The South China Sea is home to a myriad of competing claims for territory, fishing, oil and mineral rights by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. There is currently a stand-off between Chinese ships and the Philippine navy … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Two letters from the Titanic are in the news. One is a letter from Dr. John Edward Simpson, who died when the ship sank, He wrote to his mother on April 11, 1912, on notepaper headed RMS Titanic, and had it … Continue reading
Last year, we posted about how the sinking of the Titanic had morphed from a maritime tragedy into a cultural icon. For many, Hollywood movies, particularly the movie made by Jame Cameron, about the sinking of the ship may … Continue reading
So you want to build an unsinkable passenger liner? Well, there is an app for that! OK, not really, but National Geographic has developed a free “Building the Titanic” app for the iPad, which looks at the construction of the ship. Preview … Continue reading
For several years we have been posting about a huge swirling patch of plastic garbage caught in the currents of the Pacific Ocean. The BBC has an interactive graphic which helps to visualize just how how massive this Pacific garbage patch truly … Continue reading
One hundred years ago today, the RMS Titanic sailed from Southampton. She then called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland to take on more passengers. She then sailed on her maiden voyage proper across the Atlantic towards … Continue reading
After posting about far too many needless tragedies on poorly maintained third world ferry boats which sink and kill their passengers, here is something completely different, though still involving a ferry. Last week, fitting enough on April Fool’s Day, two hundred students from two British universities, … Continue reading
This story is so unlikely that it must be true. When the Collapsible Lifeboat C from the RMS Titanic was picked up by the Carpathia, of the 41 aboard, there were two very different men, though their names, by virtue of alphabetization are adjacent to each other on … Continue reading
In the last days of the age of sail, British sailing ships, limejuicers, as they were known, had reputation as “hungry ships,” of offering poor quality provisions and not much of those. Whether that reputation was or was not wholly justified at the end … Continue reading
The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency received a distress call Sunday night from the captain of a wooden ship bound for Australia. The ship was taking on water and carrying 120 Afghan refugees. The Afghans were picked up and taken by tanker … Continue reading
Arthur John Priest was a stoker, or fireman, on the RMS Titanic. His job was to shovel coal into the ship’s boilers. He survived the Titanic’s sinking of 1912. He also was aboard the RMS Olympic, the sistership to the Titanic, when she collided with HMS … Continue reading
A very well done documentary from PBS, Saving the Titanic. Watch Full Program on PBS. See more from Saving the Titanic. … Continue reading
On Friday morning, we posted about the capsize of the “tugboat” Katherine G, off Liberty Island in New York harbor. It turns out that the Katherine G is not tugboat in the conventional sense. Will Van Dorp at the tugster blog calls it … Continue reading
In early October, the container ship MV Rena ran hard aground on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, New Zealand, resulting in an oil spill which the New Zealand Environment minister Nick Smith has referred to as the country’s most serious maritime environmental … Continue reading
In the mid to late 19th century, American clipper ships set the standard for the world and challenged the maritime supremacy of Great Britain. After World War II, the US merchant marine fleet was the world’s largest, representing about 43 percent of the world’s shipping trade. … Continue reading
Some excitement in my neighborhood this morning. Three crew from the tug Katherine G were pulled from the water near Liberty Island in new York harbor, after the tug capsized at around 9:45 this morning. The men were rescued by … Continue reading
We posted recently about the discovery of the 164′ Japanese fishing vessel, Ryou-Un Maru, which had been carried out to sea from the port of Hachinohe, a year ago by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The ship was found drifting 120 miles off Haida Gwaii, British … Continue reading
It is never a good sign for a new class of Navy ships when an article about them appears on the front page of the New York Times. The article, Navy Plowing Ahead on New Coastal Ship, Despite Woes by Elisabeth Bumiller, focuses on … Continue reading
In March of 2011, we posted about reporting done by Ron Regan at NewsChannel5 in Cleveland, Ohio, concerning radiation leaks at a nuclear power plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. There is concern that these radiation leaks are related to … Continue reading
Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who lead the expedition which discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report last night. He discusses how the search for the Titanic was a cover for … Continue reading