The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, has arrived in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She has been carried from Scotlandon the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur, with intermediate stops to load and discharge other cargo. MV Palanpur is … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
A story has exploded across the UK press about the Lyubov Orlova, a cruise ship which broke free from its tow in a winter storm and was abandoned in the Atlantic in February of last year. What evidence exists suggests … Continue reading
Last June, we reviewed Joan Druett’s Judas Island, the first book her Promise of Gold Series. Here is an excerpt from a recent review by Cindy Vallar from her wonderful Pirates and Privateers blog. Captain Jahaziel “Jake” Dexter believes a pirate’s … Continue reading
When I started this blog, I had intended it to be, at least in part, a book blog of works about ships and the sea. Of late, however, I have been completely negligent in posting reviews. I will attempt to … Continue reading
The two posts today present a jarring juxtaposition. On the West Coast of the United States, dolphins steal the show at a surfing competition while in Japan fishermen are beginning the yearly slaughter of dolphins at Taiji Cove. The beauty … Continue reading
Despite domestic and international protest, the annual mass slaughter of bottlenose dolphins is underway in a cove near the Japanese village of Taiji. In 2010, The Cove, a documentary about the yearly slaughter, won the Academy Award last night for best feature … Continue reading
Terrible news from St. Lucia. Roger Pratt, 62, was killed while defending his wife from intruders on their Premier 41 sailboat, Magnetic Attraction, near the town of Vieux Fort on the island nation of St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean. … Continue reading
While oceans in Northern latitudes are feeling the icy blast of winter, the antipodes are in the middle of a very hot summer. Indeed, for Australia, there maybe too much of summer’s sun, as the continent suffers under a brutal … Continue reading
Recently there have been multiple articles in the press and across the Internet citing a recent study published in the Danish Journal of Archaeology (Dec. 23, 2013) which claims that grog was consumed in Norway as far back as 1,500 … Continue reading
For the land-bound, the sea is a boundary. For sailors, it is a path to other shores. But how long have humans been sailing? We can be reasonably sure that humans have been sailing in rafts, boats or ships for … Continue reading
Life on a tugboat can be tough. Tugs are small vessels with very big engines, with just enough buoyancy to stay afloat and upright. They generate great forces and move around vessels much, much larger than themselves in often challenging … Continue reading
Piracy off the coast of Somalia last year dropped to the lowest level since 2004. In 2012, Somali pirates hijacked 14 ships, whereas in 2013, they successfully hijacked two, both of which were released in a day’s time as a … Continue reading
Sometime during the Civil War, the poet Walt Whitman wrote a poem about New York City, titled “The City of Ships.” The first stanzas begin: City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful, sharp-bow’d … Continue reading
In early December, we posted about Stanley Paris’ attempt at a solo circumnavigation in his 63′ Kiwi Spirit after suffering a variety failures to rigging and sails, Paris has decided to give up the attempt and sail for Cape Town. Today, he … Continue reading
Last Wednesday, I watched Chasing Shackleton, a documentary about the the Shackleton Epic Expedition led by Tim Jarvis which recreated Shackleton’s epic 800 mile lifeboat voyage in 1916 across the Southern Ocean from Elephant Island to South Georgia to seek help for his stranded crew. (See … Continue reading
There are great things going on in Rhode Island. When completed this year, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will be the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the U.S. in 100 years and the largest civilian sail training vessel … Continue reading
One of the great stories from ancient history is of Archimedes setting fire to Roman ships during the Siege of Syracuse, 214–212 BC, by using “burning mirrors”, mirrors that focused the rays of the sun and generated enough heat to set the … Continue reading
For several years now, there has been a webcam of the 90,000 gallon treatment tank where the 120 ton wrought iron turret of the USS Monitor is being preserved by electrolysis and desalination. After spending 111 years underwater, the turret will need … Continue reading
This has been a season of extreme weather. While Australia is suffering a record heat wave, the US and Europe have been battered by a series of ugly winter storms and frigid temperatures. Here is a song with an appropriate … Continue reading
I will admit to having mixed feelings about assigning names to winter storms. Hurricanes are momentous enough to be worthy of names, but most winter storms, nasty and dangerous though they may indeed be, don’t seem worth naming. I will … Continue reading