The initial reports that the Svendborg Maersk lost 200-300 containers in a storm on Friday in the Bay of Biscay have turned out to be optimistic. The number is now estimated to be around 520. 85% of the boxes lost … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
International Salt, a major salt company, has just about run out of salt to supply the State of New Jersey. The salt is used to control ice on the roads, and to run out in the middle of a very … Continue reading
Maersk Lines is reporting that the 7,200 TEU container ship Svendborg Maersk lost a “significant number of containers over board” on Friday while crossing the Bay of Biscay. Lloyds List is reporting that 200-300 containers were lost in heavy weather while … Continue reading
In the United States, today is “Presidents’ Day,” a national holiday on the third Monday of February, falling between Lincoln’s (February 14th) and Washington’s (February 22) birthdays. Here is a repost of the tale of Lincoln’s camel that we ran back … Continue reading
Sadly, just before Christmas, the schooner Nathaniel Bowditch, owned by Owen and Cathie Dorr, was seized at its Rockland Harbor berth in Lermond Cove by U.S. Marshals and towed to Camden Harbor, Maine. The Nathaniel Bowditch is one of the … Continue reading
A unusually large wave killed an 85 year old man and injured a woman in her 70s on the cruise ship MS Marco Polo in the English Channel, as it headed for its home port of Tilbury, in Essex. Both were … Continue reading
The crew of the HMS Daring spelled out a message on the the flight deck to their loved ones at home. The Type 45 destroyer is on her way home to Portsmouth, Hampshire, after having spent nine months on deployment. … Continue reading
In the almost 6,000 miles of streets, roads and highways in the five boroughs of New York City, only about 15 miles are still paved with cobblestones. As noted by the New York Times: Starting in the 17th century, cobblestones … Continue reading
Sometime around the 60 CE, a Greek merchant, whose name is lost to history, wrote a guide, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Periplus is the Latinization of the Greek word περίπλους (periplous, contracted from periploos), literally “a sailing-around.” While Erythraean literally … Continue reading
The NTSB Report conclusion came as no real surprise. Captain Robin Walbridge; who was lost along with a crew member, Claudene Christian, in the sinking of the replica of the HMS Bounty; should never have taken the ship to sea with … Continue reading
We recently endured the media farce in which dozens of newspapers and websites reported that “a ghost ship filled with cannibal rats may be headed straight for Britain,” even though the ship has probably sunk and the bit about the rats … Continue reading
The USS Forrestal left Phildelphia yesterday, under tow on her way to a scrap yard in Beaumont, Texas. The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the first US “supercarrier” and the first American aircraft carrier to be built with an angled flight deck, steam … Continue reading
Princess Cruises announced that the Caribbean Princess would be returning to Houston one day early “because we were informed that dense fog is expected to close the port for much of the weekend.” Others have suggested that it was because … Continue reading
Super Bowl Fever has taken over New York and New Jersey. (Personally, I am sick of it and we are still two days away from the game.) Football fans are swarming all over, on both sides of New York harbor. … Continue reading
The “Left Coast Lifter” has arrived in New York. The Lifter is described by the New York Times as the “superman of floating cranes.” It is a shear-leg crane barge capable of lifting over 1,800 tons, built to help lift … Continue reading
My next door neighbors left last Tuesday for a 10 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship Explorer of the Seas. I saw them shortly before they departed. We were both shoveling snow from our … Continue reading
The Vega desperately needs a mizzen mast. Specifically, they are looking for a fir or spruce to shape the 10m x 26cm mast and a shipping company able to transport the wood from either Brisbane, Australia, or Vancouver, Canada, to Singapore. If they … Continue reading
I may owe Chris Reynolds an apology. In a reply to a comment about our post, Lyubov Orlova, Ghost Ship Crewed by Cannibal Rats Drifting Toward the UK — Phony Hysteria on a Slow News Day?, I suggested that Reynolds, Director, … Continue reading
The Twitterverse has gone crazy (crazier?) over reports of the Ghost Ship Swarming With Cannibal Rats Bound for Britain. Dozens of newspaper websites have feaverishly picked up the story. In all the foolishness, I was reminded of Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel “Scoop” … Continue reading
The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, has arrived in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She has been carried from Scotlandon the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur, with intermediate stops to load and discharge other cargo. MV Palanpur is … Continue reading