Day of the Seafarer – Nightmare on the Sahmo Dream

June 25th of this year is being celebrated as the “Day of the Seafarer.”  We will be joining with other bloggers and journalists from around the world to say “thank you” to the world’s 1.5 million seafarers for the invaluable and often overlooked contribution that … Continue reading

Halfway Around the World, Powered Only by the Sun – Solar Yacht Turanor Arrives in Brisbane

The 31-meter Turanor, a catamaran yacht fitted with 536 square meters of photovoltaic panels, has successfully sailed halfway around the world, from Monaco to Brisbane, Australia, powered solely by the sun.   The Turanor‘s captain and crew are half way toward … Continue reading

Raising the Anchor from Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge

Until I saw the video I didn’t grasp just how large this anchor is.  It is believed to be from the pirate Blackbeard‘s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which ran aground in 1718 while trying to enter Old Topsail Inlet in North Carolina, now known … Continue reading

The World’s Oldest Champagne Sells at Auction

Last  July we posted about divers finding intact bottles of champagne, believed to date from between 1782 and 1788, in the hold of a shipwreck on the Baltic seabed.   In November, a bottle of the “world’s oldest champagne” was opened and tasted by … Continue reading

A Flood of Arks? Ark Building Around the World

If a group of birds are a flock, a group of whales is a pod, and fish gather in schools, what would one call a group of Noah’s arks?  A fleet would be the easy answer, but that somehow doesn’t … Continue reading

“Don’t Give Up the Ship” – Thoughts on Sloganeering

On June 1, 1813, one hundred and ninety eight years ago today, the British frigate HMS Shannon defeated and captured the USS Chesapeake in single ship combat. Captain James  Lawrence on the Chesapeake was mortally wounded during the battle. His … Continue reading

Explosion at the Gibraltar Cruise Ship Docks

An explosion in a fuel tank on  the  cruise ship docks in Gibraltar today injured several on the dock and over twelve passengers on the 3,634-passenger Royal Caribbean   cruise  ship,  Independence of the Seas.  The injuries to passengers were all reported to be minor. … Continue reading

On Memorial Day – the Last Mission of the USS Olympia

We have recently posted about attempts to find a home for the USS Olympia, the oldest steel-hulled American warship afloat and Commodore George Dewey’s flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898.  On Memorial Day it seems worthwhile … Continue reading

Cruise Ship Sea Diamond, Santorini ship wreck ‘too costly’ to remove

In April of 2007, the cruise ship Sea Diamond struck a reef off the island of Santorini and sank.   Nearly 1,600 passengers where rescued and two passengers drowned.  Now four years later the Greek government has says that it cannot afford to remove … Continue reading

Twilight of the $UPERfluous Carrier – Are Today’s Carrier’s Yesteryear’s Battleships?

For seventy years, battleships were the unchallenged masters of the oceans, until technology swept them aside.  Now the aircraft carrier reigns supreme.  The US currently has five times more aircraft carrier capacity based on flight deck acreage than the the … Continue reading

Fleet Week New York – Parade of Ships

Fleet Week in New York Harbor kicked off today with a parade of ships.  A short video we shot and edited of the parade: Fleet Week New York 2011, Parade of Ships, 5/25/11 [iframe: width=”480″ height=”300″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/OfXk0ASrwKY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen] The … Continue reading

Congratulations to Port Side New York and the Mary Whalen

Congratulations to PortSide New York and the tanker Mary Whalen, which has been deemed eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places!   The Mary Whalen is a 172’ long coastal tanker built by the John H. Mathis Company, of … Continue reading

HMS Bounty Boarded by Buccaneers in Plymouth

Over the weekend, HMS Bounty, on the first stop of her four month European tour, was boarded by buccaneers on  the Barbican in Plymouth.   Plymouth’s “Pirate Days” coincided with the release of the latest Disney ‘Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, “On Stranger … Continue reading