Last week, Rear Admiral Michael Day retired after more than 40 years of service in the US Coast Guard. Over his career, he served in a range of responsible positions, in locations ranging from the Arctic to Taiwan and throughout … Continue reading
Tonight, roughly a million revelers will watch in person in New York’s Times Square, and over a billion viewers are expected to watch on television or online, as the New Year’s Eve ball drop rings in 2026 with a dazzling … Continue reading
An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving to those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) What do whaling ships, a child’s nursery rhyme, a female magazine editor, and Abraham Lincoln have to do … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! On Thanksgiving eve, here is a short video of the voyage of the Mayflower II across the Atlantic in 1957, under the command of Captain Alan Villiers. The reproduction was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick … Continue reading
An updated repost. There is a line from a Paul Simon song, “These are the days of miracle and wonder.” One might not think to apply that lyric to the events of 9/11, 24 years ago today. Yet for at … Continue reading
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered the owners and operators of the container ship X-Press Pearl to pay $1bn USD in compensation for the devastating environmental and economic damage caused when the ship caught fire and sank off Colombo in 2021. … Continue reading
It has been a long time coming, but it appears that the historic sailing ship Falls of Clyde will finally be removed from Honolulu Harbor to be sunk about 12 miles south of the harbor. The ship has been threatened … Continue reading
The 77-year-old cruise ship MV Astoria has been sold for scrap. The Belgian recycling firm Galloo was the only bidder, acquiring the ship for €200,000. In her over seven decades of service, she sailed for multiple owners, under many names, … Continue reading
Happy Juneteenth! Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth is also the newest Federal holiday, signed into law in 2020. The holiday commemorates the arrival of emancipation in Galveston, Texas, … Continue reading
On June 21, 1898, HMS Albion sat on the launching ways at the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall. The launching that would soon end in tragedy was also one of the first disasters to be captured on film. … Continue reading
A Facebook video by my friend Frank Hanavan showing him inserting a ship in a bottle (after the page break) got me thinking about, well, ships in bottles. When, where and why did sailors start putting ships in bottles? After … Continue reading
During the “Golden Age of Piracy,” the most successful pirates amassed huge fortunes over short periods and then died bloody deaths in combat, on the gallows, or in shipwrecks. The one notable exception was Captain Henry Every. While his career … Continue reading
On this, the 80th Anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day, the Liberation Convoy 2025 of five historic Norwegian veteran vessels, alongside partners from both Norway and the United Kingdom, is commemorating Anglo-Norwegian heroism on the North Sea during the … Continue reading
An updated repost of an odd bit of history. 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 … Continue reading