The Tabor Boy Project Bob Couttie's Maritime Accident Casebook
I won this iPod Shuffle from gCaptain and would love nothing more than to send it to a Sea-Fever reader. Of course, I would really like to win the iPhone too! 
My top story is currently in the running for the gCaptainGrand Prize of an iPhone. If you haven’t voted for it yet, please read it; hopefully you’ll enjoy it and vote for it.
Thanks for participating in the Sea-Fever contest and helping me to win an iPhone in the gCaptain contest!
In the Comings and Goings article in the Travel Section of the Sunday New York Times (Sept. 23, 2007), Hilary Howard writes about an interesting on the water tour of New York City movie and television sites. You’ve Seen the Movies; Now Tour the Locations.
Lights, Camera, Action! is a special tour put together by the NY Water Taxi whose website offers:
Experience “Hollywood on the Hudson” while enjoying the majesty of New York Harbor and the financial district as you visit the locations used in your favorite TV shows and movies. All tours are led by New York City actors and actresses courtesy of On Location Tours who share behind-the-scenes scoop and inside industry information.
There are so many challenges today to our traditional fishing industries. Tougher regulations, increased fuel costs and expenses and overfishing, climate change are just a few. In Saturday, September 22, 2007, Wall Street Journal, Candace Jackson wrote an article titled Virginia’s Time Machine: An isolated fishing port for 300 years, Tangiers Island now wants to sell it’s history. (subscription required) which covers how a community is trying to adapt to change.
Here’s an interesting video from the Wall Street Journal Online entitled Crab Profits Wane that was linked to the article.
Technorati tags: Tangiers Island, crab fishery, Wall Street Journal
If you ever sailed a tall ship or even dreamed of sailing a tall ship, you are probably familiar with Alan Villiers. Adventurer, author, photographer, master mariner, ship owner, World War II hero and sail training pioneer, Villiers first stepped aboard a tall ship at the age of 15 and thereafter made his life on the sea.
Villiers was involved in one way or another with so many ships that still sail today or that are museum attractions such as:
The following videos are titled The Cape Horn Road and if you watch them you will be amazed by the footage and entertained by Villiers’ narration.
National Maritime Museum of Australia, Villiers’ Centenary Exhibit (2003)
Rounding Cape Horn in a Windjammer, National Geographic (1931)
Happy Birthday! (b.September 23, 1903)
Technorati tags: Alan Villiers, tall ships, sail training, Cape Horn
The iPod Shuffle that I won last week as part of the gCaptain Discoverer iPhone contest arrived yesterday but it’s not destined to stay long. It’s still in shrink wrap and ready to ship out to a new home. It could be yours by September 30th.
On Saturday, September 22, 2007, the Tug Hercules will be celebrating her 100th birthday as part of the San Francisco Tugboat Festival. Berthed at the San Francisco Maritime Historic Park as part of their amazing ships exhibit, the Tug Hercules is 151′ steam power tug built in 1907 for ocean going service. Tug Hercules remarkable history.
Holland + Knight is a prestigious American law firm that produces a great daily maritime e-newsletter. Today’s edition poses an interesting (amusing) question which begs another: Why doesn’t all of the sea water drain out? What do you think?
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Per the Sunday NY Times Men’s Style Magazine (September 16, 2007):
Part floating multimedia art installation, part “Pimp My Ride,” the thoroughly customized 1977 Correct Craft ski boat is a nautical interpretation of Chicano low-rider culture by the Chicago-based artist Dzine. Working with the high-end car outfitter LP MotorSports, he tricked out the “Dnipro” with 22 speakers, 9 TV screens, 8 amps, state-of-the-art Pioneer D.J. equipment, a laser light show and a smoke machine. The craft made its maiden voyage at this year’s Venice Biennale in the Ukrainian Pavilion and is set to sail again on Oct. 9 in Rome, christened by a performance by DJ Solal and Filip Wauters.
For more information, go to www.contemporaryartssociety.com.
Dzine website which has some great detail photos.
You won’t be gutting stripers on this baby.
Kelly at Maritime Compass reports that Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea is looking to fill a newly created position of executive director.
Driven by the exciting goals of the transformation of the Mystic Seaport Museum, reporting to the President & CEO, who will be devoting an extensive amount of his time and energy to the Museum’s on-going capital campaign, and working alongside the senior leadership and the Board of Trustees of the Museum, this newly created position will provide both the visionary leadership and extra expertise necessary to take Mystic Seaport to the next level. Mystic Seaport’s transformational plans are aimed at strengthening the institution’s capabilities as a cultural and educational asset.
Mystic Seaport is one of the most impressive maritime institutions in the world but like many other living history museums, they have been challenged by declining attendance for a number of years. This will be an exciting opportunity. If you’re interested contact Victoria Reese at Heidrick and Struggles (NYC) at vreese@heidrick.com or by fax, 212-370-9035. Closing date for application is November 15th.
David Byrne has always been one of my favorite artists. Musician, photographer, filmmaker and more, I find the breadth of his creativity inspiring.
He has new album entitled Grown Backwards which includes a song called Pirates. Strangely, you can listen to the full version of Pirates from this page until September 20th which is the day after International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Bonus: Here’s a link to a cool website from one of my all time favorite albums: David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981 original / 2006 remix).
Technorati tags: David Byrne, Grown Backwards, Pirates, International Talk Like a Pirate Day
There is nothing more heart warming than a story about a man and his beer. Add a few ships into the plot and you have the making of a classic sea story.
Today (September 16, 2007), Pete Brown, a British author whose books include Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer and Three Sheets to the Wind embarks on an epic journey with his traveling companion “Barry”, a four and a half gallon barrel of hand brewed India Pale Ale (IPA) by the White Shield Brewery from Burton-on-Trent, England. Pete and Barry intend to follow the colonial IPA route from the UK to Kolkata (Calcutta). If all goes well, the trip will take approximately 3 months.
In the off chance that Sea-Fever readers don’t already know, there is a great website called gCaptain.com that has so much interesting and valuable information that it is destined to become the one stop shop for maritime news. One section of the website is called Discoverer which is a maritime version of Digg where you can “discover, share and vote” for your favorite stories.
In September gCaptain.com is running a contest with valuable iPrizes. I was lucky to just edge out some other really great contributions for the 3rd place prize and I won an iPod Shuffle. The grand prize is an iPhone. Very cool! (more…)
Green.tv is a great website that has some very interesting videos. Mark Lynas and Steven Holland created “6 degrees - Our Future on a Hotter Planet” While the images used are pretty, our future isn’t. Very sobering and powerful. Please watch it.
Technorati tags: Green.tv, Mark Lynas, Steven Holland, global warming, climate change
Today’s Wall Street Journal (September 13, 2007) has a front page article written by Douglas Belkin entitled As Arctic Ice Melts, Northwest Passage Beckons Sailors. (subscription required) However, a video and cool (pardon the pun) interactive map which highlights a number of attempts over the years can be viewed freely.
Technorati tags: climate change, Wall Street Journal, Northwest Passage, sailing
Trend spotting website Cool Hunting had an interesting post about a new sailing yacht yesterday.
The Hawley F140 Racing Yacht looks like a cross between a dolphin and stingray. With a smooth finish and rounded corners, it looks like it might easily roll over taking it’s crew with it. However, a hydraulically tilting keel acts as a counterbalance when cutting around corners. Taking inspiration from high-performance sports cars, it is built for flat-water speed and will easily go 20 knots. A self-draining cockpit and sloping deck from bow to stern help drainage keeping the boat light and balanced. The “bat wings” provide added surface area for the crew and helps to distribute weight while adding to the speedy styling.
One of my regular reads is the 800-ceo-read blog, which does great news and reviews on business books. Yesterday they were pleased to point out that a discussion ensued during Monday Night Football about a business book. (I missed it but it must not have been a very exciting game.)
But this wasn’t just any old business book; it was about Mike Abrashoff’s It’s Your Ship.
Here’s a reprint of the transcript from 800-ceo-read.com:
It was hard to believe what was unfolding six years ago this morning. In our modern media saturated world, it was presented to us in real time and then repeated over and over again like a horrific groundhog day. But as difficult as these images are, they are impossible to forget which is probably good because the events of those hours effectively defy words.
The New York maritime community responded to these attacks in heroic fashion which probably surprises no one who reads Sea-Fever. Here is a US Maritime Administration video entitled “Honoring the Living Heroes of the United States Merchant Marine.”
There is a small website called HarborHeroes.org that commemorates the maritime professionals, vessels and companies who responded that fateful day. On it there is a powerful piece by Andrew Greeley from the Chicago Suns Times of September 6, 2002 entitled Media ignored calm amid the 9/11 chaos. This short essay does a remarkable job in capturing the essence of leadership that exists in every individual and society’s ability to face an adaptive challenge of monumental proportions.
If you enjoyed this post and think other might too, please vote for it at gCaptain’s Discoverer maritime news website.
Crossposted at Sea-Fever blog and the Center for Leader Development blog.
Update (Sept 14, 2007 /Gloucester Daily Times): $95,000 state grant helps Maritime Heritage Center expand
Cool 3d tour of the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center’s future.
