In the good (or bad) old days, ships were built from the keel up, with the frames rising from the keel, and the plating or planking secured over the frames. These days ships are built in modules, large blocks … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
The factory fishing ship Athena caught fire early today in the Atlantic, 230 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly. Eighty one non-essential personnel were evacuated to liferafts and subsequently rescued as the remaining 30 aboard fought the fire, which is now reported … Continue reading
Robert Bourne, who died on Oct. 13, at the age of 88, was the radioman on the Navy blimp, Airship K-74, on anti-submarine patrol off the southeast coast of Florida on the night of July 18, 1943. The lookout spotted a German submarine … Continue reading
All that remains to mark the site of the final sea battle of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, around 241 BC, are the great bronze rams left behind after the rest of the sunken ships have rotten … Continue reading
Over the weekend, Somali pirates seized two ships in two days. On Saturday, pirates seized the MV York, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker, off the coast of Kenya. On Sunday, pirates seized the MV Beluga Fortune about 1,200 miles east of … Continue reading
The news from Haiti recently has been uniformly bad. In addition to earthquake damage, outbreaks of cholera are now sweeping the country. One bright spot is a new school, L’Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean. Built by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, it is one of the first … Continue reading
In August we posted about a joint Chinese-Kenyan expedition to locate the remains of a ship from the fleet of the legandary Chinese navigator, Zheng He. The ship was said to have sunk off Kenya near Lamu. Recently the team discovered … Continue reading
Last week, the MV Olovaha arrived in Nuku’alofa. The MV Olovaha is a new interisland ferry built for Tonga to replace the Princess Ashika which sank last July with a loss of 74 passengers and crew. The ferry was … Continue reading
The HMS Belfast, a Royal Navy light cruiser, now a museum ship on the Thames, is the last surviving escort ship from the Arctic convoy run to Russia during World War II. Last week, in a ceremony attended by HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, … Continue reading
It had all the elements of bad farce. The HMS Astute is Britain’s newest, stealthiest and no doubt most expensive submarine. As described by the BBC, “Aside from attack capabilities, it is able to sit in waters off the coast … Continue reading
We previously posted about a model of the Mayflower crafted from timber believed to used on the original ship that carried the Pilgrims to America. Alaric Bond passed along an article about a model of the HMS Victory by sculptor and … Continue reading
Embarrassing and rather bad timing. Billed as the “world’s most advanced nuclear submarine,” the recently christened HMS Astute ran aground this morning off the Isle of Skye. Nuclear submarine runs aground HMS Astute: world’s most advanced nuclear submarine runs aground … Continue reading
The announced British budget cuts will slash spending across the board but will hit the Royal Navy hardest of all of the military services. Anchors away: Britain’s once-proud navy falls prey to budget cuts In all the carnage, the worst damage, at least to … Continue reading
After killing more than 20 people in the Philippines and lashing Taiwan, where dozens are reported missing, “super-typhoon” Megi is poised to make landfall in South China today or Saturday. Typhoon Megi is the the strongest storm to hit the region in more than … Continue reading
The final essay in Joseph Conrad’s wonderful, if somewhat odd book, The Mirror of the Sea, is entitled “The Heroic Age.” It starts out rather disappointingly as a paean to Nelson. There is nothing wrong with praising Nelson, except that everyone does it, so another bit … Continue reading
Horatio Nelson ‘was French football captain’, say children Research carried out to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar shows many schoolchildren believe that Horatio Nelson was captain of the French national football team in the 1990s. Almost one-in-four … Continue reading
A letter which only recently resurfaced gives an ordinary seaman’s view of the famous battle which was fought 205 years ago today. ‘They won’t send their fleets out again in a hurry’: Remarkable letter from hero who survived the Battle … Continue reading
The Costa Classica‘s current cruise has not gone well. First, on a stop at Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju, 44 Chinese tourists abandoned the tour group en masse. South Korean police have located eleven of the group, but 33 remain unaccounted … Continue reading
The Hasholme boat, discovered in 1984 in a former inlet of the Humber estuary near Holme on Spalding Moor, dates from the late Iron Age ( 750-390 BC ). The boat was cut from a single oak tree and was originally roughly … Continue reading
In 1939 then Colonel General George S. Patton had a 63’5″ John Alden designed schooner built for himself and his wife. Another world war was looming on the horizon and Patton said that he planned to sail the schooner, “When the … Continue reading