The decades-long “Fat Leonard” bribery and corruption scandal may finally have come to an end. This week, Malaysian ship-supply contractor, Leonard Glenn Francis, 60, known as “Fat Leonard” was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribing US Navy officials … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
A sad account that reinforces an old lesson, while also highlighting an unexpected risk of social media. Vice reports that two Brazilian Instagram “influencers” drowned in a boating accident off the coast of São Paulo after opting not to wear … Continue reading
The first American naval ship lost in World War II was not sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Over a month before, on October 31, 1941, the destroyer USS Reuben James, escorting a convoy bound … Continue reading
In August of last year, we bade a sad farewell to the Floating Instrument Platform, known as FLIP, which after 61 years of service, had been retired and was scheduled to be sent to a scrapyard. Fortunately, our reporting was … Continue reading
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought eighty years ago this week between the US and Australian navies and the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some standards the largest naval … Continue reading
After being closed for five years for renovations, the Xiaomeisha Sea World aquarium in Shenzhen, China reopened its doors on October 1. During its week-long trial run, the 60,000 sqm sea park attracted around 100,000 visitors who each paid around … Continue reading
Two hundred and nineteen years ago today, in 1805, the Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets in the Atlantic off Cape Trafalgar. The decisive victory ended French plans to use the combined … Continue reading
At least seven people were killed yesterday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. The Georgia Department of … Continue reading
Emirates Team New Zealand clinched match point in the 37th America’s Cup on Saturday, beating INEOS Britannia 7-2 in the best-of-13 finals held just off Barcelona’s beachfront as reported by the AP. The team led by Grant Dalton won its third consecutive … Continue reading
In early August, Mikhail Pichugin, 46, set off in a small inflatable boat to watch whales in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. They went missing after departing from Cape Perovsky bound for Sakhalin … Continue reading
We are a few days late in wishing the US Navy a happy 249th birthday. October 13th, is celebrated as the birthday of the United States Navy. This should not be confused with Navy Day, once celebrated on October 27th. The current … Continue reading
Happy Columbus Day to those who celebrate in the United States and Happy Thanksgiving to those in Canada. On Columbus Day, it seems appropriate to consider the role of error in discovery. An updated repost. While many of us were … Continue reading
A new National Geographic documentary “Endurance,” will premiere at the London Film Festival on Saturday before being released in UK cinemas from Monday and on Disney+ later in the year. The documentary includes a 3D digital scan of Sir Ernest … Continue reading
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has partnered with Google AI to analyze an ocean of long-term passive acoustic data. Using AI and machine learning, they have analyzed in hours what would otherwise take decades to process. In 2014, … Continue reading
HMNZS Manawanui, a multi-role offshore support vessel commissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy, ran aground while surveying a reef off the island of Upolu in Samoa on Saturday night local time. The ship subsequently caught fire before capsizing and … Continue reading
The longshoremen’s strike appears to have ended with a tentative agreement on wages. This afternoon, the ILA and the USMX released a joint statement: The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. have reached a tentative agreement … Continue reading
We are now in day 2 of the first International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike in almost 50 years. The ILA represents 45,000 dockworkers at 36 ports from Maine to Texas on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. … Continue reading
The initial reports were bizarre. On Friday, Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer who works with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), the builder of the superyacht Bayesian that sank at anchor in August off Sicily, killing Mike Lynch and six other passengers, … Continue reading
We recently posted about a tentative deal to sell the historic ocean liner SS United States to be sunk to create the world’s largest artificial reef, off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, FL in the Gulf of Mexico. That deal is … Continue reading
The US Navy commissioned its first-ever coed submarine, the Virginia-class attack submarine USS New Jersey, at a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, NJ. The US Navy has allowed women to serve on US Navy submarines for more … Continue reading