Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

ONE QUESTION ON BEHALF OF CANADIANS WHO JUST LIKE TO WRECK DIVE At the ROM  - live broadcast from the deck of the wreck of the Erebus I  got just one question in this afternoon at a packed media event, organized to watch in real time footage being shot on the wreck of the HMS Erebus under the ice in Canada's high arctic. When can sport divers like me dive on this recently discovered 19th century 4-masted schooner? When the divers turned off their cameras underwater, Marc-André Bernier, underwater archaeologist and Head of the Underwater Archaeology Team at Parks Canada, held a Question and Answer session with Toronto reporters whi le standing in a tent, on the ice, near the dive hole over the wreck of the Erebus. " The 9 ft of ice not withstanding, today's dive on the Erebus looked pretty easy - good viz, sport diver depth and current free." I asked Bernier, " will sport divers be allowed to dive on the Erebus?" The answer? "We hope so...

The Benwood - NOAA photograph Happy Birthday to the wreck of the Benwood It was 73-years ago Thursday that the Merchant Marine freighter Benwood collided with another freighter, the Robert C. Tuttle and sank off the shores of Key Largo, Florida.  Stephen Weir photographing the wreck of the Benwood It was an accident caused in no small part by World War 2 -- rumours of German U-boats in the area that night required both ships to travel completely blacked out, even though they were just 3-miles off-shore in the reef filled waters of Key Largo’s Atlantic coast.  The 360 ft. long Benwood was filled to the gunnels with phosphate rock and was armed with a deck gun, depth charges and bombs. When her bow was crushed in the collision, she took on water and 30-minutes laters the captain and crew abandoned ship as the Benwood sank. She now lies close to shore between French Reef and Dixie Shoals on a bottom of low profile reef and sand in depths ranging from 25 ...

Fancy Franks Has A Media Preview For Its Gourmet Hot Dogs and Pulled Port Poutine ... adapted from a popular Weir Facebook posting Open Kitchen at Fancy Franks on Queen Street in Toronto - photo Weir It was the end of the Month - March 2015 - that I attended a Media Launch for a Hot Dog! PR company had been hired to hold a closed down press party for Fancy Franks Gourmet Hot Dogs on Queen St West near Spadina here in Toronto. I almost didn't make it past a phalanx of iPad carrying publicists  who blocked the front door to the tasting, thankfully I brought my invite (I probably didn't meet their age demographics - two bloggers came on skateboards). Blogger stands by the Media Preview sampling station I think of the place as Memories of Nathan's on 7th Ave in New York City (but way way cleaner) - All beef wieners in hand-twisted lamb casings BBQ'd on a grill built specifically for hot dogs and sausages. Varied and interes ting take on the urban dog - ...

Stylish After-Dive Soft Landing By Stephen Weir, March issue of Diver Magazine Kate, Conch and Cayman Pillow - photo by Weir For Toronto-based London-trained Interior Designer, Kate Thornly-Hall, Grand Cayman Island evokes a certain Seven Mile Beach chic.   Her new line of pillows, towels, hand-woven carpets, and wallpaper are inspired by Cayman life, below and above the water. Diver Magazine doesn’t want to typecast her as the Cayman Pillow Lady, but, just saying, that, when viewing her collection your eyes are drawn to her green and white trellis design throw pillows, her indoor outdoor pillows covered in 19 th century four-masted Cayman schooners and Royal Palm fronds.     Late last year, in a private downtown Toronto club she unveiled her Cayman Island Collection to Diver Magazine.   “ The Cayman Islands Tourism Office in Toronto called and ask if I had ever been to the Caymans. I had not.” Said Kate Thornly-Hall, in explaining how her n...

ANCIENT SHIPBUILDING DESIGN - THE WRECK OF THE LAST DHOW EXHIBITION - AGA KHAN MUSEUM - TORONTO Model of Dhow  - Aga Khan Museum - photo by George Socka The Dhow is a traditional one or two masted sailing vessel usually with lateen rigging (slanting, triangular sails) that has been used for two millennia in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It was constructed of wood.   Boat builders steam-shaped wooden hull planks, roughly 2.5 centimeters thick and between 20 and 50 centimeters wide.   These planks were stitched edge to edge with rope. According to the Aga Khan Museum “wadding was placed under the stitching both inside and outside the hull. A lime-like sealing compound applied to the exterior waterproofed the hull.”

DR ALAN CHONG TALKS ABOUT THE LAST DHOW RECOVERY - THE VIDEO Video talks to Dr Chong about the shipwreck of the 1,200-year-old dhow by Stephen Weir and George Socka for Diver Magazine DIVER MAGAZINE talked to Dr Alan Chong, the head of the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore about underwater archaeology and shipwrecks in the Java Sea.   Alan Chong is a former Toronto Art Gallery curator.   That interview can be seen in a short YouTube video at : http://youtu.be/jfI5pnTn-1U

The Lost Dhow Only showing in North America.  Dhow’d that happen? By Stephen Weir - article in March issue of Diver Magazine Canada’s newest gallery, the Aga Khan Museum , has just opened a major exhibition about one of the world’s oldest and most controversial underwater archaeological finds   – the 1,200 year-old Belitung Shipwreck.   The exhibition about the ship, The Lost Dhow; A discovery from the Maritime Silk Route , had its North American launch in Toronto in early December instead of a planned debut at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. Pottery lie on the deck of the wreck of the Dhow. photo - Tilman W alterfang In 1998, the shallow waters off Belitung Island in the western Java Seas yielded what has proven to be the earliest marine archaeological discovery of the century – a wooden ship filled with gold, silver and bronze objects and a staggering 57,500 Chinese ceramic artifacts. The 15-metre long wooden trading vessel has...

. Handcuffs led to marriage and a strange encounter with Canada's grand master of photography: Thaddeus Holownia. Why it is worth checking out the Jane Corkin Gallery's launch of a new Thaddeus show this  Saturday in Toronto.  . Huffington Post Blog  by Stephen Weir  Hollownia Flickr photo by Christopher Mackay Back story: It was the fall of 1969. Somehow at the age of 16 I got accepted at the new Windsor University and I left my Renfrew home, pretty well for good.  It was me and a huge number of Americans  avoiding the draft and Vietnam who enrolled in an advanced style of Grade 13 - Windsor's Q-Year. IT was mandatory to live in residence if you made it into Q-year.  Most days were spent in the residence lounge since it was the one room on campus with a working stereo record player. I was listening to Jimi Hendrix for the very first time when a beautiful girl I'd never seen  on campus sat next to me waiting her turn to put on an LP....

From Handcuffs to the Group of Seven  It was the fall of 1969. Somehow I got out of Renfrew alive! University of Windsor. Q-Year with a class full of American draft dodgers. I was in the residence lounge, the one room on campus with a working stereo record player.  I was listening to Led Zep for the very first time.  Beautiful girl who I'd never seen on campus  before was sitting next to me listening to her new LP. Thaddeus Holownia floated in, dressed like Sgt Pepper with the addition of  a turkey feather stock in his hat. He drifted over to us, snapped handcuffs on our wrists and slouched out of the building in his own purple haze! Thaddeus used to do that a lot - walk around in a bit of a haze -- but, this time he did remember to come back and unlock us. We have been together ever since. My wife and I, not Thaddeus. In fact I haven't seen Thaddeus much since then. He moved from Windsor, to Toronto and settled eventually teaching art at Mount Allison Un...

  Toronto Museum Has A Small (but important) Wreck Exhibition 3-D printer was used to make this replica bell.  On display in Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum In 1845 the British Franklin Expedition sailed into Canada’s Northern waters to look for the Northwest Passage. There were 129 men, on two ships – the Erebus and the Terror – in the expedition. Early into their planned 3-year quest both ships and all hands were lost somewhere near the Victoria Straits in the Eastern Arctic. The search for Sir John Franklin, his crew and the two ships, began in 1859 and continues to this day.  Earlier this year a Canadian expedition did locate the shallow wreck of the Erebus. Parks Canada underwater archaeologists – the first to lay eyes on the ship in nearly 170 years – conducted seven dives to the shipwreck over two intensive days of on-site investigation, taking diagnostic measurements, high-resolution photography, and high-definition video. The artifact was ide...