Women’s History Month — Celebrating Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper

Posted on by March 13, 2026
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As the current administration launches a frontal attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is a good time to remember Admiral Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a United States Navy Rear Admiral. Hopper received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. She was nicknamed “Amazing Grace” and is often referred to as the “mother of computing.” An updated repost.

Since 1994, The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) has honored Admiral Hopper hosting a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the world’s largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists. This year the celebration will be held in Chicago.

In October of 2020, the U.S. Naval Academy officially opened Hopper Hall, the academy’s new center for cybersecurity studies, named in her honor.  The cybersecurity facility is the first building named after a woman at the three main service academies.

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If He Only Had a Brain — Scarecrow Trump Says Tanker Operators Lack Guts

Posted on by March 10, 2026
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Trump has earned the nickname TACO, (“Trump Always Chickens Out,”) for his cowardice and proclivity for backing out of both threats and promises. Like most cowards, Trump likes to call out cowardice in others to distract from his own.

On Sunday, Trump implied that tankers were not transiting the Strait of Hormuz because they are cowards. Trump is demanding that oil tanker crews “show some guts” and sail through the strait.

Trump told Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade that “These ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts, there’s nothing to be afraid of. …They have no Navy, we sunk all their ships.”

I think I am going to start referring to Demented Donnie as the Scarecrow. The one thing that both the Wizard of Oz’s scarecrow and Trump lack is a brain.

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On International Women’s Day, Remembering Eleanor Creesy, Navigator of the Clipper Ship Flying Cloud

Posted on by March 8, 2026
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Today, March 8th, is celebrated as International Women’s Day (IWD), commemorating women’s fight for equality and liberation along with the women’s rights movement. International Women’s Day is intended to focus on issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

It is a good time to remember a woman who literally charted her own course. Eleanor Creesy, was the navigator of the clipper ship Flying Cloud, who, with her husband, Captain Josiah Creesy, set world sailing records for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco. 

Creesy was born on September 21, 1814,in Marblehead, Massachusetts, to Joshua III and Eleanor Prentiss. She learned the craft of seafaring from her stepfather and uncle, John Prentiss. John Prentiss married Eleanor’s mother after Joshua Prentiss died at sea in 1817.

John Prentiss, a master mariner, captained the ship Californian. Locals thought it peculiar that his stepdaughter was so eager to learn how to use a chronometer and a sextant and how to make a sight reduction, learning the skilled and specialized craft of celestial navigation at a time when women were rarely educated, let alone in a business wholly dominated by men. Her dream was to marry a Captain and sail with him on his ship and, and though she attracted many suitors as a young woman, she rejected their advances until she found a sailor.

Eleanor married Captain Josiah Creesy in 1841. and served him as a navigator aboard his ship. The couple sailed together on the ship Oneida in the China trade. Josiah was captain of the ship, but Eleanor was the navigator. Continue reading →

Trump’s War on Iraq — Are There Lessons to Be Learned From Millennium Challenge 2002?

Posted on by March 6, 2026
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Millennium Challenge 2002

Just over two decades ago, the United States ran a major war game exercise called Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02). Millennium Challenge was a hybrid exercise that combined live troops, real ships, and aircraft. Massive computer simulations operated across more than two dozen locations. Overall, more than 13,500 service members participated. The cost reached roughly $250 million, making it the most ambitious and expensive war game in U.S. history.

The simulated combatants were the United States, referred to as “Blue”, and a fictitious state in the Persian Gulf, “Red”, often characterized as Iran or Iraq. US Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper played the part of an enemy commander waging a bloody defensive campaign against a much more powerful US force. The Red force possessed a hodgepodge of troops, ships, and planes that was similar in organization and capability to Iran’s actual forces.

When the game began, the mighty Blue fleet steamed up to the Red fleet. The Blue Admiral issued an ultimatum demanding surrender. The enemy commander refused. Instead, Riper attacked and hit the larger Blue fleet hard. Missiles from land-based units, civilian boats, and low-flying planes tore through the Blue fleet. His order to initiate the attack was a coded message sent from the minarets of mosques at the call to prayer.

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Women’s History Month: Remembering Raye Montague, Barrier-Shattering Navy Ship Designer

Posted on by March 2, 2026
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In a time when the US Navy seems incapable of designing and building ships that are not significantly over budget and behind schedule, it is good to remember Raye Montague, a pioneering  American naval engineer who helped revolutionize the way the Navy designs ships and submarines. She was also an African American who faced racism and sexism, and became an internationally registered professional engineer who shattered the glass ceiling at the Navy when she became the first female program manager of ships. She earned the civilian equivalent of the rank of captain.

In honor of both Women’s History Month and last month’s  Black History Month, an updated repost about the barrier-shattering naval engineer Raye Montague, who died at the age of 83 in 2018.

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Ducks, Dynasties, and the Deep: The Remarkable Story of the Temasek Wreck

Posted on by February 28, 2026
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Around 650 years ago, off the eastern tip of Singapore, a trading vessel slipped beneath the waves and vanished from history. It carried bowls painted with ducks and lotus flowers — porcelain so exquisite that even the Chinese emperor sought them for his own.  This week, the world learned just how extraordinary that sunken cargo really was.

Singapore’s First Ancient Shipwreck

The vessel, now formally identified as the “Temasek Wreck,” is the earliest historic shipwreck ever discovered in Singapore’s waters. It was found near Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait — one of the busiest maritime chokepoints in the world, then as now.

The excavation, led by Dr. Michael Flecker of HeritageSG and the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, was carried out in stages between 2016 and 2019. Working against strong currents and significant depth, the team spent four painstaking years recovering and cataloguing the wreck’s contents. The study detailing their findings was published in the Journal of International Ceramic Studies in June 2025. Continue reading →

Black History Month — First Black Liberty Ship Captain, Hugh Mulzac, Says No To Jim Crow

Posted on by February 22, 2026
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Hugh Mulzak served as the first Black Liberty ship captain in World War II. When offered the command, he refused to sail with a segregated crew. An updated repost in honor of Black History Month.

Born in 1886 on Union Island in Saint Vincent Grenadines, he went to sea at 21 and served on British, Norwegian, and American sail and steam-powered ships. After studying at the Swansea Nautical College in South Wales, he earned a mate’s license in 1910. He served as a deck officer on four ships during World War I.

In 1918, he became a naturalized US citizen and in 1920 sat for his Master’s license, earning a perfect score on the test. Despite his experience and qualifications, he was generally only able to find work aboard American ships as a messman or cook. Mulzak has been described as “the most over-qualified ship’s cook in maritime history.”

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In Honor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion During Black History Month — the Floating Freedom School

Posted on by February 21, 2026
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The steamboat Ben Campbell commonly attributed as John Berry Meachum’s Floating Freedom School. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

At a time when programs supporting the American values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are being banned in schools across the nation, it is incumbent on the rest of us to keep alive the history that some are now seeking to suppress. Here is a repost of an account of how far we have come while also being a reminder of how far we still have to go — the story of Missouri’s Floating Freedom School.

The Floating Freedom School was an educational facility for free and enslaved African Americans on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. It was established in 1847 by the Baptist minister John Berry Meachum.

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Trump’s Navy Secretary Phelan — Billionaire Donor, No Military Experience, Porn Collector With Epstein Links, of Course

Posted on by February 21, 2026
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Donald Trump bragged that his administration would recruit “only the best people.” Instead, his regime is the very definition of a kakistocracy, a system of government run by the least qualified, most unprincipled, or worst citizens.

Trump’s unhinged Attorney General, Pam Bondi, or his dog-killing cosplaying DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, as well as his Fox TV host, with white supremacist tattoos and a history of public drunkenness, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, are obvious examples of the least qualified, most unprincipled, or worst citizens running the regime. The list of kakistocrats in the Trump regime is long, and would be comical if his gang of incompetents weren’t individually and collectively doing so much damage to this nation and the world.

Given the deep and vast well of total ineptitude in the regime, many of the more garden-variety government agency bunglers don’t receive the attention they deserve. One good example is Trump’s Navy Secretary, John Phelan. 

The Navy Secretary is a civilian position in accordance with the Constitutional mandate that civilian government has the responsibility to control the military. The secretary is not required to have any Navy experience or even any military background, although most do. Phelan has no military background whatsoever. He is the first person in more than 15 years to serve as the Secretary of the Navy without any prior military experience. Continue reading →

Winter Cold Enough to Sail Van Nostrand Challenge Cup, America’s Cup of Ice Yachting

Posted on by February 18, 2026
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Last Sunday, on a frigid day on the Navesink River in Red Bank, NJ, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (HRIYC) won back the Van Nostrand Challenge Cup from the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club (NSIBYC), which held the cup for the last 135 years. 

The cup was created by Gardiner Van Nostrand, a wealthy Hudson River ice boat owner who, in 1891, had crafted a Tiffany silver cup to be kept by the winning team. The contests, including the most recent in 2003 and 1978.

The Van Nostrand Cup is often referred to as the America’s Cup of ice yachting. The most recent sailing of the America’s Cup was the 37th competition since the first race was hosted by the New York Yacht Club in 1870. The Van Nostrand Cup Challenge, by contrast, has been sailed only four times, since the first race 135 years ago: in 1891, in 1978, in 2003, and in 2026. 

Unlike the America’s Cup Races, which are held every several years on dates agreed between the defender and the challenger, the Van Nostrand Cup Challenge is sailed whenever the weather is cold enough to freeze the ice thick enough on the rivers to allow racing the ice yachts. The Van Nostrand ice boat races are hosted by the winner of the last round of races. As the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club of Red Bank, NJ, won the previous races have been held on the Navesink River. The next race, whenever the ice is thick enough, will be sailed on Orange Lake, NY.

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Pilot Falls Into Ocean Off Hawaii Attempting to Board Emerald Princess

Posted on by February 15, 2026
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Last Tuesday, the 3,080 passenger cruise ship, Emerald Princess, approached Nawiliwili Harbor, on Kauai’s southeast coast, in Hawaii. Nawiliwili was the ship’s first port of call after departing from Los Angeles on a 16-night Hawaiian Islands itinerary. The National Weather Service had issued high wind advisories, warning of rough seas raised by the strong easterlies. After several days at sea, many passengers watched from their cabin balconies as they neared the harbor.  A pilot boat arrived nd maneuvered alongside the113,561 gross ton cruise ship to allow the pilot to board to guide her into the harbor.

As the 1,000-foot-long cruise ship rolled, the pilot boat rose and fell in the choppy seas. The harbor pilot attempted to climb the rope boarding ladder attached to the ship’s side. After several attempts, the pilot slipped and fell into the ocean as passengers looked on, startled, from above.

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Valentine’s Day Repost — Valentine Islands

Posted on by February 14, 2026
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On Valentine’s Day, a few Valentine Islands.  Are they islands of love on the storm-tossed seas of life? Sadly, they are probably not, but at least they do resemble Valentine’s Day hearts.

Celebrating Frederick Douglass on Valentine’s Day — “I Will Take to the Water”

Posted on by February 14, 2026

Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of both the day and Black History Month. Here is an updated repost about the social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He is considered to be the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century. Frederick Douglass. But what does Valentine’s Day have to do with Frederick Douglass?  As a slave, Douglass never knew the date of his birth, so he chose to celebrate it every year on February 14th.

Frederick Douglass was born around 1818. From an early age, he developed a close attachment to ships and the sea. His path to freedom led directly through the docks and shipyards of Baltimore, Maryland.

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Online Poll Names Deep Sea Chiton — No Its Not Molly McMollusk-Face

Posted on by February 13, 2026

A global internet poll has named a new species of deep-sea chiton – a type of marine mollusc – from the genus Ferreiraella. The chiton was discovered in 2024 in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench of the coast of Japan at a depth of over 5,500 metres (3.4 miles). The name chosen is Ferreiraella populi.

A public naming campaign began after YouTuber Ze Frank featured the rare chiton from the genus Ferreiraella in an episode of his “True Facts” series. Over 8,000 name ideas were submitted through social media, and after reviewing the entries, scientists selected the name Ferreiraella populi, where the species name in Latin means “of the people”.

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Harriet Tubman, Part 2 — the Arc of History Doesn’t Always Bend Toward Justice

Posted on by February 10, 2026

Martin Luther King Jr. popularized the saying, “The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.” It would be pleasant to think that this is always the case. Given the recent political climate, the quote may be overly optimistic.

We recently posted Celebrating Black History Month — Part 1: Harriet Tubman & the Great Combahee Ferry Raid, the first of a two-part post which recounts a daring raid planned and helped lead a Union riverboat raid at Combahee Ferry in South Carolina in June, 1863, freeing over 720 slaves.

Before the war, Harriet Tubman was a legendary “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, nicknamed “Moses.”  She rescued approximately 70 enslaved people after her own escape from slavery. She made the perilous journey at least 13 times, through treacherous swamps, shadows, and danger. She always escaped and later boasted, “I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.”

As we noted in our previous post, the current Trump regime has launched a full-scale war on American history, specifically America’s non-white history. Through a series of executive orders, the current regime has attempted to rewrite our past, glorifying racists and traitors and erasing the horrors of slavery. Federal websites removed the positive accounts of resistance to oppression and tyranny by deleting the names of thousands of non-white heroes in American history, including Harriet Tubman, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Navajo Code Talkers.

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