of study for their technical accuracy as well as his skillful composition and his breathtaking use of light and shadow. Can such a slight volume do Stobart’s work justice? After a few minutes of study, it became clear to me, that it can and indeed does.
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Lee shores were long the bane of sailing ships. They are no better for motor vessels who lose their engines or drag their anchors. Table Bay where the SELI 1 grounded is just such a lee shore and has been a hazard for ships for hundreds of years. An interesting perspective from 
“Super yachts” rarely impress me. Russian billionaire, 
From 
I’ve always been struck by the tragedy that those most in need of ferry service are often also most at risk. We have seen recent ferry accidents in the Philippines with the sinking of the 
If you can’t get sailors to church, bring the church to the sailors. That was the strategy used in 1844 by the Protestant Church Missionary Society for Seamen, which was renamed the
Today there are 1.6 million or so residents on the island of Manhattan. How things have changed. Four hundred years ago on September 12th, 1609, when Henry Hudson first stepped onto the island, there were roughly 600 Lenape Indians living there. The natives called the island Manna-hata, as recorded in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Hudson’s ship, Half Moon. Manna-hata is translated from the Lenape to mean the “island of many hills.”
Last February, we posted about 
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