Upon the Sea


Upon the sultry waves of the sea
The mighty ship is tossed
To and fro, afore and aft
Until the moon crests the watery ridge
Here it remains, tossing, and lost.

The captain decrees to lower the masts
And surrender to the powerful sea
The mighty ship will ride the waves
Akin to a whale in the deep
Like Ishmael defeated by Moby Dick.

Night advances as moonlight wanes
Across the watery veil of the sea
Casting its eerie shadows in the night
Upon the hull and it's crew
Who huddle in moonlight, night and mist.

The mighty sea beats upon the breast
Of the ship cast out on the deep
As in the belly of the whale, she fights
To balance o'er the waves, as men sleep
Surging, tossing, she sails, wild yet free.


Poem Copyright ©2002 Cheryl Gardner


This poem is dedicated to those lost at sea. Reprints possible with written permission from the author, for memorial ceremonies and tributes. Contact themidnightwriter1@gmail.com for permissions.

The Cheryl Lynn

I chose this story to research and write about because it is my name sake. While pregnant with me, my mother used to watch the television show Watership Down hosted by Charleton Heston.

Through the show, my name was chosen by Mom after hearing about a British battleship that brought refugees to America before being shot down and sunk in the sea.

Microsoft Researcher Jim Gray

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/gray_sea_hunt/

Microsoft researcher Jim Gray lost at sea
Pacific search

By Chris Williams

Posted in Software, 30th January 2007 14:52 GMT

California coastguards are searching for Microsoft researcher Jim Gray, who was reported missing at 8.30pm on Sunday after failing to return from a solo boat trip.

An experienced yachtsman, Gray sailed early Sunday from a marina near Fort Mason in San Francisco, The San Jose Mercury News reports. He had told family he planned to scatter his mother's ashes on the Farallon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. He called home at 10.30am, saying he would soon be passing out of cell phone range.

Coastguards were alerted when he did not make a promised call when back in range, and a dispatched a spotter to search a 4,000 square mile area.

Coastguard Lieutenant Amy Marrs said: "There has been no sightings of Jim Gray or the vessel. Based on his experience and the reports of the good condition of his boat, we have no clues." The sailing conditions around San Francisco were reportedly good.

Gray, 63, founded and managed Microsoft's Bay Area Research Centre. In 1998 he bagged the Turing Prize for his work on databases and transaction processing. Microsoft spokesman Doug Free said: "Our thoughts are with Jim and his family as we hope for his safe return."

More on the search here (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/16578350.htm), and you can read Reg Developer's interview with Gray from last year here (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/05/30/jim_gray/). ®

Related stories
Tech luminaries honor database god Jim Gray (3 June 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/jim_gray_tribute/

A tribute to Jim Gray (30 April 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/jim_gray_tribute/

Coastguard calls off search for Jim Gray (1 February 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/01/jim_gray_search_dropped/

Deconstructing databases with Jim Gray (30 May 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/30/jim_gray/

Yahoo! chief! scientist! joins! Microsoft! (13 April 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/13/microsoft_hires_flake/

MS hands out gongs to star programmers (4 July 2000)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/07/04/ms_hands_out_gongs/

Newport wives in New York Times



---------------------------------------------------------------

October 23, 2004
NEWPORT JOURNAL
In an Oregon Fishing Port, a Fading Institution Holds On
By SARAH KERSHAW

NEWPORT, Ore. -



Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Story available at link above.

How to Contact The Newport Fisherman Wives, Inc.
Visit their website at ttp://www.newportfishermenswives.com/index.html

Newport Fishermen's Wives
P.O. Box 971
Newport, OR 97365
541-574-5555
Secretary
Bekki Wagner

fishermenswives@yahoo.com

Bermuda Triangle

This website peaked my curiosity in researching not only lost fishing ships, but ships lost in the Bermuda Triangle, the stuff of legends.

Top 8 Shipwrecks and Ships Lost at Sea

News Reports Ship Lost at Sea

The Rita Lorraine



I found this video on a you tube search, found it intriguing so I uploaded the video. Watch for forthcoming stories about The Rita Lorraine.

The ship was lost from Cape May, New Jersey in the early 1970's. I visited this very Cape with my best friend Linda about that same time, 1971 or 1972.

Lost At Sea


While visiting Newport beach in Oregon along the coastal Highway 101, a sanctuary for people lost at sea touched my heart so much, I want to write about the experience of visiting the sanctuary. Gazing at the photos and stories of those lost at sea placed there by their families, along with beautiful stands of flowers and watching the people stopping at this sanctuary to pay respects and read the stories, I was so moved in my heart.

Cephas and I took photos of the pictures of the lost along with clips in the newspaper or cards from loved ones. Those photos will be loaded at a later date with this article. The realization came that it would be good to share those stories with the world.

From that visit to Newport beach, I made a decision to research those stories of folks lost at sea all over the world and create a theme blog just about that topic. Even more than a blog, it is my intention to arrange interviews with friends and families to write the stories of their loved ones lost at sea. These articles will be published in magazines and online.

If you would like to share a similar story please contact me at the_midnight_writer@mountainspiritproductions.org to arrange an interview. If you have a story that you want to share as a guest writer, contact me at the same email above.

I look forward to many heart filled memorials of lives given back to the sea. May their stories inspire us and continually remind us of the power within the human heart that binds us all together.

Watch for the new blog "Lost At Sea".



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copyright by The Midnight Writer.

No portion of this blog or the stories therein may be reproduced without the authors specific written permission. This idea is unique and the property of the author.

This post originated at another blog belonging to The Midnight Writercalled Midnight Revelry. It was written in preparation for the creation of this blog "Lost At Sea".

Memorial in Newport Oregon



Fishermen's Memorial Sanctuary at Yaquina Bay State Park
Newport, Oregon

Visit the Newport Fisherman's wives website.

The information below is excerpted from their website.


"Fishermen's Memorial Sanctuary at Yaquina Bay State Park
The Memorial is sited in Yaquina Bay State Park on the edge of the Pacific Ocean; near the place local fishermen go to observe the Yaquina Bay bar before they cross into the ocean. This memorial offers a tangible place to honor the memories of lost fishermen, while their families, friends and community learn to live without them.


**This is the inside of the open air sanctuary. Cephas and I spent some time there praying for the people lost at sea and their families. We took extensive photographs of this memorial, which will be uploaded to the internet in the near future.

"Ground was broken in Yaquina Bay State Park, in 1997, after eleven years of planning and fundraising. The Memorial Sanctuary was built in the State park, in a first of its kind partnership between Newport Fishermen’s Wives Inc., and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

This open air structure was built entirely with donations from the local community and the fishing community at large."

Continued from the Newport Fisherman Wives Website.

The Fishermens Memorial Service
"The Fishermen’s Memorial Service is held the third Saturday in March, at 3:30 P.M., in conjunction with Newport’s Annual Blessing of The Fleet. Newport Fishermen’s Wives and local clergy work together with US Coast Guard Station Yaquina Bay and Air Station North Bend to coordinate the day’s events. All are invited to attend this service intended to support the families of those lost."

The poem below is writtn in honor of all my loved ones who have left this world and to my ancestors, which is the bond that connects all the world together. I dedicate this to the families and loved ones of those "Lost At Sea".

Immortal Garden

Thoughts of my ancestors course through me
like the hot blood coursing through my veins .
The passion of their spirits rises up within me
till it is an unquenchable urge
that absorbs me into their very essence.

Time has no walls to hold their spirits bound
from the passion that wells within my heart.

Thoughts reel inside my mind
Thoughts without order or consequence...
only feelings, powerful feelings
My entire being trembles as I remember
the people who created the path I now walk.

My ancestors footsteps create echoes
that resonate inside me like some invisible
signal calling from a distant place within me.
Memories haunt my dreams in a sleep that has no waking

Passions rise up from places long forgotten
yet strangely remembered
in some intangible place within my soul,
the place where the unformed resides.
Here, those passions blossom like irises
on a warm spring day then water my soul
that thirsts for the familiar and the distant to unite
Once again in the place where time steps aside
and the dance resumes outside the choreography
Of rules written for mortal beings.

The sound of the drums teleport my soul back through time,
a time long ago yet near to my spirit.
The beating of the drums awakened me to memories
That stir a longing deep within my soul to return
To that place of my ancestors,
To hear their chanting and singing,
To sing the prayers and dance the dances of spirit
To walk endlessly along the path beside them,
The people who created the soul that is me...
Grandmothers and Grandfathers call to me
In voices remembered yet unspoken.

What is it that I seek?
The immortal garden
The place of creation where love exists eternally
without condition or abandon
and peace abounds in all living creatures. ...
The place of my beginnings in humanity
through my ancestors flesh, blood and spirit
I will find my way by walking the path they walked.
The past will take me home to the beginning of time
Back to the garden,
The garden where outside time
We have always been.

-by Summer Breeze, The Midnight Writer
August 5, 2008