The USS New York called in New York harbor over the weekend to help celebrate Veteran’s Week. The ship is the fifth of the San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships. The ship’s bow includes 7.5 tonnes of salvaged steel from … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines is beginning to attempt to cope with what has been described as the worst natural disaster in its history. The typhoon hit the archipelago with winds approaching 200 mph and drove … Continue reading
Roughly two hundred years ago, Lord Byron published Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which contains a stanza that today seems sadly dated: Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean–roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the earth … Continue reading
It all sounds like a bad novel. Bribes, prostitutes, and Lady Gaga tickets were allegedly handed out to US Navy officers by a Malaysian businessman known as “Fat Leonard” in exchange for classified information and directing business toward the Singapore-based … Continue reading
Robots are being increasingly being used to gather data at sea. Here is a fascinating undersea glider design in use by the Coastal Ocean Observation Lab (COOL) at Rutgers University, which uses gravity and buoyancy for propulsion, allowing to it remain at … Continue reading
On Friday morning, local time, Super Typhoon Haiyan came shore in the central Philippines. With an estimated maximum sustained winds of 195 mph and gusts to 235 mph, Haiyan is one of the most powerful storms ever recorded anywhere in the … Continue reading
On November 14th, 1863, on the Isle of Man in Great Britain, the shipyard of Gibson, McDonald & Arnold, Ramsey launched the 1,200 tonne full rigged iron ship, Euterpe, for the firm of Wakefield Nash & Co., Liverpool. The ship … Continue reading
In September we posted about the search for a new captain for the historic whaleship Charles W. Morgan. The whaler, which recently underwent a major reconstruction, first sailed in 1841 and is scheduled to sail again on a three month voyage … Continue reading
The U.S. Navy’s new supercarrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), was floated in the drydock last month. She will be christened this Saturday, November 9th at the Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia. In addition to other superlatives, she … Continue reading
A short video reminder of how quickly things can change. One Australia’s AUS-35 boat was racing in the Louis Vuitton qualifying matches in the America’s Cup of March 1995, when it suddenly broke in half and sank, in less than two minutes … Continue reading
In August we posted about the current boom in the lobster catch in Maine and about concerns that it could end in a bust. After years of averages catches of around 20 million pounds of lobster per year, Maine’s 5,500 lobster-men … Continue reading
This morning we posted about a new video game, Assassins Creed IV : Blag Flag, which takes notable liberties with history. One of the characters in the game, Edward Thatch, is based on the historical pirate, Edward Teach, better known as … Continue reading
My younger son, a senior in high school, mentioned to me a few mornings ago that the newest version of the historical action-adventure video game, Assassins Creed, which is Assassins Creed IV – Black Flag, has a feature that lets … Continue reading
In our recent review of Robert Redford’s new movie, All is Lost, about a solo sailor in a sinking sailboat, we noted various glitches, mistakes and omissions which distracted from an otherwise gripping and engaging movie. Readers who commented on … Continue reading
Just a few miles from the gleaming glass towers of lower Manhattan is the old Witte yard, a graveyard of ships, a little known, slightly surreal assemblage of ghostly remains along the waterway known as Arthur Kill. Gary Kane and … Continue reading
Award-winning architect Dame Zaha Hadid has designed a family of super-yachts with a skeletal superstructure for the German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss. These are the first super-yachts designed by Hadid who is known for a wide range of project including the Roca London Gallery, … Continue reading
Earlier this week we posted about the Vermont Sail Project barge Ceres calling in New York harbor. Here is a wonderful short video from documentary filmmaker Thomas Halaczinsky capturing a portion of the first voyage of the Ceres down the … Continue reading
Google has been causing quite a stir on the waterfront. Two mysterious barges have appeared, one on the Pacific in San Francisco bay and one on the Atlantic coast in Portland, Maine. The San Francisco barge is reported to be 250 feet … Continue reading
Today is the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy hitting the Northeast. It is also the anniversary of the sinking the Bounty off Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina. Recently, survivors of the Bounty returned to the site of the sinking, … Continue reading
The Vermont Sail Freight Project sailing barge Ceres called in New York harbor this weekend with a cargo of non-perishable produce from a total of thirty farms from Vermont and the state of New York. The had sailed the barge down Lake … Continue reading