This Saturday, October 20, from 1:00 to 5:00 PM at Manhattan’s Pier 25, at West Street and N. Moore Street, on the Hudson River, the retired U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Lilac will be hosting a celebration of 79th anniversary of the founding of the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Ocean racing seems to have been taken over by boats made entirely of carbon fiber, costing slightly more than their weight in gold, as well being as festooned with foils, articulating keels and every high-tech whiz-bang device that millions of dollars … Continue reading
The New York State Canal Corporation’s website still refers to the tug Urger as the “flagship” of the Erie Canal. The Urger served more than 60 years hauling machinery, dredges, and scows on the Erie and Champlain Canals until she was retired from service … Continue reading
Three years ago this week, the ro/ro container ship El Faro sank with all hands in Hurricane Joaquin northeast of Crooked Island in the Bahamas. The 28 American crew and 5 Polish repair technicians died. Recently the National Transportation Safety Board … Continue reading
A Chinese destroyer came perilously close to the US destroyer Decatur as it sailed 12 nautical miles off Gaven and Johnson reefs in the Spratly Islands. The Chinese destroyer is reported to have approached within 45 yards of the Decatur, which … Continue reading
Archaeologists have found a 400-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Portugal, near Cascais, close to the capital Lisbon. The shipwreck was found in early September while dredging the mouth of the Tagus river. Spices, ceramics, and cannons engraved with Portugal’s … Continue reading
Injured sailor Abhilash Tomy has been rescued by a French fisheries patrol vessel. Tomy, a 39-year-old Indian naval commander, was injured when his yacht Thuriya capsized and dismasted in a severe Southern ocean storm on Day 82 of the Golden Globe Race. Osiris, a French fisheries vessel … Continue reading
A month after the WWI era submarine USS Ling was vandalized and flooded, two suspects have been apprehended related to at least some of the vandalism. The complaints filed against them by the Hackensack Police may, however, raise more questions … Continue reading
MV Nyerere, a ferry traveling from Bugolora to Ukara island in Lake Victoria, Tanzania capsized on Thursday. While the ferry had a rated capacity of 100 passengers, reports indicate that as many as 400 people may have been aboard when the … Continue reading
This year the East Coast tug and barge operator, Bouchard Transportation Company, turned 100 years old. The company’s origin, however, dates back to 1916, and to Captain Frederick Bouchard’s heroism during the worst attack on New York harbor prior to … Continue reading
We are within days of the 250th anniversary of when Captain James Cook set off on an epic circumnavigation, stopping at numerous islands in the Pacific, as well as Australia and New Zealand on the bark HMS Endeavour. Now, the Rhode … Continue reading
Did you know that in the 1960s the US Army converted a World War II Liberty ship to a floating nuclear power plant? Neither did I. And as it is now heading for the scrap yard, will soon be no … Continue reading
A short video of this morning’s 26th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race sponsored by the Working Waterfront Committee. … Continue reading
Testing has begun on the recently installed rotor sails on the MV Maersk Pelican. The two large cylinders installed on the deck of the 110,000 DWT Long Range 2 product tanker may not look much like sails but may represent … Continue reading
Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI), the non-profit organization behind Rhode Island’s Official Tall Ship SSVOliver Hazard Perry, has announced a pause in operations to rethink its strategy for the ship’s financial sustainability. The 200-foot three-masted sailing school vessel, which was seven … Continue reading
Happy Labor Day! While many nations celebrate workers on May 1st or May Day, US and Canada both celebrate workers rights in early September. It seems a good time to look at the nautical origin of the word “strike,” referring … Continue reading
The aircraft carrier USS Midway is about a 1,000′ long, 130′ wide and around 55′ high. It has been a stationary museum ship since 2004. Put plainly, Midway is really, really big and doesn’t move. It should be a fairly easy object to avoid, and yet … Continue reading
A quick two-question quiz — First question: What do US aircraft carriers have that the newest British carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, lacks? The answer is aircraft. The UK’s new aircraft carrier will be conducting flight trials with two borrowed US planes. Its own … Continue reading
In July we posted about the discovery of the wreck of the Russian armored cruiser, Dmitrii Donskoi, off South Korea. The salvors claimed that the ship may contain 200 tons of gold, which would they said may be worth around $133.4 billion (£102bn) in … Continue reading
The HMS Queen Elizabeth set sail yesterday from Portsmouth Naval Base bound for the United States. The 65,000-tonne carrier, the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy, will embark two US F-35B test aircraft to begin the first flight trials. The BBC reports … Continue reading