There appears to be no limit to the man-made pollution of the oceans. Toxic chemicals have now been found in the deepest portions of the ocean, at the bottom of the Marianas and Kermadec trenches. Each trench is over 10 kilometers deep … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
Azipods strike again. The Norwegian Star, operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines, was towed into Melbourne, Australia over the weekend after losing propulsion when the ship’s azipods failed, leaving the ship adrift last Friday. In the latest round of failures, the … Continue reading
Yale University has announced that it is renaming Calhoun College the Grace Hopper College in honor of Grace Murray Hopper. The University decided to change the name of the residential college which had been named after John C. Calhoun, who attended Yale in 1804 … Continue reading
On Friday, the British tabloid The Sun reported that the Royal Navy’s entire fleet of seven attack submarines was out of service. They wrote: “Repairs and maintenance to all seven have left none to defend our waters — or monitor … Continue reading
Over 400 pilot whales became stranded after they swam into the shallow waters of Golden Bay, near Farewell Spit, at the northernmost tip of the South Island of New Zealand. An estimated 300 of the whales have died, as a small … Continue reading
Last November, we posted about the wrecks of three Dutch World War IIship wrecks in the Java Sea that have apparently vanished. The three ships; the HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java and HNLMS Kortenaer; had been in waters 70 meters … Continue reading
Two fine schooners are looking for crew. The A.J. Meerwald is looking for various crew and staff positions. A.J. Meerwald was built in 1928 as a Delaware Bay oyster schooner and is New Jersey’s official Tall Ship. A.J. Meerwald is operated by the … Continue reading
Is the classic 1927-built stern-wheel steamboat Delta Queen a national treasure or a not safe enough to operate? The ship does not meet current safety standards as established by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations. A series of rolling two … Continue reading
A 3,600 sq mile (9,300 sq km) coral reef has been discovered off the mouth of the Amazon River. Stretching for over 600 miles, from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhão state, the reef is in water from 160 to over 320 … Continue reading
Recently, a 63 year old British tourist died suddenly while snorkelling on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He is the fifth tourist to die in the last three months. In November, a 60-year-old British man and two French tourists, aged 74 and … Continue reading
I read Dr. Jeffrey Bolster‘s book, Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail, not long after it came out a few years ago. It is a fascinating study of the largely untold story of African-American sailors in … Continue reading
For anyone with an interest in shipwrecks, here is a very interesting free online course that marine archaeologist John Broadwater pointed out on Facebook. It has just started but there is still time to sign up. ABOUT THE COURSE People have … Continue reading
Somewhere in the vast North Pacific Ocean, there is a singular whale singing a unique song, which was first recorded in 1989. For close to thirty years, researchers monitoring anti-submarine hydrophone arrays have heard a whale call which is much higher than the calls … Continue reading
You may not necessarily know his name, but if you have been reading yachting magazines over the years, his cartoons probably brought a smile to your face. British cartoonist Mike Peyton, who died on January 25th at the age of … Continue reading
In February 2014, the City of Adelaide, the world’s oldest surviving composite clipper ship, returned to her namesake city. Now almost three years later, she still have not quite found a home. The ship is sitting on a deck barge … Continue reading
Taiwan is now operating the two oldest submarines in service in the world, the 72 year old SS-791 Hai Shih, ex-USS Cutlass, and the 71 year old SS-792 Hai Pao, ex USS Tusk. The Taiwanese government has announced that the Hai … Continue reading
Over the weekend, winter storm Kori sent record high waves smashing into the California coast. The National Weather Service said a new wave record was set as the Monterey Bay buoy recorded 34-foot waves. At Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, … Continue reading
We understand that writer Douglas Reeman has died at this home in Cobham, Surrey, at the age of 92. Reeman, perhaps best know for the novels written under the pen-name Alexander Kent, wrote close to 60 books and has left an indelible … Continue reading
A UK member of parliament from Glasgow, Scotland has joined in the effort to save the endangered historic sailing ship Falls of Clyde. MP Alison Thewliss has written to David Ige, Governor of Hawaii, in support of returning the ship to the … Continue reading
Last June, the Royal Navy submarine HMS Vengeance test fired a dummy Trident II D5 nuclear ballistic missile while cruising in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. The missile was supposed to fly 5,600 miles (9,012 km) to a target at sea off … Continue reading