Beginning this Saturday, Boston Harbor will once again be filled with tall masts and square sails. OpSail Boston 2012 is celebrating the USS Constitution and the bicentennial of the War of 1812. The USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” after British round shot bounced off her oak planks, … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
We posted recently about the attempts to repair hull leaks in the BattleshipTexas, the oldest remaining dreadnought battleship and only one of six surviving ships to have served in both World War I and World War II. The ship has been on … Continue reading
In concert with IMO’s “Day of the Seafarer,” the good folks at Seafarers UK are sponsoring Seafarers Awareness Week, starting today and running through the July 1. Seafarers UK is a leading charity for seafarers in need and gives grants of £2.5 million annually to … Continue reading
We recently posted about Max Young, who was close to completing a twelve year circumnavigation on his 50′ sailboat, Reflections, when it was struck by a whale. The sailboat was severely damaged by the impact and began sinking. Max was … Continue reading
Today is the IMO “Day of the Seafarer.” So? Why does it matter? It matters because without the hard working men and women who go to sea, our world, our global civilization, simply would not exist. Take a look at a world … Continue reading
The Mermaid Parade has been held on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York since 1983. And I missed it again this year. Damn. Maybe next year. Fortunately, the intrepid Will Van Dorp was on hand with his camera. Check out his … Continue reading
Last week, we posted about the MV Alaed, a 9,000 DWT geared cargo ship, reported to be carrying refurbished Russian attack helicopters bound for Syria. The ship, sailing under the Curacao flag, was turned aback after the cancellation of its P&I … Continue reading
The Sea Orbiter concept design looks like something straight out of science fiction. Floating half above and half below the surface of the water, it appears to be more like a scimitar-shaped inter-galactic spaceship than any sort of oceanographic research vessel. Fifty eight meters … Continue reading
The 185-foot Honduran-flagged coastal freighter Jireh ran aground Thursday morning on Mona Island, a rocky outcropping in the Mona Passage about midway between Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The island is uninhabited and maintained as a nature preserve, while the reefs around the island are … Continue reading
If you are anywhere near New York City next week, the Fourth Annual North River Historic Ship Festival looks like lots of fun. Hosted by the North River Historic Ship Society, the festival commences Thursday night, June 28th, with an opening party … Continue reading
Thanks to Anne Maclachlan and the Naval History & Heritage Command for pointing out on Facebook, a forgotten bit of history – the ill-fated Greely Expedition, which was rescued at Cape Sable on Ellesmere Island on June 22, 1884. In 1881, First Lieutenant … Continue reading
Wooden boat building is part science, part engineering and part pure artistry. On Tuesday, the National Endowment for the Arts honored Harold Burnham of Essex, MA as a 2012 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship. Harold Burnham is an eleventh generation boatbuilder, … Continue reading
Earlier in the month, we posted about a a 66 feet long, 165 tonne, starfish and barnacle encrusted, steel and concrete floating dock that washed up on Agate beach, south-west of Portland, Oregon. We were surprised to hear that the dock, torn free … Continue reading
With a sad familiarity, another overloaded boat, filled with desperate asylum seekers trying to reach Australia’s Christmas Island, has capsized in Indonesian waters. Up to 200 people are believed to have been aboard the vessel when it capsized. Indonesia’s search and rescue authority … Continue reading
Last week we posted about a distress call to the Coast Guard reporting a yacht explosion off the New Jersey shore, which was an apparent hoax. The search and rescue operation which resulted is estimated to have cost over $300,000. Now the Coast … Continue reading
In December of 2010, we posted about a new vessel under construction at Derecktor Shipyards for Hornblower New York. It was to be a hybrid excursion boat powered by diesel engines, as well as by solar and wind power and by hydrogen fuel … Continue reading
The MV Alaed, a 9,00 DWT geared cargo ship, was reported to be carrying refurbished Russian attack helicopters, as well as missiles and other unspecified munitions, on a voyage from Russia to Syria. Today, about 50 miles (80.4km) off Scotland’s north coast, the ship turned around … Continue reading
This is a busy time for underwater explorers in the waters off Sweden. Yesterday, we posted about an unidentified object on the Baltic Sea floor which the media has been referring to as the Millennium Falcon. Recently, divers off the south coast of Sweden … Continue reading
Last June, while doing sonar sweeps of the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the Swedish treasure hunters, Ocean X Team, saw something that they did not understand. It appeared to be a 197 feet diameter disk-shaped object at the depth of approximately 275 feet. … Continue reading
On April 27, 1915, at the height of the the World War I Gallipoli campaign, Lt-Cdr Edward Courtney Boyle piloted the submarine HMS E14 beneath the minefields, guns and search lights of the the Narrows, the heavily defended entrance to the Dardanelles, the … Continue reading