The General Slocum Tragedy

One hundred and six years ago today, June 15th, 1904, the  Paddle Steamer General Slocum caught fire in the East River and burned killing an estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board.  The steamer was carrying members of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church … Continue reading

Sagres in San Diego and San Diego in Pascagoula

Last week, one of my favorite tall ships, the Portuguese Sail Training Ship Sagres visited San Diego, California. This weekend, on the Gulf Coast in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the US Navy christened the USS San Diego, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship.    Not to be too critical … Continue reading

Searching for the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion with the Titanic as Cover

Late last month, the secret was revealed – when Bob Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1985,  he was actually on a  secret mission to find two sunken US submarines, the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, both of which had sunk in the Atlantic in … Continue reading

Yukon Protects the wreck of A.J. Goddard on Lake Labarge

Yukon protects Klondike shipwreck site Just months after a team of archeologists revealed their discovery of a historic Klondike shipwreck in waters north of Whitehorse, the Yukon government has declared the sunken A.J. Goddard sternwheeler a historic site symbolizing the … Continue reading

On Jacques Cousteau’s Centennial, the Calypso to Sail Again?

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Cousteau.  It is hard to overstate Cousteau’s influence as an inventor, writer, filmmaker, explorer and ecologist.   His first book, the Silent World, written with Frédéric Dumas in 1953, was a memoir which … Continue reading

Delaware Bay Days – June 12 & 13 Bivalve, Port Norris & Mauricetown NJ

From the Bayshore Discovery Project: Delaware Bay Days, the free two-day folklife festival celebrating the Bay and the Bayshore region, returns June 12 & 13 with events in Bivalve, Port Norris and Mauricetown, NJ, with a schedule featuring new activities … Continue reading

Solar Power ‘Sets Sail’ In Shanghai

Last week at the Shanghai World Expo, the SunTech Guosheng solarsailor, an innovative 31.5 meter solar-powered passenger vessel sailed on its maiden voyage on the Huangpu River.  The vessels is owned by Suntech Power Holdings, the world’s largest producer of … Continue reading

SS Normandie’s Steam Whistle Blows Again at the Seaport

Last Thursday, the mellifluous blast of the SS Normandie‘s steam whistle once gain reverberated across the piers of the South Street Seaport in New York.   The blowing of the steam whistle celebrated the anniversary of the arrival of French luxury liner to New York seventy five years … Continue reading

Happy World Ocean Day – But How Should We Be Celebrating ?

Today is the second annual celebration of World Ocean Day!  The only thing that is unclear to me is what and how we should be celebrating.  From the World Oceans’ Day website: “In 2009 The Ocean Project started an annual tradition associated with … Continue reading