Category: Sailing ships

Michael Kahn’s marine photos on show at Penobscot Marine Museum

Michael Kahn brings an element of abstraction to the windjammer exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum

Michael Kahn brings an element of abstraction to the windjammer exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum Michael Kahn brings an element of abstraction to the windjammer exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum Michael Kahn brings an element of abstraction to the windjammer exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum

Michael Kahn brings an element of abstraction to the windjammer exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum

Michael Kahn’s stylish black and white marine photography is on show at the Penobscot Marine Museum until the 24th August

This striking shot is one of a collection of beautiful and smoothly textured photos by Michael Kahn currently on show at the Penobscot Marine Museum as part of its continuing exhibition Earning their keep: Maine’s windjammers.

Kahn, you won’t be surprised to learn, is captivated by boats. ‘Seldom in man’s history have we created something as beautiful and as functional as the  sailboat,’ he is reported to have said. ‘These boats symbolize more than just basic transportation. They represent the ability of man to work with nature. To harness the power of the wind and endure the strength of the sea is an awesome achievement.’

If you’re wondering about the rich texture of the image above, I gather it’s a Kahn  trademark and that his images are hand-processed gelatin silver prints. I think this man’s eye is just as impressive – see how the dinghy is moored to the sailing ship’s dophin striker, and how it’s partly framed by the bowsprit – and having clocked that, notice the delicious reflection on the water.

The museum’s press officer, who happens to be my friend Bob Holtzman, adds that Kahn’s work has appeared in a wide variety of magazines ranging from Cruising World and Family Circle to the New York Times. His work even made an appearance in the James Bond movie Die Another Day.

For more information, see the museum’s website. A book of Michael’s photos is also available from Amazon: The Spirit of Sailing: A Celebration of Sea and Sail.

PS Have you used the little logos below yet? They allow you to share this post via Twitter or Facebook, save the link in Google or your own web browser, and finally you can email the link to a friend. Handy, I’d say…

400 18th and 19th century drawings now at the National Maritime Museum website

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Storm at Mazatlan, Mexico, painted by Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe, 1851. As usual, click on the images for a closer look – but expect this one to send a shiver up your spine!

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Two male figures, one with a large cocked hat and a quizzing glass painted by Gabriel Bray; Ovolu [Ovolau], Feejee Islands painted by Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe 1849

A grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation has allowed the National Maritime Museum to make part of its collection of 70,000 prints and drawings available online for the first time.

The newly digitised drawings are mainly by Royal Navy officers in the 18th and 19th centuries, and give a glimpse of tropical islands, exotic cities and indigenous peoples at a time when the ability to draw a landscape was not just a pastime but also a means of intelligence gathering.

Highlights from material recently added to the NMM’s online collection include over 100 working sketches by John Christian Schetky (1778-1874), an album of drawings by Gabriel Bray recording his voyage as second lieutenant of HMS Pallas to West Africa in 1775, and over 100 watercolours from albums by Admiral Sir Edward Gennys Fanshawe (1814-1906), covering his service in the Pacific from 1849-52, in the Baltic during the Crimean War, and in the Mediterranean.

Schetky and Bray’s works are very rare drawings of everyday shipboard life in the age of Cook and Nelson as well as some unique depictions of street-life ashore, while the much less well known Fanshawe was an amateur artist who recorded his varied and distinguished career with a skilled hand in highly finished watercolours.

The journeys Fanshawe depicts include an investigative diplomatic voyage during which he visited Pitcairn, where he met the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers, Susan Young, and heard first hand the account of how she killed the last Tahitian crew member with an axe during the island’s conflict; Fiji, where he drew what are possibly the earliest portraits of Seru Thakombau, founder of the modern state of Fiji; and Samoa, where his drawings of women show the enduring influence of English fashions on their Sunday-best costume.

The prints, along with commentary, can be accessed through the relevant pages of the museum’s website.

Mike Goodwin’s video of the building of the magnificent schooner Virginia


Schooner Virginia photos by Mike Goodwin

Speaking of schooners, as we were in a recent post about the type’s origins, my friend Mike Goodwin worked on the building of the schooner Virginia, which completed in 2005, and was lucky enough to be a member of her crew when she won the Gloucester Schooner Race the same year.

Here’s his animated photo-record of her from the beginning the building to the finishing line of the race. The baulks of timber involved are awesome, but then it gets better…

The music comes from artist and composer Michael Shantz.