The Mariners’ Museum Announces Fall Author Lecture Series

For Immediate Release

The Mariners’ Museum Announces Fall Author Lecture Series

Newport News, Va. - (June 2010) -The Mariners’ Museum has a busy slate for its fall Author Lecture Series, including an Oct. 14 appearance by documentary filmmaker Laura Seltzer. For information on any event, contact Museum educator Bryan Hill at 757-591-7749 or bhill@MarinersMuseum.org.

Author Lecture Series – Filmmaker Laura Seltzer
Thursday, October 14, 2010 7 P.M.

Filmmaker Laura Seltzer will present and discuss her film The Last Boat Out, the inspirational story of a family of watermen trying to preserve their way of life on a Chesapeake Bay that’s been battered by development and pollution.

Seltzer is the senior producer on the 26-episode TV series Made in Spain, currently airing on PBS. She has produced the multi-award-winning DVD Changing the Face of Medicine and Local Legends.

The event is $5 for Museum Members, $10 for non-members.

Author Lecture Series – An Evening with John Waugh
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 7 P.M.

Join The Mariners’ Museum for an evening program with award-winning Civil War author John Waugh. Author of The Class of 1846 (1994) and Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency (2001), Waugh will discuss his new book Lincoln and McClellan: The Troubled Relationship between a President and His General (2010).

Lincoln and McClellan is an in-depth look at the relationship between a pair of mismatched men who briefly controlled the fate of the nation during its greatest trial. This relationship came to a head after McClellan’s failed 1862 Peninsula Campaign and his subsequent dismissal by Lincoln. Author James McPherson has called Waugh’s latest work a “stimulating new book about the most puzzling personality of the Civil War....".

The event is $4 for Museum Members; $5 for non-members.

Author Lecture Series – Passport Not Required
Thursday, November 11, 2010 11 A.M.

Please join The Mariners’ Museum as Author Eric Dietrich-Berryman discusses the riveting story of these servicemen and his new book Passport Not Required: U.S. Volunteers in the Royal Navy, 1939-1941 (2010).

Before America entered World War II, twenty-two U.S. citizens went to England and volunteered with the Royal Navy. While the history of Americans serving the in the Royal Air Force before America entered World War II is well known, the story of American naval volunteers has not been previously told. Commissioned between September 1939 and November 1941, these Americans fought in the Battle of the Atlantic and on a variety of fronts. However, because foreign military service was against U.S. law, their names were never made public.

The event is free for Museum Members and with paid admission to the Museum.

Author Lecture Series – Sailors in the Holy Land
Saturday, December 4, 2010, 1:00 P.M.

Author Andrew Jampoler will discuss his book “Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 American Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah.” A sea story of unusual dimensions, the author draws on extensive research in Turkey, Jordan, and Israel and chronicles the Navy’s first and last expedition to the Dead Sea. As much about religion as science, the expedition was tasked to fix the exact elevation of the storied salt lake of the Old Testament and collect scientific specimens while the expedition’s leader sought out the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Andrew C. A. Jampoler is a retired US Navy Captain who served in Vietnam, worked at the Pentagon, commanded a land-based maritime patrol aircraft squadron and flew Lockheed P-3 airplanes. After retiring from the Navy, he worked in the international aerospace industry and then moved on to become a full-time writer. In addition to Sailors in the Holy Land, Mr. Jampoler has also written The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt’s Flight from the Gallows (2008) and the award-winning Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 (2003). The latter was voted “Book of the Year” by the US Naval Institute Press in 2003.

The event is free for Museum Members and with paid admission to the Museum.

Author Lecture Series – Project Azorian
Thursday, December 9, 2010, 1:00 P.M.

In March 1968, a Soviet ballistic missile submarine accidently sank in the cold waters of the North Pacific Ocean. In August 1974, following six years of secret preparations, the CIA attempted to salvage the sunken submarine, K-129.

Undertaken with the cover of an undersea mining operation by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, Project Azorian—incorrectly identified as Project Jennifer by the press—was the most ambitious ocean engineering endeavor attempted by man. Previously, the deepest attempt to salvage a submarine had been at a depth of 245-feet: K-129 lay at a depth of 16,560-feet. The remarkable effort to salvage K-129, which contained nuclear-armed torpedoes and missiles as well as crypto equipment, was conducted with Soviet naval ships a few hundred yards away.

For the first time, the full story is revealed by salvage participants and previously classified government documents. New information was obtained from interviews of the crewmembers of the U.S. salvage vessels, U.S. naval intelligence officers, and with the Soviet submarine division commander.

Please join us for what will be an interesting evening of film and lecture. Author Norman Polmar will be on hand to present his new book, Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129 and a viewing of Michael White’s documentary film, Azorian: The Raising of the K-129. A light reception and book signing will follow.

The event is $4 for Museum Members; $5 for non-members.

For more information:
Contact: John Warren
(757) 591-7746
E-mail: pr@MarinersMuseum.org 

The Mariners' Museum, an educational, non-profit institution accredited by the American Association of Museums, preserves and interprets maritime history through an international collection of ship models, figureheads, paintings and other maritime artifacts. The museum is open from 10 A.M. until 5 P.M. Wednesday through Saturday, and 12 to 5 P.M. Sunday. It will be closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. For information, visit www.MarinersMuseum.org, call (757) 596-2222 or (800) 581-7245, or write to The Mariners' Museum, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606.

The Mariners' Museum and The South Street Seaport Museum of New York City are partners in America's National Maritime Museum, an innovative alliance recognized by an act of Congress in June 1998 to share collections, exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and other endeavors.