The Okjökull glacier, northeast of Reykjavik, was known simply as Ok to Icelanders. (In Icelandic, jökull means glacier.) In 1890, Ok’s ice covered 16sq km (6.2 square miles) but by 2012 it measured just 0.7sq km, according to a report … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
Sad news reported by ClassicSailboats.org. The 114-year-old sailing yacht Iolaire was lost off Ibiza in late July. She ran ashore after an uncontrolled jibe and sank. The crew escaped without injury. Iolaire, previously owned for over half a century by … Continue reading
Neoline, a French designer and operator of cargo sailing ships, is partnering with car manufacturer Groupe Renault, heavy equipment builder Manitou, and boat builder Groupe Beneteau, to build two 136-meter ro-ros, each with 4,200 square meters of sail area and … Continue reading
On Wednesday, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, set sail from Plymouth, England on a racing yacht bound for New York. She is traveling to participate in United Nations climate talks in September, and she refuses to fly because aviation … Continue reading
In March of 2018, we posted about a pilot project led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) to develop autonomous barges, referred to as “roboats”, to carry cargo and passengers … Continue reading
The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) announced 10 individuals in its 2019 class of inductees. It is an eclectic mix. The recipients include Sailmaker Robbie Doyle; Olympic Gold Medalist Buddy Friedrichs; sailing’s first-ever Women’s Olympic Gold Medalist Allison Jolly; … Continue reading
Great news! The Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg will sail again thanks to support from the shipping agency Greencarrier Group, which has announced that it will take the full operational and financial responsibility for the ship for the next two years. … Continue reading
Around six years ago, Vermont farmer Eric Andrus had an idea. Why not build a sailing barge to carry non-perishable produce down Lake Champlain to the Hudson and onward to markets along the river and on to New York City? … Continue reading
If you are in New York City this evening, head over to Pier 25 on the Hudson River to the historic lighthouse tender the ex-USCGC Lilac for a free concert in honor of National Lighthouse Day. The concert, from 6:00 … Continue reading
The 27th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race, sponsored by the Working Harbor Committee, will be held on the Hudson River near Pier 84 starting at 11 a.m. on September 1st. Watch from shore or get onboard the Spectator Boat … Continue reading
We missed the bicentennial of Herman Melville‘s birthday. He was born just over 200 years ago on August 1, 1819, in a boarding house on 6 Pearl Street, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. In … Continue reading
At about 9AM on January 15, 1942, the British tanker Coimbra, bound from Bayonne, NJ for Halifax, laden with 8,038 tons of lubricating oil, sank after being struck by two torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-123 off the southern shore … Continue reading
In a blistering letter to his forces from the commander in charge of the Navy SEALs, Rear Adm. Colin Green, warns “We have a problem.” The sentence was in bold-faced print and underlined. The letter follows a series of incidents … Continue reading
Coast Guard Day in the United States is this Sunday, August 4th, commemorating the founding of the U. S. Coast Guard as the Revenue Marine on August 4, 1790, by the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. On the ex-USCG … Continue reading
The good news is that last month there was a debate in the UK’s House of Lords about what to do with the wreck of the Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery, which sank loaded with munitions in the Thames estuary … Continue reading