Visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum this afternoon for a quick run through the “Classic Whaling Prints” exhibit that opened today and snapped this cool diorama which is part of the show. If you can get there, check it out.
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Month: February 2009
New Bedford Whaling Museum – A New Blog and Exhibit
My local and one of my favorite maritime museums, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, has recently launched a new blog which you should check out. You’ll find lots of great behind the scenes information including a post titled The Birth of an Exhibit: “Classic Whaling Prints” about an exhibit that opens tomorrow.
“Classic Whaling Prints” opens at the Whaling Museum on February 27, 2009, and runs through the end of the year. The exhibition, organized and written by Dr. Stuart M. Frank, traces the most important and most influential pictorial images of whaling through four centuries, from one highlight to the next. It also runs some of their origins to ground by showing, along with the prints themselves, the original oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings on which the prints are based, and some of the decorative arts, ceramics, and scrimshaw that, in turn, are based on the prints.
First and foremost, if you can get to the Whaling Museum, do so it’s one of America’s most important maritime cultural institutions. If you can’t, make sure you visit their blog regularly because it’s an exciting new digital initiative that appears to be charting a proper course.
New Bedford Standard Times article (Feb. 26, 2009) Whaling Museum opens print exhibit
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Wall Street Journal reviews “Down at the Docks”
Bill Kauffman reviews Down at the Docks a new book by Rory Nugent about life on the New Bedford waterfront. (That Sinking Feeling – The last of the independent fishermen – and their troubles. – free content)
I haven’t read the book yet but plan on picking up a copy ASAP. Regular Sea-Fever readers know that New Bedford is my homeport so I’ll be really interested to read Nugent’s take on things. From Kauffman’s review:
Mr. Nugent decries the regimentation of “ill-mannered watermen” who once did business by handshake and lived by codes that an outsider might appreciate but could never really understand. He and his dockmates prefer the yesterdays when “every fisherman was an independent cuss working alongside an independent cuss who happened to own a boat. It worked damn good for a hundred years.” Another of Mr. Nugent’s characters, the superannuated mob fixer Pink, worries that small-scale commercial fishing is going the way of whaling and that soon, in Mr. Nugent’s typically pungent paraphrase, “the docks will turn into some sort of Sturbridge Village by the Sea, sanitized and saltless, with college boys pretending to be deckhands and former pencil pushers posing as captains.”
If this is any indication it should be an interesting read.
Technorati tags: Wall Street Journal, Bill Kauffman, Down at the Docks, Rory Nugent, New Bedford, commercial fishing
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MarineNews: Assuming a New Leadership Role
Just got my February 2009 issue of MarineNews, the information authority for the workboat, offshore, inland and coastal marine markets. It’s a must read for all mariners, especially my leadership column! ;-)
This month I wrote about Assuming a New Leadership Role and had some help from professional mariner friends Captain Wendy Kitchell, Captain Ken E. Beck and NOAA Commissioning Chief Engineer and former shipmate Jamie Hutton. Thanks!
You can read the entire magazine online or download a PDF.
Assuming a New Leadership Role (column only PDF)
Let me know what you think about the column and if you are interested in contributing ideas for future columns. Thanks.
Technorati tags: MarineNews, leadership
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Cruising Back from Vacation
We’ve been away on a family vacation in Florida, so that explains the lack of posts over the past week. But I can’t help but I can’t help keeping a lookout for all things maritime. On Saturday, Buppa (75), Luke (5) and I (somewhere in between) went to the Zephyrhills 35th Annual Winter AutoFest where there was a 1935 Plymouth Coupe in the Collector Car Auction which had these cool hood and grill ornaments.
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Ten shipwrecks that capture MSNBC’s imagination
Not sure that these shipwrecks will capture your imagination, but they captured MSNBC’s and it’s been Dugg a bunch. So, here’s their list but make sure you check out the slideshow and if you like it, Digg it.
- The Titanic
- Ancient Greek oil ship
- 16th Century Portuguese ship off Namibian coast
- Santa Margarita
- Captan Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant
- Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge
- HMS Victory
- Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes
- S.S. Cyprus
- Graf Zeppelin
There were a few new to me. Hope you enjoy.
Technorati tags: MSNBC, Titanic, HMS Victory, Santa Margarita, Quedagh Merchant, Captain Kidd, Queen Annes’ Revenge, Blackbeard, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, S.S. Cyprus, Graf Zeppelin
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Jimmy Buffett’s Son of a Sailor (Google Earth version)
[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5i-6qHljSI]
YouTube – Jimmy Buffett at Google Earth 5.0 launch
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FotoFriday: A Day At Sea Protecting Right Whales
Today I’m excited to introduce you to a guest blogger. Dominic Hix started his maritime career in the US Navy serving almost 10 years in the field of Navigation. He served another 4 years in navigation in the Coast Guard, was a volunteer signalman aboard the Liberty Ship Museum, SS Jeremiah O’Brien, and has spent the last 3 years working as a deckhand aboard tourboats, a dredging company tug and most recently aboard a research vessel. Here’s his story and pictures from a trip he made earlier this week.
The University of Connecticut’s research vessel, the RV Connecticut, is designed to perform as a platform for a variety of projects along coastal waters. With a length of 76 feet, an average draft of 8½ feet and a beam of 26 feet combined with a large working deck she makes a preferable platform for organizations seeking a small, shallow-draft vessel that can still provide adequate working space.
Recently, the Connecticut, acted as a platform for a team of WHOI riggers so that they could swap out some whale monitoring buoys along the Boston shipping lane. These buoys are part of a listening system designed to track the movement of endangered right whales through the busy Boston shipping lane.
Continue reading FotoFriday: A Day At Sea Protecting Right Whales
“I’m On A Boat!” (SNL)
Successful maritime academy grads?
Sea-Fever blog 