Beyond the Breakers

Latest Episodes:

**unlocked** Dead Reckoning #4 - The Body on the Shore Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

**Dead Reckoning is a bonus series that we put on Patreon; consider becoming a patron if you enjoy what you hear!**
This fourth episode of Dead Reckoning is a reading of "The Body on the Shore," as shared in Frederick Stonehouse's Haunted Lakes (1997), asking the age-old question of how much money your sanity is really worth.

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Episode 90 - SS Vestris ft. Old Shipping Lines Feb 05, 2023

Show notes

This week we have special guest Jamie (from Old Shipping Lines on YouTube) to discuss the sinking of the British liner SS Vestris in 1928.
Sources:
Berchtold, William E. "More Fodder for Photomaniacs." The North American Review, vol. 239, no. 1, January 1935, pp. 19-30.
Grace, Michael. "Disaster at Sea - SS Vestris" Cruising the Past, 21 Nov 2009. https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/disaster-at-sea-ss-vestris/
"Lamport & Holt's S.S. Vestris." 3 Feb 2012. www.bluestarline.org/lamports/vestris.html
Olivier, Clint. The Last Dance of the Vestris. 2013.
Shenna, Paddy. "The sinking of SS Vestris - the shipping disaster that time forgot." Liverpool Echo, 21 Oct 2013. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/evening-read-sinking-ss-vestris-6219504
Weiss, Holger. “Reopening Work Among Colonial Seamen.” A Global Radical Waterfront: The International Propaganda Committee of Transport Workers and the International of Seamen and Harbour Workers, 1921 - 1937. Brill, 2021, pp. 161 - 179.

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Episode 89 - SS Northern Pacific Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

This week we actually get a couple of shipwrecks for the price of one, in our discussion of the SS Northern Pacific, which served in both civilian and military capacities during her 7-year sailing career.
[sources - full list to come]
Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of Delaware and Maryland. Gary Gentile Productions, 1990.

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Episode 88 - R.G. Coburn Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

This week we're talking about the loss of the steamer R.G. Coburn in October 1871. Other sub-topics include the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire, the Chicago iron & steel industry, and the dazzling array of fonts in 1800s newspaper advertisements.
Sources:
Bensman, David and Mark R. Wilson. "Iron and Steel." Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005. http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/653.html
"Coburn, R.G." Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/434440
Donahue, James L. Steaming Through Smoke and Fire: True Stories of Shipwreck and Disaster on the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay Press, 1990.
Green, Russ. "Shipwreck Vignettes." Thunder Bay 2010: Cutting Edge Tech and the Hunt for Lake Huron's Lost Ships, NOAA Ocean Exploration, https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10thunderbay/background/wrecks/wrecks.html

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**unlocked** Scott's Pretty Good Snake (January 2023 Bonus) Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

This bonus episode spun off from Episode 87 covering the steamship Metropolis, which spent part of its career serving in the Atlantic Blockading Squadron. We look at the effectiveness of the blockade and impact that the contraband trade had on life in the Confederacy.

**note, the last 5-ish minutes of the episode is just some hot mic / behind the scenes discussion from between recordings that we left in**

Sources:

Byrne, Frank J. "Rebellion and Retail: A Tale of Two Merchants in Confederate Atlanta." The George Historical Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 1, 1995, pp. 30 - 56.

Ruminski, Jarrett. "'Tradyville': The Contraband Trade and the Problem of Loyalty in Civil War Mississippi." Journal of the Civil War Era, vol. 2, no. 4, 2012, pp. 511 - 537.

Still, William N. "A Naval Sieve: The Union Blockade in the Civil War." Naval War College Review, vol. 36, no. 3, 1983, pp. 38 - 45.

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Episode 87 - Metropolis Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

This week we discuss the story of the steamship Metropolis, formerly known as the USS Stars And Stripes, which ran aground near Currituck, NC in 1878.
Sources:
Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Hatteras Inlet South. G. Gentile Productions, 1992.
Tabb, Kip. "Beach wreckage revives mystery of the Metropolis." Outer Banks Voice, 14 Oct 2020. https://www.outerbanksvoice.com/2020/10/14/beach-wreckage-revives-the-mystery-of-the-metropolis/
"The Wreck of the Metropolis, 1878." NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, 2016, https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2016/01/31/wreck-metropolis-1878
Link to Ko-Fi as mentioned in the episode:
https://ko-fi.com/beyondthebreakers

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Episode 86 - MODU Ocean Ranger Jan 09, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Season Three of Beyond the Breakers!
We are starting the new year by talking about the 1982 sinking of the mobile offshore drilling unit Ocean Ranger in the Hibernia Field of the Grand Banks.
Sources:
Collier, Keith. "The Loss of the Ocean Ranger, 15 February 1982." Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage, October 2016. www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/ocean-ranger.php
Dodd, Susan. The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil. Fernwood Publishing, 2012
Heffernan, Mike. Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster. Creative Publishers, 2009.
Higgins, Jenny. "Response to the Ocean Ranger Disaster." Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage, August 2018. https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/ocean-ranger-disaster-response.php
Moore, Lisa. February. Black Cat, 2009.
Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster
USCG Marine Casualty Report - Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) Ocean Ranger
Further Reading:
Babaian, Sharon. "View of Evidence From a Disaster: The Ocean Ranger Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Musuem"
Dodd, Campbell, and Dalziel. "The Ocean Ranger Disaster taught us much but lack of action by governments, corporations still fails workers." Saltwire, 14 Feb 2022. https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/opinion/commentary-the-ocean-ranger-disaster-taught-us-much-but-lack-of-action-by-governments-corporations-still-fails-workers-100693052/

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**unlocked** July 2022 Bonus - Dead Men Do Tell Tales (Folklore, Fraternity, and the Forecastle) Jan 01, 2023

Show notes

This bonus episode is a discussion of the article "Dead Men Do Tell Tales: Folklore, Fraternity, and the Forecastle"

Source:

Rouleau, Brian J. "Dead Men Do Tell Tales: Folklore, Fraternity, and the Forecastle." Early American Studies, vol. 05, no. 01, Spring 2007, pp. 30-62

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Episode 85.4 - RMS Lusitania, Part Four Dec 24, 2022

Show notes

This is the conclusion of our four part series on RMS Lusitania, meaning it is also the conclusion to Season Two of Beyond the Breakers. We discuss contemporary reactions to the sinking, the inquiry headed by Lord Mersey, and explanations about how this tragedy occurred in the way that it did.
Thank you for all the listens, the support, and the interactions on social media this season. We look forward to bringing you Season Three next year.
Sources:
“Atrocity and the Lusitania.” The Advocate of Peace, vol. 77, no. 6, June 1915, p. 129.
Beesly, Patrick (1982). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918. Long Acre, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
Gullace, Nicoletta E. “Friends, Aliens, and Enemies: Fictive Communities and the Lusitania Riots of 195.” Journal of Social History, Winter 2005, pp. 345 - 363.
Hübner, Andreas. “A People of ‘Patriotic Hearts’: German-Americans, U.S. Neutrality, and the Building of an Inclusive Coalition in New Orleans, 1915.” Louisiana History, vol. 60, no. 3, 2019, pp. 261 - 288.
Larson, Erik. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Broadway Books, 2015.
“The Lusitania’s ‘Guns’. The New York Times Current History of the European War, vol. 2, no. 4, July 1915, pp. 623 - 631
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Walker, 2002.
Stack, Liam. “The Lusitania Telegraph Has Been Recovered, but It May Not Solve Any Mysteries.” The New York Times, 3 Aug 2017.

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Episode 85.3 - RMS Lusitania, Part Three Dec 18, 2022

Show notes

Here is Part Three of our season finale series - covering U-20's activities up until she encountered Lusitania, the sinking itself, passenger stories, and the evacuation of the vessel.
Sources:
Beesly, Patrick (1982). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918. Long Acre, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd

Butler, Daniel Allen. The Lusitania: The Life, Loss, and Legacy of an Ocean Legend. Stackpole Books, 2000.

Hoehling, A.A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1996.

Larson, Erik. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Broadway Books, 2015.

Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Walker, 2002.

https://www.rmslusitania.info/people/second-cabin/theodore-naish/

https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:91533#?c=&m=&s=&cv=6&xywh=-2036%2C-1%2C5606%2C2669

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