An underwater expedition led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos successfully recovered the mangled wreckage of two rocket engines from NASA’s Apollo Moon program from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The F-1 engines, which powered the first-stage Saturn V boosters … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Interesting news about the US Coast Guard training ship, the barque Eagle. As reported by The Day, The Coast Guard barque Eagle may go to Baltimore for extensive repairs so future officers can keep training on the ship for years … Continue reading
Accomplished historian and archivist, Allan Janus has reviewed the Lord Nelson action figure now available on Amazon. His review: “An excellent action figure of Horatio, Viscount Nelson – complete with sword, eyepatch, empty sleeve and chelengk. The one minor negative is that Nelson’s stance is quite … Continue reading
Carnival Cruise Line pays virtually no Federal taxes, yet without the docks, roads, and airports provided by local, state and the federal governments, it would be unable to operate its cruise line. And, when one of its ships gets into trouble, Carnival … Continue reading
Early on Saturday, the 80 m coaster MV Danio hit the rocks on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, after sailing from Perth, Scotland to Antwerp, Belgium with a cargo of timber. The German-owned, Antigua-registered vessel is stuck near the Longstone Lighthouse, … Continue reading
Over the next several months, Maersk Lines will be giving ten container ships in its fleet nose jobs. They will be cutting off the existing bulbous bows and retrofitting them with new more energy-efficient designs. It all has to do with slow … Continue reading
Just for fun. A video about a geriatric sea otter named Eddie, who plays basketball to help with arthritic elbows. (No, I am not making this up.) Sea Otter Hoop Dreams … Continue reading
As passengers are being flown home from an cancelled cruise on the Carnival Dream, another Carnival Cruise ship, the Carnival Legend, is limping to port with a damaged Azipod. Unlike more conventional designs where the ship’s propeller is connected to a ship’s engine … Continue reading
The “World’s Oldest Beer” to be will soon be brewed again by an Åland brewery in Finland. In 2010, we posted about the discovery in a shipwreck in the Baltic off Finland’s Åland archipelago which contained what was believed to be several bottles … Continue reading
The story sounds disturbingly familiar – a Carnival cruise ship with generator problems, overflowing toilets and passengers sent home from an interrupted cruise. The good new is that the generator failure on the Carnival Dream, the largest cruise ship operated by Carnival … Continue reading
Here is a video of the scuttling of HMS Implacable in 1949. She was originally the French Navy’s Téméraire-class ship of the line Duguay-Trouin, launched in 1800. The Duguay-Trouin fought in and survived the Battle of Trafalgar, only to be captured by the British in … Continue reading
The Alaskan high-tech ferry MV Susitna cost $78-million to build. More than just a ferry, it is also an ice-capable amphibious assault vessel for the Navy, which was supposed to have carried commuters from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (or Mat-Su as it is known) across upper Cook Inlet. Mat-Su’s largest … Continue reading
We recently posted about a report by the journal Marine Policy which estimated that around 100 million sharks are being killed each year in the commercial fisheries, a rate far higher than is sustainable for most shark species. On Monday, delegates to the Convention on the … Continue reading
I am very pleased and excited to be speaking with Norman Brouwer and Captain Margaret Flanagan at the Working Harbor Committee of New York and New Jersey program “Sailing Ships at Work – Then and Now.” The presentation is on April … Continue reading
An outbreak of Red Tide, a deadly algae bloom, in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida is killing a record number of endangered Florida manatees. The Red Tide bloom has been killing at least 10 manatees a day and shows no sign of … Continue reading
The Norwegian soft drink Solo produced by Ringnes, Oskar Sylte, Aass, and Mack is extremely popular in Norway but virtually unknown in the United States. To increase visibility in other markets, the firms have had built a 24′ (8M) bottle in which they will … Continue reading
In a race from Long Beach to San Diego, one sailor died and five were rescued after the sailboat Uncontrollable Urge lost steering. The Associated Press is reporting that the crew sent a mayday call during a race but then declining help from the … Continue reading
Research has suggested that dolphins give themselves names by using a use a “signature whistle.” Scientists now believe that other dolphins can mimic these whistles to call out to their fellow dolphins by name. As reported by NBC News, Other than humans, the dolphins … Continue reading
A brand new copy of a 4,000 year old craft was paddled out on a short maiden voyage in Falmouth, Cornwall on Wednesday. Christened the Morgawr after a mythical monster of Falmouth Bay, she is a 50 foot long, six-ton … Continue reading
Calling all Sea Goddesses and would-be Sea Goddesses. Applications are now being accepted for the Maine Sea Goddess Pageant. The Pageant is open to 20 young women who are single, a high school (or equivalent GED) graduate, not more … Continue reading