Happy Birthday US Navy, Not to be Confused with Navy Day or the Founding of the Navy

Happy 239th birthday to the United States Navy! On Friday, October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two armed sailing vessels to cruise to attempt to seize arms and stores from Royal Navy transports. The rebel forces were … Continue reading

Replica of Henry Hudson’s Ship Half Moon May Move to Netherlands

The story is regrettably familiar. A historic vessel, unable to find a suitable berth, is forced to move elsewhere. Yesterday, Chip Reynolds, Director of the New Netherland Museum and Captain of the replica ship, Half Moon, announced the museum’s intentions to … Continue reading

Update: Columbus’ Ship Santa Maria Not Found Off Cap-Haitien

Last May we posted that marine archaeologist Barry Clifford had announced that he believed that he had located the wreck of Christopher Columbus’ ship Santa Maria  which ran aground and sank on Christmas Day 1492 off Haiti near Cap-Haitien.   UNESCO has now … Continue reading

600 Year Old Waka, a Voyaging Canoe, Links New Zealand to Polynesia

A waka, a 600 year voyaging canoe, was recently found on the New Zealand’s South Island’s West Coast.  The results of a study by University of Auckland researchers appeared recently in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   The waka, … Continue reading

Sting’s The Last Ship — A Musical of Love and Loss in a Tyneside Shipyard

Just over a year ago, I was surprised — shocked might be a better word — to hear of a play about a shipyard. The Boat Factory was set in Harland & Wolff of Belfast, the shipyardyard that built theTitanic as well as roughly 1,700 … Continue reading

Collision Between between Colombo Express and Maersk Tanjong in Suez Canal

This isn’t supposed to happen. The Hapag-Lloyd 8,749-teu MV Colombo Express and the 8,112-teu MV Maersk Tanjong collided today at the northern end of Egypt’s Suez Canal, near Port Said.  No casualties were reported.  MV Colombo Express suffered a 20-meter dent on her … Continue reading