www.traditionalrigging.com; Maryland Dove, www.marylanddove.org; Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, www.cbmm.org) … The COVID-necessitated social isolation that has persisted since last year will be remembered for sourdough baking, sweatpants, Zoom meetings, and… sea shanties? Perhaps the most unanticipated hot pop-culture trend ever was the emergence of traditional maritime music on social media this winter. Scottish musician Nathan Evans’s rendition of the 19thcentury New Zealand whaling song “Soon May the Wellerman Come,” released in late December, took the social media plat-
form TikTok by storm, driven in popularity by users layering in their own harmonies and accompaniments via TikTok’s collaborative “duet” feature and re-posting the result. Traditional folk bands like The Longest Johns and the Fisherman’s Friends are enjoying increased popularity as well, as listeners hooked by “Wellerman” seek out related music. As a side benefit, more Americans are not only becoming aware of maritime traditional music, but also of the maritime culture that the music reflects. While there is no doubt that many of the current enthusiasts will “take [their] leave and go,” moving on to the next big
courtesy traditional rigging company; inset courtesy historic st. mary’s city
municipalities and will advance work to “preserve and showcase canal heritage, educate youth, and welcome people to explore the canal in their local communities.” Bob Radliff, ECNHC executive director, remarked, “As the pandemic continues to present abnormal challenges it is especially gratifying to support diverse canal-inspired innovations. We are so pleased to make these timely investments and contribute to the resilience of our canal communities.” The ECNHC has awarded 96 such grants since 2008. They are made possible through funding support provided by the National Park Service and the New York State Canal Corporation. Grant projects range from the installation of an ADA-accessible kayak launch in the Village of Medina, New York, to improved signage and trail interpretation, to invasive-species management. (www.eriecanalway.org) … The sail loft at Traditional Rigging Company in Appleton, Maine, recently completed a suit of sails for the new iteration of the Maryland Dove, currently under construction at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum for Historic St. Mary’s City. The new vessel will be the second replica of the English ship Dove, the vessel that carried the first European settlers to Maryland in 1634. When the new Dove sets sail in 2021, it will have a traditional Dutch “boyer” rig: a lateen mizzen, main sprits’l, main square tops’l, course, stays’l, and jib. This sail plan is a shift from Maryland Dove’s ocean rig to that of a coastwise trading vessel of the early Colonial period and makes use of both a bonnet and reefs—yet there are no grommets anywhere in the sails. The new suit is made from Oceanus, a synthetic sail cloth that has the look and feel of natural fiber cloth and was designed specifically to be worked in the same manner. Much of the handwork details are taken directly from the sails preserved from the Vasa wreck at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, the only surviving example of early 17thcentury sails we have. The first replica of the Dove was built in 1978 and has been one of Historic St. Mary’s City’s most popular dockside exhibits. It is owned by the state of Maryland and operated and maintained by the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission. (Traditional Rigging Co.,
Maryland Dove’s new main sprits’ l showing its unique reef and tack. Built by sailmaker Dayle Tognoni Ward, Traditional Rigging Company, Appleton, Maine. (inset) Schematic of the new ship by naval architect Iver C. Franzen.
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