Today, Donna Lange set off today from Bristol, RI on her Southern Cross 28, Inspired Insanity, attempting to sail single-handed nonstop around the world. This will be her second circumnavigation, although the first non-stop. She made two post calls on … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
Sea sapphires are amazing creatures. These tiny crustaceans flash in brilliant shades of blue, green, red and gold, and then seem to disappear completely, as if by magic. RR Helm wrote in Deep Sea News, “When I first saw a … Continue reading
For fans of his “Revolution at Sea Saga,” Jame’s Nelson’s The French Prize is an introduction to the next generation. Isaac Biddlecombe, the Revolutionary War naval hero of the previous saga, has a son, Jack, coming of age in the … Continue reading
On Friday, two 14 year old boys went missing in the Atlantic off Jupiter, FL. Their 19′ boat was found capsized on Sunday night. The Coast Guard, and now the Navy, is continuing the search for the teens, Austin Stephanos … Continue reading
Slave labor on fishing boats, particularity in Asia, has been a serious problem for many years. In 2011, we posted about reports that the crews of of chartered fishing vessels operating in New Zealand waters were being systematically abused and … Continue reading
Around the world, pollution is a serious threat to whales. Ironically, on the Faroe Islands, pollution may help to curtail whaling, where protests have failed. The residents of the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic have been hunting pilot whales for almost … Continue reading
Back in 2011, we posted a short quiz: Is Kick’em Jenny a Dutch rockabilly singer, a Dutch Celtic Symfo-Folk band or an active submarine volcano on the floor of the Caribbean Sea? The answer is yes to all three. I am not sure … Continue reading
Fifty one years ago this week, on July 23, 1964, the scallop trawler Snoopy was trawling off Currituck Sound, NC. During World War II that stretch of the coast earned the grim nickname, Torpedo Alley, when German U-boats sank nearly 400 ships in the … Continue reading
First published in gCaptain. Recently, the New York Times published Stowaways and Crimes Aboard Aboard a Scofflaw Ship, the first of a four part series, by Ian Urbina. At the core of the article, Urbina tells the story of two South … Continue reading
Shark attacks are rare. Shark attacks on live television are virtually unprecedented, which is why the video of an encounter between Australian champion surfer, Mick Fanning, and a large shark in the waters off South Africa caught on live TV spread so rapidly … Continue reading
Last weekend, Oliver Hazard Perry, America’s newest and largest civilian sailing school ship sailed into Portland harbor in Maine on her maiden voyage, to participate in the Tall Ships Portland 2015 festival, which wrapped up yesterday. Based in Newport, RI, the … Continue reading
The New York Times is featuring a new four part series, Outlaw Ocean, by Ian Urbina, which presents a vivid and disturbing look at crime at sea. Definitely worth reading. The first installment, Stowaways and Crimes Aboard Aboard a Scofflaw Ship, looks … Continue reading
What’s in a name? Google has renamed a shoal located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon island in the South China Sea on their maps as Scarborough Shoal. They had previously identified the hazard to navigation by its Chinese name, … Continue reading
The sketch comedy team of Key and Peele have come up with what may be the very first feminist pirate song, examining issues of respect, equality and consent, as sung by a bunch of scurvy sea dogs. (It is just … Continue reading
Seaworld continues to be bitten by the “Blackfish effect.” In October of 2013, CNN aired “Blackfish,” a scathing documentary which looked at the almost 40 year history of orcas in captivity, leading up to the killing of SeaWorld trainer Dawn … Continue reading
We recently reviewed Linda Collison’s Water Ghosts and called it “an absolutely gripping paranormal nautical adventure.” From July 18th — 25th. Linda will be giving away ten copies of her book on Goodreads. Click here to learn more. … Continue reading
Was the wreck of three-masted bark, Annie C. Maguire, which very conveniently wrecked at Portland Head Light on Christmas Eve 1886, simply an insurance scam? It is said that the ship wrecked so close to the light that the lighthouse … Continue reading
In 2012, Shell’s attempt to drill in the Chukchi Sea in the Alaska’s Arctic proved to be an expensive and dangerous farce, featuring groundings, equipment failures, explosions and citations for safety violations. Returning two years later with an flotilla of 29 ships, Shell’s … Continue reading
Congratulations to Captain Kate McCue. This August, she will take command of the Celebrity Summit, sailing from Bermuda from the East Coast. She will be the first American woman to command a large cruise ship. The Celebrity Summit is a 91,000-ton ship which can carry … Continue reading
We posted last April that the hospital ship USNS Comfort has deployed on Continuing Promise 2015, a five month mission to eleven nations in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Not all has gone well. On July 9, as reported by the Navy Times, … Continue reading