There are great things going on in Rhode Island. When completed this year, the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will be the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to be built in the U.S. in 100 years and the largest civilian sail training vessel … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
One of the great stories from ancient history is of Archimedes setting fire to Roman ships during the Siege of Syracuse, 214–212 BC, by using “burning mirrors”, mirrors that focused the rays of the sun and generated enough heat to set the … Continue reading
For several years now, there has been a webcam of the 90,000 gallon treatment tank where the 120 ton wrought iron turret of the USS Monitor is being preserved by electrolysis and desalination. After spending 111 years underwater, the turret will need … Continue reading
This has been a season of extreme weather. While Australia is suffering a record heat wave, the US and Europe have been battered by a series of ugly winter storms and frigid temperatures. Here is a song with an appropriate … Continue reading
I will admit to having mixed feelings about assigning names to winter storms. Hurricanes are momentous enough to be worthy of names, but most winter storms, nasty and dangerous though they may indeed be, don’t seem worth naming. I will … Continue reading
OK, this is odd. A few days after New Years, a fisherman spotted a small dog treading water several miles from shore in Tampa Bay, on the west coast of Florida. The dog, which was wearing a red collar and a pink … Continue reading
What is more powerful than an icebreaker? The answer is: the wind. Following a wind shift, the expedition cruise ship, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, and Chinese icebreaker Xue Long or Snow Dragon have broken free from the pack ice off Antarctica. … Continue reading
Today is the 123rd anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston‘s birthday. She is being honored by Google with a graphic on the main search page. Hurston is considered to be one of the pre-eminent African-America writers of the 20th century. She … Continue reading
Much of the US is suffering under a “polar vortex,” which has plunged temperatures into single digits and wind chills well into negative numbers. Here on the west bank of the Hudson River the temperature is around 4 F with … Continue reading
On Sunday, the USCG Cutter Hollyhock was conducting an ice escort for six Great Lakes ore boats.in Northern Lake Michigan. The Hollyhock is a 225 feet long, Juniper Class Seagoing Buoy Tender displacing 2.000 long tons. Following close behind, perhaps too … Continue reading
We have recently posted about Slocum gliders, autonomous underwater vehicles, capable of extended voyages and used by oceanographers to map ocean conditions. Saildrone, a company in California, has recently launched a 19′ long by 7′ wide autonomous trimaran sailing drone capable … Continue reading
The USCGC Polar Star is on its way to attempt to break free two ice-bound ship off Antarctica. So far, three icebreakers have attempted to free the the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck in Antarctic ice south of Tasmania … Continue reading
The New York Times has a wonderful account of the rescue of John Aldridge, a commercial fisherman who fell off a lobsterboat in the middle of the night last July, over forty miles off Montauk, Long Island, NY. Aldridge spent … Continue reading
Every year I go to the New York Boat Show. In recent years, it has been a sad pilgrimage. Where once a wide range of boat types were represented, for the past decade or so most of the boats on … Continue reading
The Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, currently carrying passengers rescued from a stricken Antarctic expedition cruise ship, has been told to stand by to assist the Chinese icebreaker, Snow Dragon, as necessary. The icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, notified rescue authorities … Continue reading