Last year we posted about a very bad night for the schooner, Ada C. Lore. In the early morning hours of December 4, 2014, the Eastport, Maine breakwater pier where she was berthed suddenly collapsed onto the Ada C. Lore, doing … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Given the current heated debate over Syrian refugees, it seems worthwhile to remember the ill-fated voyage of the German ocean liner St. Louis in 1939. The ship carried 908 Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi Germany. The ship and its … Continue reading
The expedition cruise ship, Le Boreal, operated by French line Ponant, has been evacuated after a fire in the engine room. Fire broke out on the 264-passenger ship as she was sailing off the Falkland Islands early Wednesday. The passengers were transferred … Continue reading
It is easy to get caught up in the bad news. The oceans are filling with plastic. Coral reefs are dying due to ocean acidification caused by climate change. Overfishing will wipe out all currently fished seafood by 2050. And … Continue reading
We know that the ro/ro El Faro sank with all hands after it lost power in the path of Hurricane Joaquin in early October. The captain reported a hull breach. All 33 crew were lost. We may never know too … Continue reading
A beautiful and calming video of the Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard, off Staten Island, NY which seems appropriate for a Mondy morning. Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard – abandoned – Drone View – Staten Island, NY See also, our previous post: … Continue reading
Good, if rather bittersweet, news for those of us around New York harbor. The windjammer Peking, a fixture of New York’s South Street Seaport for over 40 years, will be returning to its original home port in Hamburg, Germany for … Continue reading
Great news. The schooner Spirit of South Carolina is on her way home to Charleston, South Carolina. We recently heard from Meryl Huckabey: “As a long-time reader of oldsaltblog.com I am pleased to tell you that the Spirit of South Carolina, tall ship … Continue reading
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday that U.S. Navy salvage tug Apache has located the bridge deck of El Faro roughly a mile from the main wreckage of the ro/ro cargo ship. 33 crew died when the 790-foot long ship sank in Hurricane … Continue reading
On November 7th, two balsa rafts set out from Lima, Peru, bound for Easter Island on the Kon-Tiki 2 expedition. The voyage is both an homage to Thor Heyerdahl’s famous voyage on the raft Kon-Tiki in 1947 and a voyage … Continue reading
A fisherman recently may or may not have caught a three-eyed catfish in New York’s Gowanus Canal. Why anyone would fish in the canal is a question that immediately comes to mind, immediately followed by “what would you do with … Continue reading
In the latter part of the 19th and the early 20th century, windjammer sailors in the nitrate and guano trades to Peru and Chile drank significant quantities of pisco when they arrived on the west coast of South America. Pisco … Continue reading
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as Hedy Lamarr, was born to Jewish parents in Austria on November 9th, 1914, one hundred and one years ago today. At the height of her movie career, she was known as the “most beautiful … Continue reading
Last night, right about sunset, the western sky over Southern California was filled by a weird blue-green light streaking across the heavens. Visible as far as Arizona, the mysterious light didn’t look like a meteor. For a time, it was … Continue reading
At the beginning of October, the SS United States Conservancy announced that its board had retained the services of a broker to explore selling the SS United States for scrap “over concerns about the organization’s long-term ability to continue financing the … Continue reading