Today, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos announced that it has found the wreck of the galleon San José, what some have called the “holy grail of shipwrecks.” He announced the discovery on Twitter. In June of 1708, during the War of … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Happy Thanksgiving! As a “Throwback Thursday” — Thanksgiving edition, here is a short video of the voyage of the Mayflower II across the Atlantic in 1957, under the command of Captain Alan Villiers. Voyage of the Mayflower II, 1957 … Continue reading
This weekend the US Coast Guard recovered 10,000 gallons of benzene from the wreck of a tank barge that sank 78 years ago in Lake Erie. The Coast Guard has pumped the first of 8 tanks on the wrecked barge. In … Continue reading
Around 1847, Henry Manning, a London carpenter, started building houses in components that could be easily stowed on ships and reassembled by emigrants on the other side of an ocean. Several hundred “Manning cottages” were shipped to Australia. It turns … Continue reading
Given the current heated debate over Syrian refugees, it seems worthwhile to remember the ill-fated voyage of the German ocean liner St. Louis in 1939. The ship carried 908 Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi Germany. The ship and its … Continue reading
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as Hedy Lamarr, was born to Jewish parents in Austria on November 9th, 1914, one hundred and one years ago today. At the height of her movie career, she was known as the “most beautiful … Continue reading
Ben Talman, a reader and contributor to the Old Salt Blog, visited the Edwin Fox in Picton, New Zealand and took a series of wonderful photos of the historic ship. The Edwin Fox is an East Indiaman built in 1853 of teak in Calcutta, India. … Continue reading
The US Coast Guard rarely gets enough credit for the remarkable work that they do in routinely rescuing mariners in often extremely dangerous conditions. A new movie, “The Finest Hours“, is coming out this winter, which tells the story of … Continue reading
Happy Trafalgar Day! Today is the 210th anniversary of the overwhelming Royal Navy victory over the French and Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. After considerable research, Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory has now been repainted to more accurately … Continue reading
Yacht designer Halsey Herreshoff at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, describing how his grandfather Nathanael Greene Herreshoff carved rather than drew the boats that he designed. The more interesting question may not be how Captain Nat carved … Continue reading
When Nathanael Green Herreshoff was around 16, he began to work for his elder brother, John Brown Herreshoff, in his boat yard in Bristol, RI. To work as an apprentice was a traditional way to learn the skills and techniques … Continue reading
For the past fifteen years, the three masted barquentine motorsailer Peacemaker has been owned by the Twelve Tribes, a religious community, often referred to as a cult. The 158′ Class A “tall ship” served as floating ambassador for the fundamentalist group, which … Continue reading
This morning was overcast and threatening rain on the West bank of the Hudson River. Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, it was a sunny, clear day. A Nor’westerly wind was blowing and the air was cool and crisp. … Continue reading
In her long and varied career, the historic cutter Lilac has had many jobs. She served as a lighthouse and buoy tender — bringing supplies to lighthouse and maintaining aids to navigation. She also fought ship fires and rescued the keepers on … Continue reading
One hundred and fifteen years ago today, on September 8, 1900, the city of Galveston Texas was struck by what today would be classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge of 14 feet. Somewhere … Continue reading
This weekend, the 31st Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival was held, culminating in the Mayor’s Cup Schooner Race. The Esperanto Cup, representing the large schooners, was won by the schooner Columbia, built in 2014, a steel replica of the W. Starling Burgess designed … Continue reading
On July 10, 1985, agents of the French government planted mines and blew up Greenpeace‘s Rainbow Warrior in the port of Auckland, New Zealand to prevent the ship to be used to protest a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned … Continue reading
Recently, it was reported that the Prime Meridian, as marked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, is off by 102 meters, over the length of an American football field. The Prime Meridian is the arbitrary line marking 0 degrees … Continue reading
In 2014, we posted about a German fisherman who found a 101 year old message in a bottle. It was then the oldest message ever found in a bottle. Now, a bottle containing a message that was tossed overboard between … Continue reading
In Marvel comics and movies, the mobile headquarters of the fictional intelligence/defense agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is a flying aircraft carrier, referred to as a “Helicarrier.” In the comic books, the flying aircraft carrier first appeared in 1965, which raises the obvious question — … Continue reading