Starting this Wednesday, June 13th, Baltimore, MD will host its “Star-Spangled Sailabration,” a week long festival with 18 tall ships and 22 naval vessels, marking the start of Maryland’s three year commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812. In addition to the parade … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
The recent transit of Venus, the passing of the shadow of the planet Venus across the face of the sun, brought to mind the voyage of Captain Cook in HMS Endeavour in 1768-1771. Now, archaeologists in Rhode Island believe they may have … Continue reading
The Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery, with a cargo of high explosives, was wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary in 1944. Shortly after the wreck, an attempt was made to remove her cargo but the ship broke apart with … Continue reading
The Normandy landings, on June 6, 1944, was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, with over 160,000 troops and 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships. Normandy Invasion D-Day Landings, 6 June 1944 … Continue reading
On June 5th and 6th, depending on where you are in the world, there will be the last transit of Venus, where the planet Venus visibly passes between the earth and the Sun, until the year 2017. The previous transit of Venus … Continue reading
Two Roman-era shipwrecks have been found in water slightly less than a mile deep off the western Greek islands of Corfu and Paxoi. The two third-century wrecks were discovered earlier this month during a survey of an area where a Greek-Italian gas pipeline … Continue reading
Shipwrecks tend to be pretty stationary. They are not prone to wandering about. Now, however, an Elizabethan shipwreck dating from 1574, which was recovered from the River Thames in 2003, is on the move. The remains of the 16th-century “Gresham … Continue reading
Charles Spencer, writing for the Telegraph, had a hunch. After reviewing the Royal Shakespeare Company’s trilogy of Shakespeare’s “shipwreck” plays last month, he found himself wondering whether the Bard spent his so-called “lost years” before his arrival in London, as … Continue reading
The intheboatshed.net blog recently featured a wonderful short video, The Little Ships of England, produced in 1943, highlighting wooden boat building in England during World War II. The Little Ships of England [iframe: src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/38928688?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff” width=”500″ height=”375″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen] … Continue reading
One hundred and fifty years ago today, Robert Smalls, a 23 year old mulatto slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, led eight fellow slaves in an audacious flight to freedom. They seized the CSS Planter, steamed … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted the obituary of Claude Holloway, a British Motor Torpedo Boat commander, who heroically saved dozens of sailors in the German attack on Bari, Italy in 1943. Holloway was nearly killed by mustard gas bombs secretly carried aboard the American Liberty … Continue reading
Claude Holloway died recently at the age of 93. He was one of the most successful motor torpedo boat commanders in the Mediterranean in the Second World War, earning a Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the Caorle Point … Continue reading
The attorneys for Odyssey Marine Exploration have been keeping busy. In February we posted about the end of a multi-year legal battle between Spain and Odyssey Marine Exploration over $500m in gold and silver coins and other artifacts from the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes. … Continue reading
In 1865, the CSS Georgia, a Confederate ironclad battery was burned and sunk in the Savannah River to avoid capture and to obstruct passage on the river. (The ship was scuttled not far from where the British sank the frigate HMS … Continue reading
Seventy yeas ago, the Japanese and navies of the United States and Australia fought the Battle of the Coral Sea in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea in a series of naval battles from May … Continue reading