This morning Diana Nyad ended her fourth attempt, her third this year, to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida after being buffeted by squalls and stung by jellyfish. She had been in the water for roughly 60 hours … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
I am very fond of William Faulkner’s maxim, “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” What brought this to mind was recent news from the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. Back in 1995, parts of a ship’s framing was found … Continue reading
If you are anywhere near New York harbor this Thursday, Redhook is the place to be. PortSide NY is vacating its pop-up office/gallery and is selling a fascinating range of art and artifacts. Paintings, photographs and illustrations by contemporary artists … Continue reading
Starting a day earlier than planned, Diana Nyad, 62, began her fourth attempt yesterday afternoon to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West Florida, a distance of 103 miles across open ocean. Nyad swam 21.7 statute miles in her first 18 hours. The total … Continue reading
I am a big fan of cormorants. The ones I am most familiar with are the double crested cormorants common in North America. The imperial shag cormorant, the double crested cormorants’ larger South American and Antarctic cousin, has been causing quite … Continue reading
On August 19, 1812, the 44-gun USS Constitution met the 38 gun HMS Guerriere in single ship combat off the coast of Nova Scotia. During the battle the Constitution earned her nickname “Old Ironsides” when the British 18 pound shot was seen to bounce off … Continue reading
The bulk carrier Ocean Breeze came shore on Llolleo Beach, near the port of San Antonio, Chile yesterday in high winds and seas. In a dramatic rescue, all 24 crew members were airlifted off the ship by Chilean Navy helicopters. No … Continue reading
When the Swedish warship Vasa was raised from the seabed in 1961, to prevent her her waterlogged timbers from shrinking and cracking, the hull was sprayed, inside and out, continuously with polyethylene glycol for 17 years, followed by 9 years of slow drying. The British … Continue reading
Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered the wreck of the 215 foot long, three masted sailing ship, W.R. Grace, which sank in a hurricane near Cape Henlopen in 1889 . Shipwreck mystery solved … Continue reading
Yesterday, a federal judge in Virginia ordered Somali pirate Mohammad Saaili Shibin to serve 12 life sentences, 10 of which will run concurrently, while two are consecutive. Shibin was also ordered to pay $5.4 million in restitution. Shibin, 50, has white hair and … Continue reading
A new documentary by Thomas Michael Conner, “Once Upon a Nuclear Ship,” tells the story of the NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear powered merchant ship. It is an interesting and worthy tale to tell. Without having seen the documentary, however, the … Continue reading
Two years ago, we posted about the delivery of the E-Ship 1, a ship built for Enercon, a German producer of wind turbines. The ship is intended to demonstrate energy saving technology as well as to deliver Enercon wind turbine assemblies … Continue reading
The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Porter collided with the Japanese owned, Panamanian flag, Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) M/V Otowasan in the the Strait of Hormuz at around 1 am Sunday, local time. While few details are currently available, the … Continue reading
Divers may have found the wreck of a British privateer, Port-au-Prince, which was sunk off the island of Lifuka in the Ha’apai island group of Tonga, in December 1806. The ship was attacked by Tongan warriors on the orders of King Finau ‘Ulukalala II. The Tongans … Continue reading
I received an e-mail a few weeks ago with some intriguing photos. (Click on any of the thumbnails above for a larger image.) The e-mail was titled “AMAZING SIGHT IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC, SPECTACULAR.” It was one of those e-mails that had been forwarded … Continue reading
France Telecom-Orange announced today that an unexplained fire had broken out on Thursday on the cable laying ship, the Chamarel, in the Atlantic Ocean off Namibia’s Skeleton Coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The crew of 56 abandoned ship after attempts at firefighting … Continue reading
Tipped off by fisherman who caught amphorae in their nets, the wreck of a Roman merchant ship, believed to date from between the 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century, has been located in 230 feet of water near the Italian port city of … Continue reading
In the middle of July, we posted about a fire and explosion on the 6,750 TEU container ship MSC Flaminia in the mid-Atlantic, resulting in the death of one of the crew and one crew member missing and presumed dead. The surviving crew abandoned the ship. … Continue reading
Consider these two statements: Ships are the most energy efficient way to transport goods. They also have the smallest carbon footprint per ton of any means of transport. Ships are major polluters. One large container ship emits as much sulfur-oxide as fifty million … Continue reading
Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot “Jacky” Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, is considered by some to be the second most important figure in British naval history, after Lord Nelson. An innovator and a strategist who played a key role … Continue reading