Thomas Downing, From Son of Slaves to Oyster King of New York City

Posted on by February 22, 2020

Image: NY Public Library

In the decades before the Civil War, Thomas Downing, the son of slaves, became the acknowledged oyster king of New York City when New York was the oyster capital of the known universe.  He had learned how to rake oysters as a child on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. When he moved to New York in 1819 at the age of 28, he became an oysterman. 

There were hundreds of oyster cellars in New York City at the time, many associated with working-class bars, dance halls, and brothels. Oysters were plentiful, cheap, and thought of as a food of the lower classes.

Thomas Downing helped to change that perception, when he opened his own oyster cellar at 5 Broad Street, in the heart of the financial district, in 1825.  The restaurant was elegantly appointed with damask curtains, gold-leaf carvings, chandeliers and mirrored hallways. Stockbrokers, attorneys, politicians, and other of the city’s elites ate raw, fried, or stewed oysters, oyster pie, fish with oyster sauce, or poached turkey stuffed with oysters.

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Screening of “The Arctic Rose Mystery” at Shiplore in NYC on Monday, 2/24/20

Posted on by February 22, 2020


On Monday, February 24th, at 7:30 PM, New York’s Shiplore and Model Club, the city’s oldest nautical interest group, will be hosting a screening of the documentary “The Mystery of the Arctic Rose,”  which examines the deadliest U.S. fishing accident in 50 years. 

I participated in the documentary and will be making a few comments on the tragic sinking and the particular challenges of fishing vessel safety. The documentary is a production of Exploration Production Inc. in association with Smithsonian Networks and Discovery Canada and is a part of the series, “Disasters at Sea.”

The screening will be held at Gerry Weinstein’s loft at 80 White Street in downtown Manhattan. Feel free to stop by if you are in the area.

Betelgeuse, Navigational Star, May Explode, If It Hasn’t Already

Posted on by February 20, 2020

Betelgeuse, a red giant in the constellation Orion, is normally one of the 10 brightest stars in the sky. For those navigating by sextant, it is  one of the 58 navigational stars. Recently, however, it has begun to dim and is now fainter than ever recorded. What is happening?

Jonathan Corum writes in the New York Times: Betelgeuse typically fades and brightens in short cycles of 14 months and longer cycles of about six years. Overlapping cycles might explain the dimming, or clouds of debris might be obscuring the starlight. Or the star might be about to explode. …

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Remembering Robert Smalls – Slave, Pilot of the Planter, First Black Captain in the US Navy & Congressman

Posted on by February 2, 2022

Robert Smalls is an unsung American hero. If all goes well, he may soon get some of the recognition that he deserves. Last year, it was announced that Charles Burnett is directing a movie about Robert Smalls for Amazon Studios. It is expected to be released later this year. 

In the meantime, his is a story well worth retelling. An updated repost. The remarkable story of Robert Smalls.

On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, led eight fellow slaves in an audacious flight to freedom. They seized the CSS Planter, steamed it out past the batteries and forts of Charleston harbor, and turned it over to the Union naval blockade.  Smalls would go on to become the first black captain of a U.S. Navy vessel, a South Carolina State Legislator, a Major General in the South Carolina Militia, a five-term U.S. Congressman, and a U.S. Collector of Customs.  

Harper’s Weekly of June 14, 1862, recounts the escape:
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The Long Strange Voyage of the “Ghost Ship” MV Alta

Posted on by February 18, 2020

Photo: Irish Coast Guard

Storm Dennis was the second-strongest nontropical storm on record in the North Atlantic Ocean. It brought hurricane-force winds, towering waves, and significant flooding to Britain, Wales, and Ireland. It also brought something wholly unexpected — the abandoned general cargo ship, MV Alta, which washed up on the rocky shore near Ballycotton, Cork, on Ireland’s southern coast.

No one was aboard the 77m (253′) cargo ship, built in 1976, when she came ashore. The MV Alta had been a “ghost ship,” a derelict, adrift in the Atlantic Ocean for more than 17 months, ever since her crew of 10 was rescued by the US Coast Guard in October 2018.  The crew had been stranded for almost 20 days following a machinery failure. They were running out of food and water and a hurricane was approaching. In the nick of time, USCGC Confidence rescued the crew approximately 1,380 miles southeast of Bermuda and brought them to Puerto Rico. 

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Happy Presidents’ Day – Lincoln’s Improved Camel Patent

Posted on by February 17, 2020

Nantucket Camel Ride

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 an updated repost of the tale of a patent granted to Abraham Lincoln for a device to lift boats and ships over sandbars.

In the early 1800s, the entrance to the harbor of the great whaling port of Nantucket had shoaled in. Fully loaded whaling ships could not cross the bar and return to the docks beyond Brandt Point. For years the ships anchored offshore and were lightered, the barrels of whale oil loaded into smaller boats which could make it across the bar.

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Black History Month — David Debias, 8 Year Old Sailor on Old Ironsides

Posted on by February 16, 2020

Capture of H.M. Ships Cyane & Levant, by the U.S. Frigate Constitution

David Debias, was a free black youth from the north side of Beacon Hill in Boston. In 1814, at only 8 years old, he signed aboard the USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides.” He was rated as a ship’s boy and was assigned as a servant to Master’s Mate Nathaniel G. Leighton. 

On the night of February 20, 1815, Debias served on USS Constitution during the battle in which Old Ironsides captured HMS Cyane and HMS Levant.

He sailed on board Levant, with Master’s Mate Leighton, as part of the prize crew.  Levant was subsequently captured by a British squadron on the way back to the United States and Debias and the rest of the prize crew were imprisoned in Barbados. With the end of the war in May, he returned home and was finally reunited with his family. His father collected $31.98 — the equivalent of roughly $550 today — for his young son’s seven months of service.

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Update: U.S. To Repatriate Most Americans on Quarantined Cruise Ship Diamond Princess

Posted on by February 15, 2020

Is the quarantine of the cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan an effective way to control the spread of the virus known as COVID-19 , or is it facilitating the spread of the virus to other passengers and crew aboard the ship? Not enough is known about how the virus is spread for a definitive answer, nevertheless, the latter seems increasingly likely. One observer called the quarantine a “scary public health experiment.”

After initially saying that the ship was the safest place for the more than 400 American passengers, the US Embassy has reversed itself and announced plans to repatriate most American passengers from the ship.  

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Cruise Ship Contagions — From COVID-19 to Norovirus

Posted on by February 13, 2020

Spirit of Discovery turned away at Gibraltar

Are cruise ships giant incubators for spreading viruses and other microorganisms?  While the coronavirus has dominated the news recently, two cruise ships were turned away from ports after passengers and crew were stricken by the common norovirus.

We have been following the spread of the coronavirus, now officially named COVID-19, on the cruise ship Diamond Princess.  Currently, 218 people are confirmed infected on the ship, out of the 713 people tested. There are a total of approximately 3,500 people on board, so only about 20% of the passengers and crew have been tested.

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Navy Wants to Retire First Four, Still Almost New, Littoral Combat Ships

Posted on by February 12, 2020

In its recent budget proposal, the Navy announced its intention to retire the first four Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)  — the USS Freedom, USS Independence,  USS Fort Worth, and USS Coronado — which range in age from twelve to only six years old.  

The LCS were supposed to be cheap, flexible and multipurpose vessels capable of operating primarily in coastal waters. They have turned out to be expensive, unreliable and incapable of doing anything well. Many in the blue-water Navy refer to the LCS as “Little Crappy Ships.”  The LCS have been described as the program that broke the Navy. 

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Modern Flying Dutchman? Virus-Free MS Westerdam Turned Away by 5 Ports

Posted on by February 11, 2020

The legend of the Flying Dutchman tells of a ship that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. The roughly 2,200 passengers and crew of Holland America’s MS Westerdam must feel a bit like the legendary Dutchman.  Despite have no recorded cases of the coronavirus aboard, the ship has been turned away by no fewer than five ports in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Guam and most recently Thailand. 

The ship sailed from Hong Kong on February 1 for a 14-day cruise to Taiwan and Japan. So far the ship has made no port calls since Hong Kong, and it is unclear when the passengers will be able to disembark. Reports yesterday that the ship would dock in the port of Laem Chabang in Thailand and that the passengers would be allowed off the ship.  Nikkei Asian Review reports that amid heightened public concern, officials ultimately changed their minds citing public panic that has spread online over news of the virus, which has led to more than 1,000 deaths in China.

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Quarantined Cruise Ship Diamond Princess — Coronavirus Cases Nearly Double

Posted on by February 10, 2020

Overnight the number of passengers and crew onboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess who have tested positive for the coronavirus has nearly doubled, from 70 to 136. An additional 66 people on board the quarantined cruise ship have tested positive for the virus. Among those testing positive are 23 Americans. The ship is being held in quarantine in the port of Yokohama, Japan.

Only 336 of the roughly 3,600 people onboard had been tested as of Monday, according to the Japanese health ministry. Japan Times reports that the Japanese government is now preparing to test dozens of elderly passengers as it investigates potential issues with hygiene control on the infected ship.

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Update: Cruise Ship Coronavirus — Diamond Princess Still Quarantined, World Dream Passegners Disembark

Posted on by February 9, 2020

We recently posted about two cruises ships, the Diamond Princess and the World Dream, which were both under quarantine to attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Now, the passengers and crew of the World Dream, which had been quarantined at the dock in Hong Kong, were allowed to disembark on Sunday after crew members tested negative for the virus.

The passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess have not been so lucky. The number of passengers and crew who have tested positive for the virus has risen to 70. Those afflicted have been taken to Japanese hospitals for treatment, while the remaining 2,600 passengers and 1,000 or so crew are stuck aboard the ship for about another week until the quarantine period ends. The Diamond Princess which had been held offshore has returned to the dock at Yokohoma. An additional seven passengers were taken off the vessel with medical conditions unrelated to the virus.

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Black History Month — William Tillman and the Privateer Jefferson Davis

Posted on by February 8, 2020

A repost in honor of Black History Month. 

William Tillman was the first black hero of the American Civil War. He was not a soldier but rather a 27-year-old  cook-steward on the schooner S.J. Waring.  On July 7, 1861, the schooner was captured by the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis while about 150 miles from Sandy Hook, New York.  Captain Smith, the master of the S.J. Waring was taken aboard the Jefferson Davis, and a five-man prize crew was put aboard the schooner, with orders to sail her to a Southern port where the ship and her cargo would be sold.

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Ancient Skull May Be From Roman Admiral Pliny the Elder, Killed by Vesuvius Eruption

Posted on by February 7, 2020

Photo: Flavio Russo

A team of Italian researchers has concluded that the upper portion of a skull found near Pompeii 100 years ago, may indeed belong to Pliny the Elder. 

In 79 AD, Roman Admiral Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was with the Imperia fleet in the Bay of Naples on an anti-piracy patrol, when he witnessed the eruption at Mount Vesuvius. He immediately sailed to the port town of Stabiae, about 4.5 km from Pompeii to lead a rescue party for those fleeing the eruption. As he was leading a group of survivors to safety, Pliny was overtaken by a cloud of poisonous gas, and died on the beach. 

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