The Damen shipyard in Galati, Romania recently launched a new sail training ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. The three masted steel square masted ship will replace the current Omani sail training ship, Shabab Oman, a wooden three masted … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
In 1951, Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. Published in 1952, the novella won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee when it awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in … Continue reading
Happy Evacuation Day! On this day in 1783, the last shot of the American revolution was fired by a gunner on a departing Royal Navy ship at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island, at the mouth of New … Continue reading
In February of last year, we posted about posidonia oceanica, known as Neptune grass, a variety of sea grass that covers the ocean floor from Spain to Cyprus. Some plants hare believed to be around 200,000 years old, making them the … Continue reading
Google has now extended its “Street View” imagery to well beyond where the streets and even the dry land ends. Its new “Street View – Oceans” lets you virtually dive on the coral reefs of the Bahamas, explore the wreck … Continue reading
An underwater volcano has creating a new island around 620 miles south of Toyko, Japan. According to the Associated Press it is roughly 660 feet in diameter, off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, … Continue reading
According to the latest news on their website, the City of Adelaide, the oldest surviving composite clipper ship built in 1864, will be hoisted onto the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur in the port of Rotterdam today. The heavy-lift ship will … Continue reading
In March of this year, we posted about the repeated blackouts suffered on the USS Freedom as it made its way to a deployment in Singapore. Recently the ship was delayed due to failures in its water jet controls. In October it … Continue reading
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas — the largest cruise ship in the world, is being taken out of service in February due a failure in one of its Azipod propulsion pods. Here we go again. Royal Caribbean announces Allure … Continue reading
This is the last season for the Great Lakes self-unloading bulk carrier St. Mary’s Challenger (ex William P. Snyder, Elton Hoyt II, Alex D. Chisolm, Medusa Challenger, Southdown Challenger.) The ship has been in service for 107 years! She was re-engined … Continue reading
The Indian Navy has finally taken delivery of a modified the Kiev class aircraft carrier, which it purchased from the Russians in 2002. The ship was actually given to the Indian Navy with the stipulation that the estimated $800 million in … Continue reading
There is something truly magical about Bristol Pilot Cutters. A video by Stephen Morris about the pilot boats of Bristol. Working Sail Working Sail – Builders of Traditional Wooden Pilot Cutters Annabel J – Classic Sailing Holidays … Continue reading
This is not supposed to happen. Two sailors on the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville were injured when the ship was struck by its own drone, during training exercises off Southern California on Saturday. The sailors were treated for minor burns. There was also … Continue reading
On this day in 1776, Governor Johannes de Graaff of St. Eustatius returned the salute fired by the American brig Andrew Doria, which is considered to be the first international acknowledgment of the independence of the new republic of the United … Continue reading
The size of the typhoon Haiyan was staggering, and so too is the aftermath. Eleven million people were impacted by the storm, more than 600,000 were made homeless, and the death toll continues to rise. The BBC takes a look … Continue reading
Most of the media is referring to the massive slab of ice that has broken off the Western Antarctic Pine Island glacier as an “iceberg.” At 277 square miles of solid ice, I think an ice island is a more accurate … Continue reading
I recently came across a video of the Viking longship replica Saga Oseberg tacking across the wind. Before seeing the video I would have thought that the only way to tack a longship, to bring the wind from one side … Continue reading
There are indeed creatures in the oceans which could be called “sea monsters.” At the end of last month we posted about two very real “sea serpents” – oar fish that washed up on the coast of Southern California. … Continue reading
Great news. The captain and chief engineer of the 222′ supply boat C-Retriever, who were kidnapped off the coast of Nigeria on October 23th, have been released following the payment of ransom. The two Americans are reported to be in good health … Continue reading
The USS George Washington battle group has been ordered to depart from Hong Kong, where it had been making a port call, and to steam for the Philippines to support relief efforts in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan which … Continue reading