If you are near New York harbor, there is a closing party for the “Ships of New York Harbor: Marine Art of Christina Sun and Frank Hanavan” exhibit on the historic lighthouse tender Lilac tomorrow evening September 30, from 6 to 10 PM at Pier 25 … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
One hell of a day for storms at sea. Just after noon today, Isaac was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it slowly moved north in the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, on a track disturbingly similar … Continue reading
Last January we posted that the composite clipper ship City of Adelaide would begin her voyage by barge and then ship to her namesake city in Australia by March, “if all goes well.” As is not unusual is this sort of project, … Continue reading
I have a distinct recollection a photo of Thomas Lipton on one of his Americas Cup challengers sipping a cup of the tea on which his fortune was based. I can’t find the photograph, so perhaps I shouldn’t trust my memory. … Continue reading
When I first saw the photo, I thought that the Little Leon was sailed by giants. The ship looked properly to scale, while the crew seemed disproportionately large. It turns out that Little Leon is a 16′ long brigantine modeled … Continue reading
The Dublin Tall Ship Festival is well underway this weekend in Ireland, with 40 tall ships and at least a dozen accompanying vessels. A million vistitors are expected to throng the docks. There was already considerable drama prior to the … Continue reading
The Pride of Baltimore II is visiting New York, calling in Manhattan’s North Cove on the Hudson River. She should be arriving around mid-day today and will be staying through Sunday. Daysails and dockside tours will be available. (See the schedule after the … Continue reading
Updates to two sets of recent posts: After considerable delay the container ship MSC Flaminia is being allowed into a port of refuge. Authorities have granted permission for the German flagged ship to be towed into German waters. Following a safety inspection … Continue reading
Commercial sail has not yet returned, but there are interesting niche players who are doing what they can to change that. The sailing brigantine Tres Hombres recently carried 10 tons of French wine from Brest to Copenhagen for delivery to … Continue reading
Last week it was announced that the wreck of SS Terra Nova, the ship that had carried Robert Scott on his ill-fated quest to be the first to reach the South Pole, had been located off Greenland. In July, the … Continue reading
This morning Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt, her third this year, to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida after being buffeted by squalls and stung by jellyfish. She had been in the water for roughly 60 hours … Continue reading
I am very fond of William Faulkner’s maxim, “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” What brought this to mind was recent news from the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. Back in 1995, parts of a ship’s framing was found … Continue reading
Starting a day earlier than planned, Diana Nyad, 62, began her fourth attempt yesterday afternoon to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West Florida, a distance of 103 miles across open ocean. Nyad swam 21.7 statute miles in her first 18 hours. The total … Continue reading
I am a big fan of cormorants. The ones I am most familiar with are the double crested cormorants common in North America. The imperial shag cormorant, the double crested cormorants’ larger South American and Antarctic cousin, has been causing quite … Continue reading
On August 19, 1812, the 44-gun USS Constitution met the 38 gun HMS Guerriere in single ship combat off the coast of Nova Scotia. During the battle the Constitution earned her nickname “Old Ironsides” when the British 18 pound shot was seen to bounce off … Continue reading
When the Swedish warship Vasa was raised from the seabed in 1961, to prevent her her waterlogged timbers from shrinking and cracking, the hull was sprayed, inside and out, continuously with polyethylene glycol for 17 years, followed by 9 years of slow drying. The British … Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered the wreck of the 215 foot long, three masted sailing ship, W.R. Grace, which sank in a hurricane near Cape Henlopen in 1889 . Shipwreck mystery solved … Continue reading
Yesterday, a federal judge in Virginia ordered Somali pirate Mohammad Saaili Shibin to serve 12 life sentences, 10 of which will run concurrently, while two are consecutive. Shibin was also ordered to pay $5.4 million in restitution. Shibin, 50, has white hair and … Continue reading
A new documentary by Thomas Michael Conner, “Once Upon a Nuclear Ship,” tells the story of the NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear powered merchant ship. It is an interesting and worthy tale to tell. Without having seen the documentary, however, the … Continue reading
Two years ago, we posted about the delivery of the E-Ship 1, a ship built for Enercon, a German producer of wind turbines. The ship is intended to demonstrate energy saving technology as well as to deliver Enercon wind turbine assemblies … Continue reading