The evacuation of British troops and civilians from France in 1940 did not end with Dunkirk. Several weeks later, on June 17, 1940, the British Cunard liner Lancastria was loaded to capacity with troops and civilians off the French port of St. Nazaire, when she … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
There is a certain magic to drydocks. They give you the ability to take in the whole ship in almost a single look and provide the one chance to get the bottom clean and whatever needs fixing below the waterline … Continue reading
What is it about ships being towed to the scrap yard? The MT Phoenix under tow, on her way to the scrap yard last July broke her towing cable and drifted ashore on Salt Rocks in Sheffield Beach, South Africa. She … Continue reading
The surf in San Diego county has been putting on quite a light show on recent evenings. The shore has been hit by a bout of “red tide,” a bloom of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum. The bad news is that this dinoflagellate … Continue reading
For the sake of full disclosure, I am not a huge fans of thrillers, particularly thrillers involving ships. The plots often strike me as implausible and the descriptions of the ships and ship operations often border on the laughable. (Too … Continue reading
Last March we posted that the U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet, the oldest commissioned Coast Guard cutter, was being sold in an online auction. The ship was reportedly sold to an unidentified buyer. The ship has now been put up for auction on … Continue reading
Marie Didieu, a disabled 66-year-old French woman, was kidnapped yesterday from her vacation home on Manda Island, part of the Lamu archipelago, not far from where a British tourist was killed and his wife abducted three weeks ago. The kidnappers arrived and departed by … Continue reading
About 14,000 humpback whales migrated between Australia and Antarctica each year. Among them is a white humpback, nicknamed Migaloo. Migaloo, or “white fella” in an Aboriginal language, was first spotted in 1991 and may be the most popular humpback whale in the world, being … Continue reading
We recently posted that Transportation Safety Board of Canada has concluded that poor training played a role in the knockdown and capsizing of SV Concordia. The official Marine Investigation Report examines the events leading up to the capsize in some detail. It … Continue reading
Laura Dekker has celebrated her 16th birthday and has set sail from Darwin, Australia on a westerly course across the Indian Ocean bound for Africa. Given the concern about piracy in the Indian Ocean, her exact route is being kept … Continue reading
Harold Hackett of Prince Edward Island started throwing bottles with messages inside into the Atlantic Ocean in 1996. Since then he has cast 4,800 bottles into the sea and has received 3,100 responses. He has received letters back from Africa, Russia, … Continue reading
In February 2010, the sail training ship Concordia sank off the coast of Brazil. At the time, the captain said that the ship was hit by a “microburst,” also known as a white squall, a violet storm which struck the … Continue reading
Two hundred and fifty three years ago today, Horatio Nelson was born in in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, the sixth of eleven children. He went to sea at 12 on a ship commanded by a maternal uncle. He would become the … Continue reading
We recently posted about personal submarines. In browsing around in that market, we came across the “Seabreacher” and thought that it deserved a separate look. The Seabreachers by Innerspace are definitely the most brilliant, crazy, or perhaps a bit of both, personal watercraft out … Continue reading
Slate.com recently recently featured and article, You-Boat, Can you buy your own submarine?. They noted that drug smugglers had their own submarines to sneak cocaine and other drugs north. If they had subs why couldn’t we all own a personal … Continue reading
The Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, that Adm. Habibollah Sayari of the Iranian Navy announced that Iran would be sending ships near US waters. Iran is also planning to send ships to the Gulf of Aden to … Continue reading
Just over a week ago we posted about the hijacking of the product tanker 45,000 DWT tanker, Mattheos I, with a crew of 23, off Benin in the Gulf of Guinea. Last Saturday, the ship and crew was released. No ransom … Continue reading
When Diana Nyad was stopped by repeated jellyfish stings in her most recent attempt to swim between Cuba and Florida, it brought to mind two articles, one about the discovery of the “immortal jellyfish” and another which raised the question … Continue reading
Almost three miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic, deeper than the Titanic, Odyssey Marine has located the wreck of the S.S. Gairsoppa, which was torpedoed in February of 1941 by a German U-boat. When she sank, the ship was loaded with silver, … Continue reading
In August, Diana Nyard attempted to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage. She gave up that attempt after 29 hours of swimming when adverse winds blew her off course. … Continue reading