November 2003 – Volume Ten, Number Eleven – HIGHLIGHTS
November 2003 – Volume Ten, Number Eleven – HIGHLIGHTS
EXPEDITION NEWS is the monthly review of
significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is
distributed online and by mail to media representatives, corporate sponsors,
educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor
enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate,
motivate and educate.
The following are highlights of our November issue, but this is only part of the story. For a year’s subscription, send $36 to the below address. Or e-mail us for a free sample copy. – The Editors, editor@ExpeditionNews.com
ATLANTIS LEGEND INSPIRES NEW HUNT
For more than two millenniums, many of the world's greatest adventurers, explorers and thinkers have sought the Lost City of Atlantis.
Next month, an expedition to hunt for its remains among submerged islands off Gibraltar will be unveiled at the Royal Geographical Society, London, by renowned geologist Professor Jacques Collina-Girard and the leaders of the Titanic expeditions, according to the Telegraph of London.
It is to be sought by the Deep Med One expedition, planned for next summer by Professor Collina-Girard, of the University of Provence, with Commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet and George Tulloch.
The team will search a location about 30 kilometers southwest of Tarifa, Spain, and 19 kilometers northwest of Tangier. Using a submersible capable of reaching depths of 1000 meters, the expedition, backed by private investors and corporate sponsors, will look for signs of temples, buildings and prehistoric artifacts.
EXPEDITION UPDATE
Search Continues for Amelia Earhart – Members of the Tinian Amelia Earhart Expedition returned to Guam last month after meeting with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Historic Preservation to "forge an alliance" in the search for the final resting place of the famous pilot. (See EN, April 1997).
According to the Oct. 23 Guam Pacific Daily News, Jim Sullivan, one of the expedition's members, said one outcome of the meeting was an agreement that the project will include interviews with residents of Saipan and Tinian who say they may also have information to add about Earhart's whereabouts and the events surrounding her disappearance.
The project's mission is to explore a claim by World War II veteran Saint John Naftel, of Alabama, who has identified a site he believes contains the remains of Earhart and her navigator on the Northern Mariana island of Tinian.
EXPEDITION NOTES
The Ultimate Row – At press time, a veteran British rower was about to depart from the southern New Zealand port of Bluff on a 14,400 kilometer (8,947 mile) solo ocean voyage through treacherous icy waters to South America and on to South Africa.
The journey across the southern oceans, which will transport Jim Shekhdar, 56, part-way round Antarctica, is expected to take at least seven months in the 7.8 meter (26 foot) ocean rowboat, Hornette.
EXPEDITION FOCUS
Competition Fierce at Antarctic Radio Darts Invitational
It's getting warmer in Antarctica now and that means another season of radio darts has come to a close. Yes, radio darts are just what they sound like - games of darts played between Antarctic research stations during those dark months when isolated researchers and support personnel do their best to remain sane.
The season generally lasts from early March to September when flights to the continent resume. Recently, EN conducted a live telephone interview with "Polie" William Henriksen, 44, winter site manager at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, to get the low-down on this unique form of the classic pub game.
EXPEDITION MARKETING
The Chile Beer for Cool People – A Texas beer import company is capitalizing upon the appeal of penguins and the mystery of the southern hemisphere with its launch of Rockhopper Import from Santiago, Chile (www.RockhopperBeer.com). Walk through any beverage store these days and you'll see theme beers based upon animals such as golden monkeys, dogfish, and moose.
Continuing the trend, Rengo Imports from Houston has latched onto the rockhopper penguin which roams the Sub Antarctic islands of Cape Horn.
Not content to just give people a good buzz, Rengo throws in a natural history lesson with its promotional table tents. They explain that rockhopper penguins "…are aggressive, zany and sociable. About 18 inches tall, they have a vertical leap of six feet. Their loud cries, called 'ecstatic vocalization,' announce their presence and attract females." What's next we wonder? A Three Stooges Beer? (why soitenly, now that you mention it).
Cheque This Out – A recent display in the window of a New York City store attests to the enduring value of expedition memorabilia. The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery at 989 Madison Avenue is selling a cancelled check written by Richard E. Byrd in 1932. The price? A cool $375, which includes a framed photo of the famed explorer. (For more information: www.KWRendell.com)
MEDIA MATTERS
Ho Hum – The 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which charted President Thomas Jefferson's prescient Louisiana Purchase and opened up the American West, is getting a lukewarm reception as it makes its way across the country.
According to the Oct. 22 Wall Street Journal, tepid crowds are greeting re-enactors, due to "academia's roughly 40-year assault on what used to pass for conventional American history." Writes Mark Yost, "With three years to go, there's still hope for rekindling genuine interest in the Lewis and Clark expedition.
With his wonderful documentary, The Civil War, Ken Bruns showed that it's still possible to get people excited about unglamorized American history."
IN PASSING
Plimpton Remembered – The Explorers Club remembered the passing of George Plimpton, a great friend of the Club, during the Oct. 26 luncheon for a book he edited called As Told at The Explorers Club. The hardcover volume contains 51 gripping tales of adventure and is the first volume in the "Classics Series" of the Club's new publishing imprint.
Plimpton, the gentleman editor, literary patron, and "participatory journalist," died suddenly at the age of 76 on Sept. 25.
Lindley Kirksey, a literary agent and Fellow Member of the Club, tells of Plimpton arriving by bicycle from his New York apartment, "dressed in country genteel shabby. He would go to the EC library and settle into the old armchair. There he spent hours plowing through the work. He was allowed a power nap and if he started to snore, I learned the art of clearing my throat and he was back on the job."
The stories he selected, which date from 1931 to the present, were chosen from three previously published Explorers Club volumes, one unpublished volume, and the Club's Explorers Journal quarterly. Kirksey says of the work, "They cut below the surface and reveal the core of the writer … you'll find troubles at sea, airplane crashes, thrilling rescues and armies of ants."
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
Expedition Public Relations – Alex Foley & Associates specializes in expedition PR. Alex Foley is honorary secretary of the Explorers Club British Chapter and has executed PR programs for many ventures including the 1996 Titanic Expedition, Ice Challenger across the Bering Strait, and David Hempleman-Adams' Atlantic balloon crossings and first solo and unsupported expedition to the Geomagnetic North Pole.
Alex Foley & Associates Ltd.
London, UK
alexfoley@btinternet.com
www.AlexFoleyPR.com
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