A team of Italian researchers has concluded that the upper portion of a skull found near Pompeii 100 years ago, may indeed belong to Pliny the Elder. In 79 AD, Roman Admiral Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
In honor of Black History Month, here is a throwback Thursday repost of a story I think is well worth telling and retelling. Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped and would become a leading “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad” which … Continue reading
Two more cruise ships are being quarantined for 14 days each in hopes of limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Ten people aboard the Diamond Princess tested positive for the virus. Of these nine are passengers — two Australians, three … Continue reading
Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post recently wrote that the ship originally built as MS Stockholm, just after World War II, is likely to be “nearing its final voyage.” The 72-year-old ship is one of the oldest cruise ships in … Continue reading
As has so often been the case, predictions of the impact of climate change have been proven to be inaccurate. The problem is not that they have been too alarmist, but that they haven’t been alarmist enough. For the past … Continue reading
About a year ago we posted about an active-duty US Coast Guard lieutenant accused of plotting attacks “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” Christopher Paul Hasson, 50, a self-avowed white nationalist, was arrested after … Continue reading
In honor of Black History Month, a post about the first African-American pilot in the US Navy, Jesse L. Brown. The story goes that when young Jesse Leroy Brown worked in the cotton fields of Mississippi beside his sharecropper father, … Continue reading
On the morning of April 16, 2014, the ro-ro/passenger ferry MV Sewol, traveling from Incheon to Jeju in South Korea, capsized and sank. Of the 476 passengers and crew, 304 died, including 250 students on a class trip. Questions as … Continue reading
UPDATE: The illness which sickened a passenger was determined not to be the coronavirus and the 6,000 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark from the Costa Smeralda. Two cases of the coronavirus, not related to the cruise ship, were … Continue reading
Four years ago, we posted about an attempt to use “big data” to crack down on illegal fishing. Google partnered with SkyTruth and Oceana to produce a new tool, Global Fishing Watch, to track global fishing activity. The problem is that to avoid … Continue reading
On January 28, 1915, the US flag four-masted bark William P. Frye was sunk off the coast of Brazil by the Imperial German Navy raider SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich. As a US-owned vessel, William P. Frye was a neutral ship. The US would … Continue reading
More than thirty years ago, I sat on the rotting planks of the old Pier 17 in the East River in Manhattan and listened to Bernie Clay and the X-Seaman’s Institute sing a song about the schooner Alice S. Wentworth. … Continue reading
The tall ships from Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain, engage in a mock battle sail. A wonderful video by GHHSAmedia from about a decade ago. Lady Washington/Hawaiian Chieftain: Columbia River Battle Sail … Continue reading
Around 1607, colonists in the Popham Colony built the pinnace Virginia, the first English-built ship in what is now Maine and possibly in all of the English-colonized areas of North America. Now over 400 years later, a recreation of the … Continue reading
On New Year’s Eve, in 20-foot seas and high winds, the 130′ crab boat Scandies Rose operating off the Alaska Peninsula, developed a starboard list and suddenly capsized. Two of the seven crew were able to don exposure suits and … Continue reading