Thanks to Richard Pekelney for passing along the link to a wonderful panoramic and audio tour of the USS Pampanito, a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial that is open for visitors daily at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
In September, the wreck of one of the two ships in Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845 was located near the the Victoria Strait in Canada. As both ships in the expedition were similar sized bomb vessels, modified for exploration, it was initially unclear whether … Continue reading
I have mixed feeling about modern supermaxi monohulls. They are complicated, expensive sailing wedges — pointy in the bow and broad and flat on the stern. But they are really fast, and watching Jim Clark‘s new 100’ carbon fiber speed-demon … Continue reading
In Lake Champlain this summer, on July 31, near Scotch Bonnet, cryptozoology enthusiasts Katy Elizabeth and Dennis Hall recorded underwater audio which sounds remarkably like echolocation of a marine mammal. They say that it sounds like a beluga whale. Beluga … Continue reading
An estimated quarter of a million people lined the docks and the shore at St. Malo in Brittany to watch the start of the Route du Rhum Race, the 4,500 mile trans-Atlantic singlehanded race to Guadeloupe, which is sailed every … Continue reading
I am fond of one photo I took of the Kalmar Nyckel at the Sultana Downrigging Weekend in Charlestown, MD last weekend. It shows two sailors, who appear to be starting to downrig the sprit topsail yard. They are standing … Continue reading
Many of these “mind blowing facts” don’t seem that surprising, but they do get the bottom line right — “For an industry that basically runs the world economy most people know very little about the enormous complex that touches almost … Continue reading
Photos from the Sultana Downrigging Weekend in Chestertown, MD. A touch rainy, cold and windy but still a great time. Along with the schooner Sultana were the pinnance Kalmar Nyckel, and the schooners Lady Maryland, Pride of Baltimore II and A.J. Meerwald. A … Continue reading
Just over 100 years ago, the World War I hospital ship, SS Rohilla, ran aground in a gale less than a mile off the North Yorkshire coast, near Whitby, with the loss of 85 crew and passengers. SS Rohilla had left Scotland on 30 October … Continue reading
In honor of Halloween, here is a troubling account of a modern-day haunted ship. The LNG Taurus was one of a series of ten Moss-Rosenberg type 125,000 cubic meter Liquefied Natural Gas ships (LNG) ships built by General Dynamics in Quincy … Continue reading
As we posted earlier this month, Reza Baluchi, an extreme runner, attempted to run the almost 1,000 miles from Florida to Bermuda in a sort of bubble — an inflatable cylinder with a metal frame, that looked sort of like a clear hamster … Continue reading
Downrigging is one of those necessary chores on a sailing vessel at the end of a season before the winter sets in. The good folks at the Sultana Education Foundation have turned the necessary and often bittersweet chore of downrigging the … Continue reading
Captain Ron Strathman has cruised the Sea of Cortez for the last 6 years in his 1977 wooden schooner Gold Eagle. Last month, Hurricane Odile slammed into Mexico’s Baja peninsula with reported winds reaching 100 knots. At least five died in the storm … Continue reading
Next season, the SS Badger may no longer be the “the filthiest ship on the Great Lakes.” With the end of the current sailing season, SS Badger will no longer dump coal ash into Lake Michigan. For years, there has been … Continue reading
If you are in the neighborhood, this is a most worthwhile event. There is also exiting news. At the fundraiser, the Lilac Preservation Project will announce the launching of a campaign to restore steam to the Lilac, a 1933 lighthouse tender that once carried … Continue reading
And now for something completely different — what happens when you crack an egg underwater? I will admit this hasn’t been a question that has been keeping me awake at nights, but it is interesting, nevertheless. Here is what happens … Continue reading
The Russians and the Chinese each have only one aircraft carrier in service. They happen to be sister ships and both have major problems in staying afloat and keeping the propellers turning. Both ships were built in the Black Sea Shipyard … Continue reading
Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by its inhabitants, famous for its massive stone statues, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. It is almost 2,000 nautical miles from the coast of South America and over 1,000 nautical miles … Continue reading
In September, we posted about a recent study that concluded that up to half the water on our planet is older than the sun. Scientists now speculate that the existence of water may be far more common in the universe … Continue reading
Last Friday, there were reports of unexplained underwater movements near the Stockholm archipelago. There were also reports of an encrypted distress call of the sort used by the Russian Navy, leading to speculation that a Russian submarine was stranded underwater. Russian … Continue reading