An April Fool’s post that is no joke. At 12:27 a.m. on April 1, 2010, in the Indian Ocean west of the Seychelles, three Somali pirates in a small skiff attacked what they thought was a merchant vessel. It wasn’t. They … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
The SS United States Conservancy is scrambling to raise $500,000 to buy time in their effort to save the ex-passenger liner SS United States. If they fail, the ship could be sold for scrap. The conservancy is exploring potential partnerships with … Continue reading
In the beginning of February, we posted about the flooding of the engine room on the Emma Mærsk, as the ship was entering the Suez Canal. The flooding put 16 feet of water in the engine room of ship, which is … Continue reading
A lovely performance by the tug boats Fairplay II and Bugsier 16 the in Port of Rostock-Warnemünde, on June 4, 2011. Dancing Tug Boats … Continue reading
The USS Freedom, the first of the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), is on her way to Singapore. The press has reported that the ship is intended to show the US’s commitment to counter China in the region. Before … Continue reading
Interesting news about the US Coast Guard training ship, the barque Eagle. As reported by The Day, The Coast Guard barque Eagle may go to Baltimore for extensive repairs so future officers can keep training on the ship for years … Continue reading
Carnival Cruise Line pays virtually no Federal taxes, yet without the docks, roads, and airports provided by local, state and the federal governments, it would be unable to operate its cruise line. And, when one of its ships gets into trouble, Carnival … Continue reading
Early on Saturday, the 80 m coaster MV Danio hit the rocks on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, after sailing from Perth, Scotland to Antwerp, Belgium with a cargo of timber. The German-owned, Antigua-registered vessel is stuck near the Longstone Lighthouse, … Continue reading
Over the next several months, Maersk Lines will be giving ten container ships in its fleet nose jobs. They will be cutting off the existing bulbous bows and retrofitting them with new more energy-efficient designs. It all has to do with slow … Continue reading
As passengers are being flown home from an cancelled cruise on the Carnival Dream, another Carnival Cruise ship, the Carnival Legend, is limping to port with a damaged Azipod. Unlike more conventional designs where the ship’s propeller is connected to a ship’s engine … Continue reading
The story sounds disturbingly familiar – a Carnival cruise ship with generator problems, overflowing toilets and passengers sent home from an interrupted cruise. The good new is that the generator failure on the Carnival Dream, the largest cruise ship operated by Carnival … Continue reading
Here is a video of the scuttling of HMS Implacable in 1949. She was originally the French Navy’s Téméraire-class ship of the line Duguay-Trouin, launched in 1800. The Duguay-Trouin fought in and survived the Battle of Trafalgar, only to be captured by the British in … Continue reading
The Alaskan high-tech ferry MV Susitna cost $78-million to build. More than just a ferry, it is also an ice-capable amphibious assault vessel for the Navy, which was supposed to have carried commuters from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (or Mat-Su as it is known) across upper Cook Inlet. Mat-Su’s largest … Continue reading
I am very pleased and excited to be speaking with Norman Brouwer and Captain Margaret Flanagan at the Working Harbor Committee of New York and New Jersey program “Sailing Ships at Work – Then and Now.” The presentation is on April … Continue reading
A brand new copy of a 4,000 year old craft was paddled out on a short maiden voyage in Falmouth, Cornwall on Wednesday. Christened the Morgawr after a mythical monster of Falmouth Bay, she is a 50 foot long, six-ton … Continue reading
Today in Japan, the US Navy officially decommissioned the minesweeper USS Guardian. On the Tubbataha Reef, where the ship ran aground on January 17, salvage operations have again been delayed by bad weather. The salvage plan is to cut the ship into pieces and to haul … Continue reading
Retiree Edd Hale writes in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about surrendering his status as an armchair sailor to sail the Great Lakes in the Brig Niagara, a replica of the Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry‘s flagship on which he won the Battle of Lake Erie, one … Continue reading
The brig 132′ Eye of the Wind has had a long and varied career. Built in 1911, by C Lühring of Brake, Germany, as a topsail schooner named Friedrich, she was initially put into the hides trade with South America. Later she would … Continue reading
HMS Ambush, the second of the Astute Class of Royal Navy attack submarines, has officially joined its fleet on the Clyde.. The £1.6bn nuclear-powered 7,400-tonne vessel has been undergoing sea trials since arriving at its home port at Faslane in September … Continue reading
No discussion of the Titanic II is complete without a mention of the lifeboats. The lack of adequate lifeboats on the original Titanic was a major contributor to the deaths of over 1,500 passengers. Unfortunately, as reported in the press, … Continue reading