The Federation Series

We are pretty wrapped up in trying to get our Committees together, while funding The Federation Series of presentations. The first in this series is internationally famous Tim Severin, who is mainly known by his first myth breaking sea voyage, The Brendan Voyage.

This proposed media release will have to include two of our present sponsors for the presentation, PPC and WIV Channel 4:

Tim Severin And the Quest For A Caribbean Robinson Crusoe

Adventure historian Tim Severin will be arriving in the Turks and Caicos Islands this 11 March to give a video presentation and question/answer presentation of his published research on legends of Robinson Crusoe in the Caribbean Basin. The Turks and Caicos Maritime Heritage Federation is beginning a series of lectures on maritime history and non-profit subjects by hosting Mr. Severin.

Severin has been presented with the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographic Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographic Society. He is most famous for his construction of and crossing of the Atlantic in a leather boat, a curragh, to prove a 6th Century Irish monk documentation of sailing to North America before the Vikings, The Brendan Voyage. Since that time he has crossed the Indian Ocean, China Sea, sailed Indonesia, the Mediterranean and Aegean, crossed the Pacific on an bamboo raft.

He has written books about all these adventures, which have won him the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, The Book Of The Sea Award, a Christopher Prize and the literary medal of the Academie de la Marine. He has been a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine.

He has also recorded his journeys in documentary films which have become classics of exploration and adventure. At film festivals they have won prizes for Best Cameraman, Best Film of the Sea and Best Adventure Film. Collected under the title TIME TRAVELLER, they have been screened on Discovery Channel, Sky Television, and National Geographic TV.

The Federation is privileged to host this navigation scholar, a historian who puts his coins on the table to prove his historical points, in this special one-time presentation. Tim Severin The Quest For A Caribbean Robinson Crusoe is being sponsored by WIV Channel 4, PPC, Contractor’s Building Supplies and Sky King who want to insure that we have a safe place on the water for our children. Support the Chalk Sound Sailing Centre Project.

This is a fund raising event for the construction of a Chalk Sound Sailing Centre, a youth oriented heritage conservation facility. Maritime Heritage Federation Members will be free. READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENT HERE

Tim Severin’s website is www.timseverin.net.

The Federation website is www.maritimeheritage.tc.

REMEMBER .... if you join the Federation at $25 per year you can enter free.

If you purchase advance tickets at $25 you can also go in.

At the door it will be $30 for entry or $25 membership fee…

Federation Publishing

Since somebody actually asked why we are involved with the publishing business, referring to our research for SPIRIT The Turks Islands and Caicos Islands Sloops, I will explain to those who hold a similar thought and question:

The Mission Overview:

The Mission of the Turks and Caicos Maritime Heritage Federation is to create a broad, public relationship of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Sea.

In order to do this we:

• Document, preserve, and stimulate scholarship in Turks and Caicos maritime history with diverse public stories of the Turks and Caicos and the Sea through the Federation’s programmes, library, communications, products and publications

This is the first line in our mandate and actually throughout the mandate you find references to preservation and conservation concepts since this is a preservation and conservation organization.

One of the reasons for starting up The Writers’ Group is to provide a pool of writers who might want to do the various types of writing needed for the preservation and conservation of history and heritage in the Turks and Caicos Islands, including maritime.

Schedule of Events

We do not have a Board confirmation of the schedule yet but hope to have that soon so I can post it and you can plan it.

What is happening are the visits by two tall ships, Pelican and Spirit of Bermuda in April and May respectively. The Spirit of Bermuda wishes this to be an official state visit by Bermuda to the Turks and Caicos Islands to initiate an exchange of historic information on the first permanent settlers in the Turks and Caicos Islands, many of whose names remain.

The Spirit visit is called and publicized as the Pilgrimage to the Turks and Caicos Islands, and it is scheduled for the 17-21 May. We are hoping that they can stay until the South Caicos Regatta and take centre stage. The Spirit of Bermuda is a 1790 replica of the first vessel recorded as having the Bermuda rig of triangular sails. And she was originally designed to go to windward and get to the Turks Islands for salt. She is built of space age materials but looks like the original.

The Bermuda Sloop Foundation is looking for two youth who might want to join their voyage back to Bermuda through the Bahamas- a chance of a lifetime!

Just call me if you are interested…243 2093

Sorry there isn’t more at this time….