In 1865, the CSS Georgia, a Confederate ironclad battery was burned and sunk in the Savannah River to avoid capture and to obstruct passage on the river. (The ship was scuttled not far from where the British sank the frigate HMS … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
The 98-foot-long solar powered catamaran MS Turanor PlanetSolar returned to Monoco yesterday, completing a 37,286 mile circumnavigation of the globe in 584 days. It is the first circumnavigation under solar power. Along the way, the Turanor PlanetSolar made stops on six continents to promote solar energy. While … Continue reading
Seventy yeas ago, the Japanese and navies of the United States and Australia fought the Battle of the Coral Sea in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea in a series of naval battles from May … Continue reading
Update: The final auction price for the Sea Shadow and the HMB1 was an impressive $3.2 million. The Sea Shadow is an experimental 164′ long catamaran “stealth ship” built by Lockheed in the mid 1980s for the United States Navy. For … Continue reading
One of the most beautiful and most interesting tall ship sailing today, at least to my eye, is the three-masted barquentine Pelican. The Pelican is 148ft long overall, square rigged on the main mast but fore and aft rigged on the fore mast and … Continue reading
On July 7, 2010, a barge struck the disabled “Duck boat” DUKW 34 at anchor in the Delaware River off Philadelphia. Of the 35 passengers aboard, two died. Last November, the tug’s mate was sentenced to a year and a day in … Continue reading
This Saturday, we will witness a perigee full moon, often called by the press, a “supermoon.” The full moon at its perigee, or closest approach to earth, will appear 16% bigger and will exert 42% more tidal force than a more typical full moon. Usually … Continue reading
In what may prove to be the worst ferry accident in India in recent years, it is still unclear how many passengers were lost when an overcrowded ferry capsized on Monday in the bad weather in the Brahmaputra River in India’s Assam state. … Continue reading
The 2012 Savannah Tall Ships Challenge is May 3-7 and will include a three-day festival featuring more than a dozen sailing vessels berthed on both the River Street and Hutchinson Island sides of the river. Click here for more details. … Continue reading
Initial speculation included an explosion and then a collision with a larger vessel. Now an online GPS tracking system, SPOT, shows the yacht running onto the rocks on a far end of North Coronado Island at 1:36 a.m. Saturday. The Coronado Islands are about … Continue reading
Between Sugarcreek and Walnut Creek, Ohio, in the heart of Amish country,Ohio, there was a ground-breaking today for a new museum which will showcase ship models carved by David Warther II, a fifth generation carver. David Warther Carvings will showcase … Continue reading
HMS Bounty recently called at St. Augustine, FL. During a dockside party on the ship, Dr. Roger Clark Smith, a local historian, decided that there would be no better setting to propose marriage to the fair Christine Whalen, who graciously accepted. Our congratulations to the … Continue reading
A double-decker ferry carrying an estimated 350 people capsized, broke apart and sank in the Brahmaputra River in heavy weather. The ferry was traveling between Dhubri to Fakirganjan in Assam state and was reported to be overloaded with passengers and cargo, and carried … Continue reading
On the heels of the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic, Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer has announced his plans to build a 21st-century replica of the Titanic and sail it from England to New York accompanied by the Chinese navy by the … Continue reading
Sometime late Friday night or early Saturdaymorning, near the Coronado Islands, during the 125-mile Newport-to-Ensenada yacht race, something went terribly wrong on the 37′ yacht Aegean, leaving three sailors dead and one missing. A statement issued this morning by the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which hosts the … Continue reading
Trinity Church at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, is one of the oldest congregations in the state. Captain William Kidd was a church elder, in the years before he turned pirate. Captain Kidd donated a block and … Continue reading
The Space Shuttle Enterprise arrived in New York today on its way to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. The Shuttle Enterprise rode piggy-back on a NASA 747, flying a loop over the Hudson River before landing at Kennedy Airport. The shuttle will … Continue reading
You can’t make this stuff up. A container ship owner and ship manager are suing a California pharmacy for selling prescription drugs to a harbor pilot prior to an allision with a bridge five years ago. On a very foggy morning in … Continue reading
Updated: Sad news. Yesterday afternoon, the crew of the 91-foot tugboat, Steven Scott, called the Coast Guard to report that they hadn’t seen their captain for nearly an hour and believed that he had fallen overboard. This afternoon the US Coast … Continue reading
World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. Nevertheless, over 60 years later, the threat from left over munitions continues and may be getting worse. Last November, we posted about bombs along the Rhine, where a drought was revealing un-exploded ordinance in German river banks. Then … Continue reading