#life at sea

[northwoodscarving]

4th of July sales are here!! Everything is half off until the 4th!! Original and custom commissioned acrylic paintings. I've been doing artwork for three years, but started painting just this year, and it's turned into something crazy. I put out a new piece almost every day with almost any subject you can think of. From commissions, to original pieces, these are some of my personal favorites. Follow the link to find the etsy shop and see what's available, or message me to start a custom commission of your own! - David

[ltwilliammowett]

A Sailor's scrimshawed straight razor, "Josias Lane" carved to one side with a figure of a whale, the other side decorated with a flower and a three-masted sailing ship, 19th century

[foreverfitnesspositivity]

I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea

[42089]

[sailorsharky]

⚓️Journal of a Sailor⚓️

-= Log: 10 =-

-= Time of writing: 1818 =-

-= Weather conditions: Overcast, occasional rainfall. =-

-= Relative windspeed: 5 knots =-

-= Duties done: Mooring & unmooring, tug duties, cleaning. =-

Good afternoon, dear logbook.

Today was a fairly mundane and easygoing day. Just one ship to take on for today and a little bit of cleaning on the aft deck before I finished up the little wooden model I bought yesterday. After which I decided to stretch my legs by going down to the beach near the local fortress. I managed to bring back two beautiful shells from the beach there since it was low tide this time of day.

There's not much to report on at the moment, as we're all standing by on whether we can go to sea soon for a big job out there on the waves.

I sadly will be without a stable connection so far from land though, so should that time come, rest assured that the logs will be filed into this journal as soon as possible.

But until then, I'll continue to post a new entry on the daily.

🌟May Polaris guide you always🌟

[doctor-fancy-pants]

That Researchin' Maritime Life

We've got a bit of downtime - there's a trawl going down to 5000m right now.

I've rotated and freshened up the sea cucumbers, packed away the echinoderms (starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, brittle stars, feather stars and sea lilies), thrown a few buckets of seawater in the cold room (including the smaller pails seen below, I'm refining my holothurian rescue plans), and had a snack because This Machine, She Runs On Heavy Fuel.

This is actually a very comfortable ship to live on. Each cabin has a private ensuite, so you're not clambering down the bunk ladder and teetering out into the hall in search of the head in the middle of the night (I have been very spoilt and have only had one voyage like that). The mess has plenty of room at mealtimes. There are two lounges ("quiet" and "you're allowed to make noise and have informal meetings" respectively), and my favourite beanbags in the world.

There are, however, some drawbacks to marine research as a specialty (apart from the lack of job security, she says, as a short term contract taxonomist), and using a laboratory on a boat.

What drawbacks, you may ask.

Well, after my shift ends, I've been known to totter wearily into an online chat with mates and just drop random observations (you may note a somewhat laissez-faire attitude to punctuation).

For example:

you know it's amazing, you can be totally fine working in the dirty wet lab and you'll leave for five minutes and it's like your olfactory filters completely reset and then you get back down there and the nose is shouting at the brain "BOY HOWDY IT SURE DO SMELL LIKE FISHY PRAWNS IN HERE HUH JUST GOTTA SOAK IN THAT BRINY AMBIENCE"

summation: the science smells bad.

related outcome: the scientist also smells bad.

Yuuup, the smell is a whole freaking vibe. We can't dump too much seawater down the sinks that go into the grey water holding tank, we can't open the chute in the lab if there's an operation in progress (i.e. a trawl, a tow video, a Baited Remote Underwater Video, a fish trap) (which has been the case more often than not), and the same restriction is in place for simply tipping buckets over the side

That means that buckets of filthy seawater, sea cucumber guts, discarded excess critters, banged-up prawns and so on... just have to sit in the lab for a bit.

I've got a very sensitive nose. I have never been good at filtering out unpleasant smells, and yet somehow I kind of adapt to the lab odours... until I head up to the mess, and back down again.

(side note: we do actually clean the lab very thoroughly between trawls, and it does not smell all the time! It's more when you have to take a break in the middle of processing and then come back to it.)

What I do not adapt to is how bad I smell. By the end of the day, if I've been racing around in my coveralls, especially if I've been carrying heavy things, I will stink to high heaven.

(I will be quite self-conscious standing next to anyone.)

That shower is... so good.

But showering every day raises an issue. It's not what I normally do. Now, I realise there are some people who will find that horrifying (and most of them are from the US for some reason), but every second day, or when I need to wash my hair, or after a workout or, on a hot day? Yeah, that shower is good.

Every day? My poor skin is dryer than shoe leather, and I use a very gentle shower gel.

Shower Discord thoughts:

have been speculating on how one transitions from "I own body moisturiser but only occasionally remember to use it" as a terrestrial organism, to "I am pretty sure I could start a black market trade by subdividing this half-tube of Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream into small aliquots" as a person who is

1) at sea (the briny sea! The salty [drying] air!)

2) when not outdoors in the salty air, indoors in the drying A/C

3) regularly shoving one's hands into 100% ethanol and... usually... nearly always... wearing gloves while doing so

I mean this cream is the good shit

like basically liquid gold

which... could also be distributed in aliquots

okay. have decided: will not trade Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream for less than the equivalent volume of liquid gold

On later reflection, while I continue to believe that this asking price is fair, I may be pricing myself out of the market, if for no other reason than the simple lack of gold on board the vessel, regardless of phase.

I have decided that it doesn't have to be liquid. Melting gold on a moving vessel far off the continental shelf is an untenable safety risk. It just means that we will have to try to match the quantities by weight.

And that means using the scales in the clean wet lab, because the balances in our lab are not up to that sort of task.

And that means that I have definitely thought about this far too much, and I should go do something else (mainly clean my teeth and get ready for bed - need to get the energy for tomorrow's science-ing!).

We're still doing a fair bit of transiting and deeper sites, so I plan to try and knock out some taxonomic work on the few crinoids that have made it into the lab, and maybe set aside some time for the Sea Cucumber Salon.

Cukes gotta get their glamour shots, dammit.

[altoordine]

[didzblog]

View from the top of a ship mast, Photo captured by Edina Szalai

One brave photographer climbed to the top of the mast of a boat to capture this dizzying shot. We can’t decide whether this is a gorgeous shot of the sail boat below or a nauseating shot for those with a fear of heights. However this photo makes you feel, I think we can all agree that it’s quite a unique point of view:

Check out those gorgeous Caribbean blues and the sea floor beneath the water. Imagine the climb down—or maybe even a jump with a waterproof camera? To what heights will you go for that perfect shot?

[rainbow-femme]

Who’s taking bets on there being a documentary out on this in the next 3-6 months

[rymeofthemodernmariner]

For the night is dark and full of terrors

[ltwilliammowett]

Boosting Rations

The morale on board depended on the leadership style of the officers and the captain as well as on the food, the type of work and the combat missions. (Who doesn't know that, no good food and the mood is in the cellar) And no Sailor could live only on long life rations, therefore live stock was also carried.

Depending on the ship and the captain, it could happen that the officers kept the best pieces for themselves. And left the last rest to the crew. But there was also the opposite, to support the mood of the crew, so Admiral Jarvis ordered in 1797 that he and the officers only received the head of a cattle, the rest went to the crew. Many captains used the extra money they received from the admiralty to buy lots of fresh fruit, and not just for the officers. But they also had the sailors fishing to catch fresh fish or turtles. Or they served something sweet, like a pudding.

A sailors on a sailing ship catching a shark, 1857 (x)

To avoid boredom, the officers and marines liked to shoot seabirds (e.g. the officers of HMS Isis shot seagulls in 1763). Apparently the superstition about seagulls had not disturbed them) to supplement their diet. Of course, they also liked to try local specialities, but this could also have undesirable side effects, as the Surgeon of HMS Arab reported in 1799: a number of men poisoned by a mangereen apple... occasioned severe vomiting and violent convulsions. 

The Admiralty also tried to provide something exotic, but not too expensive, for moral support. However, attempts to carry fresh lobsters ended in 1813 when the poor animals did not last long on board and died. Therefore, lobsters were no longer available as livestock.

Now it could also happen that the livestock had not survived or had gone overboard in a storm. But the Sailors had a solution for that too, because in order to provide something fresh and to keep their spirits up, some very good catchers hunted the rats in the hold. And of course the ship's cat didn't miss out. What sounds strange for us to eat a rat, the sailors found it quite tasty, supposedly it tastes like rabbit.

However, every captain knew that there was one booster that hardly any sailor could resist and that was an extra portion of rum. This was usually accepted with great pleasure and the mood was lifted immediately. For that, the officers like to reach for something sweet or an extra bottle of wine. 

[hashbrown-16]

Thoughts and Feelings #8

Dear ships log,

Howdy doody and happy lambing season for you land lubbers.

The life of an irate pirate is a harsh one. 'Scrub the deck! Hoist the main sail!' when will I ever relax?? The cap'n hasn't been to keen on me since I managed to beach myself alongside a whale. My punishment was to be catapulted to the sun, luckily he's not too sharp on his measurements.

I will note this, an albatross

In future I hope I can overcome my hypnotic obsession of waxing the deck, though I cant see this happening because it is now slippery enough to use as an ice rink; productivity has increased tenfold!

The Bulgarian pope (its an inside joke) has not stopped banging his drum for a fortnight. This may be an omen my ankle will inflame again.

oh god.. the deep darkies are coming....

..

......

...

I'm back. During those times I can only communicate in dots and the twitch of a cats whiskers. I best be going for bed rest and a flask of grog.

@neil-gaiman

@10kspoons

2nd time ive written from the pov of a sad sailor, clearly I dont agree with the lifestyle of circumnavigation.

[fashionbooksmilano]

Duke Riley  Tides  and Transgressions

Duke Riley, Foreword Meredith Johnson, Afterword Anne Pasternak

Rizzoli Electa, New York 2022, 256 pages, 24.38 x 30.73 cm, ISBN  978-0847872411

euro 62,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Death to the living, Long live trash” held at the Brooklyn Museum, NY, June 17 2022- April 23 2023

The first survey of the twenty-plus-year career of the highly influential multimedia artist Duke Riley, famous for expressing transgressive political and ecological themes through metaphors drawn from nautical folklore and nature. Duke Riley’s work explores his lifelong fascination with urban waterways, their historical relationship to the culture of life at sea, and the uneasy intersections of human geography with the physical world. His work comments on a range of issues, from the cultural impact of overdevelopment and environmental destruction of waterfront communities to contradictions within political ideologies and the role of the artist in society. This comprehensive monograph collects work from his expansive career, encompassing drawings, sculptures, mosaics, performances, and more than one maritime adventure, including his Fly by Night public art project of pigeons illuminated by LED lights flying across the New York City skyline, documentation of his nefarious shell company Non-Essential Consultants, and the mayhem of the 2009 anarchic mock Roman naval battle, Those About to Die Salute You at the Queens Museum.

Duke Riley is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Anne Pasternak is the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum. Meredith Johnson is the vice president of arts and culture and head curator at the Trust for Governors Island.

orders to:     booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

twitter:                @fashionbooksmi

flickr:                  fashionbooksmilano

instagram:          fashionbooksmilano

tumblr:                fashionbooksmilano

03/02/22

[pillowspace]

GIRLY JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT CYERCE ELEGANS

If Cyerce nigricans is a butterfly, then this is a fairy... Cyerce nigricans for comparison:

[sailorsharky]

⚓️Journal of a Sailor⚓️

-= Log: 6 =-

-= Time of writing: 2007 =-

-= Weather conditions: Foggy all day, clearing up at night. =-

-= Relative windspeed: 10-21 knots. =-

-= Duties done: Cleaning accommodation, mooring & unmooring, assisting in tug operations. =-

Good evening, dear logbook.

Today has been a little more mundane, but it will be a long one. I'm writing this log early because we've got some work to do at midnight.

There's not much to make note of at the moment, really. Just the regular things one can expect on a tug vessel. Still very fun and interesting, mind you, but nothing you haven't read about already so far.

I did have some time to go for a walk down to the breakwater near our current berth, which netted me a couple more photos for this log.

We'll see what tomorrow may bring. I definitely enjoy my stay on the ship so far.

🌟May Polaris guide you always🌟