After spending the better part of a month getting to Nome, Alaska to deliver an emergency supply of fuel to last the winter, the ice-strengthened Russian tanker Renda has finally off-loaded its cargo – 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Laura Dekker has arrived in St. Maarten, having sailed her 38 ft Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch, Guppy, successfully around the world alone. Her voyage began when she quietly slipped out of Gibraltar on August 21, 2010. At only 16 years and four … Continue reading
It appears that the question of where and on what the Costa Concordia ran aground is a bit more clear. Wreckage, believed to be from the collision, has been photographed at Le Scole rock. Thanks to Andy Hall at the Maritime Texas … Continue reading
Margaret Muir’s novel, Floating Gold, was recently released in paperback. A great read, we never though that it got the attention that it deserved. Here is a repost of our review from May of 2010: Margaret Muir’s new novel, Floating Gold, is … Continue reading
One week ago, the Costa Concordia grounded off the island of Giglio. Eleven passengers or crew are confirmed dead. Twenty four people are missing. The ship itself has sunk in shallow water having rolled 80 degrees on its side. What else do we … Continue reading
Shortly after Costa Crociere chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi blamed the grounding of the Costa Concordia on an ”inexplicable” error by the captain, Gianni Scerni, the president of RINA, sat down for an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX. RINA, Registro … Continue reading
According to survivors’ reports, the band on the deck of the Titanic continued to play after the last boat departed as the ship sank beneath waters of the icy North Atlantic. Coincidentally, a singer aboard the Costa Concordia, Amelia Leon says that she … Continue reading
Here is a wonderful 20 minute film made in 1947 about, as the tile suggests, shipbuilding in Essex, Massachusetts. It has the slightly corny Hollywood production values of its time but does a good job at showing the construction of a … Continue reading
Reuters reports that Italy is enthralled by the tale of the “two captains,” while on CNN another Italian captain, from another ship and another time, is remembered – In Andrea Doria wreck, a captain who shone. … Continue reading
Every year, around 26,000 gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) make the 10,000 mile journey from their feeding grounds in the Arctic Sea south to their breeding groups in the lagoons of Baja. (For an interesting view of the migration see Whale … Continue reading
Last October, we posted about the shipping cradle that had been fabricated in Australia and shipped to Scotland which will be used to transport the oldest composite clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, back to her namesake city in South … Continue reading
Lloyd’s List Intelligence has published its AIS plots of the course of the Costa Concordia on January 13th, when she ran aground and sank, and her course on August 14th when she came within 230 meters of the shore of the island … Continue reading
MSNBC is quoting Adam Smallman, editor of Lloyd’s List, as saying that the Costa Concordia took close to the same route in August, based on satellite tracking, as it took when it ran aground last Friday night. He also is … Continue reading
As the tragedy of the Costa Concordia plays out, newspapers still need to sell ads. Recently some of the juxtapositions have been, well, unfortunate. (Click on any of the thumbnails below for a larger image.) Italy’s Il Gazzettino featured a … Continue reading
HMB Endeavour is embarking on a special cruise to observe the transit of Venus – a very rare astronomical event when the planet Venus moves across the sun on June 6th 2012. The next transit of Venus will take place on … Continue reading
Divers searching the wreck of the Costa Concordia have found five more bodies in the submerged section of the ship. All were wearing life jackets and are believed to be passengers. The number of missing, which had been as low … Continue reading
There is a wonderful article in today’s New York Times about Jon Turk and Erik Boomer, who recently became the first to circumnavigate Canada’s Ellesmere Island, roughly 1,000 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Jon Turk, 65, is an author, scientist and … Continue reading
The Costa Concordia “Saluting” Giglio Last August In a recent press conference, Costa Crociere chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi blamed the grounding of the Costa Concordia on an “inexplicable” error by the captain. Mr Foschi said: “This route was put in … Continue reading
Alan Olson, a Sausalito boat builder and founder of the educational sailing nonprofit Call of the Sea, has some ambitious plans. He wants to build a new 140-foot wood long brigantine to be used as a sail training ship for … Continue reading
One of the more alarming aspects of the sinking of the Costa Concordia was the dramatic roll that the ship took after the grounding. She is now sitting with a list of roughly 80 degrees with almost half of the ship … Continue reading