The Journal is where we write about the boats, lights and coast behind our prints. Each piece starts with something people really ask, like where to see puffins or which lighthouses you can climb, and answers it with names, places and dates you can check for yourself.
Boats with a story
Tall ships covers Cutty Sark at Greenwich, Victory and Warrior at Portsmouth, Glenlee in Glasgow, and the Tall Ships Races that bring the big sailing ships back to British ports. Thames sailing barges explains the red sails and the leeboards, the barge matches, and how you can still get a trip on one. J-Class yachts tells the story of the great 1930s America's Cup boats and the few that survive. The Round the Island Race sets out the Isle of Wight course and the best places to watch from the shore.
Choose a story to follow
Start with a subject you can already picture. A reader interested in one particular yacht will get more from the J-Class history than from a general tour of tall ships. Someone remembering a day beside a harbour may want the sailing barge story first. Use the links to move between those interests instead of working through the Journal in order.
When a story names a real vessel, follow its source to explore that boat further. The linked museum or association carries the detail behind the short account here. Keep that distinction in mind when you reach the print collection, where the boats and places are imagined.
The coast and its lights
Famous UK lighthouses lists the towers you can visit, including the Trinity House lighthouses open to the public, Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe and the Bell Rock off Arbroath. Where to see puffins gives four colonies, Bempton Cliffs, Skomer, Handa and Sumburgh Head, and the months the birds are there.
Pictures of the sea
Famous sea paintings walks through Turner, Constable and the Van de Velde family, and where their pictures hang today. The shape of a wake looks at why the white line behind a boat can carry a whole picture. Why we keep boat portraits is about the old habit of having your own boat painted, and boat names has 150 ideas, the registration rules and the renaming superstition.
Read before making a day of it
For a lighthouse or ship visit, choose the place that interests you, then open the visitor link in the story. Check the arrangements for that particular site before setting off. A history of a tower and information about climbing it answer different questions; the Journal points you towards the relevant source for each.
If you are choosing a picture after a trip, decide whether it is the exact vessel or the feeling of the day you want to keep. Your own photograph records one place and moment. An imagined marine print can suggest a kind of coast or boat without claiming to show the one you visited.
Each story links to the prints that match it. If you would sooner browse, the shop has every one of them in one place.
