Roughly a year ago, a tug pulling a barge carrying a double-sided 60 foot long LED screen blasting animated, high-definition digital ads for everything from beer to movies, appeared on the Hudson and East Rivers, threatening to turn the riverscape … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Late season cruises have their own inherent risks. In the case of a recent cruise on the Norwegian Spirit these risks were compounded by the remnants of Hurricane Lorenzo, now a post-tropical storm, which was pounding the Atlantic Coast of … Continue reading
One of the most interesting accounts of a sea serpent is that of the HMS Daedalus in 1848. When sailing in the South Atlantic, some 300 miles from the coast of present-day Namibia, officers and crew aboard the ship saw … Continue reading
Econology is a word that has been floating around the internet recently. A combination of economy and ecology, it refers to technology that is good for the ecology, while at the same time making economic sense. The Dutch firm eConowind … Continue reading
For the past several years, we have followed the construction of the newest and largest square-rigged luxury passenger cruise ship built for the Star Clipper cruise fleet — the Flying Clipper. Recently, the 300 passenger, five-masted bark has been seen … Continue reading
This week, as China looked back at 70 years of Communist rule, its military parade looked to the future with a whole new generation of deadly naval and airborne weaponry. Newsweek reports that in a speech last week, retired Admiral … Continue reading
Following the example of Greta Thunberg, who traveled to a UN climate conference by sail in August, 36 young climate change activists set sail from Amsterdam on October 2, bound for COP25 – the United Nations Climate Conference. Rather than … Continue reading
North Korea appears to be aggressively developing the capacity to deploy a ballistic missile submarine even as it purports to continue to negotiate denuclearization with the current administration. Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that North Korea successfully tested a new … Continue reading
Civilian divers were on an archeological dive on the London, a Royal Navy ship built-in 1656 which exploded and sank in 1665 in the Thames Estuary. They were shocked to find a large World War II bomb in the wreck. … Continue reading
The world’s oldest clipper ship, City of Adelaide, may be one step closer to having a permanent home. Last March we posted about how the clipper ship City of Adelaide was being kicked off Dock 1 in its namesake port … Continue reading
Three sailors have been rescued from a lifeboat following the sinking of the 164′ tug supply boat Bourbon Rhode in Hurricane Lorenzo. The remaining eleven crew members are missing. The tug had sent a distress signal on Thursday and a … Continue reading
Van Dam Shipping, based in Spijk, Netherlands, has signed a contract for the installation of an eConowind propulsion system on its 3,600 DWT general cargo vessel Ankie. At first glance, two vertical structures in the graphic of the ship look … Continue reading
The recent activation by TRANSCOM of 28 cargo ships, makes it a good time to take a look back at eight iconic shps from the 1970s still in service today. When I was a young student of naval architecture at … Continue reading
Back in 2016, we posted about a new owner for the ex-presidential yacht Sequoia, which had been sitting, deteriorating in a boatyard in Deltaville, VA. Now, three years later, the 104′ long motor vessel has been loaded aboard a barge to … Continue reading
Photographer Onne van der Wal’s “The Beauty of Sail,” a selection of videos and photographs which portray just that. Onne is a full time pro nautical shooter and sailor based in Newport, RI and has been at it since 1987. … Continue reading
Four ships from the Navy’s carrier Harry S. Truman Strike Group are deploying from the East Coast this week. Notably, the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman is not one of the ships being deployed as it is still undergoing repairs for … Continue reading
When crossing the Equator for the first time, sailors have traditionally undergone a “line-crossing ceremony” which often includes being dunked in the ocean three times. Recently, on my first northern line crossing, I inadvertently presided over my own unexpected dunking, … Continue reading
On the same day that I heard the news of the horrific fire on the dive boat Conception which killed 34 passengers and crew, I also saw an article attacking the safety waivers granted to the riverboat Delta Queen. It … Continue reading
Here is a wholly random question. When and where was William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet first performed on shipboard? The first recorded shipboard performance of Hamlet, and one of the earlier performances anywhere, was in September 1607 on the East India Company … Continue reading
In May of last year, we posted about the Russians’ first floating nuclear power plant, “Akademik Lomonosov — Floating Chernobyl or Nuclear Titanic?.” At the time, the barge-mounted power plant was essentially completed but needed to be loaded with fuel. … Continue reading