Schooners Columbia, American Eagle & Lettie G. Howard Race at Gloucester

This weekend, the 31st Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival was held, culminating in the Mayor’s Cup Schooner Race.  The Esperanto Cup, representing the large schooners, was won by the schooner Columbia, built in 2014, a steel replica of the W. Starling Burgess designed … Continue reading

French Bomber of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior Apologizes 30 Years Later

On July 10, 1985, agents of the French government planted mines and blew up Greenpeace‘s Rainbow Warrior  in the port of Auckland, New Zealand to prevent the ship to be used to protest a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned … Continue reading

A Question of Priorities — Icebreakers vs Aircraft Carriers

Paradoxically, the decreasing polar ice cap has increased the need for icebreakers. As the ice diminishes, traffic has increased above the Arctic Circle, making the need for icebreaking to assist in transit or respond to emergencies ever more important.  On his … Continue reading

Wreck of the USS Macon — Flying Aircraft Carrier

In Marvel comics and movies, the mobile headquarters of the fictional intelligence/defense agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is a flying aircraft carrier, referred to as a “Helicarrier.”  In the comic books, the flying aircraft carrier first appeared in 1965, which raises the obvious question — … Continue reading

Pride of the Ladies’ Gunboat Association — CSS Georgia Artifacts Recovered

Navy divers, working with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, are attempting to raise what is left of the 250′ long CSS Georgia, an ironclad warship from the Civil War, in preparation for dredging the Savannah River.  The river is … Continue reading

Spirits of the Passage: Stories of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Opens on the Cutter Lilac

Spirits of the Passage: Stories of the Transatlantic Slave Trade opened yesterday on board the ex-USCG cutter Lilac at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25.  The exhibit explores the transatlantic slave trade through a display of nearly 150 historical objects, many salvaged from sunken … Continue reading

The Clipper Ship Noonday & the Ships of Badger’s Island

Last year, the wreck of a the clipper ship, Noonday, was located just west of San Francisco. There was no great mystery where the ship sank in 1863, as the submerged rock where she struck has been known as Noonday Rock ever since. … Continue reading

500 Year Old Sea Monster Figurehead from the Bottom of the Baltic Sea

Divers exploring the wreck of the Gribshunden have recovered a figurehead of a sea monster with ‘lion ears and crocodile-like mouth’ which has lay on the bottom of the Baltic Sea for roughly 500 years off the coast of Ronneby in southern Sweden. … Continue reading

US Coast Guard Busts Narco-sub with $181 Million in Cocaine Aboard

The submarine war at sea continues. Last month, the USCG Cutter Stratton intercepted a semi-submersible vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean around 200 miles south of Mexico, loaded with 16,000 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $181 million. Four men were … Continue reading

Captain Mary’s Story Hour on the Cutter Lilac & Rides on the Fireboat John J Harvey

If you are anywhere near the lower Hudson River this Sunday, August 9th, be sure to stop by the Cutter Lilac for Captain Mary’s Story Hour, a family event for all ages, from 10:30 AM to 1:15 PM. Mary Habstritt, … Continue reading