A friend has a wooden kayak that he built from a kit. It is simple in both design and construction – a stitch and glue plywood boat covered with fiberglass cloth. It paddles well, is light weight and is very pretty. Very difficult to ask for more than … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
This summer we posted about an 18th century ship found buried beneath the streets of Manhattan near Ground Zero. Recently, while excavating in front of Stockholm’s Grand Hotel during renovation work to a nearby quay, workers discovered a most unusual ship. … Continue reading
Not a great shock, but Cmdr. Andrew Coles has been relived of his command of HMS Astute, the Royal Navy’s newest and “stealthiest” submarine which very publicly ran aground last month near the Skye bridge off the Isle of Skye. Officer relieved of … Continue reading
On Thursday, we posted about three Tokelauan teenage boys who had attempted to row the sixty miles between two small Pacific islands, became lost and drifted for fifty days across nearly 1,000 miles of the Pacific in a small aluminum skiff. … Continue reading
The holiday shopping season is in full swing. But what can you get for the person who has everything? Why not a used aircraft carrier? Just because the Royal Navy won’t be able to launch ship-borne fixed wing aircraft for the next decade doesn’t mean … Continue reading
In my grumpier moments, I object to celebrating Disneyfied pirates, especially given that piracy is, after all, still a serious problem and not merely a quaint relic of the 16th and 17th centuries. Then again, I can’t be grumpy all the time. … Continue reading
Five Somali pirates who attacked the USS Nicholas, an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, in a wildly misguided attempt to hijack the ship in a late night attack last April, were convicted of piracy in a court in Virginia. The prosecution … Continue reading
Today is celebrated as a day of Thanksgiving in the United States. At the Old Salt Blog we would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to all our readers and contributors, who make putting together the blog such … Continue reading
TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global series of conferences focusing on “Ideas Worth Spreading.” An upcoming TEDxAmsterdam conference will feature Jorne Langelaan, one of the founders of Fair Transport Shipping. With their brigantine Tres Hombres, they are attempting to demonstrate … Continue reading
Three boys had attempted to row the sixty miles between two small Pacific islands. Instead they became lost at sea and drifted for fifty days across nearly 1,000 miles of ocean in a small aluminum dinghy, surviving on raw seagull and … Continue reading
A great interview with Brad Van Liew, the winner of the first leg of the Velux 5 Oceans singlehanded around the world race. Team Lazarus – Velux Ocean Race … Continue reading
Paul Watson and his merry band of bumbling pirates, the Sea Shepherds, stars of the “reality” TV show, Whale Wars, have a new high speed toy boat and have recruited Michelle Rodriguez, the actor who played the kick-ass helicopter pilot in … Continue reading
They are two projects in trouble. One is a group of ship enthusiasts trying to save the rusting hulk of an historic passenger liner and the other, an Indian tribe trying to save a long-delayed casino project. Yesterday, the SS … Continue reading
Minesto, a spin-off of the Swedish-based Saab Group, has a new approach to harnessing tidal energy – underwater kites. They have recently raised an excessive of €2 million in new capital to test the company’s underwater kite generator design, … Continue reading
What did the fire on the Carnival Splendor cost Carnival Corporation? No one really knows exactly, but Carnival announced that they estimate a cost of 7 cents per share. Based on the number of outstanding shares from their 2009 … Continue reading
Thirty years ago HMS Ark Royal was built on the River Tyne at the Swan Hunter shipyard. Last Friday, she sailed home for the last time to be decommissioned and ultimately scrapped. As she moved up river, spectators said their final goodbyes to … Continue reading
For anyone around New York harbor this afternoon and evening, Captains Rick and Karen Miles will be presenting a slide show of their “Arctic Adventures Aboard the Wanderbird” at 4pm and 7pm in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, Pier 12, Red Hook, Brooklyn. … Continue reading
No one knows exactly how much oil was spilled at Newtown Creek, an industrial canal between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York harbor, but the best estimates are between between 17 million and 30 million gallons, which is … Continue reading
The troubled Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia announced on Monday that it would continue to keep the cruiser ex USS Olympia open though the end of the year and shift to a three day schedule through the end of March. … Continue reading
April M. Williams hosts the “Where Are You Today?” Travel Blog. She recently posted a video tour of the Falls of Clyde and an interview with Bruce McEwen, president of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde. The Falls of … Continue reading