On October 5, 2011, the containership MV Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, resulting in one of the worst maritime environmental disasters in New Zealand history. Yesterday, in a New Zealand court, the captain, Mauro Balomaga, and second officer, Leonil Relon, were … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Shipwrecks tend to be pretty stationary. They are not prone to wandering about. Now, however, an Elizabethan shipwreck dating from 1574, which was recovered from the River Thames in 2003, is on the move. The remains of the 16th-century “Gresham … Continue reading
Simply trying to keep up with what is going on the battle against piracy is not as easy as it might appear. For example, Maersk Texas, a US flag cargo ship came under attack by pirates in the Gulf of … Continue reading
New York harbor is not the only port on the North-Eastern coast of the United States with a wealth of tall ships over Memorial Day Weekend. Greenport, New York is hosting the Greenport Tallships Challenge 2012. Greenport, on the … Continue reading
Crew responded to a fire on the nuclear submarine, USS Miami, at around 5:40 PM last night at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. This morning, the Navy reports that the fire has been put put. Three shipyard firefighters, two civilian firefighters … Continue reading
The fleet began to appear from the harbor haze around 9 AM and headed north up the inner harbor and the Hudson River. They were a mix of full rigged ships, barques, barquentines, topsail schooners and schooners. Most were naval vessels, but … Continue reading
Last night I went out to see some of the participating OpSail tall ships in New York’s Outer Harbor. The trip was organized by the Working Harbor Committee with commentary provided by Richard Taylor and Captain Richard Dorfman. Click on the … Continue reading
Many visitors think of New York as the island of Manhattan. The City of New York is in fact five boroughs, only one of which is connected to the mainland. If Brooklyn, the largest borough, had remained an independent city, as … Continue reading
The visiting tall ships have started arriving in New York’s outer harbor. Tomorrow morning at just after 8 in the morning, the “Parade of Sail” will form up at the Verazano Narrows Bridge and stand north into the inner harbor past the … Continue reading
On Wednesday, Philadelphia’s tall ship, the 112+ year old barquentine Gazela, will be among the seventeen tall ships in the “Parade of Sail” on the Hudson River. Once again, however, the Gazela will bringing more than just history and grace … Continue reading
Last Friday we posted about a presentation made by the Titan-Micoperi consortium detailing their plans to salvage the Costa Concordia from the where she sank on January 13th off the island of Giglio, Italy. The plan is to build an underwater platform onto which the ship … Continue reading
The Dragon Harald Fairhair is the largest Viking longship to be built in modern times. (See our previous post: Building the Viking Longboat Dragon Harald Fairhair) Built of oak, in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway, the ship is hundred and fourteen … Continue reading
We consider AMVER to be one of the true “unsung heroes” of the maritime world. AMVER is the “Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue” system run by the US Coast Guard. Established in 1958, it is a computer-based voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide … Continue reading
Update: The first tug has reached the ID Integrity. As reported by vesseltracker.com: The commercial tug “PT Kotor” rendezvoused with the “ID Integrity” on May 20 at approximately 10:30am AEST. At 11:30am AMSA was advised that the tug had connected a towline … Continue reading
The intheboatshed.net blog recently featured a wonderful short video, The Little Ships of England, produced in 1943, highlighting wooden boat building in England during World War II. The Little Ships of England [iframe: src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/38928688?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff” width=”500″ height=”375″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen] … Continue reading
Representatives of Titan-Micoperi presented their plans to raise the Costa Concordia from where she sank after running aground off the island of Gilgio last January. Titan-Micoperi is the consortium of Titan Salvage, the Crowley-owned specialist marine salvage company, and Italian marine contractor Micoperi, which … Continue reading
Next Wednesday, May 23rd, OpSail 2012 and New York Fleet Week kick off with two parades of ships in the harbor and up the Hudson River. This year’s OpSail is organized to mark the bicentennial of the War of … Continue reading
It has been a busy couple of days for ship collisions and allisions. Yesterday, the USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, collided with the USNS Yukon, a Navy Oiler, during underway replenishment operations about 120 miles off the coast of Southern California. In Poland, … Continue reading
Aargh. Once again, the junk food of maritime events, another “pirate” festival. This one is being sponsored by one of my favorite museums, the Maritime Museum of San Diego — home to the 1863 iron windjammer, Star of India, the world’s oldest active … Continue reading
In March, the European Union Naval Force was authorized to attack Somali pirates in coastal waters and ashore. On Tuesday, EU naval forces and attack helicopters launched their first onshore raid on a suspected pirate supply center in Handulle village, about 18 kilometers (11 … Continue reading