In August we posted Yara Birkeland, Crewless Electric Container Ship, First Voyage by Year’s End. We noted that if all went according to plan, the ship would make its first journey between two Norwegian towns before the end of the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Following pressure from the United States, work has been halted on what intelligence agencies believe was a secret Chinese military facility under construction in a commercial port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Wall Street Journal reported that satellite imagery … Continue reading
The maxi-trimaran Sails of Change (ex-Spindrift 2) and its crew of 11, led by Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard, are awaiting a favorable weather window to set off from La Trinité-sur-Mer, in southwest Brittany, on their latest attempt to claim … Continue reading
Great news! David O’Neill, director of the Falls of Clyde International, announced yesterday on Facebook that their bid to remove the historic tall ship Falls of Clyde, from Honolulu harbor, has been accepted by the state officials at the Department … Continue reading
The Barents Observer reports that more than 20 ships are either stuck or struggling to make it through increasingly thick sea-ice on the Arctic Northern Sea Route. They report that over the past several years, shipping along the Russian northern … Continue reading
We recently posted about how the US Navy’s last two non-nuclear carriers were sold for scrap for the modest sum of one cent each. By some standards, that was not such a bad deal. A recent report by the General … Continue reading
The Chinese military has built targets in the shape of an American aircraft carrier and other U.S. warships in the Taklamakan desert as part of a new target range complex, according to photos from satellite imagery company Maxar. USNI News … Continue reading
What could be more gloriously incongruous than sailing on a replica 9th-century Viking longship and sipping whisky on a blustery Autumn day in New York harbor? Here is an updated repost: In late October 2018, I was fortunate enough to … Continue reading
The Daily Scandinavian reported that last March the world’s largest all-electric ferry went into full operation on the 5.67 nautical mile route between the two Norwegian cities of Moss and Horten, on Norway’s busiest ferry route. The new ferry, named … Continue reading
Photographs have come out of the bow damage to the container ship Ever Given after she ran hard aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the critical waterway for six days last March. The images were taken in Qingdao, China, where … Continue reading
The worst way to determine the position of a previously uncharted seamount is to run into it underwater. That is apparently what happened to the Seawolf-class attack submarine, USS Connecticut, when it hit an object while submerged on October 2. … Continue reading
“Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben James?” (If you do, it may be from the Woodie Guthrie song.) The destroyer USS Reuben James was sunk by a German torpedo while on convoy duty 80 years ago … Continue reading
For years, we have been following the valiant efforts to keep the battleship USS Texas afloat at its berth in the Buffalo Bayou at the San Jacinto Battleground Historic Site in La Porte, Texas. Now, the Battleship Texas Foundation has … Continue reading
The last section of the car carrier Golden Ray has been removed from St. Simons Sound near Brunswick, Georgia, and is on its way to a scrapyard. The 656-foot car carrier was carrying 4,100 vehicles when it capsized in September … Continue reading
In one of the stranger maritime stories of late, the Ecuadorian Navy announced that last week, their sail training ship, the three-masted barque Guayas stopped and captured a drug-laden high-speed craft; a low profile vessel (LPV) powered by three outboard … Continue reading
One of the traditions of US icebreakers operating in the Arctic is “ice liberty.” When an icebreaker encounters a thick ice floe, the crew is allowed liberty to get off the vessel to walk about or play games from touch … Continue reading
The USS Constitution left its berth in the Charleston Navy Yard last Friday for a short cruise in Boston Harbor. CBS Boston reports that the ship fired a 21-gun salute while carrying 120 newly-trained Navy sailors. The sailors were recently selected … Continue reading
Happy Trafalgar Day, one day late. A story for Trafalgar Day, plus one. When one of the masts of Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory was removed for restoration work, a conservator found a Victorian-era coin that had been placed beneath the … Continue reading
Following an investigation of the fire that destroyed the US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard, Admiral Bill Lescher, the Navy’s No. 2 officer said, “The loss of this ship was completely preventable.” USNI News reported that a cascade … Continue reading
Nine major shippers including Amazon, Ikea and Unilever have signed an “ambition statement” to pledge to only move cargo on ships using zero-carbon fuel by 2040. This pledge is part of a new initiative by the non-profit Aspen Insititute called … Continue reading