Maritime Monday for June 5th, 2017

June 4, 2017 by Monkey Fist

“In a few seconds, the ingenious WONDER WOMAN mentally solves the most intricate calculations”

As if there weren’t enough to worry about, Singapore is being invaded by giant crocheted sea urchins. >>

via Trevor Corson, author of the books “The Secret Life of Lobsters” and “The Story of Sushi.” –TrevorCorson.com

National Ocean Service – Looking for a getaway for a few minutes during your work day? Check out our virtual dive gallery! http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr/

Here, a diver explores the three-masted schooner American Union in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. When it launched in 1862, American Union was one of the largest sailing ships to work the Great Lakes. Its career ended when it ran aground during a storm. Today, the shipwreck site is often visited by snorkelers and kayakers.

via NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

Octopus Kracken Teacup pottery sculpture folk art by Jug Maker Grafton from ebay

Another Exciting Installment of “maybe your little boat friends will like this” (#just2muchroger)

Mitchell Grafton is a sculptor in Florida.

mitchell grafton image search on the Googly machine

mitchell grafton videos on the You Tubes

Follow my (his) daily updates on Facebook: Grafton Pottery

Dutch Men Of War At Anchor – Willem van de Velde I (Dutch, Leiden 1611–1693 London)

Willem van de Velde the Elder – known as the Elder, a marine draughtsman and painter, was born in Leiden, the son of a Flemish skipper, Willem Willemsz. van de Velde, and is commonly said to have been bred to the sea. In 1706 Bainbrigg Buckeridge noted that he “understood navigation very well”. In 1631, he married Judith Adriaensdochter van Leeuwen in Leiden, the Netherlands.
The exact date of which is uncertain, but reportedly at the end of 1672 or beginning of 1673, he is said to have lived with his family in East Lane, Greenwich, and to have used the Queen’s House, now part of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, as a studio. Evicted following the accession of William and Mary as King and Queen of England, and by 1691 he was living in Sackville Street, close to Piccadilly Circus. He died in London. more on wikipedia

Willem van de Velde the Elder Works Online

front view of the Omaha class light cruiser USS Milwaukee (CL-5) was taken at Tacoma, Washington, in 1923

USS Milwaukee (CL-5) was an Omaha-class light cruiser built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. In 1944 she was temporarily transferred to the Soviet Navy and commissioned as Murmansk. The ship was returned by the Soviets in 1949 and sold for scrap in December.

Navy Yard diver going down to burn collar of USS Milwaukee with torch; 1932. More on NavSource Online

Cruiser Murmansk Flying an American Flag on admiral-condell-official

Carved panel from the music room on the Titanic; washed up on a beach in Nova Scotia. I just walked through the ocean liner exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum. Quite spectacular. Photo by rickinmar

via Mary A Whalen – The 2017 hurricane season started without anyone in charge at the two federal agencies most involved in dealing with hurricanes. Read

Cecil Vandepeer Clarke wearing an early version of the limpet mine on a keeper plate. It is in the position used by a swimmer. Date circa 1939

In December 1938, British Military Intelligence developed a new type of mine that would be attached (by a diver) to the hull of a ship. Getting a heavy bomb to stick to a ship reliably was a problem; the obvious answer being to use powerful magnets. The “rigid limpets” used by the British during World War II contained only 4 1/2 pounds (2.0 kg) of explosive, but placed 2 metres (6.6 ft) below the water line they caused a wide hole in an unarmoured ship.
One of the most dramatic examples of their use was during Operation Jaywick, a special operation undertaken in World War II. more

yeah, who knows what the hell is going on here

US Life-Saving Service Heritage Association shared Atlas Obscura‘s post:

Between 500 and 1,000 shipwrecks were recorded around Quebec’s isolated Magdalen Islands – and the descendants of the resilient survivors live to tell their stories.

A tempestuous isle of 1,000 shipwrecks

A guild of knotters won’t let this historic craft die.

“I became interested in knots when I was young, partly as a boy scout and partly as a sailor,” says Colin Byfleet, who is currently serving as the International Guild of Knot Tyers’ Secretary to the Trustees. “I’m about 74 now…”

As new technologies revolutionize and streamline our lives, more and more traditional crafts are falling by the wayside or becoming the domain of hobbyists. Among those that were once ubiquitous, but are becoming more obscure is the art of knot tying—once an essential skill in professions ranging from sailing to farming and today becoming a more and more specialized craft, as the number of people who use the traditional methods of knotting dwindle. keep reading

An Incident of Whaling Artist: William Bradford (American, 1823–1892)

William Bradford (April 30, 1823 – April 25, 1892) was an American romanticist painter, photographer and explorer, originally from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, near New Bedford. His early work focused on portraits of the many ships in New Bedford Harbor.
He is known for his paintings of ships and Arctic seascapes. He went on several Arctic expeditions with Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, and was the first American painter to portray the frozen regions of the north.
Bradford traveled to the Arctic aboard the steamship Panther in 1869. Upon his return, Bradford spent two years in London, where he published an account of his trips to the north, entitled The Arctic regions, illustrated with photographs taken on an art expedition to Greenland; with descriptive narrative by the artist.(London, 1873) wikipedia

William Bradford paintings on Google Images

shipsandseas – Supply vessel next to the drilling ship Maersk Viking; sent to us by @captaincernik

Polaris Highway leaving the Tees Original (3630 x 1650)

Scientific American – Creatures living among the hydrothermal vents burbling under the Arctic Ocean’s ice layer have been historically difficult to study, but an underwater vehicle, the Nereid Under Ice, can get close to the vents to peek in at the animals and their homes without disturbing their environment with icebreaking ships. Scientific American caught up with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist, Chris German, on the R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR-27) to discuss how studying these Arctic dwellers could shape our understanding of how life evolved.

Sutherland Macdonald (1860-1942) is now considered as “the first identifiable professional tattooist” in England

Macdonald started his career while serving with the British Army during the Anglo-Zulu War in the 1870s. On return to England, he set up his first tattoo parlor sometime around 1880-82 in the military town of Aldershot, a place best known as the “Home of the British Army.”
By 1889, Macdonald had moved his business from Aldershot to a small basement parlor under the Hamam Turkish Baths off the main drag of gentleman’s clubs on Jermyn Street, London. He offered his customers any design (“Heraldic, Sporting, Oriental”) keep reading on Dangerous Minds

Taming the dragon – the rise of the tattooist in London

My Modern Met – Amazing Photos Reveal the Work of Britain’s First Tattoo Artist in Victorian Times (more photos)

‘Faceless’ Fish Seen for First Time in Over a Century

National Geographic: The fish, which was first found off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 1873, was spotted a second time during the scientists’ expedition near Australia’s eastern seaboard, 2.5 miles below the ocean surface. It doesn’t have any eyes, and its mouth is underneath its body. keep reading

NatGeo video: Watch the Awkward Balancing Act of Seagull Mating