This video, another in the “True Facts About” series, seems appropriate for a Monday. Informative, yet likely to generate a chuckle. True Facts About The Octopus … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
A 300 foot high, 11-million-ton iceberg is threatening the tiny Greenland village of Innaarsuit. The massive iceberg has grounded just off the coast. The concern is that if the iceberg should calve, the plunging ice could create a tsunami-like wave that … Continue reading
Oops. Last Wednesday, the graving dock at the General Dynamics NASSCO yard in San Diego, CA flooded after the dock gate at least partially collapsed. The ship under construction in the graving dock, the USNS Miguel Keith, floated off the docking … Continue reading
On July 21, the fore topsail set on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805 will go on display in all its perforated glory. The sail has 90 shot holes and will be displayed for a limited time … Continue reading
The resident orcas of the Salish Sea are dying. They now number only 75, a 30-year-low. They are being starved as their primary prey, the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off. They are also being poisoned by pollutants in their waters … Continue reading
The Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest Viking longship built in modern times, has begun its summer tour of the East Coast of the United States. After departing from Mystic Seaport on July 9th, it is now bound for Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Only the … Continue reading
At one point in her long and storied career, the 1885 built, 131-foot schooner yacht Coronet was owned by a rather dodgy religious group which called itself “The Kingdom.” The group was led by Frank Sandford who circumnavigated the globe on the yacht in 1905. … Continue reading
On July 6th, 11 schooners raced from Gilkey Harbor in Islesboro, Maine on Penobscot Bay to the finish line at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse in the 42nd Annual Great Schooner Race, sponsored by the Maine Windjammer Association. The race honors, as reported … Continue reading
The Trump administration announced that it would cancel a rule designed to protect whales and turtles, which was first implemented in 2016, at the request of the fishing industry. The rule helped limit the number of endangered whales and turtles … Continue reading
In June, three Spanish divers located the wreck of the German World War II submarine U-966 near the coast of Galicia in north-west Spain. The BBC reports that the submarine’s wreckage is spread widely in a very rocky area where rough weather often makes diving … Continue reading
I recently learned the slungshot, not to be confused with a slingshot. The slungshot is a monkey’s fist’s nasty cousin. As most are probably aware, a monkey’s fist is a knot, shaped like a ball (or a fist), used to provide weight … Continue reading
Forty-eight years ago today, 100,000 people who lined the banks of the River Avon in Bristol as the SS Great Britain returned to her birthplace. In the intervening years, the rusting hulk has been meticulously restored to her former glory and … Continue reading
Here is another of the “True Facts” series with more than you may need or want to know about the scotoplane, commonly known as the sea pig, a type of deep-sea sea cucumber. True Facts About The Sea Pig … Continue reading
The best way to combat plastic pollution in the oceans is to stop the plastic before it gets there. We have been posting about the ever-growing garbage patches in the world’s oceans for the better part of a decade. The posts are beginning … Continue reading
The MV Empire Strength, a 7,355 GRT refrigerated cargo ship, was built by Harland and Wolff in 1942. In her long career, she had seven owners and four names. When she was purchased by a Greek owner in 1965, she was renamed, MV E Evangelia. … Continue reading
USS Oriskany is an Essex-class aircraft carrier completed after World War II. She served in both the Korean and the Vietnam wars. In 2006, the almost 900′ long ship became the world’s largest artificial reef after being sunk 22 miles … Continue reading
A year and a half ago we posted about SeaBubbles — foiling electric water taxis. The idea to develop a five-person water taxi comes from Alain Thébault, the designer and skipper of record-breaking ocean-going hydrofoil Hydroptère. The distance from an idea to implementation, … Continue reading
We recently posted about crewing opportunities for the auxiliary-sail trading vessel Tiare Taporo operating from the Cook Islands. The Tiare Taporo is, however, not the only commercial sailing vessel serving the Cook islands. The SV Kwai will soon be departing on its 45th voyage from Hawaii calling … Continue reading
Sometime in the 1990s, two different species of lionfish made it into the waters of the Atlantic off Florida. Native to the Indo-Pacific, the venomous, predatory fish spread rapidly, decimating local reef fish in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the … Continue reading
Most of us think of Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, as indeed he was. He was also an early pioneer in hydrofoil boats. His hydrofoil, Hydrodome #4, better known as the HD-4, set a world marine speed record … Continue reading