This week the BBC reported: Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory ‘collapsing’ under own weight. Sadly, this is not a new story. Five years ago we posted about an extremely similar account in the Telegraph: HMS Victory rotting and being pulled apart under … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
The crew aboard the schooner A.J. Meerwald had just finished a Saturday evening sail on the Delaware River near Trenton, NJ when they heard screams at around 7PM. They immediately launched a boat and headed in the direction of the screams … Continue reading
HMS Illustrious, the UK’s only working aircraft carrier and the last surviving ship from the Falklands War is to be scrapped. The 689 ft-long 22,000-tonne Invincible-class aircraft carrier traveled close to one million sea miles in her 32-year career with the Royal … Continue reading
Sailing is all about technology and has been ever since the first sailor spread a stretched an animal skin as a sail. The America’s Cup, however, is far more technological than most sailing by a large measure. This thought occurred … Continue reading
I am a huge fan of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. The contest is a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. If you are not acquainted with Edward Bulwer-Lytton, he … Continue reading
This afternoon, the Americas’ Cup will return to New York. Well, not the cup itself, and the races aren’t for the cup either. They are qualifying races for the big races next year. But they will be raced on super-fast AC45 … Continue reading
It is official. The polar research ship formerly known as Boaty McBoatface will be named RRS Sir David Attenborough. Despite an overwhelming number of suggestions that the UK’s new polar research ship be named Boaty McBoatface, the ship will be named after the … Continue reading
HMS Caroline, a decommissioned Royal Navy C-class light cruiser, is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, and one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War. Now in Belfast, she has undergone a many … Continue reading
Here is an animation of global ship traffic as seen from space. Mesmerizing and beautiful. Global ship traffic seen from space – FleetMon Satellite AIS and FleetMon Explorer Two thoughts immediately come to mind. … Continue reading
The news has been full of announcements about the discovery of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour by the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) near the harbor at Newport, Rhode, Island. Much of the reporting has been somewhat confused. The Daily Mail, for … Continue reading
After more than a half-century, American cruise passengers have returned to Cuba. Carnival Corporation’s MV Adonia docked in Havanna, Cuba today carrying hundreds of Americans including a few dozen Cuban-born Americans returning to the island for the first time in … Continue reading
The Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest Viking longship in the world, is on her way, hopscotching across the Atlantic, to raid and plunder visit the United States this summer. After departing Haugesund, Norway and sailing for a day at sea, the longship … Continue reading
A 19-foot boat, which has been missing since last July, has been recovered in the Atlantic, restarting the saga of two families’ tragedy involving their two missing sons, lawyers, lawsuits, and suggestions of abduction and foul play. On Friday, July … Continue reading
Here is an interesting video about how NOAA is using Automated Surface Vehicles (ASVs) to map the bottom in areas where larger survey craft cannot go. They are essentially drone boats used to update NOAA’s publicly available nautical charts. … Continue reading
This is an updated repost from 2014. Now that it has been announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackon on the US $20 bill, it seems worthwhile to recall the Great Combahee Ferry Raid, which Harriet Tubman helped plan, scouted and … Continue reading
Last year, John Doswell, the Executive Director of New York’s Working Harbor Committee, died after a long illness. The Committee is now seeking an Executive Director to continue the great work that John and his colleagues have undertaken. For those interested, click … Continue reading
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that “cargo ship El Faro’s voyage data recorder was located early Tuesday morning in 15,000 feet of water, about 41 miles (36 nautical miles) northeast of Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bahamas, by a … Continue reading
In 1981, Ngoc Nguyen was 13, one of the at least 800,000 of the so-called Vietnamese “boat people” who fled Vietnam by boat after the end of the war. He was crammed in an overcrowded boat with his family, among 65 … Continue reading
“Bubble Man” Reza Baluchi is at it again, but this time, the Coast Guard told him to turn around not far from shore before putting himself or others in danger. After warning him not to leave port without a support vessel, the US … Continue reading
I recently visited the museum ship SS Great Britain, in Bristol, UK. When she was launched in 1843, the iron-hulled luxury passenger steamship SS Great Britain was described as “the greatest experiment since the Creation.” … Continue reading