Category Archives: High Seas

In the Stratford Festival's Bakkhai, starring Lucy Peacock, director Jillian Keiley focuses on "sex-positive feminism." ( LYNDA CHURILLA ) In Treasure Island, staged at the 2017 Stratford Festival by Nicolas Billon, half of the pirates are women as are two characters who were male in the book. ( CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN )

They had me at lady pirates.

Perusing the 2017 Stratford Festival season, its focus on diversity is hard to miss: there are new plays about the Inuit in Canadas North (The Breathing Hole) and another about a difficult episode in the history of East Indian immigration to Vancouver (The Komagata Maru Incident). Actors of colour are playing the twins in Twelfth Night (Sarah Afful and Michael Blake) and the future Elizabeth I of England (Bahia Watson in The Virgin Trial).

Another strong seam running through the season is a reconsideration of gender in classic stories. Staging the Greek tragedy Bakkhai is for director Jillian Keiley an unfolding exploration of different ways of thinking about women and female sexuality.

More about Keiley and her Dionysian revels in a bit. Lets get back to renegade women on the high seas.

The festivals production of the beloved classic Treasure Island has been adapted by Governor Generals Award-winning playwright Nicolas Billon. Faced with a source text that has virtually no significant female characters, intervening creatively in the storys depiction of gender was a no-brainer, says the Toronto-based writer.

Most of the play takes place on a boat so theyre all sailors, its the 1700s, I get that, says Billon. But Im not interested in going to see a museum piece and I want to write something that reflects the world that I live in . . . it just made sense to me that we would have women in the story.

Thus the marooned sailor Ben Gunn is a woman (Katelyn McCulloch) as is Dr. Diana Livesey (Sarah Dodd); both characters in Robert Louis Stevensons book are men. Half of the pirates in Long John Silvers crew are female not historically implausible, Billon confirms, as a minority of women featured in the centuries-long history of seafaring robbery.

While Treasure Island is in the festivals Schulich Childrens Plays series (younger theatregoers get a treasure map when they enter the theatre, part of director Mitchell Cushmans interactive approach), Bakkhai is for a more grown-up crowd.

Keiley, artistic director of English theatre at the National Arts Centre, says she was doused in modern feminist theory in preparing the production, specifically focusing on sex-positive feminism, when you not only own your own body but you own your own orgasm. While these questions are millennia old, this is a debate thats happening now, about who derives pleasure from women having sex.

While ostensibly about the conflict between the rational king of Thebes, Pentheus (Gordon S. Miller), and the god of wine and sex, Dionysus (Mac Fyfe), Euripides play is unique among Greek tragedies for the central role it gives its chorus, the titular Bakkhai: the women of Thebes who are whipped into a savage frenzy under Dionysuss influence.

While Keiley says her multi-ethnic, multi-generational chorus of Bakkhai are beautiful, so seductive, like rock stars, theyre also mean and bad. They tear down buildings and they tear apart cattle.

Working through these seeming contradictions has been a challenge, Keiley admits. I want the women to be good. If were making a play about how great women are, cant we make them heroes too? Im wrestling with that all the way.

Besides conversations with the translator Anne Carson, Keiley says her approach has been informed by the occasional presence of Western University professor Kim Solga in the rehearsal room.

Solgas program note calls Bakkhai the most political play youll see this year because its about how womens bodies, sexual lives and physical pleasures remain sources of anxiety for and something to be anxiously controlled by those in charge including, Solga points out, the United Statess current grabber-in-chief.

Bracing stuff, not least for the productions director: I was raised severely Catholic and this has been a scary thing for me, says Keiley, but I figure if youre not scared, youre not really in the game.

Treasure Island is on now at the Avon Theatre; Bakkhai begins previews at the Tom Patterson Theatre May 27. See https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/ThePlays stratfordfestival.caEND for information. Karen Fricker is a Toronto Star theatre critic. She alternates the Wednesday Matine column with critic Carly Maga.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More:

At Stratford, renegade women on the high seas and in ancient Greece - Toronto Star

Carnival Corporation & plc recently was recognized for its sustainability actions at the seventh annual Port of Seattle Green Gateway Awards ceremony. All three Carnival Corporation brands that regularly visit the Port of Seattle in Washington state Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises received maritime awards for successful efforts in the area of environmental stewardship.

The three Carnival Corporation brands were recognized with a Green Gateway Partner Award during the Port of Seattles Cruise Annual All Agency Pre-Season Reception, which took place in April 2017 at Seattles World Trade Center. The commendations highlighted environmental programs and initiatives from the brands including:

In addition to receiving a Green Gateway Partner Award, Carnival Cruise Line also won the Program Innovator Award for the second consecutive year. The brand earned this distinction for holding its first ever shoreside Environmental/Sustainability Fair, a demonstration of commitment to environmental education and outreach to the staff and visitors of the Port of Seattle. Overall, Carnival Corporations brands have been honored in each of the seven years of the awards existence.

Stephanie Jones Stebbins, director of maritime environment and sustainability at the Port of Seattle, praised the Carnival Corporation brands for looking for new and innovative ways to effectively protect the environment and save natural resources.

Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation, said, As the worlds leading cruise company, our number one goal is to provide great vacations for our guests and one of the top priorities in achieving that goal is our firm commitment to designing and implementing innovative sustainability efforts to protect and maintain the oceans, seas and ports in which we operate. It is not just an operating necessity one that involves oversight from our Board of Directors but it is also the right thing to do.

These initiatives are among a series of ongoing programs underscoring the companys commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility, as outlined in the Carnival Corporation 2020 Sustainability Goals.

For example, Carnival Corporation has invested more than $400 million to install Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems on 60 of its ships in the past four years, significantly improving air emissions. The company leads the industry with the adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a total of seven new LNG-powered ships set to enter the fleet. The company and its brands also have partnerships with organizations involved in sustainability initiatives around the world some of which include The National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM), The Nature Conservancy, Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) and the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance.

The annual Green Gateway Awards ceremony honors industry leaders as judged by independent analysts from EA Engineering, Science and Technology, Inc., and is part of the Port of Seattles commitment to promoting sustainable practices in regional cruising.

Read the rest here:

Sustainability On The High Seas - Facility Executive Magazine

This glorious weather weve been having meant I could take my boat out for the the first time last week, and although the fishing wasnt great, the sunshine made it all worthwhile.

Some might say its a waste of a trip, but if you ask me the simple pleasure of getting out on the water is what fishing is all about.

I did catch my first mackerel of the season however, and as small as they are theyre one of the best eating fish in our local waters. I savoured it for my breakfast the next day, cooking it with fresh Isle of Wight tomato and wild fennel salsa from my garden, with a little chopped chilli thrown in too. There are few better breakfasts to eat while overlooking the sea.

In the season when the sea is bubbling with these little scavengers I can catch a hundred in half an hour, which I send straight into HIX Oyster and Fish House. Ill sometimes save a few for myself, filleting and preserving them in kilner jars with rapeseed oil and flavourings like fennel, chilli and cumin. Its a treat in the cold months.

Catching mackerel is great way to get kids into fishing too, and will help them appreciate that simple things from the sea can taste fantastic. A bit of fish handling from a charter boat skipper can teach them an awful lot of common sense and safety at sea as well.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the salsa

First make the salsa, mix all of the ingredients together and season to taste. Cut the mackerel fillets down the centre and cut each of the pieces into 3, depending on the size, larger fillets into say 4. Heat the oil in preferably a non stick frying pan, season the pieces of mackerel and fry them briefly for a minute or so on a high heat.

Arrange on serving plates with the salsa and scatter with the wild fennel.

Read more:

Our resident chef Mark Hix heads out on the high seas in search of mackerel - City A.M.

A University of Louisiana at Lafayette biology professor is spending his summer as the public face of an expedition exploring uncharted areas of the Pacific Ocean floor, narrating a live video feed for researchers on land.

Scott France embarked on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Okeanos Explorer ship last month as the biology science lead in the three-week expedition that began off the coast of American Samoa and will end at the Hawaiian coast.

In addition to narrating the videos, France also directs the daily dives aboard Okeanos. He is responsible for directing the remote submarine pilots and communicating with scientists on shore to make sure everyone can see what they need.

Another way you can think of me is as a liaison between the operations and the science on shore and making sure that science is represented," France said.

Kasey Cantwell, the NOAA expedition coordinator, described Frances position as a selfless one because the research is not solely focused on his area of expertise, which is deep-sea coral. Instead, the research is a wide-ranging exploration of the ocean floor.

Cantwell said Frances engaged personality and quick wit truly encompass the goals of their mission.

He has a brain thats essentially an encyclopedia, she said with a chuckle. He is always learning and teaching others about things that he is seeing on the seafloor.

France is working with a team of other scientists and technicians on the mission, including the geology science lead Del Bohnenstiehl, of North Carolina State University.

During the dives, the crew and scientists are mapping the mountains, valleys and cliffs of the ocean floor, France said, and are observing the deep-sea wildlife and its behaviors.

There are certain things that we are hoping to find and we are looking for, France said, but we are also going to truly unexplored areas that havent been examined before, and so we dont know whats there.

France added he was hoping to gather data about his specialty, the communities of corals and sponges living on the ocean floor. He related their importance to a forest, with the corals acting as trees for wildlife to use for shelter and sustenance.

Its been an amazing cruise so far, Cantwell said, noting scientists said one days dive is a once in a career experience.

She said the May 5 dive was particularly amazing because the crew witnessed an unexpected event: A brittle star a type of starfish with long limbs captured a swimming squid and ate it.

The dives take place between 1 and 2 miles underwater, so to examine wildlife like this, the Okeanos crew is using submersible remotely operated vehicles to navigate the ocean floor. France said the ROVs have the same capabilities as a submarine, but technicians can operate from the ship using a joystick instead of having to be underwater in the vessel.

There are two vehicles that are part of a dual-body systemto ensure picture quality and image stability when streaming the dives.

The first ROV is attached to a 6-mile cable connected to the ship; its name is Seirios, after the brightest star, because of its bright lights that shine down on the second vehicle.

That vehicle, Deep Discoverer, is attached to Seirios by a 90-foot fiber optic cable. The cable keeps Deep Discoverersteady from the currents that may cause unwanted motion to Seirios. Deep Discovererhas nine cameras, one of which is used to stream high-definition images; thrusters; motors; and two hydraulic arms so it can move on its own and collect samples.

As were exploring, we have to make sure all these different vehicles are working together, France said. Its not easy.

Advances in satellite and broadcasting technology have made it possible to share the information and discoveries from the dive with more than just the scientists on board. This ability, which crew members call telepresence, has allowed scientists from across the world to collaborate on the daily dives.

We are able to have an endless supply of scientists. So when we see things that make us speechless on the boat, its really cool to be able to have the scientific expertise at your fingertips, Cantwell said.

Cantwell said scientists from across the U.S. as well as in Japan, New Zealand, Russia and Canada are following the dives and contributing their opinions.

This trip is Frances third time on the Okeanos but his 17th time at sea for ocean research.

Asked why he returns for new expeditions, France replied: Why wouldnt I? This is just amazing. The opportunity to go where someone has never been before, see something for the very first time and be able to share that excitement with everybody. To me, thats fantastic. You dont get many opportunities on our planet anymore to go to places like that.

Patrons can follow the Okeanos expedition at oceanexplorer.noaa.gov.

Original post:

Deep below the high seas: UL-Lafayette biology professor joins expedition to map Pacific Ocean floor - The Advocate

Akeem Durant loved being at sea from a young boy. (Picture by Lennox Devonish.)

AKEEM DURANT may be 18 years old but his knowledge and experience at sea rides on the same current of an old sea dog.

The SATURDAY SUN team caught up with the youngster who won this years boat race competition during the Oistins Fish Festival, the climax of Easter weekend, and he shared some of his memories of the thing he loves most the sea.

From young I was in love with the sea; my family was fond of the sea, and when my uncle taught me how to swim everything progressed from there.

Durant is a hardworking lad who tried endlessly to acquire the boat he won the boat race with. He explained how he used one of his hobbies to cash in on his investment. (SB)

Please read the full story in today's Saturday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.

Go here to read the rest:

Pure joy on high seas - Nation News

ABOARD THE USS BATAAN, May 11, 2017 Its early in the morning and the sun fills the hangar bay aboard the Navys amphibious assault ship USS Bataan. Already, sailors and Marines are tinkering away on numerous pieces of equipment and aircraft.

One of them is Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Andre Pedro, a ground support equipment mechanic assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Currently, the 24th MEU is deployed with the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and its ready group in support of maritime operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

Pedro, originally from Portugal, moved to Farmingville, New York, with his family when was 12 years old. He finished his schooling and graduated from Sachem East High School in June 2009.

In June 2013, Pedro joined the Marine Corps because he wanted something new and more in his life.

I was tired of working part-time jobs, so the Marine Corps seemed like a good idea, he said.

Joining the Marines

Pedro got that and more. By joining the Marines he felt he is a part of something greater, and he has achieved that through working with fellow Marines and their sailor counterparts in the Bataans group support equipment division.

Pedro and the onboard GSE division are responsible for fixing, maintaining, and tracking all the equipment used to work on aircraft. All the aircraft technicians from embarked squadrons, such as Helicopter Combat Squadron 26 and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365, use the GSE shop to check out equipment to work on their aircraft.

This is Pedros first time being on a ship and says he enjoys working with other Marines and sailors.

Being on the Bataan is a cool experience. I enjoy my work and I like the sailors, he said. Its interesting to see how they do their jobs.

Performing Different Duties

Currently, instead of working in the GSE shop, Pedro is working as a food service attendant on the mess decks. When Marines integrate onto the ship they assist in additional ship responsibilities to help with the workload of the increased crew size. Sailors and Marines take turns supporting the ships laundry, galley and cleaning the mess decks after each meal.

Now there is a new team of sailors and Marines Pedro is serving with and learning about. In his new temporary role he hears the clanging of freshly cleaned silverware and smells the fresh gristle off the flat iron grills of the ships galley.

Im working in the scullery right now. Its not the best [job], but everyone has to do it, Pedro said with a laugh.

Personal Goals

Pedro enjoys his time off work and uses it to his advantage. To stay in my groove; I read books, play video games and watch movies, he said.

Pedro has two main goals while out to sea.

Im hoping to save lots of money and see a bunch of countries, he said.

The Bataan, its amphibious ready group and the 24th MEU are deployed as part of a regular rotation of forces to support maritime security operations, provide crisis response capability and increase theater security cooperation while providing a forward naval presence in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleets areas of operation.

Follow this link:

Face of Defense: Marine Savors High-Seas Experiences - Department of Defense

It's a very Dutch sort of ailment - efficient enough to keep you confined and horizontal, not so demonstrative that you can't read and watch movies and daydream and refresh your quieter self. If I knew exactly where I acquired it, I would go back every year to top up, because a week of undebilitated bed-rest is a great gift to give yourself in this nagging modern world.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote A Child's Garden of Verses and Treasure Island, the greatest tale of adventure and escape you could ever press into the hands of a small, shy boy, ascribed his vivid imagination to the years he spent as a bronchial child, lying in bed through the damp Edinburgh winters and the even damper Edinburgh summers, reading stories and making them up, converting his dreary surroundings into something rich and strange: "I was the giant great and still/ That sits upon the pillow-hill/ And sees before him, dale and plain/ The pleasant land of counterpane."

It would take more than four days in bed for me to dream up Treasure Island, but there is obviously something about sickbeds and pirates, because yesterday I found myself thinking about Stede Bonnet.

Do you know Stede Bonnet? Probably not, and it's a damn shame. Everyone has heard of Captain Kidd and Blackbeard, but the real swashbuckling hero of mild-mannered blokes everywhere languishes in obscurity.

Stede Bonnet was a gentleman farmer living in Barbados who had no experience of sailing, let alone wielding a cutlass or firing a flintlock. He married young but not wisely. Charles Johnson, in his magisterial A General History of the Pyrates, informs us that Stede was dismayed by "the discomforts he found in the married state". Now, many a young fellow, feeling hemmed in by the cosy constraints of the domestic life, has turned his eyes to the window and his mind to the far horizon, but what Stede did makes him a kind of hero. He decided to be a pirate.

He bought a ratty old ship and called it Revenge, figuring that sounded sufficiently bloodthirsty, then hired a crew of cut-throats and brigands, mixed in with a couple of cousins and in-laws that he'd promised to help find a job, and set off for life on the high seas. History does not record whether he sewed his own Jolly Roger, or asked his wife to do it for him.

Stede Bonnet was not your typical pirate captain. He had a special room on board filled with books which he used as a library. He took vocabulary lessons every evening from his first mate to learn nautical terms and how to swear. He was given to wandering the deck after dark in his nightshirt, trying to make conversation with deckhands and reciting poetry to the albatrosses and the waves. He was probably hoping for a more ferocious nickname, but he soon came to be known as The Gentleman Pirate, which isn't terrifying but is better than The Blithering Idiot.

"Yes," I murmured in my sick bed. "I could be a Gentleman Pirate!"

At first Stede had a couple of early successes plundering merchant ships along the east coast of America, but perhaps a more experienced pirate would have been able to look through his telescope and tell easy pickings from a Spanish man of war. Astonished to discover a small scruffy vessel trying to board them, the Spaniards opened fire and killed half of Stede's crew.

He limped away to Nassau in the Bahamas, where all the cool pirates hung out. There, amazingly, he met Blackbeard, who smoothly agreed to captain his ship and crew for him while Stede recuperated on land, in bed with a good book. Regrettably, this gave his remaining crew the opportunity to see what a real pirate captain looked like, so most of them switched allegiances. Blackbeard abandoned the rest on a desert island and stole Stede's booty.

Stede set off after Blackbeard in the Revenge, a clear case of nominative determinism. He never did catch him, but in trying to do so he became such a skilled pirate in his own right that the government decided it was worthwhile to do something about him. They captured him and locked him up and, despite Stede offering to cut off his own hands and feet in exchange for his life, he was hanged in Charleston in December 1718.

I put down my book about Stede Bonnet and lay back on my pillow and coughed piteously and thought about his sad fate.

"Worth it," I thought.

See original here:

The Big Read: Plunder on the high seas - Times LIVE

New York Times

1908 | A Harrowing Maritime Rescue, Told From the High Seas New York Times More than a dozen crew members who tried to escape on Sunday perished when their lifeboat was swamped by the high seas. And St. Cuthbert was still ablaze. Now at last 200 miles off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia Cymric had arrived providentially.

Original post:

1908 | A Harrowing Maritime Rescue, Told From the High Seas - New York Times

Darrell Miklos seemed to be getting closer in his long quest to find an ancient shipwreck tied to Christopher Columbus.

On Tuesday's episode of "Cooper's Treasure" on Discovery Channel, adventurer Miklos finally hit the high seas after days struggling to put together a reliable crew and get a search permit.

But while Miklos felt on the verge of exciting discoveries, his former adventurer father Roger hit him up for money to pay his electric bill!

As show viewers know, Miklos, who befriended the late Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, one of NASA's seven original Mercury astronauts, said that Cooper had observed what he believed were shipwrecks from low Earth orbit.

Cooper left Miklos maps and other information about possible sites and the adventurer decided to use it to find long-lost treasure.

On the new episode, Miklos met the minister of foreign affairs for Turks and Caicos to request a permit to sail to possible treasure wreck sites.

Earlier, Miklos had confirmed that the Pinzon brothers, who had sailed with Columbus, had indeed traveled through Turks and Caicos in 1501.

Miklos also visited Eric Schmitt, an experienced treasure hunter who has recovered shipwreck coins worth millions.

Miklos needed to recruit a crew but noted that it could be dangerous: "Nobody trusts anybody in this business. There are modern day pirates.your best friend will steal from you. Gold fever sets in.

"People would do anything for this info," Miklos told the cameras about Cooper's charts.

Miklos said, "I need a crew I can trust with Gordon's secret."

Schmitt relieved Miklos' mind with his independent attitude.

Miklos liked that Schmitt was a proven discoverer and a lone wolf type and he later agreed to join the hunt.

But then, Miklos was dragged down by his dad Roger, who was once a successful treasure hunter himself.

Roger needed $222 dollars so his electricity wouldn't get shut down; his son Miklos gave him $260 and fumed afterwards that he had his own family to take care of.

"There was time my dad was on top of the worldhe had gold and jewelrythen he lost it all. I don't want to wind up like that," Miklos told the cameras.

And so he pressed on, crunching Cooper's numbers and charting where ancient Spanish ships might have sank.

In the Turks and Caicos islands, Miklos recalled Cooper was there for Mercury splash down tests in the early '60s; he vowed not to let his old pal down.

He assembled a crew of six people and sonar equipment on his ship.

"Let's do it for Gordon," Miklos said, emotional as they sailed off.

Miklos had 13 target locations, and used a magnetometer to find metal-based shipwreck material.

The first area came up empty, but at the next target, Miklos and Schmitt dived again.

Suddenly, they found something!

Schmitt started shouting, "I see it! I have located it!" as the episode ended.

Continued here:

'Cooper's Treasure': Darrell Miklos hits high seas in search for riches-after flat broke dad hits him up for $200! - Fox News

The Herald

Mini golf course with nautical theme coming to Indian Land The Herald A miniature golf course with a nautical theme could open as early as June in Indian Land. High Seas Miniature Golf, at 10001 Charlotte Highway, is a pirate-themed miniature golf course. The course is in the same plaza as Southern Spirits and Phantom ...

More here:

Mini golf course with nautical theme coming to Indian Land - The Herald