Here is a story well worth retelling; an updated repost in honor of Black History Month; the remarkable story of Robert Smalls. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
Over nearly three centuries of whaling, some 175,000 men went to sea in 2,700 ships. Of the 2,500 masters who captained these ships, at least 52 were men of color. In honor of Black History Month, here is an updated … Continue reading
A repost in honor of Black History Month. William Tillman was one of the first black heroes of the American Civil War. He was not a soldier but rather a 27-year-old cook-steward on the schooner S.J. Waring. On July 7, … Continue reading
Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped and would become a leading “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad” which helped slaves escape from bondage in the South to freedom in the North and in Canada, prior to the Civil War. Nicknamed “Moses,” she … Continue reading
In honor of Black History Month, a repost of a wonderful bit of history from the Naval History and Heritage Command — the story of the Golden Thirteen. In January 1944, there were nearly 100,000 Black Sailors in the United … Continue reading
Last Saturday, a ragtag pirate band calling itself Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla invaded the port of Tampa, FL, kicking off the Gasparilla Pirate Fest, notionally in honor of Jose Gaspar, a brigand reputed to be the “Last Buccaneer.” The festival … Continue reading
In June 2002 in the city of Newport, South East Wales, a mid-fifteenth-century sailing vessel was discovered during the construction of the Riverfront Theatre in the banks of the River Usk. Now, after two decades of documenting the remains of … Continue reading
The SS United States is a ship from another era. One of the last great ocean liners, very different from modern cruise ships, she was designed to carry passengers across oceans. On her maiden voyage in 1952, she set speed … Continue reading
An updated repost — a look back at the twin miracles on the Hudson from fourteen years ago today. On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s pilots, … Continue reading
Tonight, millions will watch in person, online, or on television, as a jeweled ball drops in Times Square in New York City at exactly midnight to mark the arrival of the New Year, 2023. In recent years, the crowd in … Continue reading
A team of researchers conducted 56 dives over 11 days in September on the wreck of the HMS Erebus from the 1845 Franklin Expedition near Gjoa Haven recovering more than 275 additional artifacts from the historic shipwreck. The newly retrieved artifacts … Continue reading
On September 12, 1857, the 289-foot-long sidewheel steamer SS Central America sank in a hurricane off the US East Coast. When she sank, 425 of her 578 passengers and crew were drowned and 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) of gold from … Continue reading
An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here … Continue reading
One hundred and five years ago today, on the morning of December 6, 1917, the French freighter SS Mont-Blanc and the SS Imo, a Norwegian ship chartered to carry relief supplies to Belgium, collided in the Narrows, a strait connecting … Continue reading
After seven years of reconstruction and restoration in Boothbay Harbor, ME, the historic schooner Ernestina-Morrissey returned to her home port in New Bedford, MA earlier this week. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the Ernestina-Morrissey sailing into New … Continue reading
Here is a well-done short video about the schooner Wyoming, one of the largest wooden ships ever built. Built as a collier in 1909 by Percy & Small in Bath, Maine, she was capable of carrying 6000 long tons of … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving to those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) What do whaling ships, a child’s nursery rhyme, a female magazine editor, and Abraham Lincoln have to do … Continue reading
A belated happy birthday to Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who turned 84 the day before yesterday. Often referred to as Canada’s greatest songwriter, Lightfoot is also a sailor, having owned and sailed the 39′ Sundown and the 45′ Golden Goose. … Continue reading
In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the … Continue reading
SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes ore carrier, sank 47 years ago today, on November 10, 1975, in a storm on Lake Superior. The crew of 29 was lost when the freighter, loaded with 26,000 tons of iron ore pellets, … Continue reading