Last week we made a post with the headline, HMS Victory ‘Collapsing’ Under Her Own Weight. The headline was alarmist at best. (We borrowed it from the BBC, but that is no excuse.) The historic ship will, of course, not be … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Robert John Hopkins was one of the lesser-known heroes on the Titanic. He died in 1943 at the age of 77 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Holy Name Cemetery, in Jersey City, NJ. Last Saturday, his descendants gathered … Continue reading
The finishers in the 2016 Transat bakerly single-handed trans-Atlantic race are now arriving in Brooklyn. This year’s winner, Francois Gabart on the 100′ trimaran MACIF, crossed the finish line on Wednesday, in the near record time of 8 days, 8 hours, 54-minutes and 39-seconds. The Transat … Continue reading
On May 4th, the 1441 DWT Panamanian registered product tanker Tamaya 1 drifted ashore on a remote beach in Liberia near Robertsport, with no crew aboard. There appears to have been a fire in the ship’s deckhouse and one of two lifeboats … Continue reading
Sailors have long considered Friday to be an unlucky day and Friday the 13th, particularly so. On this Friday the 13th, it seems appropriate to remember the unlikely tale of HMS Friday. Sometime in the 1800s, it is said that … Continue reading
This week the BBC reported: Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory ‘collapsing’ under own weight. Sadly, this is not a new story. Five years ago we posted about an extremely similar account in the Telegraph: HMS Victory rotting and being pulled apart under … Continue reading
The crew aboard the schooner A.J. Meerwald had just finished a Saturday evening sail on the Delaware River near Trenton, NJ when they heard screams at around 7PM. They immediately launched a boat and headed in the direction of the screams … Continue reading
HMS Illustrious, the UK’s only working aircraft carrier and the last surviving ship from the Falklands War is to be scrapped. The 689 ft-long 22,000-tonne Invincible-class aircraft carrier traveled close to one million sea miles in her 32-year career with the Royal … Continue reading
It is official. The polar research ship formerly known as Boaty McBoatface will be named RRS Sir David Attenborough. Despite an overwhelming number of suggestions that the UK’s new polar research ship be named Boaty McBoatface, the ship will be named after the … Continue reading
HMS Caroline, a decommissioned Royal Navy C-class light cruiser, is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, and one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War. Now in Belfast, she has undergone a many … Continue reading
Here is an animation of global ship traffic as seen from space. Mesmerizing and beautiful. Global ship traffic seen from space – FleetMon Satellite AIS and FleetMon Explorer Two thoughts immediately come to mind. … Continue reading
The news has been full of announcements about the discovery of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour by the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) near the harbor at Newport, Rhode, Island. Much of the reporting has been somewhat confused. The Daily Mail, for … Continue reading
After more than a half-century, American cruise passengers have returned to Cuba. Carnival Corporation’s MV Adonia docked in Havanna, Cuba today carrying hundreds of Americans including a few dozen Cuban-born Americans returning to the island for the first time in … Continue reading
The Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest Viking longship in the world, is on her way, hopscotching across the Atlantic, to raid and plunder visit the United States this summer. After departing Haugesund, Norway and sailing for a day at sea, the longship … Continue reading
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that “cargo ship El Faro’s voyage data recorder was located early Tuesday morning in 15,000 feet of water, about 41 miles (36 nautical miles) northeast of Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bahamas, by a … Continue reading
I recently visited the museum ship SS Great Britain, in Bristol, UK. When she was launched in 1843, the iron-hulled luxury passenger steamship SS Great Britain was described as “the greatest experiment since the Creation.” … Continue reading
In January of 2015, we posted about the capsize and sinking of the Cyprus-registered cement carrier MV Cemfjord while attempting to navigate the Pentland Firth in extremely rough weather. Eight officers and crew aboard died in the sinking. The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation … Continue reading
We previously posted about how the British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was asking for suggestions for a name for the new polar research ship, currently under construction at Cammell Laird’s yard in Birkenhead. The suggestion period ended on April 16th … Continue reading
Last November, we posted that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had ended its search for the El Faro‘s Voyage Data Recorder (VDR), the so-called “black box,” which might have provided answers to questions about the sinking of the 790-foot … Continue reading
When I arrived in New York back in the mid-70s, a vast fleet of tugs swarmed across the harbor like so many water beetles. Most kept busy assisting ships in docking. Now there are fewer but larger ships, many with … Continue reading