Suggestion: May I
suggest you press F11 (in IE) and surf this site in "Full Screen" mode? I
think you'll find it works better.
July, 2010
From John:
Hi! Folks, Season's Greeting and a warm welcome to 2010! We have, of
course, beaten to the New Year here in Kiwiland. Our latitude puts in
the future for most of the rest of the world -at least as far as this grand
illusion of time is concerned. Although, when I check the mirror I
have to say it doesn't seem an illusion -the marks of its passing are clear
for all to see. As the English philosopher remarked in his poem, "But
at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;" For some, it has overtaken and
they have gone on, for all of us, it is closer than before.
(You can
read the full poem by Andrew Marvel, here:
To His Coy Mistress
and quoted with thanks to
Luminarium.org, Anniina Jokinen on October 20, 1999.)
It's rather
staggering to contemplate that we are entering the 10th year of the 21st
Century. It seems, to me anyway, only yesterday when we were
counting down the last ten years to the end of the 20th. Yet, here
we are. I trust that all my wonderful visitors (you are wonderful)
will have had a most enjoyable Christmas and New Year's celebration and
that 2010 will be good for you in all ways. Fair winds and calm
seas until you arrive at you desired haven.
Warm regards, John PS Finished! I have finally gotten round to fixing the
buttons on the various pages that use them. So, please visit
and/or reacquaint yourself with my Replicas, Working Ships and Rigs
pages to see all the pics that have been languishing in obscurity for so
long... And, by-the-bye, if you do find a broken link, please
don't hesitate to let me know by visiting my Contact page. Thanks
heaps. Oh, that goes for spelling mistakes too. Proof
reading your own writing is a fallible exercise I fear. :-)
Odd creations:
She does qualify as a square-rigger as she has 15x
squares. It's a PowerPoint and has a great song as background.
Enjoy! I don't know the creator, but I'm grateful to my friend Paul
for forwarding it on to me. Thank you Paul. The Maltese Falcon as you've may never have
seen her before... Note: This is a PowerPoint presentation so, if you
don't have PowerPoint on your system you will need Microsoft's free
PowerPoint Viewer to see it. You can download it here:
PowerPoint Viewer
For me, I'm just grateful that
sail and square-rig is alive and well -in whatever form. Long live the
tall ship and the freedom to harness the wind and sail, 'free as the wind'
wherever and whenever. I pass over the small fact that she
sports those humungous diesel engines to speed her passage -and, of course,
get her out of any trouble that may arise. There is always the fact
that they make jolly good ballast!
Robert Rasche, Marine Artist: Wonderful depictions of the
square-rigged ship as illustrated below:
Robert Rasche -Marine
Artist
Thank you, Robert
for the opportunity to mention your work on my site.
The North Star of
Herschel Island: Here is a great site about a family owned square-rigger (how good is that?)
called the North Star of Herschel Island. She is owned and skippered by
Sheila & Bruce McDonald who bought her in 1996 and moved their family on
board. Quoting from an article written by John MacFarlane and Sven
Johansson, their web site notes, "North Star of Herschel Island is the only
trapping schooner still afloat from that era of Arctic history. The others
are either gone or abandoned on the beach and mostly forgotten. She is still
making a contribution 60 years later as a square rigged sailing ship, a
tribute to her Inuit owners and to Sven Johansson who rescued her from
destruction on the beach at Sachs Harbour on Banks Island and to her new
owners, Sheila and Bruce Macdonald who continue to maintain and operate
her."
Don's Book: Don
Ross has sent out a news clip to advise he has self-published his book, The
Era of the Clipper Ships, in its first incarnation, and it can be ordered
here:
Don's New Book for US$50.00 shipped anywhere in the world. This price
also carries a promise of sending "you the regular 1st edition of this
book whenever we get around to doing our first offset print run in the not
too distant future". Check it out as it looks great and it would be
nice to support and encourage him in this project. He has named his
home-based publishing enterprise, Mninehaha Press. Congratulations and well
done Don!
←The
Shining Sea Foundation are offering a very beautiful book detailing the
full history of Flying Cloud:
Flying
Cloud: The True Story which you might also be interested in.
You might like to
visit this web site http://www.portalbernitallships.ca/ to check out some tall ships
arriving there for the first leg of their race to Los Angeles starting
Saturday July 16th 2005. I think this is a fairly new site, however, it
looks really nice and is full of information and nice pictures. It is
posted by the Port Alberni Tall Ships Society. If you have Quick Time it
has a nice sound track with an audio commentary along with music to interest
you as well. Thank you, Jen & Stephen for putting me onto this.
Some Friends To
Visit Philippe Bellamit's Pamir Memorial Site: Visit him at:
http://pamir.chez.tiscali.fr/Indexm.htm#English.
This is an absolute cracker site that is chock full of fascinating
images and memorials to this famous 'P' ship.
Don't forget to
visit Donald Ross' site at
www.eraoftheclipperships.com
as he continues his masterly accounts of the Era of the great clipper ships
- don't miss the exciting new chapters as Don adds steadily to this
wonderful record. Don is hard at work publishing his new book on clipper
ships and is anxious for as many as possible to indicate their willingness
to purchase a copy. Surf on over to his site and give him your support.
He has some interesting stuff for sale... Nothing to do with ships
(the items for sale) but rather novel to say the least.
"...
all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by."
