Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught or get clear, I’ll try it. I may as well die with ague as with fever. I have only one life to lose. I may as well be killed running as die standing. Only think of it: one hundred miles north, and I am free! Try it ? Yes ! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water…
Continue readingRobert Smalls is an American hero, well worth celebrating every day of the year, not only during Black History Month. An updated repost in honor of the remarkable story of Robert Smalls. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old … Continue reading
Updated: Several blog readers pointed out that in focusing on the history of Harriet Tubman and her leadership in the Great Combahee Ferry Raid, I failed to mention the bridge over the Combahee River named in her honor. (Thanks, Doug … Continue reading
As we posted recently, the Coast Guard has been busy breaking ice in New York Harbor. The current forecasts suggest that the frigid weather is likely to continue for several more weeks, so the ice breaking is also expected to … Continue reading
In the winter Northern hemisphere, US Coast Guard icebreaking tugs have been hard at work breaking ice in harbors along the East Coast, including New York Harbor.
Continue readingLast month, the US Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) began icebreaking operations in the Southern Ocean in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2026. The deployment also marked the cutter’s 50th year of commissioned service. This milestone was further … Continue reading
Trump recently announced that the Navy will begin the construction of “two brand new, very large, the largest we’ve ever built battleships.” He claims that the new battleships, which he has named after himself, the Trump Class, will be “the … Continue reading
The last time the expedition cruise ship Coral Adventurer was in the news was in October, when the ship sailed from Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, leaving Suzanne Rees, an 80-year-old passenger, behind on the remote island, where she … Continue reading
An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here … Continue reading
Australian sailor Deirdre “Cookie” Sibly, 67, and French sailor Pascal Mahe have been found dead on the yacht Acteon, sailing in the Mozambique Channel, around 200 miles north east of Beira, Mozambique. Acteon is a 50-foot sloop registered in France. … Continue reading
The criminal clown circus that is the Trump regime continues to spin out of control with lethal consequences. The Washington Post reports that during an attack on an unidentified Venezuelan vessel on September 2, the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth … Continue reading
President Trump is threatening to start a war with Venezuela, allegedly to counter drug trafficking to the United States. At the same time, the would-be king has announced his intention to pardon the notorious drug kingpin and former president of … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving to those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) What do whaling ships, a child’s nursery rhyme, a female magazine editor, and Abraham Lincoln have to do … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! On Thanksgiving eve, here is a short video of the voyage of the Mayflower II across the Atlantic in 1957, under the command of Captain Alan Villiers. The reproduction was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick … Continue reading
The Russian ship Yantar has aimed lasers at the crews of UK Royal Air Force aircraft in waters off the north of Scotland. While the Yantar has been a worrying presence around critical undersea infrastructure for years now, this development represents … Continue reading