The fire on the MV Azamara Quest, is one of a recent series of disabling fires and power failures on diesel-electric powered cruise ships. Unlike the MV Azamara Quest, however, the ship’s crews aboard the Costa Allegra, the Carnival Splendor, and the MSC Opera were unable to effect … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Update: A fire broke out late Friday in an engine room on the luxury cruise ship, MV Azamara Quest, while en route from Manila to Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia. Five members of the crew were injured, suffering smoke inhallation. One crew member is reported … Continue reading
Through an agreement with Snag Films, TheSailingChannel is showing the documentary, Tall Ships: The Privateer Lynx, in HD, free of charge, for a limited time. Thanks to Tom Russell on the Linked-in Traditional Sail Professionals group for pointing out the … Continue reading
On April 14th, at the Mystic Seaport Museum there will be a celebration of the anniversary of the War of 1812 with the captain and crew of the Lynx, “America’s Privateer.” Historian and award winning author, William H. White, will be … Continue reading
The good folks on the brigantine Søren Larsen are offering a “South Pacific Challenge,” a Youtube video competition where you can explain in a short video why you need to change your life and what a South Pacific voyage on the … Continue reading
No one is exactly sure when Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his four of his fellow explorers died on their failed Antarctic expedition. Today is observed as the centenary of the deaths because March 19, 1912 was the last entry in Scott’s journal. … Continue reading
The Elgin platform in the North Sea, 150 miles (240km) off Aberdeen, suffered a serious natural gas on Sunday. It is expected at take several weeks, in the best case scenario, to shut off the leak. Some estimates suggest that it will take 6 months … Continue reading
As we have posted before, PortSide New York, based on the historic coastal tanker, Mary A.Whalen, is one of the absolutely best waterfront educational organizations in New York harbor. For the last six years, the Mary A. Whalen has never had a permanent home. Now … Continue reading
UPDATE: The Canadian government is now treating the casualty as an attempt at human smuggling. Toews links N.S. yacht accident to ‘human smuggling’ There are reports of a tragic and strange sailboat accident off Canada’s Nova Scotia coast. Nine men, reported to … Continue reading
On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and USN Lieutenant Don Walsh spent twenty minutes at the bottom at Challenger Deep in the bathyscaphe Trieste. Unfortunately, their landing on the sea bed stirred up a cloud of silt which reduced visibility to zero, and they … Continue reading
The Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock, WA, is restoring a forgotten piece of sailing history – the Felicity Ann, a 23′ wooden boat, launched in 1949. In 1952-1953, Ann Davison, at 39, sailed the Felicity Ann single-handed across the Atlantic, … Continue reading
Last night, James Cameron became the first person ever to dive in a one man submarine to the very bottom of the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, 35,755 feet (5.8 nautical miles) below the surface. He is only … Continue reading
Last week we posted about James Cameron’s preparation for his attempt to dive to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Reports are that he is now attempting the dive in his one man submarine, described as … Continue reading
What really happened on the Costa Concordia in the final hours leading up to and following her grounding and sinking off Giglio on January 13, 2012? The first step in definitively answering that question began in early March when an Italian judge … Continue reading
In 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five sailors set off on an 1300 kilometer voyage to South Georgia Island, across some of roughest waters in the world, in the James Caird, a 6.9 meter lifeboat, in a desperate attempt to reach help and to arrange … Continue reading
A 150′ foot long fishing trawler carried away last March by the tsunami off the east coast of Japan has been spotted drifting in the Pacific Ocean, 120 miles off Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. About 5 million tons of debris … Continue reading
The waters around Tampa Bay may appear to step back in time tomorrow as the World War II Victory ship SS American Victory leaves the dock for her first cruise in nearly three years. The critically acclaimed “Re-Live History Cruise” will feature reenactors, … Continue reading
Divers have found five more bodies in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia which ran aground and sank on January 13, 2012 off the island of Giglio, Italy. The presumed death toll remains at 32, with only two of the roughly 4,200 passengers and … Continue reading
If HMS Hermione, commissioned in 1783, became a symbol of Royal Navy cruelty and bloody mutiny, the French light frigate l’ Hermione, commissioned in 1779, would become a symbol of American independence. On March 21, 1780, the 23 year old Gilbert du … Continue reading
There were two frigates, both named Hermione, both launched within a few years of each other. The British HMS Hermione would become a symbol of cruelty and bloody mutiny, whereas the French Hermione would carry the young Gilbert Motier, better known as … Continue reading