Things are getting tense again in the East China Sea, specifically between the Chinese and Japanese. The dispute is over a small group of uninhabited islands that lie between Okinawa and Taiwan and are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Our hearty congratulations to PortSide NewYork, which today was awarded a White House Champions of Change award in recognition for the wonderful work done by the non-profit organization to assist their neighbors in Red Hook, a Brooklyn community absolutely devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The … Continue reading
The roller coasters on the Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey have long been a major attraction of the Jersey shore resort town. The latest roller coaster on the pier, the Star Jet (also referred to as the Jet … Continue reading
A few months ago, the Mississippi River was showing the effects of a near record drought. There was talk in December of shutting down barge traffic on key sections of the river due to the low water levels. In January, … Continue reading
Sad news, reported by The Daily Sail: Much loved Swede Magnus Olsson, 64, one of the greatest sportsmen in the world of sailing and one of the coaches and mentors for the Volvo Ocean Race’s Team SCA, has passed away … Continue reading
Last week, high level representatives of the Philippine Coast Guard met with the representatives of the US Navy in their investigation of the grounding of the mine sweeper USS Guardian on Tubbataha Reef on January 17, 2013. At roughly the same time, a group … Continue reading
Remind me again why jobs, homes and careers are so important. After watching this video it is awfully easy to question one’s priorities. Here is the Barque Picton Castle sailing out the anchor at Palmerston Island in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. Click here to … Continue reading
It is the classic story of young lovers separated by the briny deep, of a young heroine on a storm tossed voyage with unexpected adventure. Oh, yes, and the young heroine is a giraffe. The Aukland Zoo has been trying to setup Nakuru, a fifteen month old Rothschild giraffe, … Continue reading
On Wednesday night, a huge explosion ripped through West, Texas; a small central Texas town, south of Dallas. The fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded, leveling homes and buildings for a five blocks area, killing from 5 – 40 people and injuring … Continue reading
A 23 year old Croatian kite surfer, Matea Medak Rezic, found a letter in a broken bottle on a beach at the mouth of the Neretva River in the southern Adriatic. The letter was brief: “Mary, you really are a great person. … Continue reading
In February, Wolfhound, a 48′ Nautor Swan sailing yacht, was abandoned in a storm just north of Bermuda by her Irish owner, Alan McGettigan, and a crew of three. The sailors were rescued by a passing freighter. The boat was reported to have sunk. Instead, … Continue reading
You can’t make this stuff up. Only a week after the last wreckage of the minesweeper USS Guardian was removed from the reef in the Philippines’ Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, where it ran hard aground on January … Continue reading
Update: Carnival Corp has has agreed to reimburse the U.S. government for costs related to the high-profile fires aboard the Carnival Triumph in February and Carnival Splendor in 2010. Read more here. The juxtaposition is priceless. OK, priceless may be the wrong word … Continue reading
We recently posted an embedded video of Tom Paxton’s song, “The Thresher Disaster” sung my threelegsofman. about the loss of the nuclear submarine USS Thresher in 1963. Brian Frizell pointed out that Paxton’s song was not the only ballad about … Continue reading
A moment of zen for a Saturday morning. Thanks to Steve Phelps for pointing it out on Facebook. Spinning Seal … Continue reading
Exactly what happened to the ill-fated Franklin expedition remains a mystery. in 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin, with a crew 129, attempted to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage and never returned. Some of the bodies expedition crew have been found but the wrecks … Continue reading
I would like to thank all those who came out last night to the Working Harbor Committee’s presentation of “Sailing Ships at Work – Past, Present and Future.” It was a fun evening and gratifying that the presentation was so well received. In … Continue reading
First it was the White House Easter Egg Hunt – cancelled due to the sequestration. Now it appears that Navy Fleet Weeks in ports around the country, traditionally held each spring, may fall victim to the automatic budget cuts as … Continue reading
In Big Tub Harbour, just off Canada’s Georgian Bay, near the entrance to Lake Huron, lies the wreck of the schooner Sweepstakes, which sank in 1885. She is 119′ long with a 23′ beam and a 10′ depth of hold. Just twenty feet below the surface, … Continue reading
On this the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the USS Thresher, we are reposting an article from three years regarding the link between the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic and the US Navy’s secret search for the lost submarines, USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion. … Continue reading