After looking like they were in an impossibly deep hole, Oracle Team USA has come charging back. Only last Wednesday, Emirates Team New Zealand was on the verge of winning the America’s Cup. They had won 8 of the 9 … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
On July 24th, the Dutch sail-training brig Astrid sank after running aground on rocks on the Irish coast on the western mouth of Oysterhaven, near Cork. On September 13th, the ship was lifted off the rocks using a 937-tonne floating … Continue reading
Scientists have found the record of a whale’s life in, of all places, its ear. The carcass of a blue whale, which died after being struck by a ship, has yielded a 10″ slab of ear wax which researchers have … Continue reading
When did the great age of sail finally end? (Some would argue that it is not yet over.) If one was to pick a single date when it finally came to a close, I would choose today, fifty six years … Continue reading
On Wednesday I raised the question – is history just a sea story? I found in researching my novel, Hell Around the Horn, that two memoirs written about the voyage of the British windjammer, British Isles, on which the novel … Continue reading
In June, we posted about the Safe Affordable Ferry Design Competition, sponsored by the World Ferry Safety Association, in which student teams from six maritime universities competed to develop a ferry design for a 500 passenger ferry for Bangladesh. Recently the … Continue reading
I would like to thank all the readers and supporters of the Old Salt Blog. Today is the fifth anniversary of the very first post, five years ago. So happy birthday to us all. Since September 19th, 2008, the blog … Continue reading
What is history? What is fiction? These seem to be straightforward questions. The conventional answer would be that history is what happened and fiction are the stories that we make up. In writing my recent novel I was faced with … Continue reading
My novel Hell around the Horn is set on a British windjammer on a voyage around Cape Horn in the particularly brutal winter of 1905. I wanted to write the novel, in part, because the windjammers have been largely forgotten … Continue reading
This was the most perilous phase of the salvage of the wrecked cruise ship, Costa Concordia. The parbuckle rolling of the ship upright was where everything could go wrong. The biggest concern was that the stress would break the already damaged … Continue reading
Updated: 15:30 – The number of dead has risen to at least twelve. One shooter is dead and one may be still at large. Updated 13:02 – The Washington Post is reporting that as many as three gunmen opened fire … Continue reading
At first it looked like the 34th America’s Cup races would be a route. Emirates Team New Zealand was simply out-sailing the defender, Oracle Team USA. Not only was the crew making fewer mistakes but the Kiwi’s boat seemed noticeably … Continue reading
Watch live: Costa Concordia salvage operation – video … Continue reading
The parbuckling of the cruise ship Costa Concordia is proceeding as intended after a three hour delay due to a thunderstorm. If all goes well, the process should take 10 hours to roll the ship upright from its current position, … Continue reading
In brisk winds on Saturday, Emirates Team New Zealand’s hopes of winning the America’s Cup nearly came to an end when they came perilously close to capsizing during a tack in Race 8 of the Americas’ Cup races in San … Continue reading