The US Navy is sending the rescue and salvage ship, USS Grasp, to Port-au-Prince, Haiti with divers and underwater construction personnel to assess the damage to piers and other port facilities. The USNS Comfort, a hospital ship with a capacity … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
My River Chronicle – Rediscovering the America on the Hudson, is a fascinating voyage in the life of a young woman, who finds herself oddly quite at home in a most unlikely new job. It is also a journey through … Continue reading
Live Yankees, the Sewalls and their Ships is a fascinating and sweeping history of one family from Bath, Maine, which built and operated over one hundred merchant ships, mostly square riggers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It offers … Continue reading
There have been hundreds of novels written about dashing Royal Navy ships’ captains who bear a striking resemblance to Lord Cochrane. The resemblance and family history are most obvious in Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower, but a dozen or so … Continue reading
Martin Evans on the Marine History List posted a collection of sailors’ superstitions from the current issue of “Fishing Boats”. … Continue reading
The mega-yachts of the Russian billionaires grow ever larger, more elaborate, and, of course, ever more expensive. Roman Abramovich’s new yacht Eclipse will be the world’s largest yacht, at 557 feet (170 meters), eclipsing, so to speak, the 525-foot luxury yacht owned by … Continue reading
I just read that Lars Hansen died the day before yesterday in a nursing home in Florida. He was 86. For three decades he had been the master rigger of the historic vessels of the South Street Seaport until he suffered … Continue reading
Last May, we posted about the Tall Ship Soren Larsen’s new season of voyages – Tall ship Soren Larsen – Pearls of the Pacific, Voyages across the South Seas 2009. Unfortunately, the ship was hit by a rogue wave on the 1st … Continue reading
The American Museum of Folk Art in New York has a new exhibit – Thomas Chambers (1808-1869): American Marine and Landscape Painter. His paintings have been described as having an “entrancing, slightly demonic style … neither strictly realist nor naïve, they … Continue reading
In July we posted about the exhibition of Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. There was an interesting symmetry in the display of Nelson’s ship, Victory, in a bottle, on a plinth, in … Continue reading
Let women work on subs, Navy secretary says Women should be allowed to serve aboard submarines, and the Navy is “moving out aggressively” to make it happen, according to the service’s top civilian. “I believe women should have every opportunity … Continue reading
Thanks to Dick and Ben Kooyman for passing along this intriguing account of a new search for the legendary “Mahogany ship” which, if found, may rewrite Australian history. The Mahogany ship is said to be buried beneath the sand in the … Continue reading
The Wall Street Journal today has an article about the SS United States Conservancy, a group of individuals who fervently wish to save the SS United States. I have the somewhat heretical view that the “Big U,” as she is called, is … Continue reading
After sailing into a bulk carrier earlier this month on her first day at sea after apparently dozing off, sixteen year old Jessica Watson has set sail once again on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe singlehanded. While she has received … Continue reading
Saint-Tropez Races Bid Summer Adieu According to legend, a bet in 1981 between two yachtsmen at a fashionable Saint-Tropez restaurant led to a race between Pride, an American-owned Swan 44 sailboat and Ikra, a French-owned International 12-meter rival. On Sunday, … Continue reading