The Mystic Seaport Museum has posted a fascinating video of the 3D laser scanning of the hold of the whaler Charles W. Morgan along with commentary on how they are using the technology to record the original construction details of the historic ship. … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Lusitania arriving New York on her maiden voyage A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesconsiders the sinking of two well known ships, the Titanic and theLusitania, and looks at who made it to the lifeboats and who was left … Continue reading
11th Annual Ghost Ships Festival 2010 The Ghost Ships Festival is Wisconsin’s largest trade show devoted to Scuba Diving and Great Lakes Maritime History. Exhibits, workshops, and presentations cover just about every aspect of Great Lakes maritime history and scuba diving. … Continue reading
Sunken Canadian ship spewing oil off Alaskan coast: U.S. Coast Guard A storied Canadian steamship that offered luxury cruises for decades along the British Columbia coast, then served a crucial role during the Second World War transporting troops, supplies and … Continue reading
Recently we posted that the Independence Seaport Museum is seeking a new owner for the USS Olympia which it cannot afford to support. See Philly Museum Sends SOS to Care for Historic Ship. Sadly it appears that not only … Continue reading
Stad Amsterdam arriving in Melbourne Back in September we posted about a group of historians and naturalists, as well as a film crew for Dutch VPRO Television sailing on the Stad Amsterdam. The ship is retracing the voyage of HMS … Continue reading
Terrible news from Phildelphia. Philadelphia maritime museum says it can’t afford to care for historic USS Olympia A Philadelphia maritime museum says it can no longer afford to care for a historic ship that served in the Spanish-American War. … Continue reading
Heinz Stahlschmidt, a renegade former member of Germany’s World War Two navy, who thwarted plans to wreck the French port of Bordeaux by retreating Nazi forces, has died at the age of 91, officials said. Thanks to Andy Hall at … Continue reading
Nuclear power as a propulsion system for merchant ships was the future that never arrived. The Otto Hahn was the second of only four nuclear powered commercial cargo ships ever built. The first was the NS Savannah, which operated between 1962 … Continue reading
Containership operations has always been like riding a roller coaster, with many highs and lows and unexpected twists and turns. One sign of this is the fluctuating speeds of container ships over the years, going from slow to fast to … Continue reading
Here is an intriguing article suggesting that we humans have been taking to the sea for far longer than had been previously recorded. Recently stone tools have been found on the island of Crete which date back at least 130,000 … Continue reading
Bronze Age shipwreck found off Devon coast One of the world’s oldest shipwrecks has been discovered off the coast of Devon after lying on the seabed for almost 3,000 years. The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of … 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. It seems a good day to recall the tale of Lincoln’s camel. … Continue reading
Over thirty years ago when I was in college studying naval architecture, a classmate of mine got a summer job working as a naval architect for Sun Shipyard helping to design some part of the new deep sea mining ship, … Continue reading
Last October, we wrote about how researchers are using eighteenth century Royal Navy ship logs to study climate change. (See Logbooks may yield climate bounty.) Now, through the wonder of the internet, many of these log books are on-line. The … Continue reading
Last Operational World War II Motor Boats Saved For The Nation Two of the last remaining fully operational high-speed World War II motor boats have been saved for the nation today by Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, with the help … Continue reading
Many ships carrying civilians were sunk during World War II by both sides. If current estimates are correct, the torpedoing of the M/V Wilhelm Gustloff resulted in the largest loss of life from the sinking of one vessel in maritime … Continue reading
Thanks to David Hayes for passing this along. There is something slightly frightening about sailors on a nuclear submarine receiving daily rum rations. Royal Navy Rum – issued daily to sailors 1655 to 1970 Alcohol and the Royal Navy often seem … Continue reading
In January we posted about the Jewel of Muscat a replica of a 9th-century sailing ship modelled on a famous Tang Treasure ship. Recently Nova broadcast a documentary on far older ships from the region, Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s ships, dating from 1479 BCE. … Continue reading
Not every historic vessel can be saved and not every historic vessel should be saved. The difficult question is deciding which are worthy of saving before they fall prey to the ravages of time or, in this case, the bureaucracy. A story from today’s Daily … Continue reading