A repost from 2010 in honor of Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets on this day in 1805. I have always been struck that of all the commentary I have read on the … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
What an 800 pound West Indian manatee was doing hanging around Washburn Island, near Falmouth, MA at the end of September is unclear, and the manatee wasn’t talking. The waters near Cape Cod in Autumn are not a good place for … Continue reading
Engineers laying subsea power cables off Stranraer, Scotland have discovered the wreck of a World War I German UBIII-Class submarine, which may be either the UB-85 or the UB-82, both of which were sunk in the area. The possibility that … Continue reading
Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko’s new sail-assisted motor-yacht, named simply, Sailing Yacht A, is undergoing sea trials. The $450 million yacht has a number of superlatives attached to it. At 12,700 tonnes, it is the largest sailing yacht in the world … Continue reading
Clausewitz wrote of the “fog of war.” Recent events in the Gulf of Yemen and the Red Sea are a good example of what he meant. The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, may have been attacked on Saturday, October 8th, … Continue reading
In 2014, we posted about Joel Abrahamsson, from Gothenburg, Sweden, who set a record for kayak fishing by catching a 15′ long 1,247 pound Greenland shark while fishing from a kayak near the island of Andoria, in Norway. We noted that the fish, which … Continue reading
The last time we posted about the schooner Harvey Gamage, was in 2014, when she and several other vessels were due to be sold at auction following the failure of the Ocean Classroom Foundation. She was subsequently purchased by Phineas Sprague and refit … Continue reading
Australia is, literally, on the move. A year ago, we posted about how the Prime Meridian, the arbitrary line in Greenwich, UK, marking 0 degrees of longitude, had to be adjusted by slightly over 100 meters after the discrepancy was … Continue reading
Originally posted by gCaptain. Reposted with permission. Last Saturday, the 30 passengers aboard Khaleesi, a Silverton 34 power boat, were watching the Navy Blue Angels over San Francisco Bay as part of Fleet Week. On the way back to the dock, Khaleesi capsized and … Continue reading
The City of Adelaide is the world’s oldest surviving clipper ship and one of only three remaining composite clipper ships. She was built in 1864, in Sunderland, England by William Pile, Hay and Co. for transporting passengers and goods between … Continue reading
We recently posted that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the 1926 built sternwheel steamboat Delta Queen as one of America’s 11-Most Endangered Historic Places. In researching the post, I learned several new things. The first was that the “Delta” … Continue reading
UPDATE: The initial reports of the capsize identified the boat which capsized as a sailboat. Even the Coast Guard’s website said that the boat named Khaleesi was a 34-foot sailboat. As initial reports often are, these reports were not accurate. The … Continue reading
When Hurricane Matthew approached, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Montgomery and several other Navy ships were ordered out of port in Mayport, FL. Unfortunately, in the process of leaving port, the USS Montgomery took a hard knock from a tug, which … Continue reading
The US Navy is sending a flotilla of ships to help the relief effort in the Haiti, devestated by Hurricane Matthew, the first Category 4 storm to hit the island nation in over 50 years. USS Mesa Verde, a San … Continue reading
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the sternwheel river steamboat Delta Queen as one of America’s 11-Most Endangered Historic Places. The Delta Queen, built in 1926, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. She has been tied to the dock since 2008, a victim of … Continue reading
Germany’s Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation has released a preliminary report suggesting that a mast repair on the ketch Amicita may have been the cause of a fatal accident in which three male passengers were struck and killed by … Continue reading
The 24th Annual North River Tugboat Race & Competition was originally scheduled for Labor Day, but Tropical Storm Hermine interfered. The rescheduled event, sponsored by the Working Harbor Committee will be held on Sunday, October 9th from 9am-2pm at Pier … Continue reading
A craft brew beer company and an ad agency have come up with a brilliant solution to problem of plastic six pack rings. What is the problem with six pack rings, you might ask? The plastic rings that hold six … Continue reading
On August 24, 2016, an Anglo-Danish team found the wreck of armored cruiser HMS Warrior in the northern North Sea in 83 meters of water where it sank in 1916 following the Battle of Jutland in 1916. HMS Warrior is … Continue reading
Things look grim for the 1878 sailing ship Falls of Clyde, the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, and the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker. There is still a glimmer of hope that she can be saved, but time is running … Continue reading