Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of both the day and Black History Month, an updated repost about Frederick Douglass. But what does Valentine’s Day have to do with Frederick Douglass? As a slave, Douglass never knew the date of his birth, so he chose to celebrate it every year on February 14th.
Frederick Douglass was born around 1818. From an early age, he developed a close attachment to ships and the sea. His path to freedom led directly through the docks and shipyards of Baltimore, Maryland.
A recently discovered large predatory fish found in deep water off the coast of Japan is a reminder that we know more about the surface of the Moon or Mars than we do about the deep oceans.
In 2016, marine biologists brought up a strange, large fish from 8,000 feet below the surface in Suruga Bay, on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The fish was over a meter long and weighed 25 kg. Subsequently, three more fish of the same type were also caught. While large bony fish are not uncommon in shallow water, they are relatively rare in the deep ocean.
Today is Chinese New Year when we bid goodbye to the Year of the Rat and say hello to the Year of the Ox. While not directly related to the New Year, it also seems a good time to say a prayer, at least figuratively or perhaps virtually, to the Goddess Mazu, the Taoist and Chinese Buddhist goddess of the sea and protector of sailors, fishermen, and travelers. Mazu is said to be worshipped in over 20 countries by more than 200 million people. Traditionally, one prays to Mazu for peace and safety, both worthwhile goals in this New Year.
During Black History Month, it is worthwhile to remember early African-American shipmasters. Who was the first? That is hard to say. Paul Cuffee is a good candidate. An updated repost.
Paul Cuffee was born on Cuttyhunk Island, MA on January 17, 1759, the seventh of ten children of Kofi or Cuffee Slocum and Ruth Moses. His father, a freed black man, was a member of the Ashanti people of Ghana. His mother was a Native American of the Wampanoag Nation of Martha’s Vineyard. Cuffee Slocum was a skilled carpenter, farmer, and fisherman, who taught himself to read and write. In 1766, Cuffee Slocum was able to purchase a 116-acre farm in Westport, Massachusetts.
Paul Cuffee went to sea at 16 on whalers and merchant ships, where he learned navigation. During the American Revolution, his ship was captured by the British and Cuffee was imprisoned for three months in 1776 in New York. He returned home to Massachusetts and in 1779 built an open boat which he used to run the British blockade, bringing trade goods to Nantucket and ports on the Massachusetts coast.
Sailors on the Japanese submarine Soryu had to use their cell phones to call for help after the sub surfaced beneath a Chinese bulk carrier and damaged its radio mast, disabling its communications. Three of the submarine’s crew sustained minor injuries in the crash, which occurred on Monday, government officials said.
From photos provided by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, the vessel also suffered damage to its diving planes. The bulk carrier, identified as the Hong Kong-registered 93,000 dwt MV Ocean Artemis, was not damaged. Crew on the bulker are reporting not to have felt the impact of the collision.
Captain Absalom Boston
Over nearly three centuries of whaling, some 175,000 men went to sea in 2,700 ships. Of the 2,500 masters who captained these ships, at least 52 were men of color. In honor of Black History Month, here is an updated repost about Absalom Boston, captain of the whaleship Industry, which sailed in 1822 with an all-black crew.
Absalom Boston was born in Nantucket in 1785 to Seneca Boston, an African-American ex-slave, and Thankful Micah, a Wampanoag Indian woman. Absalom Boston’s uncle was a slave named Prince Boston, who sailed on a whaling voyage in 1770. At the end of the voyage in 1773, Prince Boston’s white master, William Swain, a prominent Nantucket merchant, demanded that he turn over his earnings. Boston refused. He took Swain to court and with the support of prominent whaleship owner William Rotch, won his earnings and his freedom, becoming the first slave to be set free by a jury verdict. The impact of the lawsuit effectively ended slavery on Nantucket.
In June, we posted drone footage of Mystic Seaport as it was gradually reopening after being shut down by the pandemic. The grass was summer green, the river was shimmering deep blue, and the masts and spars of historic ships rose against a pale sky and billowing clouds.
Here is a very different view of the seaport, capturing the solitude of winter.
In honor of Black History Month, an updated repost about the barrier-shattering naval engineer Raye Montague, who died at the age of 83 in 2018.
At the age of 7, she was inspired to become an engineer after she toured a captured World War II German submarine with her grandmother. As an African-American girl, however, she was told that becoming an engineer was simply not an option.
Thirty years later, Raye Montague became the first person to use a computer program to rapidly develop a preliminary ship design for the U.S. Navy. The design process had previously taken the Navy two years. Montague completed the preliminary design of the Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate in less than 19 hours. Her accomplishment revolutionized the way the Navy designs ships and submarines.
We recently posted about the Wellerman and the Sea Shanty Boom on TikTok. We noted that of all the recent strangeness, the most pleasant and least expected has been the explosion of sea shanties on TikTok. It all began when Scottish postman and aspiring musician, Nathan Evanss, began posting shanties and sea songs on the video streaming service TikTok.
Since then, there has been a bit of confusion in some quarters about what the song, the Wellerman is about. (This should not be a surprise, as there are often disagreements about sea shanties, including even what constitutes a sea shanty.) Some have taken the lyric, “Soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum,” as a reference to the infamous Atlantic Triangle Trade which involved trading slaves, sugar, and rum.
Fortunately, the Wellerman has nothing whatsoever to do with the Atlantic slave trade. Continue reading
Clarisse Cremer is the 12th Vendee Globe racer to cross the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, having completed the solo, non-stop around the world race in 87 days, 02 hours, 24 minutes, and 25 seconds.
She is the first female skipper to complete the 2020-2021 race. Her time broke Ellen MacArthur‘s solo non-stop record for a female skipper of 94 days 4 hours, which MacArthur set when she took second in the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe.
A repost in honor of Black History Month.
William Tillman was one of the first black heroes of the American Civil War. He was not a soldier but rather a 27-year-old cook-steward on the schooner S.J. Waring. On July 7, 1861, the schooner was captured by the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis while about 150 miles from Sandy Hook, New York. Captain Smith, the master of the S.J. Waring was taken aboard the Jefferson Davis, and a five-man prize crew was put aboard the schooner, with orders to sail her to a Southern port where the ship and her cargo would be sold.
With the arrival of the newly elected administration, Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and underground railroad “conductor” is back in the news and may, before too very long, grace our currency.
In 2016, the Treasury decided to put the image of Harriet Tubman on the US $20 bill, replacing Andrew Jackson. The Trump administration arrived before the change was made, however, and decided that they preferred to keep the image of a slave owner on the currency. Now, President Biden, in one of his first acts in office, has announced efforts to speed the process of adding the portrait of Tubman to the front of a redesigned $20 bill.
In honor both of Harriet Tubman and Black History Month, here is an updated repost about the Great Combahee Ferry Raid.
This is a bit last minute, but I see a post on Facebook about a free online sail training course presented by the Flagship Niagara League.
Free Online Sail Training Course! Learn about how Niagara is rigged and sailed!
Join Captain Cusson of the U.S. Brig Niagara for a six-week online sail training course. Starts Wednesday, February 3rd, at 6pm EST.
Visit learnfnl.com to register!
The free online training course is designed to provide those with little or no experience in traditional sail an introduction to the terminology and concepts of a square-rigged sailing ship.
Sometimes the magic just doesn’t happen. The New York Yacht Club’s American Magic team, the U.S. Challenger was eliminated from competing in the 36th races for the America’s Cup. The elimination follows four straight losses against the Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli of Italy. The Luna Rossa team will now advance to the Finals of the Prada Cup where they will compete with Ineos Team UK for the right to challenge the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for the Cup in races starting on March 6.
The American Magic team really never recovered from the disastrous crash and capsize that seriously damaged the boat Patriot‘s hull and destroyed much of its electronics and control systems, two weeks ago. Continue reading
Artist’s Conception of the Recreated Sutton Hoo ship
I recently watched “The Dig,” a new movie on Netflix, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes about the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial in Suffolk, England. Now the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company is undertaking to recreate the great king’s ship in a specially built shed in Woodbridge, just across the River Deben from Sutton Hoo.
In 1939, the widowed landowner, Edith Pretty, hired a local excavator and archeologist, Basil Brown, to excavate several mysterious mounds on her estate. Within a few months, Brown uncovered a huge ship-burial dating from the early AD 600s, which is generally believed to be the grave of King Rædwald.
At almost 90′ long with as many as 40 oarsmen, the ship was the largest vessel of the period ever discovered and predated the arrival of the Vikings by almost two centuries. Continue reading
Here is a heartwarming video for a cold Saturday (at least cold here on the West bank of the Hudson River.) A body surfing pet duck on Australia’s Gold Coast has become a local celebrity for riding the waves.
Kate Miller and her son take their pet duck, affectionately, if unimaginatively called “Duck”, to the beach every day to swim. The duck picked up body surfing apparently on its own. In an interview with the BBC, Kate Miller commented, “I would be confident in saying that he is the only duck like it in the world.”
Ms. Miller, however, appears to be wrong. Continue reading
A recent study, published in the journal Nature, reveals that oceanic shark and ray populations have declined by 71%, primarily due to overfishing.
The New York Times quotes Nathan Pacoureau, a marine biologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada and the study’s lead author, saying, “There is a very small window to save these iconic creatures.” Out of a total of 31 species of oceanic sharks and rays, 24 are now threatened with extinction, and many are classified as critically endangered. The loss of sharks and rays jeopardizes marine ecosystems and the food security of people in many nations.
The Vendee Globe 2020-2021 has been a remarkable race by many standards. It was incredibly close, more competitors are likely to complete the race than in previous years, and the race times didn’t set any new records. For most of the competitors, the race is still underway. At this moment, seven racers have crossed the finish line at Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, while a remaining eighteen are still sailing.
Continue reading
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, here is an updated repost from several years ago, remembering the ill-fated voyage of the German passenger liner St. Louis in 1939. The ship carried 908 Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazi Germany.
The ship and its passengers were denied entry to Cuba, the United States, and Canada. Finally, the ship turned around and returned to Europe. Despite the US government’s refusal to accept the refugees, private Jewish aid groups in the United States did manage to place most of the refugees in Belgium, France, and Holland, to avoid returning them to Nazi Germany. Tragically, many were later captured when the Nazis invaded. Two-hundred-and-fifty-four of the refugees are believed to have died in the German death camps.
Image: Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union
Singapore has become one of the first states to prioritize seafarers to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Nautilus International reports that more than 10,000 maritime workers are scheduled for vaccination by the end of January 2021 under the country’s Sea – Air Vaccination Exercise, including port workers, harbor pilots, cargo officers, marine surveyors, and marine superintendents who are required to work onboard ships.
