Antarctica (17 page)
Authors: Peter Lerangis
To this day, Lerangis refuses to admit that this early work was created during sixth-grade math class.
Lerangis as a freshman at Freeport High School in 1970. Here, he shows off his writing style and his mustache, both of which were to develop quite a bit in the future.
Lerangis (standing, second from left) at the Charles River with his a cappella singing group, the Harvard Krokodiloes. The group still performs to this day.
Lerangis promptly retired his ruffled shirt after this performance at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater in 1976.
Lerangis with his soon-to-be wife, Tina deVaron, at their rehearsal dinner in Boston in 1983.
Lerangis with his sons, Nick and Joseph, in 1991. He remarks that, although this was a comfortable pose at the time, any attempt to recreate it today would be painful.
In 2003, Lerangis was invited by the White House to accompany First Lady Laura Bush to Moscow to represent the United States at the first Russian Book Festival. From left to right: R. L. Stine, Lerangis, Marc Brown, Cherie Blair QC, and First Lady Laura Bush.
The Lerangis/deVaron family in 2005 at the Gates exhibition in Central Park— just a hop, skip, and a jump from their home on the Upper West Side. (Image courtesy of Ellen Dubin Photography.)
A welcome reception during an author visit in Solana Beach, California, in 2009.
Lerangis connects with his audience after a school visit in Chappaqua, New York, in 2012.
abovedecks
— ANY HIGHER DECK
adze
— an axlike tool with a curved blade
amidships
— in the center of the ship
a
urora australis
(also called
the southern lights)
— a mysterious formation of arcing lights in the Southern Hemisphere apparent most strongly in the Antarctic
avast
— a nautical command that means Stop!
backwash
— the backward movement of water as it is propelled behind an object
ballast
— a heavy material (sometimes rocks) put at the bottom of a ship or boat to create stability
barnacle
— a small crustacean with a pebblelike shell that attaches itself to rocks, boats, and ships
barque
— a three- to five-masted sailing ship with all masts square-rigged except the aftermast, which is fore-and-aft rigged
barquentine
— a three- to five-masted ship with a square-rigged foremast but fore-and-aft rigged mainmast and mizzenmast
batten (n)
— a narrow wooden strip of wood
batten (v)
— to fasten or secure with a batten
b
eam
— the widest part of a ship
belowdecks
— any lower deck
bilges
— the lowest part of a boat or ship’s inner hull
binnacle
— a housing for a ship’s compass
boom
— the horizontal spar used to support the bottom edge of a sail
bow
— the front of a ship
bowsprit
— the spar extending from the bow of a ship
braces
— a rope used to control horizontal movement of a square-rigged sail
brackish
— salty
brash ice
— ground-up ice floes and lumps of snow, with a puddinglike texture
breaker
— a wave that breaks into foam
bulkhead
— an upright partition that separates compartments of a ship
bulwarks
— the side of a ship above the upper deck
calve
— to break off a section of ice from a larger mass, as in an iceberg from an ice shelf
capsize
— to overturn or to become overturned
cofferdam
— a watertight structure to cover a hole in a ship’s hull during repairs
come about
— to change a ship’s tack
crevasse
— a deep crevice in ice or snow
crosstrees
— the intersection of mast and horizontal spar in a square-rigged ship
crosswind
— a wind that blows
across,
as opposed to w
ith
or
against,
a ship