The Shakespeare Club encounters Mother Nature

Snow Storm — Steam-Boat Off a Harbour’s Mouth, exhibited 1842, Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851. Photo from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N00530

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club 

Although the February 14 meeting began with a discussion of possibly attending one of the productions at the Canton Michigan Shakespeare Festival this summer, weather seemed the appropriate matter for discussion this month as the members considered landscapes and shipwrecks.

The Thought for the Day was from Patricia Seligman, the author of many books on painting who wrote, “Sky is Nature’s grand theater for the drama of the weather.” Barbara Madaj, who is an accomplished painter in her own right, elaborated on this by pointing out, “If you don’t get the sky right, you’re going to goof up the whole thing because the sky determines the mood.” She then used the paintings of Elizabeth Mowry and J.M.W. Turner to illustrate how the treatment of the sky affects the mood of a painting. The works of the two artists were remarkably different. Mowry’s gentle landscapes evoke an air of almost ethereal tranquility and quiet joy. A poetic serenity infuses her work while Turner’s use of contrasting dark and light in his seascapes reflects turbulence and a sense of Man’s insignificance in the face of an angry Nature. He has been described as “crotchety,” even “crazy,” and as one member of the Club noted, Turner’s paintings often reflected the artist’s own “tormented soul.” 

Barbara’s presentation provoked a discussion of Manchester’s own rich intellectual and cultural resources.

Turner’s tumultuous seascapes led into Chris Kanta’s talk at the next meeting on February 28 on the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes when the Thought for the Day was from Shakespeare: “Mens’ evil manners live in brass; Their virtues we write in water.” And there is a lot of water. We learned that 21% of the earth’s fresh water is contained in the Lakes, and that the Edmund Fitzgerald is only one of about 6,000 ships that have gone down in the Lakes. In the nineteenth century, the Lakes carried such heavy cargo and passenger traffic that some of the wrecks were caused by ships, then unequipped with radio or radar, simply crashing into each other. The mountainous waves on the Lakes can be deadlier than those on any of the earth’s oceans. Violent storms can blow up without warning as happened in the “White Hurricane” November 7–11, 1913, when 250 lives were lost as a “meteorological bomb” of two colliding weather systems brought winds of 60–90 miles per hour and shot up waves 35 feet high. Whiteout conditions and accumulating ice exacerbated the storm’s fury. Despite gale warnings at over 100 Coast Guard stations and weather posts, a false lull in the storm led the ships’ masters to leave safer waters and move directly into the storms’ developing force. Twelve fairly new ships were lost and 30 others were seriously damaged. We also heard of “Flying Dutchmen,” the ships that leave a port and are never seen or heard from again. And ghost ships that appear out of nowhere. 

Although the ice storm has brought difficulties, the members decided unanimously that they would rather stay on land for the time being.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.