Community Updates

As a follow-up to my original post (see below), I can now indicate a real green option to European and North American delegates for travel to and from St John’s. It involves use of the recently instated regular service (once a month each way) between St Nazaire (France) and Baltimore (USA) by the principally wind-powered Neoliner Origin (see the above video of the launching ceremony and interviews with members of the project team). On its transatlantic transits the ship calls at St Pierre and Miquelon, whence it is possible to make the short crossing to Fortune (NL) by ferry and then the 200-mile road journey to St. John’s by bus-taxi. It is not cheap (€2880 each way for the 8-day journey from/to St Nazaire; €1000 each way for the 4-day journey from Baltimore), but the cost includes full catering. You would also need to arrange cruise-type insurance (including repatriation cover, etc.) and, of course, travel to/from the mainland port. On the positive side, you would have a wonderfully enjoyable and potentially productive experience—with the internet service available on Origin you would be able to take forward your academic research in a peaceful, comfortable and conducive setting, just as I have enjoyed on numerous transatlantic passages by container ship. Furthermore, you would be supporting the development of wind-powered intercontinental transport of both people and cargo (Origin carries a freight payload of over 5,000 tons), to the betterment of the global environment. Higher-education institutions and grant-awarding bodies are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental costs of academic travel by air. You may be able to use this awareness to obtain funds for travel to ISC7 by the above means.

 I have booked to travel on the 31 March sailing from St Nazaire (accompanied by a US friend making the full transatlantic crossing) and will be returning on the 16 May sailing from St Pierre and Miquelon. North American delegates could take the 14 April sailing from Baltimore and return on the 4 June sailing from St Pierre and Miquelon. Obviously these schedules entail a lengthy stay in Newfoundland but you could consider using this for a sabbatical as well as attending the conference. I have been informed that Memorial library facilities are freely available to visiting researchers, and there is no doubt scope for initiating/continuing research projects with colleagues at St. John’s.

Please contact me directly (a.l.a.johnson@derby.ac.uk) if you wish to discuss any of the above. As well as undertaking library-based research at St. John’s, I plan to visit the internationally important early Cambrian sections adjacent to Fortune. If there is interest from others, I might be able to arrange a guided excursion, with the potential for sclerochronological research on some of the very first shells…

  Yours,  Andy Johnson

                                                    - Dr. Andy Johnson, 15th October 2025