Eight Bells: The final watch of 2019

The ringing of bells at sea signifies the end of one’s watch, with it being a long-held maritime tradition to recognize the passing of a sailor by the ringing of eight bells. Scuttlebutt honors this tradition with 45 published tributes to recognize the contributors in sailing who had their final watch in 2019:

• Ron Allatt
• Joe Balogh
• Paul Bardes
• Jack Baxter
• Martin Boatman
• Michael S. Bruno, Jr
• Gary Burrell
• Mark Christensen
• Robert Munro Clarke
• Jay Cook
• Michael Deland
• Tommy Dickey
• Charles Erickson Jr.
• Donald M. Green
• Peggy Gregory
• Chester E. Halpern
• Olaf Harken
• Tony Hoad
• Louie Howland
• Tom Hutchinson
• Woody Jewett
• Eleazor Johnson
• Robert Kits van Heyningen
• Mark Koetje
• Jerome Bedford La Dow
• Luigi Lang
• Mark Lindsay
• James T. Liston
• Isabelle Lounsberry
• Peter Lundt
• Jeff Martin
• Richard Matthews
• Richard S. McCurdy
• Robert Neff
• Lowell North
• Ed Palm
• Faith Paulsen
• Sherman Poppen
• Bubbles Shattuck
• David Storrs
• Sandra G. Tartaglino
• John Thackray
• Will White
• Kim Woodhouse
• Kinloch Nelson Yellott, III

Gone From My Sight
by Henry Van Dyke
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”
Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast, hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”