If you are around Annapolis tomorrow, May 12th, the 200-foot Class A Tall Ship, SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will be at the Naval Academy in Annapolis and will be open for public tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dewey Seawall (Gate 1 … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
After posting about a terrible year for North Atlantic right whales, in which no new calves were spotted following breeding season, it is refreshing to see some good news about whales. Scientists have observed what is being described as a “baby-boom” among … Continue reading
The US Navy courts-martial of the officers of the USS Fitzgerald have begun. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, ACX Crystal near Yokosuka, Japan on June 17, 2017, killing 9 US sailors. A Navy investigation concluded that the … Continue reading
Last October we posted about the Providence, a replica of a Revolutionary War sloop, which in the summer of 2019, will be moving to its new home port, Old Town Alexandria, VA. Old Town Alexandria is certainly no stranger to 18th-century ships. … Continue reading
The Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are not the only small new Navy ships with serious operating deficiencies. Recently, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General released a report on the shortcomings of a new class of fast, shallow draft, transport ship, … Continue reading
Researchers have dated stone tools and bones from a butchered rhinoceros and other ancient fauna found in the Philippines’ northern island of Luzon, that date back over 700,000 years, or several hundred thousand years before modern man evolved. So far no human bones have … Continue reading
When the keel on the Cheeki Rafiki, a Beneteau 40.7 sailing yacht, broke off in a storm in the mid-Atlantic in May 2014, the yacht capsized and four UK sailors died. Why did the keel fall off and who was to blame … Continue reading
The good news is that the waters of the Chesapeake are getting progressively cleaner and the crab population has experienced a significant rebound. The bad news is that anti-immigrant politics have plunged the Chesapeake crabbing industry into chaos. First, more … Continue reading
Last month, researchers from the University of Washington released a study performed over four winters which recorded 184 bowhead whales singing beneath the ice in Greenland. What they found was remarkable. Kate Stafford and other UW oceanographers discovered that the … Continue reading
The media has called the Russian floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov a “Floating Chernobyl” and a “Nuclear Titanic.” Is this just headline hyperbole? Or, is the barge-mounted 70-megawatt nuclear reactor a serious threat? It is hard to tell, which is scary … Continue reading
The saga of the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) continues. The ships were intended to be small, versatile and relatively inexpensive. So far they have succeeded only in being small. The Navy intends to have around 30 of these ships … Continue reading
A very interesting case was argued recently before the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Superior Court over a $75 fine issued to a boater for not having enough life jackets aboard his boat. The issue before the court, however, was not life jackets, … Continue reading
SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is the largest civilian sailing school vessel in the United States and the first ocean-going full-rigged ship to built in the U.S. in over 100 years. Her accommodations hold 32 people overnight in addition to her 17 professional … Continue reading
A new study has found record quantities of microplastics in sea ice. The study, published this week in Nature Communications, demonstrates “just how pervasive this type of pollution has become in every last corner of our planet,” says Melanie Bergmann, one of … Continue reading
Here is a short and beautiful video to end the week. The video by Paul Demonte features two historic vessels in New York harbor — the 1907 built tug Pegasus and the Hudson River railroad barge, Lehigh Valley No. 79, … Continue reading
A new race is being organized for 2019 and 2020 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Strait of Magellan in 1520. Dubbed the “Cape Horn Race,” it will have four legs: The Cape Horn Transat — Gibraltar … Continue reading
We have been following the grim saga of the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall since last August. Ms. Wall disappeared after going on a trip in Copenhagen harbor onboard Peter Madsen’s private submarine, UC3 Nautulis, as part of an interview. The … Continue reading
The extremely small ship Adventure sails on. Last year we posted about the Playmobil toy pirate ship, named Adventure, launched by brothers Ollie and Harry Ferguson, 9 and 6 years old, respectively, from the port of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. After adding … Continue reading
Years ago, when I sailed briefly on tall ships, I heard that the two most at-risk groups when going aloft were total novices and the most experienced old hands. The novices knew little, while the experienced sailors grew complacent. This came to … Continue reading
I realize that I am in a rut. Every Earth Day, I say the same thing. Over 70% of the surface of this planet is covered by water, so referring to the planet as “earth” is just wrong. But be … Continue reading