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.
In honor of Black History Month, here is a throwback Thursday repost of a story I think is well worth telling and retelling. 
Two more cruise ships are being quarantined for 14 days each in hopes of limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Ten people aboard the 
As has so often been the case, predictions of the impact of climate change have been proven to be inaccurate. The problem is not that they have been too alarmist, but that they haven’t been alarmist enough. For the past several years, scientists have warned of the 
About a year ago 
In honor of Black History Month, a post about the first African-American pilot in the US Navy, 
On the morning of April 16, 2014, the ro-ro/passenger ferry 
UPDATE: The illness which sickened a passenger was determined not to be the coronavirus and the 6,000 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark from the Costa Smeralda. Two cases of the coronavirus, not related to the cruise ship, were diagnosed in Rome, however.
Four years ago, we 
On January 28, 1915, the US flag four-masted bark 
More than thirty years ago, I sat on the rotting planks of the old Pier 17 in the East River in Manhattan and listened to Bernie Clay and the X-Seaman’s Institute sing a song about the schooner Alice S. Wentworth. The song became known as the “