On Monday, a 70-80 foot long blue whale entangled in crab or fish nets and lines was spotted off the coast of Dana Point in southern California. A marine mammal rescue team attempted cut the nets and lines to free the … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
History was made yesterday at the Panama Canal when the container ship COSCO Shipping Panama transited the newly expanded canal. The ship carried over 9,000 TEU and has a beam of 158′ and is 984′ long, longer and significantly wider than was … Continue reading
Singer/songwriter Tom Munch plays his original song about the last great historic wooden schooners of Maine in the early 20th century. The photos are historic shots of the Wyoming and other ships built at Percy and Small shipyard in Bath, Maine … Continue reading
June 25th is celebrated globally as the Day of the Seafarer, an official United Nations observance day. What does that really mean? Opinions vary. Click here to read Barista Uno’s slightly acerbic but largely on-target perspective on the official “observance … Continue reading
You never know what you will find in a landfill. Paleontologist Melissa Macias was looking for fossils in the Bowerman Landfill in Irvine, California, when she spotted teeth and bones as a construction crew moved soil to create a new waste disposal … Continue reading
Johann Wilhelm Kinau was one of the more than 8,000 sailors who died in the Battle of Jutland just over 100 years ago. Kinau was 36 when he was killed while serving as a lookout on the German light cruiser … Continue reading
Congratulations to the schooner Spirit of South Carolina and all who sail and support her! After languishing for years, the schooner has new owners, a new captain and officers and was recently re-certified to carry passengers by the US Coast … Continue reading
After being tied to the dock for several years, the ARA Libertad, the Argentine Navy’s training ship, is sailing again. For the last three years, the ship has been entangled in a more than decade long battle over Argentine debt related … Continue reading
Classic Harbor Line‘s schooner America 2.0 is a fascinating design. Designed and built by the Scarano brothers and delivered in 2011, the boat is, notionally, a replica of the schooner yacht America of 1851, after which the famous America’s Cup was … Continue reading
In May 2015, we posted that the State of Hawaii has put the Friends of Falls of Clyde, the organization responsible for rescuing the historic ship of the same name, on notice that the state planned to terminate the permit … Continue reading
Seventy-two years ago today, during the early days of the Allied invasion of Europe, the sea would prove to be as formidable an enemy as the Germans. A storm, the worst in 80 years, came close to wiping out the … Continue reading
Guirec Soudée, a 24 year old sailor, has spent the last two years sailing the globe with a female chicken named Monique. Soudée began the cruise in the Canary Islands in May 2014, sailing to St. Barts in the Caribbean and … Continue reading
Last week, Repsol, the last of a group oil companies which had invested billions of dollars in Arctic drilling rights in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, abandoned its leases and sailed away. The Spanish drilling company gave up 55 leases and plans … Continue reading
Defending New York Harbor: The City’s Waterfront Forts is an exhibit of photographs by Richard W. Golden which documents the fortifications that protectively ring New York Harbor. It is on view at the historic Cutter Lilac through July 31st during regular … Continue reading
The RMS St Helena, the last true Royal Mail Ship, recently departed from the UK on its final voyage for its namesake island. St. Helena, which lies around 1,150 miles off the coast of Angola in the South Atlantic, is the most … Continue reading
One hundred and twelve years ago today, the disaster on the General Slocum resulted in one of the largest loss of life in New York City prior to the attacks of 9/11/01. At around 9AM on June 15, 1904, approximately 1,350 passengers, … Continue reading
I am looking forward to going the Working Harbor Committee’s Hidden Harbor Tour of Gowanus Bay. It will be lead by Captain Margaret Flanagan, Maritime Operations, Waterfront Alliance & Joseph Alexiou, tour guide and author of “Gowanus Brooklyn’s Curious Canal” and will … Continue reading
Sad news. The Götheborg, a replica of an 18th-century Swedish East Indiaman, is for sale. The Ostindiefararen Götheborg Foundation which owns the ship says it can no longer afford to run the replica, which is one of the world’s largest operational wooden sailing … Continue reading
The upscale supermarket, Whole Foods, is taking an innovative approach to countering the spread of an invasive species of fish in Florida. They offering lionfish for sale. It is sort of a “if you can’t beat’em, eat’em” approach to managing … Continue reading
This sounds like a great opportunity for licensed deckhands. The Sailing School Vessel (SSV) Oliver Hazard Perry is looking for crew. From their recent announcement: Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI) is seeking to hire licensed deckhands for its brand new 200-foot … Continue reading