For the last several years, and perhaps much longer, blocks of a rubber-like substance have been washing ashore on the beaches of Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The blocks are rectangular with rounded corners and … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
On Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Team Vesta Wind boat ran aground Saturday on a reef in the Cargados Carajos archipelago about 430 km to the northeast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are no reported injuries and the nine … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of the central creation myths of the founding of the United States. The story is based on an account of a one time feast of thanksgiving in the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts in 1621 during … Continue reading
The Board of Longitude Project, a partnership between Cambridge University Library and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in the UK, has digitized the complete papers of the Board of Longitude from its founding in 1714 until its abolition in 1828. … Continue reading
Last February, we posted that the US Navy planned to deploy its first laser weapon on one of its oldest ships. The new laser weapon has now been deployed on the 43 year old USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, for field … Continue reading
Great news! The Massachusetts of Department of Conservation and Recreation has signed a contract with Boothbay Harbor Shipyard for $6,048,025 for the restoration of the schooner Ernestina, ex-Effie M. Morrissey. As we posted in July, private donors, Bob Hildreth and Gerry Lenfest, contributed $2.8 … Continue reading
The TS Royalist has sailed into Portsmouth for the final time. The 43 year old sail training ship owned by the UK Marine Society & Sea Cadets is being decommissioned. Since her delivery in 1971, TS Royalist has taken 30,000 … Continue reading
Here is a short video by Sean and James McAnulty, narrated by Rex Mathieson, telling of his family history with the wreck of the full rigged sailing ship Antares, which came ashore in 1914 on Victoria, Australia’s “Shipwreck Coast.” The story of the … Continue reading
A month long Pacific cruise on the Princess Cruise Line Crown Princess has been disrupted by a norovirus outbreak. 158 of 3,009 passengers were sickened by highly contagious stomach virus, while 14 of 1,160 crew members were affected. The ship will return … Continue reading
Twenty years ago, a small group of enthusiasts conceived a plan to build a replica of the French frigate, l’Hermione, the ship which carried the Marquis de Lafayette, to America in 1780 with the news of French support for the American revolution. … Continue reading
Great news about the schooner Nathaniel Bowditch. In February, we posted about the foreclosure and auction of the 82 foot long schooner. There were no bids at the auction in Camden, ME, which ended after 27 seconds. The future of … Continue reading
Back in the 70s, the advent of oceangoing ships with wheeled cargo introduced the shipping community to the Ro-Ro (roll-on/roll-off.) Since then acronyms with an “o” sound have gained in popularity. General cargo and container ships became Lo-Los (lift-on/lift-off). Combination … Continue reading
Yesterday, Horizon Line, a US Flag Jones Act container ship operator, announced that it was ending operations. It had sold its Alaskan service to Matson, its Hawaiian operations to Pasha Group, and would be shutting down its operations to Puerto … Continue reading
In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the … Continue reading
Recently, the BBC published an article titled WW1: The indestructible warship. The article refers to the Graf Goetzen. Calling her the “indestructible warship” seems to be a bit of an exaggeration. As warships go, she was not very impressive and … Continue reading
Thanks to Richard Pekelney for passing along the link to a wonderful panoramic and audio tour of the USS Pampanito, a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial that is open for visitors daily at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. … Continue reading
In September, the wreck of one of the two ships in Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845 was located near the the Victoria Strait in Canada. As both ships in the expedition were similar sized bomb vessels, modified for exploration, it was initially unclear whether … Continue reading
I have mixed feeling about modern supermaxi monohulls. They are complicated, expensive sailing wedges — pointy in the bow and broad and flat on the stern. But they are really fast, and watching Jim Clark‘s new 100’ carbon fiber speed-demon … Continue reading
An estimated quarter of a million people lined the docks and the shore at St. Malo in Brittany to watch the start of the Route du Rhum Race, the 4,500 mile trans-Atlantic singlehanded race to Guadeloupe, which is sailed every … Continue reading
I am fond of one photo I took of the Kalmar Nyckel at the Sultana Downrigging Weekend in Charlestown, MD last weekend. It shows two sailors, who appear to be starting to downrig the sprit topsail yard. They are standing … Continue reading