This Monday, May 10th, PBS’s American Experience series will broadcast Ric Burns’ new documentary, Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World. It looks fascinating. The history of the American whaling industry from its 17th-century origins in drift and shore whaling off … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
An intriguing item from Jim Klein on the Marine History List. They are now filming the search for the cannons from the Beeswax wreck. From the Beeswax Wreck Project site: One of the most popular mysteries of the Oregon Coast … Continue reading
Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along two articles about historic maritime clocks. The conservators at the Mariner’s Museum have restored the engine room clock from the USS Monitor which sank in 1862. On the other side of the Atlantic, … Continue reading
When the new New York City fireboat 343 arrived in New York harbor yesterday, one of the fleet greeting her was the fireboat John J. Harvey. (Will has some great photos and commentary the tugster blog.) I am struck by … Continue reading
Two hundred and twenty one years ago yesterday, the crew of HMS Bounty staged a mutiny that remains famous to this day. Four sailors are attempting to recreate Captain Bligh’s epic 3,700 nautical mile voyage in a 23 foot long open boat … Continue reading
The last four Victory ships owned by the government are on their way toward the scrapyard. The Maritime Blog recently post somegreat photos of the Pan American Victory, as she transited the Panama Canal not too long ago. She … Continue reading
In 2001, divers located the wreck of a ship off the Florida Keys in 220 feet of water. She had the distinctive ram bow of an early 20th century war ship but lacked guns or other weaponry. She has … Continue reading
One of the Steam Packet Company‘s post war vessels is to be scrapped. The s.s. Manxman, which had her last sailing in the early 80’s, is to be dismantled due to to the extent of damage after years of neglect. … Continue reading
In his poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described HMS Somersett on the night of April 18, 1775: Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; … Continue reading
There is an interesting ongoing conflict over the salvaging of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee which was scuttled in the River Plate in 1939. A Uruguayan businessman has been salving parts of the Graf Spee for the last ten … Continue reading
Dewey on the Olympia at Manila Bay I am not sure if it is irony or merely a confirmation that Faulkner was right – the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. Not long after the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia … Continue reading
Centuries-old Baltic shipwrecks found A dozen centuries-old shipwrecks — some of them unusually well-preserved — have been discovered in the Baltic Sea by a gas company building an underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany, Swedish experts said Tuesday. The oldest … Continue reading
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
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