The Best Sea Story I've Read All Day: Jumping Ship

This sketch is from a photo I found here. During a transit of the Red Sea, two French Foreign Legionnaires aboard the Louis Pasteur heading from 2 years of fighting in Indochina towards a combat tour in Algeria decided to jump ship. The story was written by a crew member who was a witness to both escape attempts made by these poor bastards. I guess they really didn't want to go...Interesting that the French needed to shuffle troops from Indochina to Algeria. But then again, they don't call it "the Legion of the damned" for nothing.

Requiem for a Sailor: RIP 1st Engineer J. F_____, Merchant Marine 30 AUG 1944

 

Since the advent of the internet I've always been astonished at the breadth of material people have made available, especially declassified documents of historical value.

Recently, I did an internet search for my Great-Uncle who perished while serving in the Merchant Marine on a fuel tanker during WWII. I was astounded at the amount of information available about the ship- the first site I found was Ahoy- Mac's Web Log, which contained information on the Jackson and then I found another site by a family member of a fallen sailor from my Great-Uncle's ship. I contacted both web authors and they were each extremely helpful and responsive to my queries.

It's all fascinating. Some of it a little stomach turning- like the Ultra intercepts from the U-Boat that sank my Uncle's ship and the bravo zulu that followed- not to mention the group picture of smiling, slicked back Teutonic knights posing on their boat.

I didn't know my uncle. He died 28 years before I was born. But still, it's just a very strange experience to see a photo of his ship sinking (above, 50 miles off of Londonderry) and read the giddy message traffic between the U-boat that sunk him and their command. Very strange to see all this information, especially considering how little our family knew about the incident beyond the basic details. His death caused some massive emotional reverberations and tragic consequences within his immediate family, as I'm sure it does with every family who loses a truly loved one in war.

Remember Pearl Harbor

 

Kind of an underwhelming offering today, but I barely had any energy to begin with- and I barely have any energy now. I did this during a short break today.

The USS West Virginia had an interesting "life" from Pearl Harbor onwards. You can see her burning in some of the most iconic shots of the attack, and she was resurrected from the grave to fight again and started getting her licks in during the battle of Leyte Gulf. You can read all of this on her Wikipedia page. As you can see I chose to draw her resplendent in her dazzle paint. (Check out this one too.)

There are also some little known horrifying facts about the "WeeVee". Did you know that after the WVA was raised, three dead sailors were found in a sealed, airtight room with ration packages, water and a marked calendar indicating that they'd survived up to the 23rd of December? Horrible. Horrible way to go. You can read about the salvage efforts on the WVA in Edward Raymer's excellent memoir, "Descent into Darkness".

Anyways, that's all I've got for today.

Matlow v. The Bolsheviks Page 1

 

I won't ink this until I'm better at inking. I like this page too much. The text may change as well. New stuff coming soon. (I hope).

Page 2 is here. Someday this will be more organized.

Counter Stern

 

I decided to quit while I was ahead on this one. It was quickly becoming a hot-mess. Well. All I can say is that I was never destined to be a naval architect. I was recently reading about tramp steamers in Christopher Lee's fascinating memoir "Eight Bells and Topmasts" and did some poking around on the web. I was struck by the hull design of the tramp steamer, especially the distinctive counter stern which makes it appear as if the ship is high in the water. Quite by accident I was looking for WWI naval vessels and stumbled across this photo. I thought, "That looks just like a tramp steamer!" and sure enough, it turns out that these troop ships were converted tramp freighters. Here's a great shot of the counter-stern.

Jack Tar

 

This is an illustration I started for Jack Tar Online Magazine. Though it may not look like it, I've fought over this thing like it was a battle. Drawing, erasing, redrawing, etc. I'm going to festoon his chest with sailorly tattoos: A frigate, a sextant, a turtle (signifying that our subject is a shellback). I was debating coloring him on the computer, but I think I'll have a go with the Dr. Marten's inks. If I ever get to that point.

From the Vaults: Inflexible Tar

 

I don't remember what my reference was for this sketch either. Probably from an old Osprey book. This old tar is obviously from the HMS Inflexible (great name for a ship, no?) despite his armband which reads "Flexible". "Inflexible" was also a class of ships in the 18th century.

From the Vaults: Royal Navy, Ceylon, 1950's

 

This is a Royal Navy officer. I was doing an experiment with watercolors...

From the Vaults: Captain Whiskers

 

This was a birthday card I painted for my Wife. I was reading "Blind Man's Bluff" at the time. Our dear departed cat was my model for this image.

From the Vaults: Ahab and his Muse

 

Another Moby Dick inspired drawing.

From the Vaults: Ahab

 

I was reading Moby Dick at the time I drew this. I'm still reading Moby Dick...I will probably reading Moby Dick a couple of years from now...

From the Vaults: 19th C. Destroyerman

 

In lieu of new content today, I figured I'd put up some old art. This is an enlisted gunnery crewman on a 19th century warship. Can't remember the specifics about the photo reference.

Okie Boat UNREP

 

Another UNREP sketch done at work...unfortunately I couldn't finish...This UNREP takes place aboard the USS Oklahoma City. Great photos on the OKIEBOAT site. Looks better, smaller.

A Soldier of the Sea

 

Taking a little detour from the strictly maritime...Marines are soldiers of the sea, after all. This is a portrait of Corporal Richard R. Goerke in Korea. Found it on a Seabee website...and after having a chat with an old WWII Seabee Vet tonight, I think I might generate some content relevant to that unit for this blog.

Hatting Up

Here's a hard hat diver on the USS Walke (Destroyer #34) in 1914 suiting up for a dive. This whole series of photos is great...

Sailors, New and Old

I did a bunch of sketching today at work. On the left is an image I took from a photo by the intrepid, independent journalist Michael Yon. Judging by the badge on his load bearing equipment this was a surface warfare trained sailor who was assigned to protect an oil platform in the North Arabian Gulf. (I smudged out the face because I got the proportions horribly wrong). On the right is 1950's era petty officer Joe McGrogan of the USS New DD-DDE 818, doing his best James Dean.

Aussie UnRep

Is all that Bosun's Mates do is perform refueling at sea? There don't seem to be any photos of them doing anything else. This was taken from a picture of a bunch of Australian Bosun's Mates aboard the HMAS Darwin moving their refueling bell into position. The full image would make a great painting...

Did this sketch at work. Normally I don't do any art related to carrier aviation, but I thought this 1970's bosun's mate aboard the USS FDR, with Admiral Zumwalt-approved beard was a worthy subject. He apparently is preparing for an underway replenishment.

This is a sketchbook page- note the Kevlar helmet transfixed over the destroyer in the corner- sometimes what I end up with is far from what I started doing... I did this sketch with a brush rather than a pen- I was going for something loose and more gestural than usual. This is from a recent photo of a destroyerman guiding a pallet onto his deck during an underway replenishment.

Still experiencing major technical difficulties, both analog and digital...You'll have to make up your own dialogue for this one.

Also, check out this nifty trove of Anti-Shipping Activity Messages (scroll down) compiled by the Federation of American Scientists. It's like a secret geopolitical maritime history that most of us landlubbers are barely aware of...

And by the way, happy Marine Corps Birthday to all you Jarheads.

1960's Destroyerman and Shipwreck Central.

I'm still getting sorted out here with my new computer and the "Gimp" (I haven't gotten out of mourning for my lost Photoshop program). I figured I'd just start uploading sketches and doodles for the time being.

These drawings are details from a former Destroyerman's online photo album. I think they were still wearing their "dixie cup" hats into the 1960's, so that's where I'd date the reference for this sketch.

In other more interesting news I FOUND THIS: SHIPWRECK CENTRAL! It's an interactive map of all known shipwreck sites.
Some of them even have video...Incredible, no?

RN Lifeboatman Making Log Entry

Until I get my image editing problems sorted out...this'll have to do.
This is from a Corbis photo entitled "Royal Naval Lifeboatman Making Log Entry".

Test

This is a test...I'm trying out some new image editing software and so far I'm very unhappy about it...

Highline Transfer

I figured I should start dragging out some old images until this blogs achieves a coherent focus.This is drawn from a photo taken during a highline transfer aboard a destroyer. I estimate the original photo was taken during the 1950's. (I blame to crappy ink quality in this sketch on the reaction of Moleskine paper to acid free Tombo ink...)

Ghost Fleet of the Recession and Battleship: The Movie...

Two interesting articles today...First, check out this Daily Mail article on the growing number of empty cargo ships parked off of Singapore...Empty ships that should be sailing full of Playstations and oil...Definitely a harbinger of economic doom...

Second, check out the latest evidence of creative bankruptcy in Hollywood starring "Battleship: The Movie:" It could be a great vehicle to showcase the Littoral Combat Ship, or the new primacy of the submarine (given the subsequent vulnerability of Carriers these days...).

More later...