A labor of love you can count on

As he looks under the hood of his sputtering 1968 Chevy pickup in the driveway of his Lazy Mountain cabin, Richard D'Alessandro needs a source of inspiration. With the hood up and the problem not diagnosed, D'Alessandro is befuddled. Instead of pulling out a Chilton manual -- that will come later -- he leafs through "My Life as an Explorer" by Roald Amundsen, and suddenly, everything is right again.

Amundsen was an Arctic explorer, the first to successfully navigate the treacherous Northwest Passage from 1903-1906. He has been a source of inspiration to D'Alessandro since his boyhood days in Massachusetts, and other explorers have served not only as inspirations, but as sources for D'Alessandro's work.

"It seems like Amundsen's philosophies and ideas can be applied to so many different things," D'Alessandro said. "I was up all night with that truck trying to fix it, and finally, I came in here and read a couple of passages and things felt a lot better."

D'Alessandro has to get that '68 Chevy running, too, because it is his mode of distribution for the 2003 Historic Wooden Ships of the Arctic calendar, which he has researched, written, designed and self-published with his publishing business, Watersky Press

It is his third venture into the calendar business, and all of them focus on his true passion -- the men who braved the Arctic waters aboard the wooden ships, risking life and limb in search of whales.

"The history of Alaska is as diverse as the state is big," D'Alessandro said. "For some reason, the first history you hear about is the Gold Rush Era. But the whaling industry had a presence here long before that."

D'Alessandro isn't in the business of debating the political end of whaling through his calendars. Instead of being a political statement, they are a "window into the past," as he said. And in all of his calendars, as well as in his personal beliefs, the role of Native Alaskans aren't overlooked.

"The Natives were instrumental to the whaling industry and important to the explorers of that time," D'Alessandro said. "Any conversation about the explorers, the ships or the whaling has to start with the contributions made by the people who lived here first."

The calendar is filled with 25 rich historic illustrations, photographs, engravings and maps from the Arctic explorers. The illustrations are complimented by D'Alessandro's writings, which appear on every month's page.

D'Alessandro has spent years researching this period of maritime history, and his knowledge is evident the moment you pick up the calendar.

His small cabin is filled with countless volumes on the subject of polar exploration -- many of them one-of-a-kind books that are essentially field notes made by the captains of the ships -- and items such as original engravings from pages from an 1871 edition of Harper's Weekly, which details the plight of ships that were frozen in the Arctic Ocean when the wind changed drastically.

In the 2003 calendar, his favorite anecdote comes in March. It is about a James B. Vincent, who was the only survivor following the sinking of one of the whaling boats. Vincent carved out a crude message on a piece of wood, and gave it to a Native hunter. He told the man to give it to a ship if he saw one.

Later that spring, the hunter did just that, and the chip was passed hand to hand to hand, and it eventually made its way across the Bering Strait all the way to Point Clarence, Alaska. Eventually, Capt. Mike Healy of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear got a hold of the message, interpreted it, and found Vincent "fishing on the coast, right where the chip of wood said he'd be."

Many of the items he has found thanks to the Internet, and because of the high price tag of the unique items, he often has to turn around and sell the books when he is finished with them.

"This is a rich man's hobby, and I'm not a rich man," he said with a chuckle.

From these illustrations and books, D'Alessandro puts the calender together every year. After it is complete, he takes to the road again, trying to market it to gift shops and bookstores.

"Sometimes it is tough to be cold-calling bookstores on the road, while you're sleeping in the back of your truck with a couple hundred calendars with you," D'Alessandro said.

He said store owners in Alaska have really been a big help.

"They understand the hardships of doing the research, doing the writing and the publishing and then doing the marketing all by yourself," he said. "There is a lot of trust. Like I sent a load of calendars to Barrow for them to sell up there, without getting any money for them. You just trust they'll send the money for the calendars they sell, and most of the time, they do."

D'Alessandro also does e-mailings to people who are interested in the polar expeditions and the explorers, as well as maintain a Web site, www.polarvoyages.net, where people can view the calendar, as well as purchase copies.