30 September 2018:
Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada:
The Big Bay

By Corey Sandler

Sydney, around the corner from Halifax in Nova Scotia, is frozen in time.

That’s not a bad thing, either. From here you can time travel to the Fortress of Louisbourg or to the resplendent Bras d’Or lake. Or both.

Today I went fors return visit to Baddeck, to the wondrous museum that celebrates the mind and achievements of Alexander Graham Bell, who maintained a summer house here.

Here is summer of what we saw today on a lovely fall day in Baddeck:

SYDNEY AND LOUISBOURG

You can read more about Sydney in my posting from September 20.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

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————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

29 September 2018:
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada:
Under the Gun

By Corey Sandler

We have returned to the grand harbor of Halifax in Nova Scotia.

We went for a walk to the famed Public Gardens of Halifax, one of the world’s finest Victorian parks. Today we could feel the hints of winter around the corner, with the garden at peak but frail colors.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLAND

The last time we were here, on a glorious last day of summer, we rented a car to drive across Nova Scotia to see some of the small harbors and high tides of the Bay of Fundy, which has a world record rise and fall of about 40 feet in places.

Here was some of what we saw at near high tide in Wolfville:

And then we returned about two hours later as the tide began to run out:

A TUMULTUOUS HISTORY

Halifax has had a tumultuous history. The British built a great citadel here as part of its claim to New England, and it still stands guard over the city.

Every day at 12pm they fire the noon gun; no matter how many times we have visited, it still startles.

But there are echoes of other events: the arrival of Loyalists who fled the upstart American colonies during the revolution. The departure of raiding parties from here to burn Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. The both-sides-against-the-middle trade with the South and North during the American Civil War.

You can read more about Halifax and see some more photos in my blog posting of 21 September 2018.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

28 September 2018:
Bar Harbor, Maine, US:
When Fall Comes to New England

By Corey Sandler

Bar Harbor is a lovely, small place on the coast of the mostly empty state of Maine in the northeast corner of the United States.

When climate, weather, and the calendar coincide properly it is one of the best places to experience the beauty of fall in New England: trees filled with leaves in stunning hues of orange, yellow, red, and purple. The change of colors starts further north, across the border in Canada, and makes its way down the coast.

It is also the tail end of hurricane season and deep into nor’easter storm season. The trick is to arrive after the colors have changed and before the inevitable big storm comes along to wipe it all away.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK TODAY

I went today with a group of guests on a hike on the OCean Trail within Acadia National Park. It was a cool damp morning, appropriate for Fall in New England.

Here is some of what we saw today.

BAR HARBOR

The town of Bar Harbor is quite small, with a permanent population of about 5,000.

Of course, that population swells greatly in the summer and fall.

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Ice cream, salt water taffy, and tourists locked out of Acadia. Photo by Corey Sandler

At the back of the harbor is the bar, a stretch of sand and gravel that is covered at high tide but visible and often walkable at low tide across to Bar Island.

Bar Harbor SANDLER BLOG-7979

Bar Harbor. Photo by Corey Sandler

Mount Desert Island is Maine’s largest island, with an area of 108 square miles (280 km²).

That makes it the sixth largest island in the continental United States, and the second largest on the east coast of the United States—behind Long Island in New York and ahead of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Even without the park, it’s a pretty place, especially if you go past the t-shirt shops and into the old town.

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Bar Harbor. In the churchyard is a memorial to the sons of Eden (the town’s original name) who died in the U.S. Civil War. Photos by Corey Sandler

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

27 September 2018:
Boston, Massachusetts, US:
Back to the Hub of the Universe

By Corey Sandler

A bit prejudiced, I am, but it is always a great pleasure to sail into Boston Harbor, gateway to one of the handsomest and most interesting cities in the United States.

On a beautiful call day we went for a walk from our ship at Black Falcon Pier to historic Faneuil Hall at the base of the city. I focused my camera on mixes of architecture and decoration in this beautiful city.

Here is some of what we saw.

BOSTON TODAY

Boston scenes, and Faneuil Hall.

We were last here just a few days ago, on Sunday 23 September. You can read more of my comments and see additional photographs on that blog posting.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

26 September 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
The Big Bay

By Corey Sandler

We are headed back to the north, but first we have pulled into Narragansett Bay on the south shore of Rhode Island for a return visit to Newport.

Narragansett Bay encompasses about 147 square miles of handsome shorefront, islands, and shores. Seven waterways enter into the bay, including the Taunton, Pawtuxet, and Blackstone rivers.

Within the bay are Newport at the south end of Aquidneck Island on the ocean. At the northeasternmost reach is Fall River (where Lizzy Borden cut her teeth). And the northernmost part of the bay is home to Providence, the capital of Rhode Island.

Just for the record: most of Rhode Island is on the mainland, not on an island.

Once again we went for a visit to one of the less-known historic houses of Newport: Hunter House, built about 1748 by a prosperous local merchant and Colonial Deputy Governor.

With the outbreak of the American Revolution, the governor was forced to flee and the home was used as headquarters for the French forces in Newport assisting the American rebels.

We sailed into the bay in a deep fog and mist, which deepened the sense of history here.

Here is the fog, the Hunter House, and the nearby Brenton Counting House of the same time: 1748, Newport’s Golden Era, more than 130 years before the second wave of money have rise to the Gilded Age.

NEWPORT THIS MORNING

THE BREAKERS

Here’s a glimpse of The Breakers, one of the most famous of the “cottages” on Newport, built during the Gilded Age by some of the aged gilded of the time.

You can read even more about Newport in my posting from September 24.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

25 September 2018:
New York, NY, US:
River to River

By Corey Sandler

Two weeks ago, Silver Spirit made an early morning procession down the River Thames from London, beginning our crossing.

Today we sailed into the Hudson River, alongside the Statue of Liberty and along Wall Street to come to our dock in mid-Manhattan in New York.

I’ve made that entrance many, many times. It never disappoints.

The weather was reminiscent of many visits to London: foggy and rainy. But thrilling nevertheless.

Here are some photos from a sunnier day.

This cruise has come to an end: London to Falmouth, then Cobh in Ireland, and down the northeast coast from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia and then into the United States at Boston and Newport.

To guests leaving us here, safe travels. And welcome aboard to new friends.

SILVER SPIRIT ALBUM

As we neared competition of our Atlantic crossing,I took a tour of our ship in search of new angles:

Today, we’ll enjoy a day in the Big Apple, and then work our way back down the river and out to sea headed up to the Saint Lawrence River and Quebec City and Montreal.

Here’s our plan:

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

24 September 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
The Cottage Industry

By Corey Sandler

Newport, Rhode Island was where the rich came to play.

One game, at the peak of the Gilded Age, was a grand form of one-upsmanship, a competition to impress, astound, and outspend each other.

They built “cottages”, a word some used with a wink and a nod.

After the Civil War came the Gilded Age, a time of great wealth and expansion.

Bar Harbor in Maine, and the Adirondacks of upstate New York boomed: a surge of privately owned American castles, if you will. Newport was perhaps the greatest beneficiary.

Fall in New England in town and at the Tennis Hall of Fame. All photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

The Breakers is the grandest of the summer “cottages.”

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt established his fortune in steamships and later the New York Central Railroad, which was key to the nation’s industrial growth in the late 19th century.

His grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the railroad in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers.

After a fire in 1892, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a replacement.

Hunt created a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin.

It’s a pleasant little cottage.

CHATEAU-SUR-MER

On this visit we took the opportunity to visit a lesser-known gem of the Newport properties: Chateau-sur-Mer.

This home, erected in 1852, was a product of the China trade. It predates most of the Gilded Age Cottage of Newport, but in many ways outshines cold and formal marble with its warm carved wood interior including hand-carved Italian woodwork, Chinese porcelain, and other treasures.

The Mansion was home to three generations of the Wetmore family.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

22-23 September 2018:
Boston, Massachusetts, US:
The Hub of the Universe

By Corey Sandler

The sail-in to Boston offers an extended glimpse of one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, and also one of the more unusual cruise approaches.

Logan International Airport is just across the water from the cruise port at the Black Falcon Terminal. It is so close that flight controllers have to shut down the nearest runway when a large cruise ship is coming in.

All photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

My wife and I live on Nantucket Island, 30 miles out to sea below Cape Cod. It is a quiet and peaceful little place, especially in the off-season. For us, a trip to the big city of Boston is an expedition to another world. In a very good sort of way.

So I suppose I have to confess a bit of prejudice right up front. As anyone who lives here knows–and is not shy to tell you–Boston is the best city in the whole wicked world.

In fact, it’s the Hub of the Universe.

Just ask the poet-philosopher-scientist Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said so. In fact, there is a plaque in downtown Boston marking the exact spot around which the universe revolves.

It’s not just braggadocio. It’s an attitude—mostly humble, though not always—that recognizes that this is a very special place.

A beautiful harbor.

A lovely city, filled with parks and statuary and some of the oldest buildings in the United States.

It’s not ancient in terms of places like Athens and Rome and Jerusalem, but then again those places don’t have the Swan Boats, the Emerald Necklace, the Bay Bay, and Fenway Park.

And even better: the Red Sox are having a record-setting season and are headed to the baseball playoffs. We hope our next visits to The Hub of the Universe will see the hometown team moving toward the World Series. It seems only appropriate.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

21 September 2018:
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada:
Fair Season

By Corey Sandler

We’ve been to Halifax more times than we can remember…and it always leaves us gushing with appreciation of its great harbor. More about that in a moment.

On this visit, though, our port call coincided with a great old event: the Hants County Exhibition, an agricultural fair that lays claim to being the oldest such gathering in North America: 253 years old, to be exact.

We could not resist that opportunity and so we rented a car and drove about 40 mills across Nova Scotia to Windsor, near the Bay of Fundy.

It was the real McCoy, with flower arrangements, apple pies, barnsful of cattle and horses, a midway, and us.

Here is some of what we saw today:

THE HANTS COUNTY EXPOSITION

THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE HARBOR

Cruise ship visits to Halifax are at an all-time high, and on this visit we docked around the corner from our usual location, tying up at the commercial wharf.

It was from this wharf that thousands of Canadian troops embarked for the two World Wars, and also where tanks and tires and foodstuffs were loaded aboard convoy ships.

The machinery of the port and the connection to the trans-Canada railroad system remains:

The great port of Halifax—by some measures the second largest in the world, after Sydney (the one in Australia)—is lined with handsome architecture. Some of the buildings are great Victorian and Edwardian stone structures; more modern buildings are almost all lined with mirror glass to reflect the sky, the water, and the old buildings around them.

Sky, clouds, and water in Halifax. Photos by Corey Sandler

A bit further into the city, at The Narrows, the architecture is a bit more uniform and relatively grim. This was the area that was leveled by the Halifax Explosion of 1917: considered to be the largest manmade explosion from the dawn of time to the atomic bomb.

The explosion was the result of a collision between two ships that were part of the gathering convoys bound to and from World War I Europe. One ship, the Mont Blanc, was packed with a witch’s brew of TNT, benzol, and picric acid.

In the explosion, about 1,951 people were killed—most of them spectators gathered along the waterfront. More than a thousand were blinded by flying glass.

It is, for me, impossible to look at today’s Halifax without hearing an echo of one of the worst moments of that war, nearly three thousand miles away from the front lines.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

20 September 2018:
Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada:
Can You Hear Me Now?

By Corey Sandler

High seas and winds kept us from our scheduled call at the French islands of St-Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland. So instead we spent yesterday at sea, arriving last night at Sydney, Nova Scotia.

We arrived with a chill wind, a harbinger of winter around the corner.

Sydney seems mostly frozen in the 1950s, a simpler and more innocent time—at least in my memory.

It is one of the only places in North America where I could direct you to a cobbler to have your shoes resoled. Or Doc Archibald with his office in an old Victorian behind a white picket fence.

The fiddle at the Sydney Cruise Terminal. Photos by Corey Sandler

From 1784 to 1820, Sydney was the capital of the British colony of Cape Breton Island. The colony was merged with neighboring Nova Scotia when the British decided to develop the abundant coal fields surrounding Sydney Harbor.

By the early twentieth century Sydney was home to one of the world’s largest steel plants, fed by the coal mines of the Dominion Coal Company.

Silver Spirit at anchor in Sydney harbor today.

By the late 1960s both coal and steel industries were failing, and were taken over by federal and provincial governments. That lasted until late in 2001 when they could not be sustained any further.

Today the economy is not exactly booming, although the region benefits greatly from the lure of the Louisbourg Fortress nearby, a faithful reconstruction of the great French citadel erected to fend off the British. That didn’t quite work, and the Brits eventually captured and then knocked down the thick stone walls. But in the 1960s, federal and provincial governments, along with private money paid for the reconstruction of the fortress.

TODAY IN SYDNEY

In another direction is Baddeck on the Bras d’Or (the Golden Arm), which most of the Anglophone locals insist on pronouncing something like “brass door.”

This was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell, and the museum erected there is an amazing peek into the mind of a true genius.

Bell is perhaps most famous for the telephone; I guess we will forgive him for that. But consider also his accomplishments in aeronautics, metal detectors, sound recording, photoelectric cells, solar heating, and even air conditioning produced by directing fans across ice harvested from Lake Bras d’Or and stored in the basement of his estate.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

18 September 2018:
St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada:
Landfall in Newfy John

By Corey Sandler

After a mere four days at sea, Silver Spirit made first landfall on the other side of the pond in Saint John’s, Newfoundland.

The first piece of land we saw was Cape Spear, which is the Anglicized/mangled version of the French name for the big rock: Cap d’Espoir, the Cape of Hope.

And around the corner in the wintry mist and rain we saw a familiar friend, our smaller sister ship Silver Cloud, returned from an expedition in Greenland.

When you step ashore in this part of Canada, the landscape may seem different, but the accent and the music and other parts of the culture are infused with many things Irish.

On the Great Circle Route followed by ships and airplanes, Saint John’s, Newfoundland and Waterford, Ireland are the two closest cities of Europe and North America.

Saint John’s is the capital of Canada’s province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The city itself has a population of just a bit more than 100,000, with about 181,000 in the metropolitan area.

In geographical terms, the Saint John’s is on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland.

In historical terms, it is the oldest English-founded city in North America.

Its location as the closest significant population center in North America to Europe, a straight-line distance between the two points of about 3,500 kilometers or 2,200 miles, it attracted Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi to set up a station that may have received the first transatlantic wireless signal there.

We have only Marconi’s word; some scientists and historians are unsure. Marconi reported hearing some faint dots and dashes on December 12, 1901, sent from Saint John’s to his wireless station in Poldhu, Cornwall.

And for the same reasons of distance, St. John’s was the starting point for the first non-stop transatlantic aircraft flight, by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.

On June 14, 1919, they flew a modified Vickers Vimy IV bomber from Lester’s Field in Saint John’s, landing a day later in a bog near Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.

It would not be until May 1927 before Charles Lindbergh would make the first solo transatlantic flight. Lindbergh flew from Long Island near New York to Le Bourget Field near Paris.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

13 September 2018:
Cobh, Ireland:
The Old World Left Behind

By Corey Sandler

We arrived with the rising sun this morning in Cobh, Ireland and watched as the city revealed itself:

At the end of the day, we will sail out of the harbor and begin our four-and-a-half-day transatlantic crossing. First port of call in the New World is due to be St. John’s, Newfoundland in Canada on 18 September.

BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS

Cobh is a place of epic beginnings and endings.

It is one of the closest ports of Europe to Canada and North America.

Cobh—or Queenstown as it was known then—was the place from which millions of Irish departed their homeland to seek a new start in the new world, the land of milk and honey, the place where the streets were paved with gold: America and Canada.

The population of Ireland was estimated at 8.2 million in 1841; half a century later, in 1891, the population was said to be 4.7 million.

As many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930, from Queenstown, other Irish ports, and British ports like Liverpool.

Today, in the United States, more than 10 percent of Americans trace their roots to Ireland.

Queenstown was the last piece of land touched by passengers on the doomed ship Titanic in 1912.

And Queenstown was just out of reach of the Lusitania, which came the other direction from New York before it was torpedoed and sunk off the Old Head of Kinsale in 1915.

A memorial to the victims of the sinking of the Lusitania by German submarine U-20.­

On this visit I went with guests by ferry to Spike Island in the harbor, built up as a fortress and later made into one of the largest prisons in the world. After passing from British to Irish hands, the last convicts finally left this dreadful place in 2004.

A COBH ALBUM

This statue remembers Annie Moore and her brothers, said to be the first Irish emigrants to leave for Ellis Island in New York. There is another copy of the statue at Ellis Island.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

12 September 2018:
Falmouth, UK:
Land’s End in England

By Corey Sandler

We’re back in Cornwall and the town of Falmouth, a place of naval and shipping significance and one of the hotbeds of the English version of a calzone.

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain. It has a significant maritime history as one of the first ports of call from far away.

We were last here at the end of June aboard Silver Wind, and not much has changed since then. Or in the past century or two, for that matter.

Falmouth is one of the prime sources of a folded dough with stuffing: the Cornish Pasty, which was one of the original fast foods. Fillings including “swede”, which some people call turnip but is actually a yellow turnip or rutabaga. To that is added meat or seafood or just about anything.

And please call it a PASS-TEE.

A PAYS-TEE is something completely different, not ordinarily seen on the streets of Cornwall.

I decided to spend my morning on a photographic exercise looking for parts of the whole: architectural details. Here is some of what I saw.

The last photo, of the 18th century Pennycomequick Pub, sent me on a search for the story behind the name.

I was hoping for something exciting or naughty. Alas, I found the name to be a corruption of an old Cornish phrase,  Pen y cwm coet, meaning head of a wooded valley. Still, the mind can wander…

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

10 September 2018:
London:
Crossing the Pond

By Corey Sandler

Silver Spirit is taking on fuel, wine, food, luggage, and passengers here in London as we prepare to cross the pond to the New World.

We begin our voyage on the River Thames, at the port of Tilbury, about 22 miles downriver from the big city.

Silversea Silver Spirit off of Portofino, Italy earlier this year.

Our first call will be at Falmouth in Cornwall in the south of England.

We will have a day at sea tomorrow, and then we’ll continue around the corner to Cobh (Cork) in Ireland, the last port seen by the SS Titanic.

For us, it will be four days at sea across the pond to St. John’s, Newfoundland in Canada.

I trust they have loaded enough wine.

Here’s our plan:

I hope you’ll join me here in these pages.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS