Super Bowl Fever has taken over New York and New Jersey. (Personally, I am sick of it and we are still two days away from the game.) Football fans are swarming all over, on both sides of New York harbor. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
It is no doubt not a record that Royal Caribbean would have aspired to. Their ship, Explorer of the Seas, on its voyage from New York harbor to the Eastern Caribbean, from January 21-29, 2014, had the largest outbreak of … Continue reading
The “Left Coast Lifter” has arrived in New York. The Lifter is described by the New York Times as the “superman of floating cranes.” It is a shear-leg crane barge capable of lifting over 1,800 tons, built to help lift … Continue reading
Pete Seeger died last night at the age of 94. Seeger was a folk singer and song writer, as well as an activist who thought that song just might change the world. It is hard to believe that he has … Continue reading
My next door neighbors left last Tuesday for a 10 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship Explorer of the Seas. I saw them shortly before they departed. We were both shoveling snow from our … Continue reading
The Vega desperately needs a mizzen mast. Specifically, they are looking for a fir or spruce to shape the 10m x 26cm mast and a shipping company able to transport the wood from either Brisbane, Australia, or Vancouver, Canada, to Singapore. If they … Continue reading
Today, Tampa, Florida will be “invaded” by pirates. Every year about this time, Tampa celebrates the Gasparilla Pirate Fest notionally in honor of Jose Gaspar, reputed to be the “Last Buccaneer.” It is described as “a swashbuckling good time” involving … Continue reading
A recent study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published in the journal eLife suggests that of more than a thousand species of sharks and rays in the world, one in four species are at the brink … Continue reading
I may owe Chris Reynolds an apology. In a reply to a comment about our post, Lyubov Orlova, Ghost Ship Crewed by Cannibal Rats Drifting Toward the UK — Phony Hysteria on a Slow News Day?, I suggested that Reynolds, Director, … Continue reading
The Twitterverse has gone crazy (crazier?) over reports of the Ghost Ship Swarming With Cannibal Rats Bound for Britain. Dozens of newspaper websites have feaverishly picked up the story. In all the foolishness, I was reminded of Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel “Scoop” … Continue reading
The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, has arrived in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She has been carried from Scotlandon the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur, with intermediate stops to load and discharge other cargo. MV Palanpur is … Continue reading
A story has exploded across the UK press about the Lyubov Orlova, a cruise ship which broke free from its tow in a winter storm and was abandoned in the Atlantic in February of last year. What evidence exists suggests … Continue reading
When I started this blog, I had intended it to be, at least in part, a book blog of works about ships and the sea. Of late, however, I have been completely negligent in posting reviews. I will attempt to … Continue reading
The two posts today present a jarring juxtaposition. On the West Coast of the United States, dolphins steal the show at a surfing competition while in Japan fishermen are beginning the yearly slaughter of dolphins at Taiji Cove. The beauty … Continue reading
Despite domestic and international protest, the annual mass slaughter of bottlenose dolphins is underway in a cove near the Japanese village of Taiji. In 2010, The Cove, a documentary about the yearly slaughter, won the Academy Award last night for best feature … Continue reading