My review of Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons : A History of the American Lighthouse, originally published in gCaptain. Reposted with permission. Next only perhaps to an anchor, lighthouses are symbols of security and safety. Even with modern electronic navigation, there … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
Alain Thébault is known as designer and skipper of the record breaking ocean-going hydrofoil Hydroptère, which in 2009, was the first sailing boat to sail faster than 50 knots over a measured mile. Now, Thébault is working on a very different project. … Continue reading
The shipbreaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan is one of largest shipbreakers in the world and is literally where ships go to die. Tragically, workers too often die there as well. A series of explosions yesterday in a tanker being broken up at … Continue reading
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Montgomery suffered another hull crack, this time while transiting the Panama Canal on Sunday. “Under control of the local Panama Canal Pilot, the ship impacted the center lock wall and sustained an 18-inch-long crack … Continue reading
Giant pumpkin paddling is apparently a new, hot water sport, with competitions around the globe. Who knew? From Nova Scotia, to Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Germany and the United Kingdom, people are carving out giant pumpkins, hopping aboard with a … Continue reading
Last month, we posted about the tragic death of Jose Fernandez and two of his friends who died when their 32′ open boat in slammed into a rock breakwater at high speed off South Beach, Miami, FL at around 3AM on … Continue reading
We are about six months behind on this update, but it is a worthwhile topic to catch up on. In January of 2015, we posted The Vagina Kayak and Japanese Genital Politics, which was the story of a Japanese artist, Megumi … Continue reading
In the end of August, we posted about the Obama administration‘s four-fold expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument,a marine sanctuary northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Now, twenty-four countries and the European Union have reached an agreement to establish … Continue reading
Fifty two years ago today, the world came perilously close to being destroyed in a nuclear World War III. Fortunately, one brave Soviet naval officer stood in the way. Imagine — a Soviet submarine is trapped by an American destroyer … Continue reading
While much of the focus has been on the melting of the Arctic ice cap, recent studies highlight the dramatic melting of ice shelves at the other end of the globe. On the west side of Antarctica, giant glaciers form ice shelves … Continue reading
The historic USCG CutterTamaroa will soon be sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Cape May Point, New Jersey. The old ship has had a remarkable history. Built in 1943 as USS Zuni, the 205-foot … Continue reading
In just three years since the release of the documentary, Blackfish, the world of captive orcs in the United States has undergone dramatic change. The 2013 documentary focused specifically on the death of an orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by … Continue reading
In 1606, Captain Willem Janszoon, in command of the Dutch ship Duyfken, became the first European to discover Australia. Now a replica of the Duyfken has completed a voyage to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Dutchman Dirk Hartog and his crew, the first Europeans to … Continue reading
The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is looking for crew for their December-April season in Florida, Bahamas, and Bermuda. From their announcement of their website: After a successful first season underway, we are excited to continue our year round operations with a voyage … Continue reading
A repost from 2010 in honor of Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets on this day in 1805. I have always been struck that of all the commentary I have read on the … Continue reading
What an 800 pound West Indian manatee was doing hanging around Washburn Island, near Falmouth, MA at the end of September is unclear, and the manatee wasn’t talking. The waters near Cape Cod in Autumn are not a good place for … Continue reading
Engineers laying subsea power cables off Stranraer, Scotland have discovered the wreck of a World War I German UBIII-Class submarine, which may be either the UB-85 or the UB-82, both of which were sunk in the area. The possibility that … Continue reading
Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko’s new sail-assisted motor-yacht, named simply, Sailing Yacht A, is undergoing sea trials. The $450 million yacht has a number of superlatives attached to it. At 12,700 tonnes, it is the largest sailing yacht in the world … Continue reading
Clausewitz wrote of the “fog of war.” Recent events in the Gulf of Yemen and the Red Sea are a good example of what he meant. The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, may have been attacked on Saturday, October 8th, … Continue reading
In 2014, we posted about Joel Abrahamsson, from Gothenburg, Sweden, who set a record for kayak fishing by catching a 15′ long 1,247 pound Greenland shark while fishing from a kayak near the island of Andoria, in Norway. We noted that the fish, which … Continue reading