New Destroyer USS John Basilone Commissioned on Hudson River in New York City

Last Saturday morning at Pier 88 on the Hudson River, the US Navy commissioned its newest destroyer, USS John Basilone. With the New York City skyline as a backdrop, the ceremony took place between the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid and the … Continue reading

Art on Superyachts — $3 Million Warhol “Brillo Pad Box” Sculpture Thrown Out With the Trash

In 1964, pop-artist Andy Warhol shocked the art world by making hundreds of replicas of supermarket cartons and presenting them as art. He painted screenprints of soup cans, then sculptures of packaging for Kellogg’s cornflakes and Heinz ketchup. Among the … Continue reading

The Cost of Corruption — Legacy of the US Navy Fat Leonard Scandal

The decades-long “Fat Leonard” bribery and corruption scandal may finally have come to an end.  This week, Malaysian ship-supply contractor, Leonard Glenn Francis, 60, known as “Fat Leonard” was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribing US Navy officials … Continue reading

A Lesson Un-Learned: Two “Influencers” Drown After Refusing to Wear Life Jackets So Not to Ruin Their Tans

A sad account that reinforces an old lesson, while also highlighting an unexpected risk of social media.  Vice reports that two Brazilian Instagram “influencers” drowned in a boating accident off the coast of São Paulo after opting not to wear … Continue reading

Collapse of Ferry Dock on Georgia’s Sapelo Island Kills 7

At least seven people were killed yesterday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. The Georgia Department of … Continue reading

Team New Zealand First Syndicate to Win the America’s Cup Three Times in a Row

Emirates Team New Zealand clinched match point in the 37th America’s Cup on Saturday, beating INEOS Britannia 7-2 in the best-of-13 finals held just off Barcelona’s beachfront as reported by the AP. The team led by Grant Dalton won its third consecutive … Continue reading

Russian Man Rescued After 67 Days Adrift on Sea of Okhotsk

In early August, Mikhail Pichugin, 46, set off in a small inflatable boat to watch whales in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. They went missing after departing from Cape Perovsky bound for Sakhalin … Continue reading

Endurance — New Documentary Reveals Shackleton’s Ship as Never Seen Before

A new National Geographic documentary “Endurance,” will premiere at the London Film Festival on Saturday before being released in UK cinemas from Monday and on Disney+ later in the year. The documentary includes a 3D digital scan of Sir Ernest … Continue reading

Google AI Tracks Mysterious Deep Sea “Biotwang” to Help Study Bryde’s Whale

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has partnered with Google AI to analyze an ocean of long-term passive acoustic data. Using AI and machine learning, they have analyzed in hours what would otherwise take decades to process. In 2014, … Continue reading

New Zealand Navy Support Vessel Grounds & Sinks off Samoa, All Onboard Rescued

HMNZS Manawanui, a multi-role offshore support vessel commissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy, ran aground while surveying a reef off the island of Upolu in Samoa on Saturday night local time. The ship subsequently caught fire before capsizing and … Continue reading

Tentative Agreement Ends ILA Port Strike After 3 Days

The longshoremen’s strike appears to have ended with a tentative agreement on wages. This afternoon, the ILA and the USMX released a joint statement: The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. have reached a tentative agreement … Continue reading

Day 2 of ILA Port Strike & the Maritime Origin of the Term “Strike”

We are now in day 2 of the first International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike in almost 50 years. The ILA represents 45,000 dockworkers at 36 ports from Maine to Texas on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. … Continue reading

Yacht Builder’s Rogue Lawyer Fired After Filing €222 Million Suit Against Bayesian Crew & Widow

The initial reports were bizarre. On Friday, Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer who works with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), the builder of the superyacht Bayesian that sank at anchor in August off Sicily, killing Mike Lynch and six other passengers, … Continue reading

Update: SS United States Docking Dispute in Philadelphia Heads to Mediation

We recently posted about a tentative deal to sell the historic ocean liner SS United States to be sunk to create the world’s largest artificial reef, off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, FL in the Gulf of Mexico.  That deal is … Continue reading

USS New Jersey, First Coed Submarine, Commissioned

The US Navy commissioned its first-ever coed submarine, the Virginia-class attack submarine USS New Jersey, at a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, NJ. The US Navy has allowed women to serve on US Navy submarines for more … Continue reading

Gotham Whale Fundraiser Whale Watch, Saturday, September 21st

How many whales and other marine mammals frequent the waters adjoining the New York Metropolitan Region? At last count, at least 400, which was news to me. This is according to Gotham Whale, the area’s preeminent civic organization that tracks, … Continue reading

Candela’s Electric Hydrofoil Ferries to Fly in Sweden & Saudi Arabia

Three years ago, we posted about all-electric hydrofoil runabouts designed and built by Candela that succeeded in combining high speed with substantial range. Bloomberg referred to the company as “Sweden’s Tesla of the Sea” for challenging the conventional internal-combustion-powered leisure-craft … Continue reading

Animal Rights Groups Say Hvaldimir, the Beluga “Spy” Whale, Was Shot

Animal rights groups on Wednesday said gunfire killed a beluga whale nicknamed Hvaldimir, which became famous in Norway after its unusual harness sparked suspicions the creature was trained by Russia as a spy. The organizations NOAH and One Whale said they … Continue reading