Next to a 7-11 convenience store on 8th Avenue, about a half block from the beach, in the New Jersey shore community of Belmar, there is a tall sewer standpipe, a vertical vent designed to carry the noxious smells from … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
It is a conical shaped structure built of boulders, roughly 230 feet in diameter, 30 feet high and weighing an estimated 60,000-tons, 40 feet underwater in the Sea of Galilee. And archaeologists have no idea what it is. Based on the … Continue reading
One unexpected victim of Superstorm Sandy was New York’s Coney Island Mermaid Parade, or more specifically, the historical museum, performance space and gift shop that helped to financially support the free parade. The parade is “an American celebration of ancient mythology and honky-tonk rituals … Continue reading
What is the plural of Atlantis? Atlanti? Atlantises? Recently two different underwater areas have been in the news, both of which are referred to as “Britain’s Atlantis.” One is called Doggerland, a huge undersea region swallowed by the sea … Continue reading
Today, in the United States, is National Maritime Day. There is a presidential proclamation and everything. The day, May 22nd, was chosen because that was the date that the American steamship Savannah set sail from Savannah, Georgia in 1818 on the first … Continue reading
A gray whale has been sighted in Walvis Bay, Namibia. This is amazing news, as gray whales were hunted to extinction in the North Atlantic by the 18th century and have never been sighted before south of the equator. Gray whales … Continue reading
The Howell Automobile Torpedo of 1889 was the first self-propelled torpedo in United States Navy service. Only fifty were built and until recently, only one was known to have survived. Then in late April, Navy dolphins located a lost Howell … Continue reading
For the last 30 years, New York has welcomed ships and crews from the US Navy and Coast Guard to the harbor around the Memorial Day weekend during a celebration of Fleet Week. Unfortunately, this year’s Fleet Week has been scuttled … Continue reading
The opening line of this seven minute video suggests that “men build [wooden] boats because they can’t have babies.” I am not sure that I buy into that idea. Then again, most boats and ships that I have built or worked on … Continue reading
PortSide NewYork is hosting an open-house (open-ship?) on the historic tanker MARY A WHALEN this Tuesday, May 21, at Pier 11, Atlantic Basin, Red Hook, Brooklyn, from 1-7pm, with cake and remarks from 5-7pm. May 21 is also the 75th anniversary of the launch of the … Continue reading
All the reporting on this story talks about a “ghost ship” for sale by auction in Newburyport, MA. “Newburyport ‘ghost ship’ on the block,” is pretty typical. The “ship” in question is, in fact, an Endeavour 37 sailboat, a bit small to be … Continue reading
An interesting Kickstarter fundraiser to complete the documentary “Twice Forgotten: Heroes of the R12 Submarine,” about the WWII submarine USS R-12, which sank off the coast of Key West, Florida on June 12, 1943 with the loss of 40 American sailors and 2 Brazilian officers. … Continue reading
Sadly, the world is a dangerous place, both at sea and ashore. Over the weekend, Kyle Bruner, chief mate on the schooner Liberty Clipper was murdered in Nassau, Bahamas while attempting to stop a mugging. As reported by NBC Chicago: Kyle … Continue reading
The first time I saw Billy Black‘s photo of the collision, I had to look twice to believe what I was seeing. It show two white yachts, both under full sail, one slicing half-way through the other. The collision took … Continue reading
Two bottles of whisky salvaged from the wreck of the cargo ship SS Politician have been sold for £12,050 after an online auction. The wreck inspired the novel “Whisky Galore” and the movie of the same name. Whisky Galore bottles … Continue reading
We hope that everyone is having a happy Mother’s Day. Here is a great little video by made by the sailors on the HMAS Toowoomba,a Royal Australian Navy frigate currently deployed in the Middle East. Mother’s Day on HMAS Toowoomba 2013 … Continue reading
We posted yesterday about the “shutter plank” being fastened to the whaleship Charles W. Morgan in Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The Morgan, built in 1841, is America’s last surviving wooden whaleship and has been undergoing a fiver year restoration. I came a across … Continue reading
Wired Magazine ran a weirdly prophetic article that appears to have been published almost immediately before the tragic death of British Olympian, Andrew Simpson, in the capsize of the Swedish Artemis Racing AC72 catamaran yesterday in San Francisco Bay. In the article, titled “The Boat That Could … Continue reading
Correction: The original post listed the wrong date for the anticipated launching of the Charles W. Morgan. The correct date is July 21, 2013. Congratulations to the Mystic Seaport Museum and all those working on the whaleship Charles W. Morgan. This afternoon at around 2PM, … Continue reading
Andrew Simpson, a British double Olympic medalist and a sailor with the Swedish Artemis Racing team, has died in the capsize of an AC72 catamaran while practicing in San Francisco Bay for the upcoming America’s Cup races. One other sailor is reported to be seriously injured There were 11 … Continue reading