Tag: At Sea

Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer

The Voyages Of The Beagle That Changed The World, Part 2

Fitzroy and Darwin travel the oceans to find their own answers to big questions

Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.

Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.

A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.

He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.

Mark Levent – Magician

An Evening Of Fun And Sleight Of Hand

As seen in TV’s “Master of Illusion”

His incredibly unique and brilliant combination of masterful comedy and world-class sleight of hand, a culmination of over 30 years of experience, has made Levent a much sought-after entertainer, and has earned him great respect from his fellow peers.

Levent has appeared in numerous countries around the world including China, Korea, Japan, France, Italy, and Finland. He is equally successful with both English and Non-English speaking audiences.

He has appeared on various international television shows and was most recently featured on several episodes of “Masters of Illusion”. He performs regularly on major cruise lines including Disney, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Regent, and Oceania. In addition to taking the stage at many prestigious venues and corporations, including the Comedy & Magic Club of Hermosa Beach and Hollywood’s Magic Castle, Levent had the honor of performing at the Apple Company headquarters in Cupertino, California.

He is a noted creator of magic tricks and a magic lecturer as well as a vaudeville historian. He was a regular contributor to the “Vaudeville Times“ Magazine and has penned articles for various other publications, including “MAGIC” magazine and MUM.

Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer

The Voyages Of The Beagle That Changed The World, Part 1

Fitzroy and Darwin travel the oceans to find their own answers to big questions

Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.

Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.

A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.

He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.

Charles Darwin sailed around the world from 1831–1836 as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle. His experiences and observations helped him develop the theory of evolution through natural selection.

James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer

An Introduction To Tahiti & French Polynesia

Explore the 118 islands that make up this modern ‘Garden of Eden’

James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.

James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer

The Trouble Life Of Paul Gaugin

Understand the complex artist who spent his formative years in French Polynesia

James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island. He is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.

Eugène Gauguin  (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia in 1903 where he is buried. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.

Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer

The Great Pacific Explorers – Abel Tasman

The Dutch make an impression in the East Indies and the Pacific

Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.

Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.

A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.

He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.

Abel Tasman was born in 1603 in Lutjegast, Netherlands, Tasman started his career as a merchant seaman and became a skilled navigator. In 1633, he sailed to Jakarta, Indonesia. He participated in several voyages, including one to Japan. In 1642, Tasman was appointed to lead an expedition to explore the uncharted regions of the Southern Pacific Ocean. His mission was to discover new trade routes and to establish trade relations with the native inhabitants. Tasman sailed eastward and reached the coast of Tasmania, and named it Van Diemans Land. He then sailed north and discovered the west coast of New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt.

James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer

Mutiny On The Bounty

Relive the world’s most famous mutiny by Fletcher Christian and his men.

James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.

The mutiny on the Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship’s open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh navigated more than 4,000 miles in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. Christian discovered Pitcairn which was an ideal haven. Eventually rivalries arose, Christian and others were killed leaving one original mutineer surviving.

James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer

Easter Island Today

Understand the modern challenges facing this and other remote islands.

James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.

1000 years ago the islanders set up their large moai on platforms to attract the favor of the gods to provide prosperity, security, and wealth. Ten centuries later, thanks to a thriving tourist industry, this is exactly what the moai are doing. The introduction of reliable Internet daily flights to the mainland, and a wider range of consumer goods and activities have removed the sense of remoteness.

Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer

The Great Pacific Explorers – Francis Drake – ‘El Draco’

Hero or Devil? Explorer, navigator, warrior and pirate?

Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.

Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.

A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.

He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.

Sir Francis Drake – to the Spanish, a wayward pirate; to the English, a hero. He could be considered a morally dubious hero in many ways, perhaps even a villain, but was still incredibly influential in Tudor times.

Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and the third circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins.

In 1572, he set sail on his first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Drake’s circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive Spanish interest, and laid claim to New Albion, plundering coastal towns and ships for treasure and supplies as he went. He arrived back in England on 26 September 1580.

James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer

Easter Island: Collapse?

Discover how this once mighty civilization comes to a crashing end.

James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.

Rapa Nui is often seen as a cautionary example of societal collapse. In this story, made popular by geographer Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse, the Indigenous people of the island, the Rapanui, so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline. These catastrophes, the collapse narrative explains, resulted in the destruction of the social and political structures that were in place during precolonial times, though the people of Rapa Nui survive and persist on the island to the present day.