Filed under: life, maritime, storytelling | Tags: Greenwich, Jack Sparrow, Meridian Primary School, Pirates of the Caribbean
Just in time to stop a mutiny at the Meridian primary school in Greenwich, England, Captain Jack Sparrow responded to a plea for help from a 9th grade student. She wrote a letter and like every good mariner, he responded. Here’s the rest of the story from the London Evening Standard.
Filed under: Environment, Oceans, storytelling | Tags: TED, TEDx, Woods Hole Massachusetts

I love TED Talks and we’ve featured a bunch of them here on the Sea-Fever blog. Next Saturday, October 16, 2010 is TEDx Woods Hole: xPlorations so Luke and I are planning to head over and check it out. Check out their website and Facebook page. It’s a free event open to the public so if you’re floating around Cape Cod, you might want to check it out. Here’s the awesome line up:
MBL Director and CEO Gary Borisy will host the afternoon event, which will feature the following speakers and performers:
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- Dan Ariely – New York Times bestselling author and professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University will speak on “Temptations and Self-Control.”
- David Bolinsky – The founder of XVIVO Scientific Animation will show some of his cinematic-quality visualizations of topics on the edge of medical and scientific discovery.
- Amy Bower –Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) senior scientist who, despite being legally blind, has traveled the world to study ocean currents and their interaction with climate, will discuss “Science Without Sight.”
- Tamara Clark – Designer and illustrator who, with her collaborators, will present a visual and musical tour focusing on “Patterns in Nature.”
- A.M. Dolan – Falmouth-based actor and playwright will perform selections from the writings of visionary designer, architect, poet, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, whose Woods Hole geodesic dome is one of the oldest remaining.
- Glenway Fripp – Jazz virtuoso, composer, and accompanist on piano.
- Roy Gould – Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics education researcher will explore “Other Worlds: Searching for Earthlike Planets from the Classroom.”
- Adam Lazarus –Ant expert Lazarus will share some of his colorful adventures in species collection—and what he’s learned about people along the way.
- Bill Mebane – The MBL’s superintendent of aquaculture engineering and director of the Sustainable Aquaculture Initiative in Haiti will discuss the challenging choreography of “A Dance of Two Cultures: Science in Rural Haiti.”
- Beth Murphy – Documentary filmmaker will reflect on making her new film “The Promise of Freedom,” which focuses on Iraqis who risked everything to work for U.S. soldiers and diplomats as translators, drivers, civil engineers and cultural liaisons.
- Christopher Neill – MBL senior scientist will introduce “Arctic Thrills”—a rare display of polar dancing.
- Arthur Newhall – This WHOI ocean acoustics engineer (by day) and musician and composer (by night) will perform island-rhythm-inspired “Rhythms of the Ocean”.
- Hanumant Singh – WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory chief engineer will reveal “A Robot’s Vision of the Ocean Depths.”
- Jonathan Todd –President of the pioneering John Todd Ecological Design company in Woods Hole will address sustainable design.
TEDx is a new program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events.
Filed under: storytelling | Tags: film, Simon Christen, The Unseen Sea, Vimeo
Sorry it’s been a while since I posted here. Busy, busy, busy. But I’ve missed you guys so here’s a little visual present. Enjoy!
Flag dip to @OpenCulture on Twitter
Here is an awesome looking trailer for a new short film by Alyssa Swanzey. Her last name might sound familiar to many in the sail training/tall ships world as her dad is Gregg Swanzey, the long time executive director of the Schooner Ernestina who’s also been involved with a number of different programs.
Alyssa’s project is being funded through Kickstarter which is a really cool website that funds creative projects. One of the best things is that you can get in on the action and support a project that interests you and make an artist’s dream reality. Check it out and keep watch for the full version of Alyssa’s film too!
Filed under: Experience, storytelling | Tags: Bahamas, Canon 5D Mark II, Dean's Blue Hole, free dive, Guillaume Nery, Julie Gautier
From Guillaume Nery’s blog:
This video is a FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT, I don’t claim to have reached the bottom of the hole (202m) without rope and fins, as the world record in no-fins discipline is 95m. We made this movie to show another approach in freediving videos. We wanted to express the strenght of the elements water-earth-air and the sensations of freedom, harmony, exploration.
All the shots were made on breath hold by Julie Gautier.
We directed and edited the movie ourself, Julie and me. Jerome Espla (Poisson Lune Productions) was the gradder of the clip (color corrections…).
The music is from ARCHIVE – you make me feel.
The camera is a Canon 5D mark II
Location: Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas
FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT, impressive just the same! Especially, since it was shot with a digital SLR!
Filed under: maritime, storytelling | Tags: Leo LaPorte, Old Spice, TwitTV, Wieden + Kennedy
When I grew up my dad used Old Spice so it’s not too surprising that I’m loyal to Old Spice too. I’ll bet that my son Luke will sometime Spice it up too.
It’s great that a mature brand like Old Spice can create some of the most interesting, fun 30 second spots on TVtoday. I’ve previously posted about Old Spice here and here.
You might remember this commercial from the Super Bowl. (Also, over 10,000,000 on YouTube!)
Hard to believe that it was shot with out an edit. Here’s a longish video by Leo LaPorte of TwitTV interviewing Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy to find out how Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was made. If you’re into these types of things, it’s worth watching. If not, move along.
Filed under: life, maritime, storytelling | Tags: Concordia, David Teegarden, sinking
It’s alway helpful to hear the story directly from those involved.
David Teegarden was part of the professional crew onboard the SV Concordia and served as her medical officer. In this video interview he tell his story of resetting his dislocated shoulder so that he could climb out of his cabin and escape the sinking vessel. Interestingly, he used the light from the screen of his laptop to navigate his way through the dark, overturned vessel.
Filed under: maritime art, maritime heritage, storytelling | Tags: 69 South, Kronos Quartet, MassMoca, Shackleton, The Phantom Limb Company

This looks and sounds interesting.
The Shackleton Project is a series of dynamic tableau vivants inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Co-conceived by The Phantom Limb Company and The Kronos Quartet, this narrative installation-in-motion melds theatrical performance, puppetry, photography, and film with original contemporary music and an unconventional acoustic palette to create a stunning—and unprecedented—artistic and emotional journey.
69° South: The Shackleton Project
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 8:00 pm
Filed under: Experience, life, maritime, storytelling, tall ships | Tags: Concordia, microburst, Pride of Baltimore, survival
It’s tough to imagine what was going through the minds of the young students of the tall ship Concordia during the 40 hours spent in life rafts riding turbulent seas after their ship, school and home capsized and sank 500 miles off the coast of Brazil last Wednesday.
On May 14, 1986, the topsail schooner Pride of Baltimore also sailed into a microburst and sank. Tragically, she lost 4 souls. Next time you are in Baltimore you can visit the monument honoring the lives of Captain Armin Elsaesser 42; Engineer Vincent Lazarro, 27; Carpenter Barry Duckworth, 29 and Seaman Nina Schack, 23.
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To get an idea of what might have been going through the minds of the Concordia sail trainees, watch this video of the Pride of Baltimore survivors telling their harrowing sea stories. The video quality is poor but it’s really the audio that’s more important.
Filed under: life, maritime, maritime heritage, reality tv, sail training, storytelling, tall ships | Tags: Picton Castle, sail training, tall ship
Think sailing a tall ship is challenging? That’s nothing compared to building one. Think building one is difficult, that’s nothing compared to finding the trees, cutting them down, dragging them out of the jungle, loading them on another tall ship and sailing them halfway around the world. Tall ships sailors never do anything easy.
Grab a beer and some popcorn because this will be the best reality TV that you’ll watch this week.
Flag dip to my friend Voytec on Facebook.







