DCV Driftmaster, Photo: Chris Gardner
As the problem of trash and plastic in our waters gets worse, new (and a few older technologies) are being used to respond. They range from small and functional, like the Seabin, a sort of high tech floating bucket designed to collect floating trash in marinas, to RanMarine‘s Waste Shark, an autonomous surface drone which the developers describe as “trash-eating, data-collecting, carbon-zero and safe.”
The Maritime Administration identifies Captain Hugh Mulzac as The First African-American Shipmaster. Mulzac was the captain of the Liberty ship Booker T. Washington in 1942. Without intending any disrespect to the memory of Captain Mulzac, he was not the first African American shipmaster, by a wide margin. Of the 2,500 masters who captained the American whaling ship fleet of the 18th and 19th centuries, at least 63 were men of color, for example.
To find the first African-American shipmaster, you need to go back more than 200 years. Who was the first? That is hard to say. Paul Cuffe is a good candidate.
The South Street Seaport Museum‘s historic Georges Banks fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard will be spending the next two summers in Lake Erie at the Erie Maritime Museum in a collaboration with the Flagship Niagara League. The schooner will be partnering with the Brig Niagara. Lettie G. Howard will offer day sails on Lake Erie from Erie, PA, while Niagara visits other ports during the 2018 and 2019 sailing seasons.
“The Flagship Niagara League has been working toward this collaboration for three years; to finally see it come to fruition is just incredible. The collaboration with South Street Seaport Museum and with the schooner Lettie G. Howard, will give us the opportunity to expand our services while enhancing the visitor experience at the Erie Maritime Museum,” Executive Director Shawn Waskiewicz told YourErie.com.
Panther John
Last weekend in Tampa, FL was the annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival. The festival has been a yearly event for the better part of a century. It celebrates the life and times of the “Last Buccaneer,” the pirate Jose Gaspar, also known as Gasparilla, a Spanish Admiral turned brigand who seized over 400 ships between 1789 and 1821. His treasure, none of which has ever been found, is said to be buried all along the Gulf Coast.
Gasparilla’s exploits are legendary. Perhaps, mythological might be an even better description, as there is no evidence that Jose Gaspar ever existed.
My latest novel, Evening Gray Morning Red, has received not one, but two, wonderful reviews on the Pirates and Privateers blog, by Cindy Vallar and Irwin Bryan, respectively.
Excerpts from Cindy Vallar’s review: “Gripping nautical and historical fiction at its best… Spilman deftly brings the period, people, and situation to life in a way that a history can never achieve. … From first page to last, he whisks readers back in time to stand beside Thom and Johnny and experience all the emotions and intrigue they do. When the back cover closes, it’s like leaving good friends. You miss being with them, but the voyage was more exciting and fulfilling than you ever imagined. Highly recommended.” Click here to read the review in its entirety.
An excerpt from Irwin Bryan’s review: “This novel is a well concocted tale from start to finish. As with his other books, when you read Evening Gray Morning Red, you’re captivated by this author’s rich descriptions and events and escape from your own thoughts and reality.” Click here to read the entire review.
On Wednesday, much of the world will be able to watch a blue moon, a supermoon and a blood moon, all at once. A blue moon is a term for a second full moon in a given month. There was a full month on the first of January so the second on the 31st will be the blue moon, even if the pigmentation doesn’t actually change.
It so happens that the full moon will also be a supermoon, which is to say that the full moon will be at perigee — its closest approach to Earth in a single orbit — making it appear slightly larger and brighter.
But wait! There is more! On Wednesday, there will also be a total lunar eclipse. As the shadow of the earth crosses the face of the moon it will turn it an orange or red, which is why a lunar eclipse is often called a blood moon.
So there you have it — a blue, super, blood moon. The last time the three events aligned was in 1982 and the next won’t occur until 2037.
Recently, we posted about the times when New York harbor froze solid. While that is a very unusual occurrence in New York City, a bit farther up the Hudson River, the river freezing over is a yearly event. In the summertime, before the river was spanned by bridges, numerous ferries plied the waters allowing people and wheeled vehicles to cross the river. In the wintertime, things were more challenging when the ice kept the ferries tied to the docks.
As long as the ice on the frozen river was thick and smooth enough people could walk across or even take horse-drawn sleighs. Things got a bit tricky when the ice was melting or just freezing, or when currents would break the ice into huge moving sheets and islands.
Here is a story told by Richard Heppner in Hudson Valley One of Lloyd Plass and his ill-fated cross-Hudson Rickenbacker taxi service:
A documentary about a shipyard in Faversham, Kent where over 1200 vessels were built and launched between 1916 and 1969. The narrowness of Faversham Creek was no barrier to the launching of such large ship. Vessels were simply launched sideways.
The film was directed and produced by Michael Maloney for Countrywide Productions. See cwideprods.co.uk for more information.
A Sideways Launch from Michael Maloney on Vimeo.
Preussen under full sail
We recently posted about the five-masted full-rigged cruise ship Royal Clipper, a modern sailing ship designed as an homage to the great five-masted windjammer Preussen. We are very pleased to have a guest post about the mighty windjammer by Robin Denny:
With the Peking now back in her home port of Hamburg, perhaps it is opportune to mention another of the Flying P sailing ships, the great Preussen. A five-masted full-rigged ship, 482′ LOA, with square sails on all masts, she was one of the fastest sailing ships, matching the Clippers with speeds up to 20 knots.
Built in Geestemünde, Germany, she was launched in May, 1902 with her hull, masts, spars and rigging, both cable and rods, all being of steel. She proved to be a well found and weatherly, sailing, among other destinations, to Chile, Japan and New York, where most of New York turned out to welcome her.
On Tuesday, a reporter in Alabama announced that he believed that he had found the burned wreckage of the schooner Clotilda, the last vessel to carry slaves to the United States. The wreckage was exposed following a winter “bomb cyclone” weather front, which caused extremely low tides in the area, exposing the wreckage. There is no firm confirmation that the wreckage is that of the schooner Clotilda, but the location, dimensions, and condition of the wreck strongly suggest that the wreckage is the slave ship. Clotilda was a two-masted schooner, 86 feet long, 23 feet of beam, and had a copper-sheathed hull. The wreck was found on the Mobile River just off Twelvemile Island by Ben Raines of AL.com.
The international slave trade had been illegal in the United States since 1807, but that didn’t stopped the slavers. Local lore suggests that the voyage of the Clotilda began as a wager between Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Alabama ship and shipyard owner, and friends from New England, that he could smuggle slaves from Africa into the United States without being caught.
“Vampire Squid from Hell” sounds like a low budget horror movie from the 1950s. It isn’t. It is a small cephalopod which lives in the deep oceans.
There are two important things that one should know about the species with the scientific nameVampyroteuthis infernalis, which means, literally, the “vampire squid from hell.” The creature is not a vampire. Nor is it a squid. Despite the confused taxonomy, the vampire squid is a strange and wonderful creature in its own right.
The vampire squid is neither squid nor octopus but a more primitive form of cephalopod, virtually a living fossil, dating back to a time before the squid and octopus split into separate orders. The vampire squid is only about a foot long and lives in deep water in temperate oceans. It is no bloodsucker. It eats “marine snow,” organic detritus drifting down from the upper layers of the water column. Apparently, the creature’s jet-black to pale reddish body was the basis for the vampiric name.
Fifty years ago today, on January 23, 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Pueblo while operating in international waters. One sailor was killed and 82 were taken prisoner. The Pueblo was commanded by Lloyd “Pete” Bucher. He and his crew were charged with spying on North Korea. Commander Bucher and his crew were released the following December after enduring 11 months of brutal captivity at the hands of the North Koreans. Pueblo is still listed as a commissioned U.S. Navy vessel — the only one held by a foreign nation. The ship is a now a tourist attraction in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Amazon is currently testing using drones to deliver packages. Recently in Australia, lifeguards used a drone to deliver something far more vital than a package from an online retailer. They successfully used a Little Ripper drone to drop a flotation rescue pod to two teenaged swimmers in danger of drowning in heavy surf on Lennox Head on the state’s Far North Coast. From the Surf Life Saving NSW press release:
At about 11:30, two men were swimming in powerful surf conditions approximately a kilometre north of the patrolled area when a member of the public noticed that they were having difficulty in the 3 metre swell.
Lifeguard Supervisor Jai Sheridan, the 2017 NSW Lifeguard of the Year, was piloting the UAV at the time, immediately responded and was able to locate the swimmers within minutes of the initial alert.
Around 30 NM from Hong Kong, the Volvo Ocean racer Vestas 11th Hour collided with a Chinese fishing vessel on Friday night around 1:20 a.m. local time, which resulted in the death of a Chinese fisherman. The Vestas 11th Hour Racing team issued a Mayday distress call, alerting the Hong Kong Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (HKMRCC). A nearby commercial vessel rescued nine of the crew from the fishing boat, while a tenth was taken to the hospital by helicopter after he was rescued from the water by the Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew. The medevaced crewman later died. None of the Vestas 11th Hour race team was injured in the collision.
The Great Lakes are rightly referred to the United State’s “fourth coast.” Here is a fascinating short video about shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, off Lake Michigan.
Several years ago, my wife and I went snorkeling in the Dos Ojos cenote in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula near Tulum. A cenote is a deep, water-filled sinkhole in limestone, often connected to freshwater underwater caverns and tunnels. The limestone filtered water was crystal clear and we were able to swim between multiple cave chambers. Divers with scuba gear swam 60′ below us and provided the only means of judging the depth of the water. It was an amazing afternoon.
Dos Ojos, meaning “two eyes” because of its two sinkholes to the same connected underwater chambers, was thought to be connected to submerged caves extending 93 kilometers or 57.8 miles. Recently, however, researchers have discovered that the Dos Ojos cave system is, in fact, connected to a nearby cave system, Sac Actun, meaning White Cave. The combined cave network stretches for 216 miles, a world’s record.
A lump of paper wadding found in a cannon from the pirate Blackbeard‘s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge has been identified as containing scraps of paper from a book by Captain Edward Cooke written in 1712. Researchers were able to identify the tiny paper scraps as coming from A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710 and 1711. They were able to identify specific words on the paper scraps which corresponded to the text of the book.
The discovery raises several questions. Who was Captain Edward Cooke and why was Blackbeard reading his book? Or, on the other hand, why did the pirate think the pages were suitable as wadding for one the guns on his ship? Was this out of necessity or a dislike for the book? If Blackbeard did indeed read the book, was it for pleasure as a diversion, or was it a practical desire to learn more about a potential foe? Was the book already on the ship when Blackbeard captured it in 1717? Did the book remain unread by the pirates with its pages used only for wadding for the guns?
A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World is an account of a voyage around the world in two ships, under the command of Woodes Rogers. It also includes a firsthand account of castaway Alexander Selkirk, whose tale inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe. What does this have to do with Blackbeard? Perhaps nothing, but Woodes Rogers was the great vanquisher of pirates who arrived in New Providence as Governor, a year after Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, departed. Continue reading
If you are in the area next Monday night, January 22nd at 7:30 PM, be sure to stop by the South Street Seaport Museum’s Melville Gallery at 213 Water Street, in lower Manhattan. I will be presenting “From John Hancock’s Sloop Liberty to the Burning of HMS Gaspee” — the fascinating but often forgotten history that inspired my latest novel, Evening Gray Morning Red and had a major impact on the course of the American Revolution. The event is being hosted by the Shiplore and Model Club, the oldest nautical interest group in New York City. The event is free. Stop by and say hello. It should be a fun evening.
The Navy has announced that five officers involved in two deadly ship collisions are facing a variety of criminal charges including negligent homicide. The officers facing charges include Cmdr. Bryce Benson, former captain of the USS Fitzgerald, and Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez, former captain of the USS John S. McCain. USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship on June 17, off the southern coast of Japan, killing seven sailors. USS John S. McCain was in a collision with a tanker on August 21, near Singapore, killing 10. Three other officers aboard the Fitzgerald, two lieutenants, and one lieutenant junior grade also will face charges.
The fallout from the two collisions is not limited to the ships’ personnel. As reported by the Washington Post: In August, the Navy removed Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, who oversaw its 7th Fleet. Aucoin’s replacement, Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, then removed Rear Adm. Charles Williams and Capt. Jeffrey Bennett, who oversaw aspects of the ships’ deployments.
Tanker Sanchi on fire, shortly before sinking
On January 6th, the Iranian tanker Sanchi carrying 130,000 tonnes of condensate collided with the Chinese bulk carrier CF Crystal. The condensate on the Sanchi caught fire, resulting in the death of all 32 of the tanker’s crew. The tanker burned for 9 days before sinking after a series of explosions. Initial concerns were that the oil slick might reach the Japanese coast. An official from the Japanese environmental ministry told Reuters that the oil slick is being carried north by an ocean current and is unlikely to hit the coast of Japan.
Rick Steiner, a marine conservation specialist formerly with the University of Alaska, told the Associated Press that 60,000 to 90,000 tons was likely to have spilled into the sea, calling it “enormous” and “as large as the official estimate of the Exxon Valdez disaster” off the coast of Alaska in 1989. He also suggested that the Chinese government was likely to be understating the magnitude of the spill.
How serious is a major condensate spill? It is difficult to say. Continue reading