Ever since this past spring, 2010, thanks to many of my friends on Facebook, I have been exposed to some of the most famous, prolific and internationally well-known as well as rare art images known to mankind via many of the art albums that several people I know have both passionately and painstakingly put together and shared with countless others. I've always been appreciative of fine art but without shame or embarassment I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most educated person on the planet when it comes to such things! That is not to say that I am a complete and utter moron when it comes to this subject but if you asked me "What's the difference between a Renoir and a Monet?" I would probaly nonchalantly respond "Good question, Sparky, why dont you tell me?" However, as much as I do love the various art forms out there, none taps directly into my inner soul more than the artwork and/or illustrations of one of my life's greatest passions - my beloved ships, most notably, the numerous famous ocean liners of the world, particularly the classic liners from the early 1900's onward. Hell, those ships were floating artistic masterpieces themselves, minus the exquisite paintings, sculptures and bas-reliefs that were central themes to the majority of their vast interiors.
So, with a grain of salt - sea-salt, naturally! - I've reviewed and flipped through every single art album that has come my way in the open newsfeed of my Facebook homepage the past several months, every single time hoping and praying, as well as muttering to myself "Oh gawd, please, PLEASE, a ship please! Just one single ship! Even a friggin sailboat or cargo freighter would be enough to titilate my senses at the moment!" But alas, very rarely, if at all, did such images steam into my view. Albeit, one or two friends did do their best to include them whenever they possibly could, which to this day I thank them greatly for, but like a French legionaire searching for drops of water in the Saharan desert in a Laurel & Hardy feature, it simply was never enough.
That was, until I began talking to someone who is now a very dear friend and close confidante, Mr. Adam Scott Crispo, proprietor of A Fine Madness Collectibles. This past December, 2010, prior to the Christmas holidays, Mr. Crispo created the most wonderful and impressive art album of martime illustrations, which includes some of the most prolific advertisements & illustrations of some of the world's most famous liners ever created within it, and aptly titled it "For Spice: Ships That Do Not Merely Pass In The Night." Let me tell you, whenever I view this album, which is quite often by the way, I not only fall in love with my most beloved ships that are closest to my heart-n-soul all over again - yes, every single time I view it - but I also fall in love with the passion, the thoughtfulness and the keen eye to detail which Mr. Crispo put into choosing every single image in that album. If there are any of you out there who are even mild ocean liner afficiandoes, or the more contemporary politically correct term of "ship buffs," I strongly advise all of you to go to Mr. Crispo's Facebook page and check out this extraordinary album. If you love ships even one quarter as much as I do, I guarantee you that you will fall in love with this album as quickly and as deeply as I have. Even within the past several days, Mr. Crispo has added even more photos to this album, each one a more unexpected surprise than the previous, and it just amazes me the way he zooms in on the most appealing images from each era of the great greyhounds of the seas, from pre-1900's right through to the 1960's.
Better yet, all of the images in the album "For Spice: Ships That Do Not Merely Pass In The Night" are at the time of this writing currently available for purchase. Mr. Crispo himself is a very successful business entrepreneur in his own right and certainly doesnt needa sales pitch from me, but it gives me great honor to give worthy mention to the many unique and fantastic wares of his shoppe. Lord knows if I could afford it myself this very moment, I would purchase every single image in this album for there isnt one sampling of it that doesnt literally sing love songs to the heart of any true ship-lover out there, especially myself. Though I thoroughly enjoy every bit of this album, yes, I do have my favorites.
It's not just the list of liners that are covered in the album that are beyond magnificent for the sheer glory and splendor they evoke in the hearts and minds of many a ship buff, liners such as le NORMANDIE, ILE-DE-FRANCE, the REX and her equally gorgeous sistership CONTE DI SAVOIA, Cunard's famous twins CARMANIA and CARONIA, QUEEN MARY, ANDREA DORIA, the American sisters CONSTITUTION and INDEPENDENCE, and the list goes on and on(!) but it's the representations, the colors, the textures, the views that made each and every one of these liners common household names that literally exasperates the most discerning of ocean liner afficiandoes! I must admit, I have more than a few favorites which are included in this album but it would literally take writing an individual book about each liner to merely get across to all my readers what I adore about each and every one of them. Since that is not possible via one blog entry, allow me to elaborate on at least a few.
My first favorite, is not the illustrations of my beloved NORMANDIE and QUEEN MARY as would naturally be expected of me by my fellow ship buffs, but rather the illustration of the Clyde-Mallory Line, at one time one of the most affluent smaller American steamship lines ever. The ship depicted in this particular piece is none other than the IROQUOIS class of liner, with the specific liner represented being the actual IROQUOIS herself or her equally popular sistership SHAWNEE. Both were very popular smaller liners (those under 500 feet long) on the American and Canadian coastal waterway systems. The IROQUOIS has earned a permanent place in both U.S. History as well as World War II history for in reference to the latter, in those early, bleak, dark days of September, 1939 as the entire world was entering into the Greatest War of All Times, this smaller coastal liner was requisitioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself (one of my personal heroes dontcha know) to rescue stranded Americans who were stuck in Europe during the opening days of what would eventually turn out to be World War II. Not only did the IROQUOIS make the trip there-n-back safely, and in one piece, but the tales of famous passengers on board her for that most hurried of all Transatlantic crossings, such as cosmetics queen Helena Rubenstein are well-renowned in shipboard histories the world over. FDR even had 2 American destroyers escort the small ship into the safe waters of New York Harbor once she entered the American coastal waters zone pre-established by International Maritime Law. It was quite a feat for sucha smaller-than-average ocean liner but she made it and the success of her mission was a great boost to American morale during those early days of the war.
My 2nd favorite is of none other than one of my most favorite ships of all time, the Canadian Pacific liner and flagship, EMPRESS of BRITAIN of 1931. She was the largest Canadian ocean liner ever designed and built in the history of that nation and was an extremely beautiful liner with the most widest, yet prolific funnels ever designed for a ship, perhaps even greater than the extremely single exta-broad funnel installed on the Cunard liner CARONIA of 1949. The EMPRESS of BRITAIN was larger, heavier and faster than most battleships of her era and was so streamlined that her beauty and grace has never been duplicated since then for one very simple reason - it simply cannot be. The sharpness of her bow, the smooth curves of her yachtlike stern - never, never before or since has such an example of maritime artistry ever existed. Her interiors were the most ornate and immaculate of any liner on the Canadian route and like many of her generation, she too was a victim of Hitler's Third Reich. All that power, all that strength, all that beauty laid-waste by the contemptous wheels of an evil world-wide war machine. So very sad. As with many of the liners I have fallen in love with over the years, I will always keep her memory close to my heart.
In fact, on a personal note, I dont have any tattoos at all but I've always said that someday should I decide to get some, there are two ocean liners that I plan to have on my person - one will be of my most favorite Cunarder, the AQUITANIA (1914-1951) and the other will be of my beloved EMPRESS of BRITAIN (1931-1942). I believe that all ocean liners of the past and present should continue to be immortalized in one or more ways so that future generations will know of them, know of their stories, know of their lives but out of all of them, these two are the ones I choose to hold forever close to me. The pride of Canadian Pacific Line's pre-war fleet will always always be precious to me.
My 3rd favorite is the artistic postcard of the Cunard twins CARMANIA and CARONIA(1905), two of the most popular Cunarders in the pre-World-War-I years. Though both were some of the most notable and fastest liners of their generation, the CARMAINA earned her rightful place in World War I history from her famous duel at sea that took place between her and the Hamburg South-America liner CAP TRAFALGAR. The latter was trying to avoid getting captured by the British Navy so she literally disguised herself to look like the CARMANIA; BUT, unbeknownst to the Germans, the British had the same exact idea with the CARMANIA!! In other words, here were 2 famous ocean liners, disguised exactly like each other, battling each other for their very lives with the guns mounted on both their bow and stern sections. In the end, it was the CARMANIA who won the battle and she went down in maritime history as "one of the toughest liners to ever sail the Seven Seas." Yes, she truly was representative of her generation at a time when the great ocean liners were more than just a mode of transportation but were also symbols of national pride. Incidentally, the latter accolade would be echoed years later on the eve of World War II in September, 1939, right before France fell to Germany when the managing directors of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique stated during a secret meeting pertaining on what the line should do with the NORMANDIE, keep her in France or send her to the safety of American waters, "...but the NORMANDIE IS France!!"
Whew, like I said in a previous blog entry or two, you get me going on my ships and watch out! All my ship books are stuck in storage somewhere in the Midwest but because I dont have the space here in Boston to have them with me at this current time, whenever I get lonesome for them, all I have to do is look at the album created by Adam Scott Crispo and their histories, their memories, their very spirits come back to severely haunt me and in every instance, a much-appreciated and most enjoyable haunting. This album, "For Spice: Ships That Do Not Merely Cross In The Night" has captured my heart unlike any other. Everyone else can enjoy their unique paintings, their modernist sculptures and their minimalist wall-reliefs but me? Give me my North Atlantic Greyhounds and that truly is all I need to keep myself happy and totally sated. You wanna see what real artwork is? Look at all those massive castles of floating steel with brightly colored interiors going at about 35 m.p.h, across the sea, slicing through 15 to 25 foot waves like a warm knife through butter - now THAT is poetry in motion, as well as grace and beauty in the world of artistic expressions.
This is not gonna be the last time I write about my ocean liners in this blog. In the future, I have 3 ship-themed ocean liner entries I will be writing about - why I love ships; the REAL truths regarding the sinking of my beloved TITANIC; and, a special dedication to the Cunarder AQUITANIA in commemoration of her maiden voyage in May of 1914. As for Mr. Crispo, like an eager student, I look forward to any future additions he may add to the album "For Spice: Ships That Do Not Merely Pass In The Night" but even if he were to stop one day and say "This is complete" or "Enough now" I still will always treasure and keep close to my heart the images he gathered for an album I will never ever forget. I not only thank him for his artistic creativety and choices in producing the album, but I thank him even more for his warm friendship and for tapping into my soul in a way that no one has done in a very, very long time. Whether you truly appreciate the world of the great ocean liners as much as I do, or if you simply like to leaf through images of them, I encourage everyone out there to patronize Adam Scott Crispo's special ocean liner album, as well as explore what other fine curiosities he has in his shoppe. Both he and his exquisite tastes in collectibles are beyond extraordinary. Thank you again Adam, from the bottom of my heart and a special thank to all of you for reading.
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