On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a quote: We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr. … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Eight years ago today, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s pilots, Captain Chesley “Sulley” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles had not glided the plane in at just the right … Continue reading
A video for a cold winter day. We recently posted about the exciting voyage plans for 2017 on the School Sailing Vessel (SSV) Oliver Hazard Perry. This year, the ship will be sailing to Florida, Bermuda, Cuba and the Arctic. … Continue reading
In December of 1893, Captain Carl Anton Larsen, the master of the Norwegian whaling ship Jason, sailed along a vast Antarctic ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Now, just over 120 … Continue reading
It was announced this week that the Indian Point nuclear power facility will close by 2021. The Indian River plant is about 25 miles north of New York City. It sits on, not one, but two geological fault lines. A core breach … Continue reading
After a successful first season sailing New England waters, SSV Oliver Hazard Perry has an exciting 2017 ahead. Toward the end of January, the sailing school ship will depart Newport, RI bound for Bermuda, then to Florida where the ship will be … Continue reading
Next Saturday, January 14th, the Mystic Seaport Museum, in Mystic, CT, is hosting its annual Chantey Blast and Pub Sing from 1-5 PM at Frohsinn Hall, 54 Greenmanville Ave., directly across the street from the museum. Everyone is invited to join in … Continue reading
Last Friday, Crystal River did not live up to its name. It was murky and the crystal clear waters that I remembered had a visibility of only about six feet. In some respects, however, it added an element of mystery, when, as … Continue reading
It wasn’t so long ago when the conversation regarding Florida manatees was not whether or not they would become extinct but rather how quickly their extinction would happen. Fortunately, efforts to save the manatee have paid off. In 1991, the … Continue reading
Almost exactly a year ago, we posted, The Return of the Schooner Amistad, about the efforts of the non-profit, Discovering Amistad, to return the schooner to operation. Discovering Amistad has recently announced that it is searching for a Captain/Educator for the replica … Continue reading
Not many lead singers from an 80’s rock and roll band could write a compelling song about ship scrapping, but then Mark Knopfler is not just any singer/songwriter. Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the River Clyde, which was … Continue reading
Vaquita, a small porpoise found only in the Gulf of California, is the world’s rarest marine mammal, and is in imminent danger of extinction. Now, US Navy dolphins are being trained to locate vaquita in a last-ditch effort to catch … Continue reading
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is big. Like other Nimitz class carriers, it is over 1000′ long on the waterline, wit a beam of 244′ and is powered by nuclear steam plant which develops a quarter of a … Continue reading
The Telegraph in the UK is reporting on two notionally related projects associated with the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower to North America. The first is a virtual reality project led by the Human Interface Technologies Team, … Continue reading
Yesterday we posted about a whale swimming in New York’s East River. It was originally identified by the police as a humpback, but their photograph of the whale’s spout now makes it highly likely that the whales was in fact … Continue reading
#Harbor spotted another whale in the E. River this morning right next to Gracie Mansion. Even the wildlife want to ring in #NYE2017 in #NYC pic.twitter.com/oQNbnGBirm — NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) December 31, 2016 A whale was seen swimming in New York’s … Continue reading
Happy New Year! Every year for more than the last fifty years, brave or foolhardy Dutch men, women, and children have been celebrating New Year’s Day by jumping into the sea. Called the ‘Nieuwjaarsduik‘ (New Year’s dive), an estimated 25,000 or … Continue reading
The Hartford Courant describes the new Thompson Exhibition Building, on the northern end of the 19-acre Mystic Seaport Museum as sitting “like a piece of 21st-century abstract sculpture in the midst of a 19th-century fishing village.” Chad Floyd, one of the architect … Continue reading
There are roughly twenty sail training ships operated by navies around the world, to help prepare their officers for command at sea. Now China is adding to the fleet. China’s first modern sail training ship is an 85 meter long, 1,200 … Continue reading
I love stumbling across bits of history that are completely new to me. The Japanese galleon San Juan Bautista is a good example. The San Juan Bautista was one of the first Western-style sailing ships to be built in Japan. … Continue reading