On January 28, 1915, the US flag four-masted bark William P. Frye was sunk off the coast of Brazil by the Imperial German Navy raider SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich. As a US-owned vessel, William P. Frye was a neutral ship. The US would … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
More than thirty years ago, I sat on the rotting planks of the old Pier 17 in the East River in Manhattan and listened to Bernie Clay and the X-Seaman’s Institute sing a song about the schooner Alice S. Wentworth. … Continue reading
The tall ships from Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain, engage in a mock battle sail. A wonderful video by GHHSAmedia from about a decade ago. Lady Washington/Hawaiian Chieftain: Columbia River Battle Sail … Continue reading
Around 1607, colonists in the Popham Colony built the pinnace Virginia, the first English-built ship in what is now Maine and possibly in all of the English-colonized areas of North America. Now over 400 years later, a recreation of the … Continue reading
On New Year’s Eve, in 20-foot seas and high winds, the 130′ crab boat Scandies Rose operating off the Alaska Peninsula, developed a starboard list and suddenly capsized. Two of the seven crew were able to don exposure suits and … Continue reading
Both the US Navy and the Chinese Navy are working to develop “ghost fleets” of drone ships. The US Navy has been working on developing unmanned vessels since at least 2016. Four years ago, we posted about Sea Hunter, the … Continue reading
I suppose if you plan on smuggling a painting by Picasso worth close to $29 million, using a superyacht might be a stylish choice. For Spanish billionaire Jaime Botin, however, it didn’t work out too well. Forbes reports: Despite a … Continue reading
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN agency responsible for regulating shipping, has set the ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 50% from 2008 levels by 2050. Around the world, engineers, ship owners and managers, universities, … Continue reading
Today, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the US Navy officially named the newest of the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, not after a president, a senator, an admiral or a historic battlefield. Instead, they named the carrier after … Continue reading
Here is wonderful drone footage by Ryan Smith of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy‘s school ship TS Kennedy as it departs for its Sea Term 2020. The ship sails down Buzzard’s Bay bound for Panama where it will transit the Canal. … Continue reading
Congratulations to Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan MacLean, three brothers from Edinburgh, Scotland who rowed across the Atlantic in just 35 days. They departed from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands on 12 December and completed the 3,000-mile row to Antigua … Continue reading
Will the Titanic II ever be built? And if so, when will it sail? Back in 2012, billionaire Australian businessman Clive Palmer announced the construction of a modern “replica” of the doomed passenger liner RMS Titanic which sank after striking … Continue reading
On Tuesday around 3:35 PM the Coast Guard in Galveston, TX was notified that a fishing boat, the 82′ long Pappy’s Pride, had collided with the 600-foot chemical tanker Bow Fortune. The fishing boat had capsized and four crew were … Continue reading
We are having a relatively warm January with significantly fluctuating temperatures. Similar weather conditions 101 years ago, coupled with a shoddily built storage tank, caused the Great Boston Molasses Flood, which inundated Boston’s North End sending a wall of molasses, … Continue reading
There are so few well-done documentary series involving ships and the sea that it seems worth pointing out that the excellent Disasters at Sea has been picked up for a second season. The series is produced by Exploration Production Inc. … Continue reading
Six years ago, we posted about research that documented that when dogs defecate, they usually align their bodies along the magnetic north-south axis, not unlike the needle of a magnetic compass. It turns out that dogs are not unique in … Continue reading
This morning’s CBS Sunday Morning news program had an intriguing featuring the octopus, in particular, and cephalopods, in general. Both unworldly and highly intelligent they are as close to alien life forms as one can find on the planet. CBS’s … Continue reading
One of the better ways to tell if a model works at predicting the future is to run it in reverse to see how well it predicts the past. Climate change models so far have had their limitations. Most current … Continue reading
In addition to more than 24 people who have died in the terrible Australian bushfires, an incredible number of animals have also perished. Estimates of wildlife deaths range from millions to a billion animals. More than 25.5 million acres of … Continue reading
The Winter 2020 edition of Quarterdeck, hosted by McBooks, is out. If you like nautical fiction, the quarterly e-journal edited by George Jepson is a treasure. The Winter 2020 edition features an interview with Alaric Bond and a review of … Continue reading