We recently posted about the possibility of purchasing a custom Viking longship from the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. If that doesn’t fit your budget, or if you don’t want to have to line up thirty to one hundred able bodied … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
The new $7.5 billion DDG-1000 destroyer, USS Zumwalt, expected to be delivered by Bath Iron Works sometime in 2016, is incredibly high tech and innovative. It features advanced weapons and propulsion systems as well as an inward sloping hull with a ram bow … Continue reading
A group of tall ship enthusiasts are attempting raise money to build and sail an exact replica of the great composite clipper ship, Cutty Sark. The goal is to launch the Cutty Sark II by November 2019, the 150th anniversary of … Continue reading
In the last two months, eleven wooden fishing vessels have drifted ashore from the Sea of Japan on the Japanese coast. On board were 25 badly decomposed bodies. The vessels contained nets and fishing gear and are believed to have come from … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! As a “Throwback Thursday” — Thanksgiving edition, here is a short video of the voyage of the Mayflower II across the Atlantic in 1957, under the command of Captain Alan Villiers. Voyage of the Mayflower II, 1957 … Continue reading
This weekend the US Coast Guard recovered 10,000 gallons of benzene from the wreck of a tank barge that sank 78 years ago in Lake Erie. The Coast Guard has pumped the first of 8 tanks on the wrecked barge. In … Continue reading
Great news from the SS United States Conservancy. At the beginning of October, the Conservancy announced that its board had retained the services of a broker to explore selling the SS United States for scrap “over concerns about the organization’s … Continue reading
Around 1847, Henry Manning, a London carpenter, started building houses in components that could be easily stowed on ships and reassembled by emigrants on the other side of an ocean. Several hundred “Manning cottages” were shipped to Australia. It turns … Continue reading
Last year we posted about a very bad night for the schooner, Ada C. Lore. In the early morning hours of December 4, 2014, the Eastport, Maine breakwater pier where she was berthed suddenly collapsed onto the Ada C. Lore, doing … Continue reading
Given the current heated debate over Syrian refugees, it seems worthwhile to remember the ill-fated voyage of the German ocean liner St. Louis in 1939. The ship carried 908 Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi Germany. The ship and its … Continue reading
The expedition cruise ship, Le Boreal, operated by French line Ponant, has been evacuated after a fire in the engine room. Fire broke out on the 264-passenger ship as she was sailing off the Falkland Islands early Wednesday. The passengers were transferred … Continue reading
We know that the ro/ro El Faro sank with all hands after it lost power in the path of Hurricane Joaquin in early October. The captain reported a hull breach. All 33 crew were lost. We may never know too … Continue reading
Good, if rather bittersweet, news for those of us around New York harbor. The windjammer Peking, a fixture of New York’s South Street Seaport for over 40 years, will be returning to its original home port in Hamburg, Germany for … Continue reading
Great news. The schooner Spirit of South Carolina is on her way home to Charleston, South Carolina. We recently heard from Meryl Huckabey: “As a long-time reader of oldsaltblog.com I am pleased to tell you that the Spirit of South Carolina, tall ship … Continue reading
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday that U.S. Navy salvage tug Apache has located the bridge deck of El Faro roughly a mile from the main wreckage of the ro/ro cargo ship. 33 crew died when the 790-foot long ship sank in Hurricane … Continue reading