Camp Logan: A World War I Training Camp in Houston. Saboteurs, Strikes, and Surveillance: Texas Shipbuilding during the Great War. WWI Shipwreck Archaeology: Abandonment of the U.S. Shipping Board Vessels in East Texas.
Born in the late 1700s, Jean Lafitte created a profitable smuggling operation in the Gulf of Mexico with his brother, Pierre. The pair then moved to Galveston Island where they developed the colony of Campeche. For such an enigmatic character, much is still unknown, or misinterpreted, about his life.
The presentation will discuss the parallel developments in the commercial oil industry and related chartering models. It begins with the colonization of producer nations (mainly by the British and Dutch) to Independence movements in the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It then follows the corresponding change in oil trading from a strictly term-driven process to a spot market emerging in the early 1970’s to the commoditization of oil in the following decade and beyond.
Tanker surfing has been practiced in Texas for the last 50 years. In the 60’s and 70’s, the sport occurred not in open waters like today, but along the shorelines of two islands in Galveston Bay: Redfish Island and Atkinson Island. During this time, ships were less frequent and much smaller, but they still created waves.
