This news story sounds like a bad sequel to the movie Snakes on Plane. Ship turned away after spiders started ‘pouring’ from cargo hold A South Korean cargo ship had to be turned away last week after an infestation of spiders was discovered … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
As an update to our previous post, the fire on the Charlotte Maersk, which started July 7th, was finally extinguished last Sunday after 11 days of firefighting. Charlotte Maersk blaze is extinguished after 11 days … Continue reading
As a follow-up to a post from early June, the remains of what is believed to be the wreck of a merchant ship from the mid-1600s are being moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum for preservation. The wreck was uncovered … Continue reading
New York City is metropolis of eight million organized into five boroughs, four of which are islands or are on islands. This Saturday, the 3rd Annual City of Water Day Festival will be hosted by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance to help remind … Continue reading
Greg Gushaw 68, an experienced volunteer, docent and a member of the board of trustees of the Maritime Museum of San Diego fell to his death last Sunday from aloft on the Star of India. Ironically, he fell during a safety training exercise. … Continue reading
Last week, twenty six of forty two crew members on the Brig Niagara were sickened by salmonella, forcing the ship to cut short a visit to a tall ships festival in Cleveland. Fortunately, the crew is reported to have … Continue reading
Update: South African authorities are investigating whether the whale was harassed before breaching. A breaching Southern Right Whale landed on top of a ten meter long sail boat off the coast of South Africa on Sunday. The remarkable photos below were shot by a passenger … Continue reading
Sadly the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not the only ongoing major oil spill. China oil spill doubles in size, is deemed ‘severe threat’ China’s largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 square miles … Continue reading
Pirates of the Narrow Sea, Book 1 – Sallee Rovers by M. Kei is well written nautical adventure fiction with a twist or two, or perhaps three. The novel is not set during the Napoleonic wars and features, as the … Continue reading
One of the most beautiful tall ships on the water, the Chilean Navy’s Esmeralda, will be docked in Balboa, Panama through tomorrow. Esmeralda, a steel-hulled four-masted barquentine, is nicknamed the “White Lady.” She is the sister ship to the four-masted … Continue reading
With the onset of limited trans-arctic navigation environmentalists have voiced concern about the potential for pollution due to increased ship traffic. The recent collision between two arctic tankers, the Indiga and Varzuga, on the Russian Northern Sea route, demonstrates the basis for these concerns. … Continue reading
Last month we posted about the Ketch Bessie-Ellen carrying French wine to the Festival of Valleys in Ballyvaughan, in Ireland’s County Claire. The Bessie-Ellen will soon set sail on a new 21-day voyage, carrying 20,000 bottles of Château Smith Lafite and Château … Continue reading
On this the thirtieth anniversary of the movie Jaws, the SyFy Channel has teamed up with the legendary B-Movie Director, Roger Corman, to produce Sharktopus, a thriller about a Navy-engineered half-shark-half-octopus killing machine which, surprise, surprise gets out of control and starts … Continue reading
RIMPAC 2010, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, is one of the world’s largest maritime exercises, with participation by 14 nations, including including Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, France, Colombia, Chile, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea and Thailand. RIMPAC … Continue reading
Divers have found 30 bottles of champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution on the Baltic seabed. Reportedly, it was still highly drinkable. All I can say is that the seabed must be one hell of a wine cellar. … Continue reading
There are plans to bring the trimere Olympias to New York harbor in 2012 coincide with the Tall Ships “OpSail” and July 4th celebrations. The Trireme Olympias Coming Soon to New York The H.N. Olympias is a full-scale, working replica … Continue reading
Many historians have long suspected that the performance of the Greek triremes as reported by Esculus and others, were overstated. Some have referred to them as “mythological.” The Olympias trireme, built in 1987, designed by the naval architect John Coates, who died last week, … Continue reading
John Coates John Coates, who died on July 10 aged 88, had retired as chief naval architect at the Ministry of Defence when he took a central role in the building of a Greek trireme, the first, fastest and best … Continue reading
After a second round of testing, the converted O/B/O skimmer A Whale has been judged a failure in skimming oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Giant oil skimmer ‘A Whale’ deemed a bust for Gulf … Continue reading
Tom Russell over at the Tall Ship & Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In group pointed out the Tall Ships Tracking Map posted on-line by Sailwx.info. Sailwx.info is a wonderful site for keeping track of of all sort of ships, including … Continue reading