Great news! Congress has restored $675 million in funding for new Coast Guard icebreakers that Homeland Security had diverted last year to build a border wall with Mexico. The funding is not coming a moment too soon. The US has … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, seized the steamer, sailed it out past the batteries and forts of Charleston harbor and turned it over to the Union naval blockade. Smalls … Continue reading
Two years ago we posted about the ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), Sea Hunter, a 132′ long autonomous drone trimaran designed to track enemy submarines, being developed by the US Navy. The unmanned ship reached a major milestone recently after sailing autonomously … Continue reading
We recently posted that the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI) organization had taken a “strategic pause” to rethink its strategy for the financial sustainability of the SS Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the United States. Now, the organization has announced a new … Continue reading
An updated repost in honor of Black History Month. We are a few days late celebrating Frederick Douglass‘ birthday or at least the day that he celebrated as his birthday. As a slave, he never knew the date of his birth … Continue reading
On a cold winter Sunday on the banks of the Hudson River, here is a video from the New Zealand summer about the restoration of one of the oldest yachts in the island nation, the 115-year-old Ariki. For additional photos … Continue reading
It was a long-shot from the beginning. The Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 had dispatched the icebreaking polar-supply and research-vessel SA Agulhas II to study Antarctica’s Larsen C ice sheet. While in the area, the expedition attempted to locate Sir Ernest … Continue reading
The Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the United States, has offered programs in New England in the Summer and headed south in colder months. Recently, however, the operation ran a deficit approaching $1 million. Rather than … Continue reading
Even though it was expected, it still comes as a shock. Yesterday, the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) Harbors Division filed a public notification that the historic windjammer, Falls of Clyde, is being offered for sale by auction. Those who … Continue reading
According to a saying often attributed to Mark Twain, “History may not repeat itself. But it often rhymes.” This came to mind recently when posting about the sad state of the windjammer Falls of Clyde, which recently nearly sank at the … Continue reading
We recently posted an incomplete list of some of the great things that the US Coast Guard was doing while not getting paid during the government shutdown. One of the missions was the resupply of the US McMurdo Station in … Continue reading
More bad news for the Falls of Clyde. The 1878 built windjammer, the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, recently came close to sinking at the dock in Honolulu, Hawaii. On Thursday, the ship began taking on water by the … Continue reading
Last April, we posted about a planned expedition to the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea on the icebreaking polar-supply and research-vessel SA Agulhas II. The Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 is now underway, and scientists have spent the past two weeks investigating the Larsen C … Continue reading
The El Dorado, a 157 foot-long, 300-ton, casino boat broke free from her moorings when Hurricane Ivan ripped through Panama City, FL in 2004. She ran aground in Southport, FL. where she sat for several years. A new owner was in … Continue reading
No doubt about it. Winter is with us with a vengeance. On Friday rising waters and ice jams on the Hudson River between Albany and Troy, New York tore eight vessels from their moorings. Five barges, one tugboat, a “dock system” and a … Continue reading
Yesterday we posted about the replica of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour which will be circumnavigating Australia to commemorate the 250th-anniversary of Cook’s arrival. Some critics have noted that Captain Cook did not actually sail around Australia. Coincidentally and almost simultaneously, archaeologists in London … Continue reading
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia, HMS Endeavour, a replica of Cook’s ship, will circumnavigate the continent. Prime minister Scott Morrison has announced the Australian government will be providing 6.7 million Australian dollars (£3.72 million) … Continue reading
Excentric Australian billionaire Clive Palmer made quite a splash in 2012 when he announced his plans to build a 21st-century almost a replica of theTitanic and sail it from England to New York by the end of 2016. That didn’t happen. In fact, … Continue reading
There is a tragic irony in the collision of the guided-missile cruiser USS Fitzgerald, which resulted in the death of seven of its crew. The Fitzgerald is built around one of the most advanced anti-missile radar systems in the world and yet when it turned into … Continue reading
The Hawaii State Department of Transportation Harbors division has given the caretaker group, Friends of the Falls of Clyde, until February 6th to move the 1878 built, four-masted iron windjammer out of Honolulu harbor. The Harbor Divisions concerns are that “the condition of … Continue reading