While celebrating passing one million pages views on the blog, it seems worthwhile to take a look back at the single most popular post. It was Sailor’s Tattoos – Pigs, Chickens, Swallows, and Tattooed Backsides, from December 1, 2008, which has … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Yesterday morning, the tanker, Stena Primorsk, ran aground in the Hudson River about ten miles south of Albany, NY after suffering a steering gear failure. No oil was reported to have been spilled. There are a whole range of interesting aspects … Continue reading
To continue our celebration of the Old Salt Blog passing one million pageviews, today, December 20, and tommorrow, December 21, we are giving away free copies of the Kindle edition of my new nautical thriller, Hell Around the Horn. Click here to go … Continue reading
Barista Uno on the Marine Cafe blog, posted this morning about a sad anniversary. Twenty five years ago today, the passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Philippines. With a likely death toll of over 4,000 people, the sinking of the Dona Paz was deadliest … Continue reading
The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. This Friday, December 21, they will be reopening and are offering a special buy one general admission and get the second free coupon, to celebrate their return. Click … Continue reading
Tis’ the season when Santa shows up in the most unusual places. A small ship-load of Santas was recently observed running across the ice at the bottom of the world. Twenty crew members dressed as Santa (with at least one reindeer) from … Continue reading
The Soviet submarine S-6 which disappeared on patrol in September, 1941 was been identified on the floor of the Baltic by the Swedish military. The submarine was found southeast of the Baltic island of Oland, in what was, during the … Continue reading
To celebrate passing one million pageviews on the Old Salt Blog, we will be giving away copies of my novel, Hell Around the Horn. Kindle readers will be able to download the novel for free from Amazon on Thursday, December … Continue reading
The Peruvian navy has laid the keel for its new sail training ship, La Union, at the Marine Industrial Services (Sima) shipyard in Callao. When completed in 2015, the ship will be the largest sail training vessel in South America. The … Continue reading
We have reached a milestone here at the Old Salt Blog. We have passed a million pageviews! Specifically, according to Google Analytics, as of this morning, 541,358 unique visitors have viewed 1,052,167 pages on the blog. (The numbers are actually … Continue reading
The US news program 60 Minutes aired a feature on salvaging the Costa Concordia last night. The operation is the largest and most complex ship salvage in history. Well done and worth watching. Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck … Continue reading
There is still more steel to be welded, rigging to be run, and money to be raised, but the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, Rhode Island’s Tall ship, looks to be on schedule to be sailing in time for the 200th … Continue reading
If you are a professional surfer, where do you go to train? Hawaii, comes to mind. The California Coast is possilbe. Australia, certainly. How about in the desert of Dubai? Sally Fitzgibbons, a 22 year old Australian professional surfer on … Continue reading
On October 2, the government of Ghana seized the Argentine navy sail training ship Libertad in the port of Tema on behalf of US billionaire Paul Singer. The government of Argentina appealed the seizure to the U.N. International Sea Tribunal in Hamburg, Germany. Today the … Continue reading
Really great news about the tanker, Mary A. Whalen. (Negotiations are not finalized so perhaps we should say “potentially great news” so as not to jinx anything.) For the last six years, the historic tanker and PortSide New York, the non-profit educational organization based on the ship, have been … Continue reading
Joan Druett’s The Beckoning Ice, the fifth in her series of Wiki Coffin nautical mysteries, begins in 1839, on the sealer Betsey of Stonington, homeward bound from “a short but very profitable season far south of Cape Horn.” The schooner is … Continue reading
The Tainted Prize is Margaret Muir’s second book of the Oliver Quintrell series. After sending Captain Quintrell to the bottom of the world in pursuit of Floating Gold, the admiralty is confident in the good captain’s discretion. It is 1803. The Peace … Continue reading
Rotterdam, London, St. Petersburg, and Toyko all have storm surge barriers to protect low-lying areas from flooding. In the United States, Stamford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and New Bedford, Massachusetts all have storm barriers. Should New York, which suffered significant flooding two years in a … Continue reading
The John B. Caddell, 700 gross ton water tanker, that washed up on Front Street, in Staten Island, NY during Hurricane Sandy a month and a half ago, is back in the water. In a team effort lead by the … Continue reading
We recently posted about the SS Badger, a 410-foot long coal-fired passenger and vehicle ferry operating in Lake Michigan and the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. Her supporters call her a national treasure, while to her … Continue reading