“Linking by the Sea”

"The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides."—Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

New from the University of Nebraska Press, Women and Children First: Nineteenth-Century Sea Narratives and American Identity by Robin Miskolcze makes the case that, at a crucial time in American history, narratives of women in command or imperiled at sea contributed to the construction of a national rhetoric. Carefully examining images of women at sea before the Civil War in antebellum narratives ranging from novels and sermons to newspaper accounts and lithographs, Miskolcze demonstrates that, though the sea has traditionally been interpreted as the province of men, women have staked their own claim to the sea as mothers, wives, figureheads, and slaves.

In homage to Women and Children First, today’s “Linking in Lincoln” aims to provide you with interesting links to sea and maritime Web sites. Let’s take the helm and set sail…

Visit the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association’s site for information on their maritime museums and historic sea vessels, from the USS Pampanito to old-time submarines.

Interested in that most famous of sinking vessels, the Titanic? Visit The Titanic Newspaper Archive to search historic newspaper clippings on the ship, its passengers, and that fatal night in April 1912.

For an informational encyclopedia article on 19th-century shipping (the focus of Miskolcze’s book), check out Britannica.com.

Link on over to this page on London’s 19th-century shipping port. It’s full of intriguing tidbits on everything from the tea trading industry to the advent of the steam ship.

Whether you’re a novice or a master sailor, you may benefit from a trip to the Kingdom Yachts Sailing Club Web site. Navigate their “Nautical Nomenclature” page for a glossary of sailing terminology and a pictorial representation of the standard parts of a sailboat.

Finally, to end on a comic note, I thought I’d share this sea-themed quote from Lynda Montgomery:

“Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I’m halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God…I could be eating a slow learner!”

For more sea-themed quotes, visit the ThinkExist.com’s “Sea quotes” page.

That’s all for this installment of LIL. Sea you tomorrow, bloggers!