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
Rick Spilman
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
Fifty years ago today, the nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep diving tests in the Atlantic off Massachusetts with a loss of 129 officers, crewmen, and military and civilian technicians. The sinking of the submarine is considered to be a watershed event in the … Continue reading
Ships are the most energy efficient means of moving good across the surface of the earth. Goods moved by ship have the lowest carbon foot-print of goods moved by any other means. At the same time, modern ships are significant … Continue reading
The third of three wonderful videos shot by William Collinson sailing on the Bark Europa between the end of December 2012 and the early part of January 2013. The Drake … Continue reading
The second of three wonderful videos shot by William Collinson sailing on the Bark Europa between the end of December 2012 and the early part of January 2013. Antarctica … Continue reading
Next Wednesday, April 10th, from 6-9 the Working Harbor Committee is presenting Sailing Ships at Work – Past, Present and Future. If you are in the New York area be sure to stop by. (Click on the banner to the … Continue reading
Last week we posted, “Vancouver Maritime Museum, Stephen Colbert & Whale Bone Porn,” about a controversy over an exhibit at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, Tattoos & Scrimshaw: the Art of the Sailor. One Vancouver mother and schoolteacher was offended by the erotic depictions … Continue reading
Winds gusting to near hurricane strength broke the moorings on the already damaged cruise ship Carnival Triumph at her berth at BAE Shipyard in the Port of Mobile, Alabama at 1:45 p.m. CT on Wednesday. The cruise ship, which had recently been … Continue reading
The first of three wonderful videos shot by William Collinson sailing on the Bark Europa between the end of December 2012 and the early part of January 2013. Europa … Continue reading