.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The Massachusetts Maritime Academy's training ship TS Kennedy has been activated by the federal government to support relief efforts in the New Yorld New Jersey area following Hurricane Sandy. The Kennedy lefr Cape Cod on 4 Novem ber, bo un d for Elizabeth City, NJ, and will be used as a floating ho tel, providing a safe, clean place to sleep with electricity, hot showers, and ho t foo d fo r up to 650 rescue personnel (first res ponders, police, nati o nal guard, power company employees, FEMA employees, etc.) . For this m issio n, 6 1 cadets who are ho used onboard during the academic sem ester
MMA president, Admiral Richard Gurnon watches from shore as TS Ke nnedy embarked on its last sea term. were moved to area hotels. The ship is being manned by its p rofessio nal crew (the engineering and deck officers and the crew), augm ented by additional officers and crew hired on just fo r this evolutio n. Because this m issio n is occurring in the middle of the semester, no fac ul ty o r cadets will participate in the trip o r rel ief efforts, to minimize disruption of classes . M MA President, Rear Admiral Richard Gurno n, USM S, said h e expects the sh ip to be go ne fro m the academy for 30 days . The 540-fo o t Kennedy was built at Avo ndale Shipyards in New Orleans in 1967 and co nve rted for use as a training ship in 200 2, completed in 2009. At 13,886 gross tons, the Kennedy can acco mmodate 7 10 people on board. (M MA, 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532; 508 830-5 000; www. maritime.edu) ... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the "citizen science web portal" Zooniverse are seeking volunteers to transcribe a newly digitized set of ship logs from Navy; Coast Guard,
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and Revenue Cutter voyages in the Arctic between 1850 and World War II as part of the Old Weather Arctic Project. The proj ect is part of a new crowd-sourcing effort aimed at making a wealth of wea ther data from these shi p logs available to climate scien tists wo rldwide. NOAA Administrato r Dr. Jan e Lubchenco explains, "These o bse rvatio ns represent one of the largest and most underutilized collections of me teorological and marine enviro nmental data in existence. O nce converted into d igital forma ts, n ew analyses of these data will help provide new insights." Organizers hope to enlist tho usands of volunteers to transcribe scanned copies of logbook pages via the O ld Weather Proj ect's website ar www. oldwearher. org. W hile rhe principal goal is to imp rove understanding of global climate, the info rmatio n recorded in these logbooks will also appeal to a wi de array of researchers from o cher fields. In O ctober, when rhe project was anno unced, D avid Ferriera, the 10th Archivist of rhe Un ited Stares, no ted , "W hile the data extracted from these reco rds will be useful to scientists, th ese documents are also a treasure-trove of in form ation fo r h is to rians, genealogists, an d oth ers interested in the experiences and acco mplishments of seafaring people." The O ld Weather collaboration provides free online access to primary documents, new data resources, and analysis tools. O ld Weather is one of
a suite of projects produced, maintained, and developed by rhe C itizen Science Alliance and accessible o nline thro ugh Zooniverse. NARA w ill host digital images from all the logbooks in th is project on its website. This three-way collabo ration no r o nly m akes the logbooks available to O ld Weather ci tizen scientists and N OAA researchers, bur also to anyo ne wi th internet access who w ishes to explore the d iplomatic, scientific, technological, and mili tary aspects of rhe voyages, as well as acco unts of dramatic rescues an d tragic losses. (Digital images of the logbooks will be available on both the National Archives website at www.archives.gov and www.oldwearher.org) ... Maritime photographer Pim Van Hemmen has embarked on a photographic project, called IN EXTREMIS, to record the condition of historically significant American vessels that are "on a lee shore. " The project was named by Van H emmen's spouse, Jean ne-Marie, a Kings Point graduate and m ari time atto rney, and refers to both the Lati n meaning of "bein g near death," but also the m aritime term , which involves extreme measures to avoid collisions a r sea. The name seemed appropriate considering rhe pligh t of so many historic vessels, especially in recent years when so ma ny no nprofits are struggling to sray solvent. Van H emmen plans ro photograph ar leas t twen ty vessels across the U ni ted Stares
SEA HISTORY 141 , W INTER 20 12- 13