Originally posted on gCaptain by Rick Spilman, on March 3, 2016. Reposted with permission. Rogue waves are real sea monsters. Rising many times higher than surrounding waves, they have the power to sink ships and to cripple offshore platforms. Recently, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
Last week, the 1895 lumber schooner C.A. Thayer, the last surviving West Coast lumber schooner, returned to her berth at San Francisco Maritime‘s Hyde Street Pier, after having three masts and a bowsprit installed by the Bay Ship and Yacht … Continue reading
Has Royal Caribbean Lines learned its lesson? Just days after a passenger filed a lawsuit against RCL for knowingly sending the cruise ship Anthem of the Seas into a winter storm off Hatteras in early February, the cruise line cut … Continue reading
$9.99 with Dave Evans is a weekly program which explores fun things to do and see in New York City for under ten bucks. Recently, he stopped by the ex-USCG Cutter Lilac at Pier 25 in Manhattan on the Hudson … Continue reading
What has been referred to as the Second Battle of the River Platte, may be coming to an end. In 2010, we posted about a legal battle over the salvaging of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee which was scuttled … Continue reading
Those of us around New York harbor have been watching a dramatic rescue unfold this morning. Around 2 AM, the 76-foot scallop fishing vessel Carolina Queen III, with 7 aboard, ran aground off Rockaway beach near the East Rockaway Inlet, … Continue reading
Thirty-three years ago today, on February 12, 1983, the collier SS Marine Electric loaded with 24,800 tons of steam coal, capsized and sank in a storm 30 miles off the coast of Virginia. Thirty-one of the 34 crew members died. While nothing … Continue reading
Only last June, the media were reporting the project to build a near-replica of RMS Titanic was dead. The Daily Echo was typical, writing: The highly ambitious plan to build a replica of the ill-fated Southampton liner, Titanic, has apparently sunk without … Continue reading
It takes a special breed of sailor to attempt to crest the monstrous waves of a harbor bar in a motor lifeboat. It also takes a very specially designed and built boat to make crossing the bar possible. We recently … Continue reading
In a post yesterday, we raised the general question of why Royal Caribbean Line (RCL) would run winter cruises which passed off Cape Hatteras, an area known for bad weather, particularly in the winter months? Today many are asking the … Continue reading
We posted this morning about the severe storm encountered by the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas, off Cape Hatteras. As of this morning, the ship was bound for Port Canaveral but was being delayed by weather according … Continue reading
The winter storm that struck Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas as it cruised off the coast of the Carolinas this weekend also set off a storm on Twitter. Passengers and crew tweeted photos and video of overturned furniture, damaged rails, and … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted our review of the movie, “The Finest Hours,” a dramatization of the 1952 rescue of 32 of the crew of the T2 tanker SS Pendleton, which had broken in half in a winter Nor’easter in the Atlantic … Continue reading
We recently posted that the organization that operates the Hudson River sloop Clearwater was in serious financial trouble and had canceled its yearly music festival. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the executive director, Peter Gross, has resigned, citing “significant differences … Continue reading
In October, the SS United States Conservancy announced that it had retained the services of a broker to explore selling the SS United States for scrap. Prospects for the ship looked dire. In a dramatic reversal of fortune, Crystal Cruises has … Continue reading
Hōkūleʻa, the Polynesian Voyaging Society double hull sailing canoe has arrived in Brasil, after a voyage across the Atlantic, continuing on its round the world voyage. Over the last 40 years, Hōkūleʻa has sailed over 150,000 across the Pacific. In its … Continue reading
In the late 60s and early 70s, hovercraft ferries were the ships of the future. Hovercraft, flying on cushions of air, operated across the English Channel carrying passengers and cars at speeds of 40 to 60 knots. Some imagined that one-day hovercraft … Continue reading
On Friday, more 4,000 longshoremen walked off the job shutting down piers and container terminals in New York and New Jersey. By Saturday, the most longshoreman had returned to work. Strangely, no one seems to know why the wildcat strike … Continue reading
If you are in the New York area come help celebrate Lilac, America’s only steam-powered lighthouse tender at a Maritime Mardi Gras fundraiser on Fat Tuesday, February 9th from 6 – 8 PM on 79 Walker Street on the 6th … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted about the boiler problems on the historic steamer Sabino at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic CT. During a major restoration of the steamer, built in 1908, it was determined that the boiler will need to be … Continue reading