The two headlines in the BBC are from the same day and posted only an hour apart. The first reads “World’s oldest clipper ship transported to Australia.” The second – “City of Adelaide clipper ship export ban sought.” Both … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Oliver Hazard Perry was born near Newport, Rhode Island on August 23,1785. He died of yellow fever on his 34th birthday in 1819. Perry went sea as a midshipman at the age of 13. He was given his first command, … Continue reading
In May, we posted about the discovery of a rare Howell torpedo by Navy dolphins in the Pacific off San Diego. The Howell torpedo was the first self-propelled torpedo in United States Navy service. Only fifty were built and, until the … Continue reading
Two years ago we posted about the efforts by a Bournemouth University marine archaeology team to save the a mysterious ship known only as the Swash Channel Wreck, after its location off the Dorset coast. The team is now … Continue reading
When the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition‘s three-masted barquentine, Endurance, was crushed in the Antarctic ice, expedition leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton, allowed each man to take off only two pounds of possessions, including their boots. The only exception Shackleton made was Leonard Hussey’s banjo, which weighed … Continue reading
Herman Melville was born on this day, August 1, in 1819, in a boarding house on the site of 6 Pearl Street, in the Financial District of lower Manhattan in New York City. I invite you to join me in … Continue reading
This Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 2 PM, the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor will host the Staten Island premiere of the documentary Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves. Bob Wright and his musical group Harbortown will perform songs from their album … Continue reading
Almost exactly a year ago, we posted that Odyssey Marine Exploration had recovered approximately 48 tons of silver from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot British cargo ship which was torpedoed in February of 1941 by a German U-boat. The wreck … Continue reading
Two groups on opposite coasts of the United States are frantically working to save the 1895 built, SS Olympia, Admiral Dewey’s flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay and the last, just barely, surviving war ship from the Spanish-American War. The Mare … Continue reading
A new video released by the Bermuda Department of Conservation Services explores the wreckage of the British mail steamship “Caraquet” which came to grief on the island’s reefs 90 years ago. Caraquet 1864 – Bermuda Shipwrecks from Conservation Services on … Continue reading
This September, a fleet of tall ships will reenact the 1813 Battle of Put-in-Bay, Ohio, also known as the Battle of Lake Erie. The reenactment is part of the Great Lakes Tall Ships Challenge which kicks off today in Cleveland, OH through the … Continue reading
My wife and I recently saw “The Boat Factory” a two actor play, starring Dan Gordon and Michael Condron, which celebrates the sprawling Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That’s right, a play about a shipyard. But not just any … Continue reading
We recently posted about the Michigan State Senate passing a resolution which officially recognized “International Talk Like a Pirate Day”. (It appears that they nothing better to do, in a state with a gaping budget deficit, collapsing cities and failing schools. … Continue reading
Researchers at Swansea University, working with a Swedish expert, have reconstructed the face of one of Henry VIII’s elite archers, who drowned aboard the warship Mary Rose in 1545. Face of 16th-century English archer revealed It reveals a man in his … Continue reading
In 1929, a portion of a world map was discovered in the archives at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The map showed Europe, parts of Africa and Columbus’ discoveries in the New World. It was drawn in 1513 only 21 years … Continue reading
The carrack Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s flagship. After thirty three years of service, it sank in the Solent on July 19, 1545. Out of 500 sailors, 35 survived. The wreck was located in 1971 and the ship was … Continue reading
In most cases, no one ever manages to find the carcass of a dead sea serpent or lake monster washed up on a beach. The one big, literal and figurative, exception are the”globsters,” massive carcasses which have been washing shore … Continue reading
Next to a 7-11 convenience store on 8th Avenue, about a half block from the beach, in the New Jersey shore community of Belmar, there is a tall sewer standpipe, a vertical vent designed to carry the noxious smells from … Continue reading
What is the plural of Atlantis? Atlanti? Atlantises? Recently two different underwater areas have been in the news, both of which are referred to as “Britain’s Atlantis.” One is called Doggerland, a huge undersea region swallowed by the sea … Continue reading
The Howell Automobile Torpedo of 1889 was the first self-propelled torpedo in United States Navy service. Only fifty were built and until recently, only one was known to have survived. Then in late April, Navy dolphins located a lost Howell … Continue reading