Before turning in last night I peeked out at the moon in the frigid evening. I chose not to wait the next several hours to see the whole show. For those like me or in areas where the cloud cover … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Recently the containership MOL Empire passed an abandoned sailboat in the mid-Atlantic around 1,500 nautical miles away from Jersey. The captain emailed photos of the boat to the Cross Jobourg Coastguard in France which was able to identify it as the Service Civique. The … Continue reading
In 2013, a 20′ great white shark was caught on video by Mexican shark expert Mauricio Hoyos Padilla off Guadalupe Island. Believed to be the largest great white shark ever filmed and among the largest great whites ever encountered, she was nicknamed … Continue reading
As the wholly unnecessary and reckless partial government shutdown rolls on, 41,000 active duty US Coast Guard personnel are still doing their jobs, without getting paid. Roughly 8,500 civilian support staff are furloughed, also without paychecks. Across the country, concerned citizens are trying … Continue reading
For Throwback Thursday, an updated repost of an event from ten years ago — the other “Miracle on the Hudson.” Ten years ago this week, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s … Continue reading
In November 2015, the German Navy training ship, Gorch Fock, went into a shipyard for hull repairs. The cost of repairs and refurbishment to the three-masted barque, built in 1958, was budgeted at 9.6 million euros. Repairs were expected to take 17 weeks. Now, over … Continue reading
Today marks the 100th year anniversary of the Great Boston Molasses Flood, which inundated Boston’s North End sending a wall of molasses, killing 21 and injuring 150. The Purity Distilling Company built a large molasses storage tank on Commercial Street in Boston’s North … Continue reading
Much of the media have taken the claims of Boyan Slat at face value. The young Dutch engineer has claimed that his design for a series of floating ocean booms will clean the oceans of plastic. The BBC headline in 2014 which … Continue reading
And now for something completely different. Baby Shark has taken over the world! At least, the song, “Baby Shark” sure seems to be everywhere. The Youtube video of the song as performed by the Korean group Pinkfong has been viewed … Continue reading
A new analysis published in the journal Science has concluded that the oceans are warming four times faster than had been previously predicted by a United Nations panel five years ago. The research found that ocean temperatures had broken records … Continue reading
In August of 1772, a powerful hurricane devastated much of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. On the island of St. Croix, the town of Christiansted was virtually leveled. An impoverished 17-year-old clerk, who worked for a local merchant, wrote a letter to … Continue reading
The Dungeness crab season opened late in the Northwest, starting last Friday, January 4th. The weather was terrible, with high winds and waves. Conditions were especially challenging on river bars, where the river’s current opposing the ocean waves can raise monstrous breakers. … Continue reading
Jeanne Socrates is a 76-year-old grandmother of three, originally from Ealing, West London. She didn’t start sailing until she was 50 but nevertheless has circumnavigated the globe under sail three times in S/V Nereida, a Najad 380. She currently holds the record as … Continue reading
I am very excited by a new series, “Disasters at Sea” that will be premiering on the Smithsonian Channel this Sunday, January 13th. The series is produced by Exploration Production Inc. in association with Smithsonian Networks and Discovery Channel (Canada). The … Continue reading
The effort to save the Falls of Clyde has suffered at least a temporary setback. Last November, we posted about an announcement by the Save the Falls of Clyde — International, a group endeavoring to move the Falls of Clyde, the last surviving iron-hulled, … Continue reading
On Thursday, a fire broke out in one cargo container on the Yantian Express, a 7,510 TEU container ship, about 1,500 kilometers southeast of Halifax. The fire spread to adjacent containers. The firefighting tug, Smit Nicobar, arrived Friday evening but weather conditions limited what the tug’s crew could … Continue reading
MSC Zoe is one of the largest container ships in the world with a capacity of over 19,000 twenty foot containers. Nevertheless, when Storm Zeetje pounded northern Germany with gale force winds late on Tuesday night, 277 containers were washed … Continue reading
On New Year’s Eve 1918, over 200 men crowded the dock at the port of Kyle of Lochalsh waiting to the board the HMY Iolaire, a 190′ long iron-hulled yacht requisitioned by the Admiralty. Most of the men were Royal Navy Reservists. … Continue reading
In 2010, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world, non-stop singlehanded. It didn’t go well. Sunderland’s boat, Wild Eyes, an Open 40 class racer, capsized and was dismasted in a remote region … Continue reading
Around 1,800 nautical miles northwest of Oahu, the car carrier Sincerity Ace is adrift and on fire. Sixteen of her Philippine crew have been rescued, while four are feared dead and one remains missing. The fire broke on on Monday on the Panamanian … Continue reading