Not all sailors in the Northeast are sick of winter. For some ice boaters on the Hudson, this has been a great season and isn’t over quite yet. Ice boating, or ice yachting, as some call it, is a cross … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Stepping away for a moment from the unfolding current events in the Ukraine and Russia, it might be worthwhile to look at the history of the region, which was shaped by the arrival of merchant adventurers rowing long ships. As … Continue reading
The story of the “ghost ship” Mary Celeste is one of the great mysteries of the sea. The merchant brigantine was found 400 miles east of the Azores on December 5, 1872, unmanned and apparently abandoned in fair weather. What happened … Continue reading
In the United States, today is “Presidents’ Day,” a national holiday on the third Monday of February, falling between Lincoln’s (February 14th) and Washington’s (February 22) birthdays. Here is a repost of the tale of Lincoln’s camel that we ran back … Continue reading
In the almost 6,000 miles of streets, roads and highways in the five boroughs of New York City, only about 15 miles are still paved with cobblestones. As noted by the New York Times: Starting in the 17th century, cobblestones … Continue reading
The first word that comes to mind when thinking of Albert Einstein is probably not “sailor.” Nevertheless, Einstein enjoyed sailing and appears to have done at least some of his most important work while on sailing vacations. A friend described … Continue reading
Sometime around the 60 CE, a Greek merchant, whose name is lost to history, wrote a guide, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Periplus is the Latinization of the Greek word περίπλους (periplous, contracted from periploos), literally “a sailing-around.” While Erythraean literally … Continue reading
In World War II, the British government set up the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe. An unusual group, they were also known as “the Baker Street Irregulars,” (because their headquarters was on Baker Street in … Continue reading
We recently endured the media farce in which dozens of newspapers and websites reported that “a ghost ship filled with cannibal rats may be headed straight for Britain,” even though the ship has probably sunk and the bit about the rats … Continue reading
The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, has arrived in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She has been carried from Scotlandon the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur, with intermediate stops to load and discharge other cargo. MV Palanpur is … Continue reading
For the land-bound, the sea is a boundary. For sailors, it is a path to other shores. But how long have humans been sailing? We can be reasonably sure that humans have been sailing in rafts, boats or ships for … Continue reading
Sometime during the Civil War, the poet Walt Whitman wrote a poem about New York City, titled “The City of Ships.” The first stanzas begin: City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful, sharp-bow’d … Continue reading
For several years now, there has been a webcam of the 90,000 gallon treatment tank where the 120 ton wrought iron turret of the USS Monitor is being preserved by electrolysis and desalination. After spending 111 years underwater, the turret will need … Continue reading
By definition, shipping is the ultimate offshore industry. For most, the business of shipping is largely invisible, literally beyond the horizon. I recently came across two representations of global shipping – a plot developed from ship’s logs from the 18th … Continue reading
The brochure for for the cruise liner Lakonia promised “A MARVELOUS CHRISTMAS CRUISE TO SUNNY MADEIRA AND THE CANARY ISLANDS…HAVE YOUR HOLIDAY WITH ALL RISK ELIMINATED. ENJOY A HOLIDAY YOU WILL REMEMBER FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.” Now fifty years later, … Continue reading
There was a recent story in the press about the wreckage of a German World War I submarine beached of mudflats on the banks of the River Medway in Hoo, Kent. The sub is, believed to be the UB-122, one … Continue reading
A recent article in PastHorizons – Adventures in Archaeology looks at the images of ships scratched in the stones of medieval churches of England. This sailor’s graffiti shows a wide range of vessels that would have plied the waters … Continue reading
Recently there has been disturbing news that the wreck of HMAS Perth is being stripped by scrap merchants in the sea off Java. In February 1942, the Leander class cruiser HMAS Perth was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the Battle … Continue reading
Robert Redford was recently nominated for a Golden Globe award for his remarkable one man performance in the movie, “All is Lost.” While Redford’s acting was impressive, the movie was marred by an apparent lack of even a basic understand … Continue reading
On the morning of December 7, 1941, USS Oklahoma was moored at an outside berth in the inner harbor at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor that day, the USS Oklahoma was directly in the flight path of … Continue reading