Category: Culture: songs, stories, photography and art

Traditions and culture relevant to the world of real boating and sailors

Show us what you’ve got at intheboatshed.net

Fireballs Romance Alert

Fireballs at the NMM; sailing on The Broads long ago; Will Stirling’s 18th century lugger is launched

There are always a lot of interesting side issues to distract and provide entertainment at www.intheboatshed.net, but the real focus must be on the boats, their history, and the work of building and restoration.

So I’d like to make an appeal to you readers to please tell us your stories about your boats.

If you’re an owner with a boat that is your pride and joy, if you’re a Continue reading “Show us what you’ve got at intheboatshed.net”

Superstitions at sea

Cutty Sark figurehead

The Cutty Sark’s figurehead from an angle calculated to save her blushes. However, I can confirm that her breasts are as startling as Chris Partridge suggests they should be (see comments below). Click on the photo to visit the Cutty Sark website

Despite all the potential conventional hazards of collisions, groundings, capsizes, sudden leaks, engine failures and the rest, they do say that boating is a fairly safe activity – or so I believed until I read a press release this morning from the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival.

Inexplicably, their release lists a long series of potential sources of boating danger I had never previously considered, and which I’ve never seen marked on any chart Continue reading “Superstitions at sea”

262-year old East Indiaman Götheborg returns to London

Götheborg
Götheborg Götheborg Götheborg

Götheborg; sailmaking; ship’s boat; teapot excavated from the wreck of the original ship

A full-scale replica of the Swedish 18th-century East India merchantman Götheborg is scheduled to sail into London with cannons firing on the 19th May 2007. She will stay in London until the 2nd June.

The Götheborg is returning to London 262 years after her original namesake left for Sweden in a dramatic, final voyage that saw the ship wrecked Continue reading “262-year old East Indiaman Götheborg returns to London”