Maritime Life and Traditions No. 8

Table of Contents THE FISHING INDUSTRY OF WHITBY By Gloria Wilson Whitby, in North Yorkshire, has a fishing industry that has survived against the odds by diversifying and providing the markets with best-quality fish. Its fleet reflects the variety of catches and ranges from high-tech trawlers to traditional Yorkshire cobles. The author presents a portrait of a contemporary British fishing harbour. THE “VENICE OF THE WOODS” By Hallie E. Bond Since the late 1800s thousands have come to the Adirondack wilderness of up-state New York in search of game, fish, health, or just the “wide outdoors”. The story of the boats and the ways in which people used them is essentially the human history of the region. The author reveals how Adirondack boats and boating have reflected responses to a wild and beautiful land as well as to influences from the world outside. THE KAISER’S YACHTS PART I, THE ANGLO-SAXON RACERS By Kristin Lammerting The last Kaiser was a passionate yachtsman and a firm believer in the need for a first-rate German Navy. Hoping to inspire support for the latter he promoted yachting on a grand scale. Yet, for all his impassioned patriotism, his first yachts were designed and built in British or American yards and sailed and manned by British crews. THE LAST WHALE HUNTERS By Roger Michael Johnson Condemned and prohibited around the Western World whaling remains a fundamental part of community culture and survival in some lesser developed countries. The author offers a personal account of traditional open-boat whaling in Lamalera, Indonesia, where the whale is respected as a worthy adversary and valued as a source of food and fuel. MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY By Tom Jackson In the early nineteenth century little was published or universally known of the world’s ocean currents and prevailing winds. Confounded by the lack of information a young American naval officer, Matthew Fontaine Maury, set out to collate and interpret data from countless naval and merchant logbooks. From his research he went on to produce pilots and charts that would bring enormous benefits to the world's shipping and would become predecessors to many of today's publications.