It is now official. Watching the Discovery Channel makes you stupid, or at the very least, can leave you less informed than when you started watching. A poll shows that more than 70% of those who watched the Discovery Channel’s fake … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
An Austrian couple, identified only as Irene and Christian, made a distress call last week, on July 31, from their Jeanneau Sun Legende 41, Gobo, in the South Pacific. The three masted barque Picton Castle, sailing in the Cook Islands, charted a … Continue reading
Joan Druett’s The Elephant Voyage is free today and tomorrow, August 7 -8, on Kindle. The Elephant Voyage is a fascinating historical account of a crew who find themselves castaway on a desolate, wind-swept sub-Antarctic island, while on an ill-fated voyage … Continue reading
In June, we posted about two fake documentaries about mermaids, aired by the Animal Planet, which is owned by the Discovery Channel. Despite being presented as fact, the mermaid documentaries were entirely fictional. There was a brief disclaimer in the … Continue reading
The Hardtacker Shanty Crew, a seven-man shanty crew based in Columbus, Ohio, released a great new CD a few months ago, Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates, which features a wonderful mix of shanties and sea songs, old and new. The twenty one songs … Continue reading
It is a strange world out there. We have previously posted about Sharknado, which recently caused quite a stir on Twitter and other social networking sites. A sequel is planned, apparently, this time set in New York. I am not … Continue reading
Every time I read about a major casualty on a container ship, I think about the containers lost over the side, many of which continue to float, hazards to navigation to any boat about their size. All the evidence suggests … Continue reading
Herman Melville was born on this day, August 1, in 1819, in a boarding house on the site of 6 Pearl Street, in the Financial District of lower Manhattan in New York City. I invite you to join me in … Continue reading
In June, the navigation system of the 213′ yacht White Rose was taken over by a team of University of Texas students. Using only a laptop, a small antenna, and a GPS “spoofing” device, the team fed a stronger signal … Continue reading
The Spitbank Fort is a sea fort constructed in 1878 in the Solent near Portsmouth, England. Now the 162 feet in diameter sea-granite fortification which once hosted 12-inch breechloading guns, reopened last year a luxury spa hotel and retreat. Spitbank Fort … Continue reading
A woman scheduled to be married in two weeks was killed on on Friday night around 10PM, when the 21′ long Stingray speedboat she was aboard hit a construction barge anchored off the Tappan Zee bridge in the Hudson River, … Continue reading
This Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 2 PM, the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor will host the Staten Island premiere of the documentary Shellshocked: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves. Bob Wright and his musical group Harbortown will perform songs from their album … Continue reading
We recently posted about the 83 year old yacht Dorade, which won the 2013 Transpac. it was not however the first yacht across the finish line. That honor goes to Lending Club, a racing trimaran; specifically an ORMA (Offshore Racing Multi-hull Association) 60 lengthened to … Continue reading
The Dutch Sail Training Ship, Astrid, a 136′ (41.65 M) brig, was lost this morning after running aground on rocks on the western mouth of Oysterhaven, on the Cork, Ireland coast, shortly after leaving the anchorage this morning. Thirty crew … Continue reading
Modern sailing racing yachts tend to have plumb bows and broad flat sterns. The Transpacific Yacht Race, a 2,225 nautical miles race from Los Angelos to Honolulu, Hawaii, has been dominated for several decades by these lightweight, high speed, sailing … Continue reading