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Deceased , Historic
Gilbert
Klingel
Gil
1908 – 1983
“Contemporary man is cheating himself of future oyster dinners by his very efficiency in collecting them; he cannot take and not give; success in one day means failure in another.” -Gilbert Klingel Gilbert Clarence Klingel, a true “renaissance man”, was a naturalist, boatbuilder, adventurer, sailor, photographer, author, and inventor. He was a regular contributor to the Baltimore Sun, for a time affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a member of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, as well as a curator and charter member of the Natural History Society of Maryland. He is best known for his book about the Chesapeake Bay, The Bay, which won the John Burroughs Medal in 1953. He is recently the subject of the multiple award-winning documentary, Gilbert Klingel: Man of Steel, which airs regularly on the National Geographic Channel and PBS. Klingel sailed all his life and was an experienced and excellent sailor. As an adventurer, he sailed to learn and discover, and then write about his adventures. This is what he most loved to do. The knowledge he gained during his long sailing experience enabled him to always find ways to improve his custom built boats. A snapshot of just a few of Klingel’s accomplishments: Books Inagua, The Ocean Island, and BASILISK shipwreck A memoir of the voyage to the West Indies, the shipwreck, and a naturalist’s survey of the island, including detailed pictures of flora and fauna. It has been translated into Estonian, Swedish, German, and Russian. This book (1940,1942 British,1944,1954,1957,1961 AMNH paperback,1997,1999) has been out of print, but a new 2010 edition is now available. The Bay Klingel’s second book, The Bay, illustrated by Natalie Harlan Davis (1898–1988), expanded from articles he wrote for the Baltimore Sun, describes the Chesapeake as he’d known it all the way back to his childhood decades earlier, and includes a detailed naturalist survey of sounds and sights both above and below the surface of the Chesapeake. In 1953 he was awarded the John Burroughs Medal from the John Burroughs Association for this book (1951,1967,1984). Seeing Chesapeake Wilds Photo-essay about the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore, with preface and photographs by Byron Parker Shurtleff (1929-1999), a professor of photography at the University of Delaware, and the poetic text by Klingel (1970,1973,1977). Boatbuilding with Steel Klingel’s final book, Boatbuilding with Steel: Including Boatbuilding With Aluminum, was published in 1973 (2nd edition 1991), and is considered a classic on the subject. The included chapter on aluminum is by noted yacht designer Thomas E. Colvin (1925-2014). Articles The following pdf is an overview is from a biography posted by Stuart Coleman, the grandson of Wally Coleman, Klingel’s shipmate in the Inagua saga, and written by Marcy Benouameur, Gilbert Klingel’s daughter. The full biography is available as “The Author | Inagua the Book” at www.inaguabook.com: Klingel, Gilbert Excerpt from biography For more information on Gilbert Klingel, visit http://www.mathewsmaritime.com/boatshop.html , a branch of the website of the Mathews Maritime Museum in Mathews County, Virginia, the county where Klingel built his boatshop. A recent article from Chesapeake Bay Magazine (April, 2021): https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/gilbert-klingels-bay/
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