Back in January, Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, made a promise to President Trump that the advanced weapons elevators on the new carrier USS Gerald R. Ford would be operational by the end of the summer or the … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Acme Oyster House has been a New Orleans icon since 1910. My first memory of oysters on the half shell was slurping down a dozen at Acme more than a half-century ago. So, I was alarmed to read that Acme … Continue reading
The RV Petrel has located the wreckage of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, sunk in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The ship is the second of two sunken Japanese carriers that the Petrel has located two days apart. … Continue reading
A repost from 2010 in honor of Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets on this day in 1805. I have always been struck that of all the commentary I have read on the … Continue reading
The Long Beach Bar Light was built in 1871 as a “screwpile” lighthouse on the North Fork of Eastern Long Island, off Orient, New York. Because a screwpile lighthouse is a lighthouse that stands on thin piles that are screwed … Continue reading
When Simeon Lowell moved his boat-building business to Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1793, I wonder whether he could have possibly imagined that the boat shop would still be producing boats, dories, and skiffs 226 years later. Lowell’s Boat Shop is the … Continue reading
Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, died almost exactly a year ago. Nevertheless, his passion for underwater archeology lives on in the operation of the Research Vessel Petrel, which is fully funded by Allen’s estate. The ship’s mission is to … Continue reading
The strange saga of the USCGC Acushnet continues. Back in 2011, Acushnet, the oldest serving cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard was put up for sale. She was purchased by a con-man named Vernon Officer who bought the cutter using … Continue reading
Two years ago, we posted about an all-electric “flying car” which was actually more of a single passenger seaplane, as it took off and landed on the water. The startup named Kitty Hawk has major funding from Larry Page, the … Continue reading
The Swedish Navy’s headquarters is returning to a vast underground naval base beneath Muskö in the Stockholm Archipelago in response to a perceived threat of a Russian attack. The vast underground cold war fortress can shelter warships and submarines and … Continue reading
Last month, China’s Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing Shipyard launched the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé, the first in a new fleet of nine French-flagged, 23,000-TEU, LNG-powered containerships that will join the group’s fleet in 2020 on the French Asia Line. Not only will … Continue reading
For nearly 700 years, fishermen have been trawling for shrimp from horseback in the small town of Oostduinkerke, on the Belgian coast. Whether the tradition is dying or enduring may be the subject of debate. It is, however, both singular … Continue reading
The North Korean handysize bulk carrier Wise Honest has been sold in a sealed bid auction. The proceeds of the auction will go to compensate the family of Otto Warmbier, the American student who died in 2017 shortly after being … Continue reading
The Solaris, a solar-powered tour boat owned by the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY will provide trips across the Hudson River on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20. (They also previously offered trips at the end of … Continue reading
Roughly a year ago, a tug pulling a barge carrying a double-sided 60 foot long LED screen blasting animated, high-definition digital ads for everything from beer to movies, appeared on the Hudson and East Rivers, threatening to turn the riverscape … Continue reading
Late season cruises have their own inherent risks. In the case of a recent cruise on the Norwegian Spirit these risks were compounded by the remnants of Hurricane Lorenzo, now a post-tropical storm, which was pounding the Atlantic Coast of … Continue reading
One of the most interesting accounts of a sea serpent is that of the HMS Daedalus in 1848. When sailing in the South Atlantic, some 300 miles from the coast of present-day Namibia, officers and crew aboard the ship saw … Continue reading
Econology is a word that has been floating around the internet recently. A combination of economy and ecology, it refers to technology that is good for the ecology, while at the same time making economic sense. The Dutch firm eConowind … Continue reading
For the past several years, we have followed the construction of the newest and largest square-rigged luxury passenger cruise ship built for the Star Clipper cruise fleet — the Flying Clipper. Recently, the 300 passenger, five-masted bark has been seen … Continue reading
This week, as China looked back at 70 years of Communist rule, its military parade looked to the future with a whole new generation of deadly naval and airborne weaponry. Newsweek reports that in a speech last week, retired Admiral … Continue reading