The city of St. Petersburg, FL is hosting Tallships® St.Pete, a four-day maritime festival from March 30 to April 2, 2023. The city is partnering with Tall Ships America to co-host a fleet of tall ships along the St Petersburg … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
In June 2016, I had the pleasure of visiting Hōkūleʻa, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe, when she sailed into New York harbor in the third year of an epic voyage. Since her launch in 1975, Hōkūleʻa, had crisscrossed the Pacific … Continue reading
Late in August 2022, the Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, sailed from Portsmouth, UK bound for training exercises in the United States. She didn’t get very far. Two days after departing, the carrier broke down off … Continue reading
Yesterday, the research vessel Petrel rolled off her blocks in a drydock in Edinburgh, Scotland, leaving 35 people injured. BBC reports that twenty-three people were taken to the hospital and 12 were treated at the scene of the incident at … Continue reading
In honor of Women’s History Month, it is worthwhile remembering Eleanor Creesy, the navigator of the clipper ship Flying Cloud, who with her husband, Captain Josiah Creesy, set world sailing records for the fastest passage between New York and San … Continue reading
During Women’s History Month, it seems a good time to remember Mary Ann Brown Patten, the first woman to command an American merchant ship. An updated repost. The year was 1856. The ship was the clipper ship Neptune’s Car, bound … Continue reading
CNN reports that the United Nations has released a plan to offload 1 million barrels of oil off FSO Safer, a floating oil storage and offloading vessel, that has been moored off the coast of Yemen for more than 30 years. … Continue reading
HMS Birkenhead was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy. She was designed as a steam frigate, but was converted to a troopship before being commissioned in 1851. While transporting troops and a few civilians to … Continue reading
In honor of both March’s Women’s History Month & February’s Black History Month, an updated repost about the barrier-shattering naval engineer Raye Montague, who died at the age of 83 in 2018. At the age of 7, she was inspired … Continue reading
In 2019, we posted about Blue Mermaid, the first sailing barge built for trade in Britain since 1930. Recently, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has granted permission to the Sea-Change Sailing Trust, which owns the Blue Mermaid, for the barge … Continue reading
Sad news. The Eleonora E is being scrapped. Last June, we posted that the classic 49m schooner was struck by a 60m long search and rescue vessel in Port Tárraco, Tarragona, Spain, and subsequently sank. The search and rescue vessel … Continue reading
Yesterday, the Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser formerly named USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) will be renamed USS Robert Smalls. Earlier this month, we posted Remembering Robert Smalls – Former Slave, Pilot of the … Continue reading
David Debias was a free black youth from the north side of Beacon Hill in Boston. In 1814, at only 8 years old, he signed aboard the USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides.” He was rated as a ship’s boy and … Continue reading
Eighty-one years ago today on February 24, 1941, the overloaded and unseaworthy MV Struma was sunk with the loss of almost 800 Jewish refugees. Of the estimated 790 people who died, more than 100 were children. There was only one … Continue reading
Here is a short documentary about the construction of the pinnace Virginia, Maine’s First Ship, as told through interviews with former and current volunteers. Maine’s First Ship – History, Ingenuity, Community … Continue reading
On February 17, 2010, thirteen years ago today, the SV Concordia, a school ship operated by West Island College International, was knocked down and sank off the coast of Brazil. Fortunately, all 64 passengers and crew aboard were rescued. The … Continue reading
Hugh Mulzak served as the first Black Liberty ship captain during World War II. When offered the command, he refused to sail with a segregated crew. An updated repost in honor of Black History Month. Born in 1886 on Union … Continue reading
Harland & Wolff, the Belfast-based shipyard, has recently signed a £ 1.6 billion contract to build three support ships for the Royal Navy in partnership with Spanish state-owned Navantia. The shipyard built more than 1,600 ships, including the RMS Titanic. … Continue reading
In honor of Black History Month, an updated repost about the first African-American pilot in the US Navy, Jesse L. Brown. The story goes that when young Jesse Leroy Brown worked in the cotton fields of Mississippi beside his sharecropper … Continue reading
Here is a story well worth retelling; an updated repost in honor of Black History Month; the remarkable story of Robert Smalls. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, … Continue reading