As a SEA alum and former sailing intern/assistant steward aboard Cramer, I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the past three weeks sailing with the students and crew of C-290 in a new capacity. With a background in music and environmental studies, I have always been fascinated by sound and most recently by underwater soundscapes and marine mammal communication.

It is so hard to contextualize and transcribe this experience. How do I describe the ephemera of events transpired? The excitement of witnessing a whale breeching at sunset? The feeling of leaning over the bow to watch dolphins at 1:00 AM? These are the thoughts racing my mind as I type this entry while we begin to pull into our anchorage in the small town of Kororareka Russell, our first stop since our departure from Auckland roughly four days ago.

Hey everyone! My name is Jessie and I’m a student on the Cramer! Yay! I’m writing to you from this beautiful spot anchored off of Isla de Culebra. The Caribbean sun is warm, the ocean is glistening, and the clouds are the puffy cumulus kind that makes me think of sugary cotton candy.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
“When We See Whales” - Transcribing Captain Lawrence’s Logbook
By Mia Sigler, S-283
Sea History Magazine, Winter 2019-20

Mia Sigler, a senior at Mount Holyoke and alumna of SEA Semester class S-283, the Global Ocean, has written a detailed account of the research she and her classmates did on the logbook of Falmouth whaleman Capt. Lewis Lawrence.  Mia helped transcribe the logbook, studied an original chart from Lawrence’s 1849 voyage, and she and her class followed portions of Capt. Lawrence’s path in the South Pacific in the fall of 2018.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
SCIENCE
“Looking beyond its literary merits, a historian traces the natural history of Moby-Dick”
By Christopher Kemp

Review of AHAB’S ROLLING SEA, a new book by Dr. Richard King, SEA Visiting Associate Professor of Maritime History and Literature.

Emerging from the doghouse, I was greeted by a cool morning breeze that brushed from the port side of the deck. Having just completed the 0600 boat check, I found that the sunrise had begun while I was below deck. Moving to the rail, I fell into conversation with my 0500-0630 dock watch buddy Zuri, when I noticed a spot of white foam in the distance.

Dear Friends and Family,

We sailed offshore yesterday and all night, having spent two nights at anchor off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. From the deck, we could see the village of Menemsha, home to the Vineyard’s last fishing fleet and one of the main shooting locations for “Jaws.”

We started off our day this morning early with some cereal and coffee to wake us up and prepare us for the eventful day ahead. After packing up our bags for the day trip and putting on sunscreen we were ready to depart for our whale watch in Plymouth. Sadly, that same morning, was also the time our good friend and classmate, Diego, had to leave for Illinois for All States a week before the end of SEASCape.

What a day! The students on the Cramer began their first watch schedules. We had a great class on the sails, lines, including what the names of the sails on the Cramer are, and how they work, as well as securing and coiling ropes. We had our first oceanographic ‘super’ station to sample and collect scientific data on Stellwagen Bank. Our day even included “charismatic megafauna” sightings.

Today we woke up earlier than usual. We took the bus to Plymouth Harbor, embarked the whale watch boat, and joined a guided tour out to Cape Cod Bay.