After spending a month on dock at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk, VA, the Liberty ship SS John W. Brown is now steaming up the Elizabeth River on its way back home to Baltimore. During World War II, eighteen American shipyards built … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Since 1990, strange and wondrous new forms of life have been wandering the beaches of the Netherlands, walking on the wind. They are Theo Jenson’s “strandbeests,” self propelled kinetic skeletal sculptures of PVC and fabric. Now for the first time, … Continue reading
At least Sir Cloudesley Shovell had an excuse, not that he really needed one. He drowned with the other 1,400 sailors in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707. The navigators on the four warships that hit the Scilly’s Western Rocks lacked the tools … Continue reading
Since being sold by Cunard in 2007, the classic liner Queen Elizabeth 2 has been the locus of many plans and schemes, all of which have come to naught. Sadly, the ship has remained tied up at a dock in Dubai’s Port … Continue reading
Very interesting news. Gunboat, builder of high-end racing/cruising catamarans, has promised the G4, a new all carbon fiber 40 foot long catamaran, in early 2015. The drawings and video have shown C-foil daggerboards and T-foil rudders. C-foils allow “foil-assisted” sailing. The C-foils … Continue reading
For the last several years, and perhaps much longer, blocks of a rubber-like substance have been washing ashore on the beaches of Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The blocks are rectangular with rounded corners and … Continue reading
On Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Team Vesta Wind boat ran aground Saturday on a reef in the Cargados Carajos archipelago about 430 km to the northeast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are no reported injuries and the nine … Continue reading
In 2009, a humpback whale sighting in New York Bay was a surprise. In 2011, there were 5 whales sighted over the course of the season. By 2012, there were 25 whales sighted, then 43 whales in 2013, and in … Continue reading
Last month we posted about the third book in Antoine Vanner’s Dawlish chronicles, published by Old Salt Press. The new novel titled Britannia’s Shark is due out on December 5th, and is available for pre-order in the US and the UK. … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of the central creation myths of the founding of the United States. The story is based on an account of a one time feast of thanksgiving in the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts in 1621 during … Continue reading
The Board of Longitude Project, a partnership between Cambridge University Library and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in the UK, has digitized the complete papers of the Board of Longitude from its founding in 1714 until its abolition in 1828. … Continue reading
The video below is footage of a ‘black seadevil’ anglerfish. The fish in the video is only about 9 cm (3.5 inches) long, but is still fairly terrifying regardless. Other varieties of angler fish can grow to over 3 feet. Living … Continue reading
Last February, we posted that the US Navy planned to deploy its first laser weapon on one of its oldest ships. The new laser weapon has now been deployed on the 43 year old USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, for field … Continue reading
An update on previous posts involving sailors of a certain age. Sir Robin Knox Johnston, 75, sailing Grey Power, placed third in the highly competitive Class 40 fleet in the Route Du Rhum race between St. Malo in Brittany to Guadeloupe. In … Continue reading
Unless I am mistaken, when the Oracle Team US AC 72 sailed to victory in 2013, there was only one American citizen in the crew. The members of Emirates Team New Zealand, which needed the sponsorship of Emirates Airlines to … Continue reading