New York harbor has lost part of its living history with the passing of Sal Polisi, longtime volunteer and master carver at the South Street Seaport Museum. For three decades, Polisi carved everything from figureheads to wooden signs, using the time honored methods of … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
Recently, the NY Times and others have been reporting on the installation of the first commercial wind turbine in New York City. The Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Sunset Park on the Brooklyn waterfront has installed a 100 KW 160′ … Continue reading
Last May, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi posted on her blog, Maybe you were thinking, “Hey, what happened to that vagina boat?” Well, good news: The vagina boat finally set sail. (Honestly, the question hadn’t crossed my mind.) Igarashi, who goes by the … Continue reading
The Norwegian firm Lade AS is developing a hybrid ship design, Vindskip, in which the ship sails using lift off its airfoil shaped hull. It is an intriguing design. Nevertheless, I can’t quite figure out how it would work in … Continue reading
At 1 p.m. on Friday, the breaking news on the New York Post and the United Press Twitter feeds was that the Chinese had attacked US naval ships with missiles and that the “US Navy was engaged in active combat … Continue reading
In October 2013, we posted that a US Navy purchasing scandal sounded like a bad novel. Bribes, prostitutes, and Lady Gaga tickets were allegedly handed out to US Navy officers by a Malaysian businessman in exchange for classified information and … Continue reading
It doesn’t feel very much like summer right now, but at least we are on the far side of the winter solstice, so each day brings spring a bit closer. And this spring, the Oliver Hazard Perry, the first ocean-going … Continue reading
We have followed the E-Ship 1 for the last four years. The ship is a Ro/Lo cargo ship owned by the world’s third-largest wind turbine manufacturer, Germany’s Enercon GmbH and is distinctive because it is fitted with four Flettner rotors. The … Continue reading
Last Wednesday, Rob Konrad went fishing alone in his 36 foot Grady White boat. He left Deerfield Beach, FL and headed about nine miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. At about 1PM, with the boat trolling at about 5 knots … Continue reading
The new generation of VLCC has arrived. The acronym usually refers to tankers, specifically, Very Large Crude Carriers, but in this case I am referring to Very Large Container Carriers. Perhaps they should be designated VLCS, for Very Large Container … Continue reading
Frank Jade was a passenger on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Oasis of the Seas until Thursday morning when he said that a large wave knocked him off an open deck and into the sea, approximately eight miles from Cozumel, Mexico. Reportedly, no … Continue reading
One week ago the car carrier Höegh Osaka was intentionally beached on Bramble Bank off the Solent in the UK after the ship developed an unexplained list. Last Wednesday, the ship floated free from the bank. It is still, however, floating with a severe … Continue reading
Having just gotten back from warmer climes, I am still adjusting to the temperatures around 20 degrees F, with wind chills in the teens here on the banks of the Hudson River. I have come across a new video from … Continue reading
As we posted in December, the Mayflower II, a replica of the ship which brought the Pilgrims across the Atlantic in 1620, is now undergoing a multi-year restoration in the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. … Continue reading
The Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is seeking recruits to train as volunteer crew for the replica ship Kalmar Nyckel. The original ship of that name served as Peter Minuit’s flagship for the 1638 expedition that founded the colony of New Sweden, establishing the first … Continue reading