Table of Contents

LOBSTERING IN MAINE, USA

By Bill Mayer

Once so common that coastal farmers fed it to their pigs, the Maine lobster is now considered a delicacy for which summer visitors are prepared to pay high prices. Yet the lobster trade, deeply rooted in Maine’s coastal culture, is under constant threat from depleting stocks and increasing legislation. The industry is two-hundred years old but faces an uncertain future — can it possibly survive another two centuries?

DUNBRODY

By Aude Hamon-Bates and Anthony McLoughlin

Launched in Quebec in 1845, Dunbrody was one of many ships that carried Irish emigrants to the New World during the Great Famine (1845-1849). One hundred and fifty years later, the people of Ireland are building a replica of this famous, wooden, three-masted barque in New Ross, County Wexford. Aude Hamon-Bates and Anthony McLoughlin

STORMY WEATHER

By Paul Adamthwaite

The early history of the yacht that, in 1935, won both the transatlantic Newport-to-Bergen race and the Fastnet. Designed by twenty-five-year old Olin Stephens, Stormy Weather would go on to make sailing history and, together with Stephens earlier design, Dorade, heralded the beginning of modern ocean racing.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT OF 1848

By Adrian Osler

Following a fatal storm that hit the northeast coast of Scotland in 1848, the British Admiralty sent Captain John Washington RN to Scotland to investigate the tragedy. From that investigation, Washington produced a detailed report that, unlike any before it, was illustrated with many examples of lines taken off fishing boats, and proposed some unprecedented recommendations for future action. His work, both masterly and humane, is frequently quoted but has never been analysed from a maritime perspective.

THE MODELS OF ROBIN BOARD

By Tom Cunliffe

Robin Board had a passion for small boats and created a unique model collection of working boats that were once found in abundance around the coasts of mainland Britain. Each exquisite model is presented in its own environment and the resulting collection is both impressive and representative.

JOSIAH SHACKFORD

By Kevin Desmond

In 1785, a “small, heavily rigged vessel” sailed into the port of Paramaribo, Surinam. She hailed from Lorient, France, and was crewed by a lone man: Josiah Shackford. Shackford claimed to have sailed single-handed across the Atlantic… but had he? Thus unfolds one of maritime history’s mysteries — was Josiah Shackford’s bold adventure fact or fiction?