Captains Contentious: The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine – A Review

Posted on by July 13, 2010

Louis Arthur Norton’s book Captains Contentious – The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine is an entertaining reminder that history is finally about individuals, dedicated to the causes in which they believe, as well as serving their own needs and obsessions.

Norton looks at five ship’s captains who fought for the infant American Navy in the Revolutionary War. When not fighting the British, these captains also fought with each other, with their crews, their peers and with politicians ashore. Their personal quirks and flaws, in turn, hindered their careers and helped shape their victories. Norton examines the exploits of John Manley, Silas Talbot, Dudley Saltonstall, Joshua Barney and John Paul Jones. Each is a fascinating study in the character of these courageous if often flawed naval commanders.
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The Frigate Surprise: The Complete Story of the Ship Made Famous in the Novels of Patrick O’Brian, by Brian Lavery

Posted on by May 18, 2010

In his Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O’Brian wrote of HMS Surprise, a small British frigate, originally captured from the French. Over several books, the Surprise became almost as beloved a character, in her own way, as Jack Aubrey and Doctor Maturin themselves.

Independent of her qualities in fiction, HMS Surprise was indeed a real ship upon which O’Brian based the ship in his novels. Now, Brian Lavery, the noted naval historian and author of more than twenty books on the Royal Navy, and Geoff Hunt, the president Royal Society of Marine Artists and the painter of many of the covers in the Aubrey Maturin series, have written The Frigate Surprise: The Complete Story of the Ship Made Famous in the Novels of Patrick O’Brian.
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Help Save the Falls of Clyde

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Falls of Clyde is the only surviving iron-hulled four-masted full rigged ship and the only surviving sail-driven oil tanker in the world.  She was launched in 1878 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, for the Fall Line .  The ship was towed to Hawaii 1968 and opened as a museum in 1971.   In 2008, the Bishop Museum, which had control of the ship, was preparing to tow her out to sea and scuttle her.

In an attempt to save her, the Friends of Falls of Clyde, a tax-exempt group was formed and purchased the ship in September 2008.  They are currently working to raise funds to tow the ship to drydock at Kalaeloa by December 29th.

To learn more:  Friends of Falls of Clyde works to preserve a historic ship

Friends of Falls of Clyde website

To donate to help save Falls of Clyde:  Make a Donation

Melville’s White Jacket and the question of justice

Posted on by April 16, 2010

In a comment on a prior post, Fiddler’s Green, Redwing mentioned White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War, by Herman Melville. I had never read the novel. I am now doing so and enjoying it very much. (It can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg.)

White Jacket and Redburn were apparently each written in two months when Melville was strapped for cash. He was said to have never liked either book, thinking of them as “cakes and ale potboilers”.  Melville would say of them that they were “two jobs which I have done for money—being forced to it as other men are to sawing wood”.  Ironically, they were both among his most popular books and sold better during his lifetime than any of his later books, including Moby Dick.

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Thad Koza – Tall Ships International

Posted on by December 7, 2008

This afternoon, at the 21st Annual Indie and Small Press Book Fair, I had the pleasure of meeting Thad Koza, a wonderful photographer of tall ships.   I bought a copy of his Tall Ships 2009 Calendar and plan on buying his book, Tall Ships: the fleet for the 21st century, for myself for Christmas.  

In addition to his glorious photography his website, Tall Ships International, has an alphabetical listing of tall ships, photographs in his daily log, as well as links to various tall ship sailing sites.  Definitely worth checking out.

A Junk at Risk

Posted on by December 3, 2008

From Dione Chen writing in the Museum of Underwater Archeology site:

“The Free China is a historic century-old Chinese sailing vessel on the verge of extinction.  An authentic Fujian junk used during the first half of the 20th century to transport fish and contraband, the Free China has a rich and colorful past.  The junk is possibly the oldest Chinese wooden sailing vessel of operable condition in existence—and the last of its kind.

The Free China junk made international headlines in 1955 when an inexperienced crew of five Chinese fishermen and one American diplomat beat the odds to make a transpacific voyage from Taiwan to San Francisco.  The voyage was an inspiring story of chutzpah, determination, adventure and spirit that was a source of great pride by Chinese on both sides of the Pacific, and significant interest by mariners and the general public in America.

An Urgent Request for Help

Sailor’s Tattoos – Pigs, Chickens, Swallows, and Tattooed Backsides

Posted on by December 1, 2008

Tattoos have become very popular of late. Tattoo Facts & Statistics notes that “thirty-six percent of those ages 18 to 25, and 40 percent of those ages 26 to 40, have at least one tattoo, according to a fall 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center.” As popular as tattoos are with twenty and thirty somethings, sailors have been marking their bodies for most of history.

Many years ago a retired ship’s captain told me that his youth deckhands often had “HOLD FAST” tattooed across the knuckles of their hands so they wouldn’t fall when they went aloft. They also often had a pig tattooed on one foot and chicken the other which was supposed to protect you from drowning. He told me that he never figured out which foot was supposed to be tattooed with the chicken and which with the pig. He would say, with a twinkle in his eye, that he never got the tattoos because he was afraid of getting them on the wrong feet.

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Replica Frigate “Grand Turk” for Sale

Posted on by November 14, 2008

There seems to be a significant number of tall ships for sale these days. Not sure whether that is good or bad news. One especially notable example is the Grand Turk, now offered for sale for £2,800,000.  Thanks to Alaric for the heads up.

“The Grand Turk is a fully-rigged ship – complete with twelve smooth-bored cannon – built in Marmaris, Turkey based on the 18th Century, British, Sixth Rate Frigate, HMS Phoenix, built in 1741. Naval Architect Ron Holland took the historical lines and created working drawings. The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) were involved at all stages of the build Continue reading →

Animated Knots and Marlinspike Sailors

Posted on by November 13, 2008

For those wishing to learn just a bit about sailor’s knots, Animated Boating Knots by Grog is a lot of fun.  Here is a rolling hitch, a marvelously useful knot that I invariably forget how to tie whenever a need one.   If you need to climb a halyard,  tie a warping line to an anchor rode, or take the load off a sheet fouled on a winch, there is nothing like it.  And even if you don’t need to do any of these things it is still a very nice knot to know.  After all, what’s knot to like?  Sorry.
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Voyage of the Sloop Experiment

Posted on by November 12, 2008

Having sailed last week on the Hudson River sloop, Clearwater, a voyage by another Hudson River sloop came to mind.  In 1785 the Hudson River sloop Experiment was only the second ship from the young American republic to sail to China.  

Hudson River sloops were developed by the Dutch for the specific conditions in vast tidal estuary that is the Hudson River below Trenton. They are beamy with low freeboard and shallow draft. Their rig is simple  – a huge mainsail to get he most of Continue reading →

Talking Like a Somali and Update on the MV Faina

Posted on by October 26, 2008

An update on the MV Faina – still being held hostage by Somali pirates.

Somali pirates hold whip hand in standoff

And a comment by my 12 year old son, Ted. He suggested that he would like to learn some Somali so that next year when “Talk Like a Pirate Day” rolls around, he will really be able to talk like a pirate.

The Business of Raising Sails on a Maine Windjammer

Posted on by October 24, 2008

There are two Maine “Windjammers” currently for sale.  This may not be terribly useful information for those of us feeling more than usually penurious in the current economic downturn. Nevertheless there are moments when the idea of chucking it all and making a living on a sailboat or saling ship does have a certain appeal.

The two boats for sale are the Rachel B. Jackson and the venerable Victory Chimes. Continue reading →

Of Blogs and Logs

Posted on by October 23, 2008

As this is a nautical blog, I do feel compelled to at least tip our hat to Andrew Sullivan’s recent article “Why I Blog“, in this month’s Atlantic Monthly .   (I do recommend Sullivan’s political blog for the Atlantic – The Daily Dish.)

I feel the need to recognize Sullivan because he labors manfully to use a nautical metaphor, the ship’s log, to explain the process of “blogging”.   As he notes “the word blog is a conflation of two words: Web and log.”  He goes on to say:

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The Holy Ground – Songs, Sailors, and Women of Easy Virtue

Posted on by October 20, 2008

I am every fond of the Irish sea song “Holy Ground”.  The song is about a sailor bound for sea, leaving his lady love and hoping to return. “And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more..” It is also known as the “Cobh shanty”, and indeed the “Holy Ground” is a neighborhood in the Irish port of Cobh.

This brought to mind the notorious area neighborhood in colonial New York, known for its high class brothels, also known as the “Holy Ground”.   It made me wonder whether there was more to the “Holy Ground” than one might first imagine. Continue reading →