There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea. ~ Kahlil Gibran (from ‘Sand and Foam’) The sea is perilous and unforgiving. Yet, fisherfolk from generation to generation wrestle with its power to earn a living and feed humanity....
Some maritime photos from the turn of the 20th century and earlier decades can be so dull that they make you feel that you're really looking at people and things long departed. They leave you cold. Thankfully, you may stumble on old pictures that are not mere records...
Today, the 1st of May, is Labour Day in many countries. I thought I would pay tribute to housewives instead of seamen and seawomen. Housewives are not considered part of the working class since they do not receive wages. The tools of their...
I miss the waterfront. One of my most vivid childhood memories is boarding a ferry with my mother at Manila's North Harbor terminal. We were bound for Mindanao in the southern Philippines. I remember watching from the upper deck tiny fishes swim alongside the ship...
On the great and sometimes crazy stage we call shipping, few players are more interesting than the old salts, the lobos de mar—men who cut their teeth on boats and know, as did Polish-British novelist and sea captain Joseph Conrad, that “there is nothing more...
It is five days before Christmas. In the collective delirium of holiday shopping, few Filipinos will remember that today, the 20th of December, is the 28th anniversary of the Doña Paz ferry tragedy. And yet, the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster will forever...
In 1650 Dutch Master Rembrandt paid tribute to the beauty of seashells in an etching (pictured above) titled "De schelp" (The shell). It is a remarkable piece depicting the charm and mystery of the conus marmoreus, commonly known as the marble cone. How can one not be...
Second largest shipowning country after Greece1. Second largest shipbuilding country after South Korea2. Japan is a maritime nation indeed. More than economics, however, it is art as exemplified by Katsushika Hokusai's famous 1831 woodcut print The Great Wave off...
In the long history of seascape paintings, some stand out because of their visual and emotional impact. They tend to stamp themselves on the mind like a scene from a classic film or a Shakespearean play. Here's a look at seven seascapes which are not easily forgotten,...
Shipping is not any more conformist than other industries. But the herd mentality amongst maritime folks is so perceptible we are reminded of Friedrich Nietzche's observation in his philosophical novel, Thus Spake Zarathustra: “No shepherd and one herd! Everybody...
For reasons that are not hard to fathom, the sea has provided the impetus to some of the world's greatest and best loved poems. It is beautiful. It is daunting. And above all, it is mysterious. Perhaps these same conflicting qualities drove the sailors of old to...
More than a century after his death, Winslow Homer (24th February 1836 — 29th September 1910) continues to surprise, stimulate and spellbind. The man has been called the greatest American artist of the 19th century. Without a doubt, he is also one of history's...