In 2014, we posted about the deployment of a prototype 30-kilowatt-class Laser Weapon System (LAWS) on the USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, for field testing in the Persian Gulf. Last week, the Navy announced that the amphibious transport … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
In early November, we posted that the United States Maritime Academy at King’s Point had paused Sea Year, a program that sent cadets to sea aboard commercial ships, after a female midshipman at the school shared an account in September of … Continue reading
The three-volume The Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation, written by Richard Hakluyt in 1599, and published bound as two books, were only expected to sell for between £3,000 and £5,000. Instead, they sold at an … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted a grim post The Threat from Thwaites, Antarctica’s Riskiest Glacier about the potential collapse of the glacier’s ice shelf within a few years resulting in a rise in global sea levels by several feet. While researching the … Continue reading
At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union yesterday, scientists from The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) discussed the rapid retreat of Thwaites glacier and the implications that will have on our planet in the coming years. Thwaites, often referred … Continue reading
The Norwegian sail training ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl will be visiting New York harbor next week. The three-masted barque, built in 1914, will be docking at Brooklyn Bridge Park and will be available for tours from December 19 to 27, from … Continue reading
The good news, as reported by the New York Times, is that 11.2 million juvenile oysters have been added in the past six months to a section of the Hudson River off the coast of Lower Manhattan, where they are … Continue reading
While many were disappointed by the lack of major breakthroughs at COP26, the recent U.N. climate talks, significant progress was made in beginning to clean up shipping emissions on global trade routes. As reported by the Washington Post, the United … Continue reading
Earlier this year we posted Maersk Bets on Methanol — Orders One Feeder and Eight Large Dual Fuel Containerships. The feeder vessel is expected to be delivered in 2023, with the first of the eight 16,000 TEU ships, built by … Continue reading
This year has been a catastrophe for Florida manatees. More than 1,000 manatees, about 15 percent of the state’s total population, have died, primarily of starvation, this year. For nourishment, manatees rely mainly on sea grass, beds of which have … Continue reading
On the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 1,000 military families have been forced from their homes and suffered illness by drinking water apparently contaminated by petroleum from a leaking, World War II era, underground fuel storage … Continue reading
On April 19, 2021, Captain Dan Sandu, 68, from Romania, master of the general cargo ship MV Vantage Wave, died at sea, apparently from cardiac arrest. The ship was on route from Paradip India to Guangzhou, China, with cargo of … Continue reading
Reuters is reporting that Suiso Frontier, the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier could leave Japan for Australia to pick up its first cargo of hydrogen late this month. The ship will carry 1,250 m3 of liquefied hydrogen cooled to –253°C, … Continue reading
When things are going well, the international shipping supply chain is largely invisible and can be taken for granted by most of us. These days things are not going well. The pandemic has triggered massive trade imbalances. Critical links in … Continue reading
Interesting news from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). While exploring a seamount by ROV from aboard the R/V Western Flyer in 2019 the MBARI team spotted what looked like an elephant’s tusk. The seamount is located 300 kilometers … Continue reading