The Royal Navy Admiral Collingwood would famously slip a handful of acorns into his pockets before taking a walk in the woods near his home. He would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
It is often referred to as the Caspian Sea Monster. To my eye, it looks more like a spacecraft from a sci-fi movie than a creature of cryptozoology. It is, in fact, a huge vessel, part plane, and part ship, … Continue reading
Recently, two kayakers off California inadvertently got between a lunge feeding humpback whale and its lunch. Videos of the encounter show the whale surfacing between the yellow kayak, almost appearing to swallow the kayakers and their boat. Fortunately, neither the … Continue reading
In July 2017, we posted about the calving of a massive iceberg from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice-shelf. The iceberg, which would be designated as A68a, is the world’s biggest iceberg, weighing roughly one trillion tons and measuring 4,200 sq km, … Continue reading
New York Yacht Club American Magic, the U.S. Challenger for the 36th America’s Cup, completed their first week of training on the brand-new AC75 racing yacht Patriot. PATRIOT: PEDAL DOWN – America’s Cup AC75 … Continue reading
A commuter train car careened off the end of elevated train tracks yesterday near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was saved from plunging more than 30 feet to the ground when it landed on the sculpture of a whale’s tail. … Continue reading
The fishermen knew. They told stories of swordfish using their eponymous swords to stab sharks and other large fish and mammals. Scientists, however, were skeptical. Recently, however, more than six dead sharks have washed up around the Mediterranean, all apparently … Continue reading
Boaters were recently surprised to find a man working in a fully outfitted office on a raft anchored in New York’s East River. The office was the brainchild of Improv Everywhere, a New York City-based comedy collective that stages unexpected … Continue reading
On Halloween, it seems appropriate to look at the legend of the Gray Man of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, a benevolent ghost said to warn residents of coming severe storms and hurricanes. Those who heed his warnings are said to … Continue reading
On October 29, 1815, 205 years ago yesterday, the Demologos, the first steam-powered warship, was launched from Adam and Noah Brown‘s shipyard on New York’s East River. It was a steam-powered floating battery designed by steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton to … Continue reading
You might call it yodeling for Covid. Following a folk-music themed cruise on MS Swiss Crystal, 60 of 92 passengers have tested positive for Covid-19. The cruise was from Passau to Frankfurt between October 10 and 17, on the Danube … Continue reading
Delayed for months by both hurricanes and the pandemic, Versabar’s heavy-lift catamaran VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches,” arrived yesterday at St. Simons Island, GA to begin the scrapping of the wrecked car carrier, Golden Ray. The car carrier rolled on its … Continue reading
One hundred and forty-three years ago today on October 27th, 1877, the three-masted iron-hulled merchant sailing ship Elissa was launched in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum. In honor of her birthday, here … Continue reading
The Greek Navy minesweeper HS Kallisto was cut in half following a collision with the containership Maersk Launceston. The stern of the minesweeper apparently sank following the collision while the bow was taken under tow by salvors. The minesweeper’s crew … Continue reading
Seven people were detained after British special forces stormed the Liberian registered tanker, Nave Andromeda, that was suspected of having been hijacked off the Isle of Wight. The BBC reports that sixteen members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) ended … Continue reading
Back in 2013, we posted about a large inflatable rubber duck that was visiting ports around the globe. It was created by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and was named “Spreading Joy Around the World.” Nevertheless, it was universally known … Continue reading
On the eve of the first day of early voting in New York, an exquisite mix of music and the sound of merriment rose from the murky waters of the Gowanus Canal as the Wide Awakes Navy and the Gowanus … Continue reading
The story of the New York Marine Hospital in Staten Island—known simply as “the Quarantine,” seems very timely. It was the firey center of what became known as the Staten Island Quarantine War of 1858. At the time it was … Continue reading
The pandemic has taken a toll on even those of us who remained untouched by the virus. In a trivial example, for me, it was a haircut. After five months without a haircut, I was feeling very shaggy when the … Continue reading
Two hundred and fifteen 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