The crows nest, as a shelter for the lookout on whaling ships sailing the icy waters of the Arctic, was by all indications, invented by Captain William Scoresby around 1807. (See yesterday’s post: Crow’s Nests : Part 1 — Melville & … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
The first of a two-part post on crows nests. Who would have thought that a crow’s nest deserves such attention? A reader commented on the lack of a crow’s nest in the video of the Charles W. Morgan under sail … Continue reading
Congratulations to Joan Druett! Her crime thriller, The Beckoning Ice, the fifth of her Wiki Coffin series of maritime mysteries, is one of the longlisted titles for the 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award. We reviewed The Beckoning Ice in December 2012. … Continue reading
Two and a half years ago, the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground, sank and capsized with the loss of 32 passengers and crew, off the island of Giglio in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Tuscany. This morning, the ship was re-floated as … Continue reading
Today is the 155th anniversary of the birth of Captain William Thomas Shorey, a famous captain in the last days of whaling, who was affectionately nicknamed “Black Ahab” by his crew. Shorey was born in Barbados in 1859 and ran … Continue reading
What a wonderful juxtaposition. The whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, built in 1841, and recently rebuilt by the Mystic Seaport Museum, sailing with humpback whales as they migrate across Stellwagen Bank off Massachusetts. No harpoons were in evidence and the whales did … Continue reading
New London’s Sailfest kicked off yesterday and will continue through Sunday, Jul 13th. It is billed as Southeastern Connecticut’s premier summertime event attracting over 300,000 people over the three-day festival. The festival features a major fireworks display, amusement rides, and over … Continue reading
One of the great stories from ancient history is of Archimedes Burning Mirrors. Legend has it that Archimedes designed a series of curved mirrors to reflect and focus the rays of the sun and that these mirrors were used to set a … Continue reading
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is hosting its seventh annual City of Water Day festival this Saturday, July 12th, at multiple locations in New York Harbor. Festivities will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year Hoboken is joining in the fun, hosting … Continue reading
I believe that this is the first straight-out restaurant review that we have done on the Old Salt Blog. Then again the Grand Banks Oyster Bar on the schooner Sherman Zwicker is not your typical restaurant. Sherman Zwicker is a … Continue reading
National Geographic has published breathtaking photographs and video of the Swedish warship Mars, which exploded and sank in the first battle of Öland in 1564. Because the ship sank in the dark, cold waters of the Baltic Sea, where the … Continue reading
HMS Pickle is for sale on Ebay, with a minimum opening bid of £69,500.00, no reserve and five days left in the auction. The topsail schooner is a replica of the first ship to bring the news of Nelson’s great … Continue reading
This weekend, Steven Robles, 40, was swimming off Manhattan Beach in Southern California on Saturday morning when he was attacked by a juvenile 7′ long great white shark. He suffered a single bite wound on the right side of his … Continue reading
An amazing video of Hannah Whiteley kiteboarding in South Africa from Scuttlebutt Sailing News. Enjoy. Hannah Whiteley ‘Essence’ Hannah Whiteley ‘Essence’ from Hannah Whiteley on Vimeo. … Continue reading
The US Coast Guard in Florida faced an unusual challenge earlier this week. Virtually the entire crew, 19 out of 21, on the 35,362 dwt Korean bulk carrier JS Comet had become seriously ill with symptoms of food poisoning and needed to … Continue reading