life at sea is better
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“HMS Surprise”
© 2010 Tuggerdave of Flickr. Taken less than a month ago - don’t she look good?
I AM FINALLY ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT THIS, HUZZAH!!
I was aboard Surprise when this picture was taken. When was this picture taken? Why, last summer when Surprise had a role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (coming to a cinema near you on 20 May). Even though we all rather hate pirates at the Maritime Museum, Surprise (supposedly) played a privateer… Or something. With a pirate captain and Navy crew? I don’t know what we were supposed to be, but we were clearly British. As you can tell by that ginormous flag (of the wrong period). Aside from the long hours, wearing harnesses under costumes, and Very Uncomfortable Shoes, it was a rather fun experience. Surprise now joins the Real Ships Used in the Pirates Films Club, along with HMS Bounty and Lady Washington.
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Hello, dear followers.
It’s occurred to me that I’ve never written an introduction post, and though my little About Me blurb pretty much sums up my life, I thought it would be a good idea to make an actual, personal post, as opposed to just some pretty pictures from an anonymous user who appears to be a tall ship sailor.
I first joined tumblr simply to follow various things that interested me, before I figured that I might as well post some stuff myself. I didn’t really know what to post at first. My very first post was a quote that I absolutely feel defines me completely (“It isn’t that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”), my second the hilarious Front Fell Off video. I decided that I would make this blog simply for my enjoyment, but strictly nautical in nature. My posts range from photographs of modern tall ships (most of which I have taken myself), to historical topics related to the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars (my particular area of interest), and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. While it’s been enjoyable for me to post all of this, I never imagined that I would gain quite so many followers (to be honest, I didn’t expect any). As of right now, there are 42 (
Yes! The Answer!) people following my humble blog, for whatever reason, which I find absolutely astounding. That may not be many compared to “tumblr famous” people, or fan blogs, but it certainly is a lot in the eyes of a geeky tall ship sailor posting photos of things that most of society hasn’t aclew (har har)clue about. I am so pleased that while doing something for my enjoyment, I am also contributing to the joy of others.So, yes. This post is mostly a thank you message. Thank you to all of my followers. Thank you for liking, reblogging, and what-have-you. It means a lot that some people have found my little corner of the internet and are actually entertained by what I’m posting.
It is with that in mind that I pose a question to my followers. Though still rather new to tumblr, I have gathered that it is a very graphics-driven site. Certainly the photos I post gain more notes than any primarily text-based post. I was wondering if you, wonderful followers, would be interested in seeing blog posts relating to my day-to-day nautical
misadventures. As can be gathered from my blurb, I work and volunteer at the San Diego Maritime Museum, and often sail tops’l schooner Californian, as well as HMS Surprise every chance I get. My inquiring mind would like to know if any followers are interested in more personalised blog posts about what it is I actually do. I have a blog that I had posted to each day I did something nautical in nature, but I’ve found I seemed to be posting the same thing every time I sail, and it’s become rather dull. However, I would make the effort here to keep things interesting, to share some thoughts and photos, and hopefully keep up whatever it is I’m doing that’s attracting you fantastic people. And don’t worry, I will continue to post my usual tall ship photos, Aubreyad reblogs, and anything else I find of nautical interest.So. What do you think?
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Yeah… so that thing about me doing more personal posts? No bad feedback on that, I simply haven’t had the time. Barely finding the time to reblog something or post a photo. I want to do some more historical posts, but haven’t had a chance to put anything together.
I’ve been working at the Maritime Museum Wednesdays through Sundays, doing three one-hour harbour tours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Californian’s been taking the place of Pilot while she’s being worked on in the yard. And while Californian can carry more passengers than Pilot, she needs at least three crew compared to Pilot’s one. It’s good fun to be out on the water, even though we’re not setting any sails. And I get to act as mate, which is a step up. But they really make me appreciate the Friday-Sunday four-hour sails. As fun as motoring in circles around the bay is, it is nothing compared to setting every sail and doing manoeuvres out in the ocean. Anyway. That was a rather long way of saying that I’ve been a tad busy lately.
So, I figured I’d share the scrimshaw on my knife handle that I did a bit ago. I chose Surprise for the front because she was the first ship I sailed as Sail Crew. And, well, it’s Surprise. I added a rose to her name to acknowledge her time as the Rose, of course. The compass rose on the other side was my very first scrimshaw. I wanted a design that would be simple to do and contained mostly straight lines, so that I couldn’t mess it up too badly. There is a fairly obvious mistake on there, but it’s hard to catch unless you stare at it for a while. I added the anchor a bit after that to fill up the empty space. Hold Fast we all know from Master and Commander, and it had a legitimate meaning of clapping on tight to a line. The rest of the edge was looking rather bare, so I included a rope pattern, which I may or may not attempt to shade in the future. This was all done by hand with a sailmaker’s needle. First I come up with a design on paper, then copy that onto the knife handle with a pencil before scratching it in with the needle. Instead of searching for white or silver India ink, I used a fabric marker I had lying around and it’s worked out pretty well. It was a lot of fun to do, and now I want to get another knife just to do more scrimshaw!
So, there’s a blog post for you. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with some more interesting things to post about in future.
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So! Got to sail Surprise on Saturday for a commercial for CitiBank. I slept aboard Friday night with a few shipmates. Aside from being attacked by mosquitoes while sleeping, it was a nice evening of playing board games, singing shanties, and watching Master & Commander.
The sail the next day went well, even though we had to be up before the crack of dawn. There was a good swell running and the ship was bouncing up and down quite a bit. A few had to succumb to the effects of seasickness. I was sent to keep an eye on the forepeak to make sure the front wasn’t going to fall off, what with so many waves hitting the ship. Not a great deal of wind, but enough to keep going. It even shifted around to the south, allowing us to sail most of the way back into the bay. (During which we passed Californian and exchanged a few hip hip hoorays.)
It was fantastic sailing Surprise again. It’s been about a year since we last sailed her, and even though we’re a bit rusty, it feels great to be out on her again. Since we last sailed I’ve been ‘moted (neither promoted nor demoted, but simply a change in position) to Mizzen Topman, which basically means that while we’re setting squares I’m stationed aloft looking out for anything getting fouled or hung up. The only real problem we have on the Mizzen is the footropes for the top yard getting hung up on a batten, but that’s easy enough to clear. We’re also quite proud of The Most Perfect Furl the mizzen tops’l has ever had. We actually got the sail rolled up onto the yard, which, believe me, is a great challenge aboard Surprise.
There wasn’t any actual filming for the commercial aboard the ship. There was a helicopter that flew around getting external shots. While this was happening, most of the crew were sent below, so we spent the time watching Master & Commander in the Great Cabin. And watching the helicopter come frighteningly close either to the ship or to the sea.
Soon I’ll post a video a shipmate got from aloft when we were putting the squares in their gear. And me dropping the end of a gasket on the mizzenmast captain below me.
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This weekend is Festival of Sail at the Maritime Museum! We’ve got a bunch of visiting tall ships docked right next to ours, including Pilgrim, Spirit of Dana Point, Amazing Grace, American Pride, Irving and Exy Johnson, Bill of Rights, Curlew, and Jada! Morning and afternoon battle sails are being held all Labor Day weekend.
Yesterday I sailed on Amazing Grace in the morning, and then Californian in the afternoon. Since we’re doing the battles in the bay, there’s constant manoeuvring to be done. Hardly had a moment of peace all day—on both ships—but it was great fun. Amazing Grace is the cutest little tops’l schooner you’ll ever see, and she is amazingly fast. She’s got the positives from both a tall ship and a small, fast, sailboat. A good amount of sail area, and constant trimming to get the best out of her we can.
As always, Californian is fast in a good breeze, and we had a bit more than our usual San Diego calm. Again, constant manoeuvring, as well as a few full broadsides. We moved all four of Californian’s six-pounders to starboard and started off the battle sail with a bang! (har har har) It was a busy sail, but everything went well. After the battle sail, Californian went out again for a twilight cruise of the bay. No sails set, though.
It should prove to be a fantastic weekend! I’m going to try and get on as many other tall ships as I can for the morning battle sails, since I’m already signed up on Californian for the afternoons.
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Festival of Sail (or, Fiasco of Sail, as MMSD employees have come to call it) has come to an end! It was great fun and I will post more about it whenever I can find the time. Which may not be for a while, as I have school this week, and then Dana Point’s festival next weekend. Will definitely post some time before the end of the month, though. For now, enjoy a few easy reblogs of cool stuff!
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Festivals of Sail!
Very tl;dr post here.
Be warned. I decided to be nice and put most of it under a cut.I’m back from the most busy and hectic fortnight of my life! Not only did school start on the 30th of August, but San Diego’s Festival of Sail was held the 1st through 5th of September, and the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival in Dana Point was the weekend after that! So much to do in such a short space of time. Bit of a break now, though. The next big events coming up are a sail to Catalina on Californian in October and the Maritime Museum fleet going out for the Star of India’s birthday in November.
Hello, there! My name's Katherine. I work at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, where I get to sail some lovely ships.
Here I post about my adventures aboard 