Secrets of the Sea — A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia

Posted on by March 7, 2017

A new exhibit opens today at the Asia Society Museum in New York City, ‘Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia.‘  The exhibit features a selection of 78 artifacts including ceramics, gold and silver items and bronze mirrors, from the 9th century Belitung shipwreck. On view for the first time in the United States, these objects are evidence of an active trade between between far-flung kingdoms in Asia over a millennium ago.

In 1998, Indonesian fishermen diving for sea cucumbers discovered a shipwreck off Indonesia’s Belitung Island in the Java Sea. The ship was an Arabian dhow with a rich cargo of Tang dynasty ceramics, and objects of gold and silver. The ship is believed to have been on its return voyage from China, bound for what is now Iran or Iraq, when it sank around 830 CE.

The exhibit at the Asia Society runs from March 7 through June 4, 2017. In the video below, Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski discusses Secrets of the Sea with Museum Director and Vice President for Arts & Cultural Programs Boon Hui Tan:

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Danny Spooner — Thames Bargemen, Historian & Folk Singer

Posted on by March 6, 2017

We have learned that Danny Spooner died last week.  Spooner was a well loved singer of traditional and contemporary folk songs of Britain and Australia. As a social historian, he explored British and Australian culture through folk music. Leaving school at the age of 13, Spooner went to work on a Thames sailing barge, learning songs from working sail from the deck of the barge. In 1962, he moved to Australia and became deeply involved in the folk music scene. He performed in folk clubs and music festivals all over Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and the US.  He will be missed.

Danny Spooner sings for The National Library of Australia collection

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Will Royal Cone Snail Venom Help Solve the Opioid Overdose Epidemic?

Posted on by March 5, 2017

The United State is facing an epidemic of fatal drug overdoses due to the use of prescription opioids as painkillers. In the US in 2015, there were over 20,000 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990 overdose deaths related to heroin. Four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers. Now, researchers may have found an alternative to opioids in the venom of the royal cone snail, a mollusk found in shallow waters from the Caribbean to the Brazilian coast.

The royal cone snail, known scientifically as Conus regius, has a fish-immobilizing sting that can be venomous enough to be potentially fatal to humans. The chemical mix in the venom has been of interest to scientists because of its pain blocking characteristics. One compound in the venom, Rg1A, has been found to act very differently from opioids. Unlike opioids which dull the brain’s awareness of pain, and are dangerously addictive, Rg1A acts on the pain receptors in the body itself, dulling the pain at its source. The compound also has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects.

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Incat Passenger/Car Ferry Francisco — World’s Fastest Ship

Posted on by March 4, 2017

The car/passenger ferry Francisco, built in 2013 by Tasmanian shipyard Incat, is billed as the fastest ship in the world. The 99 meter ferry has clocked speeds of 58 knots (67 mph; 107 km/h). Operated by Buquebus, an Argentine-Uruguayan ferry company, Francisco is capable of accommodating 1024 passengers and 150 cars. The ferry is an Incat wave piercing catamaran design, built of aluminium, and the powered by the two 22MW GE LM2500 gas turbines driving Wartsila LJX 1720 SR waterjets. The ferry is also notable in that it can run on either marine distillate fuel or liquefied natural gas (LNG.) Francisco operates on the River Plate between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.

World’s Fastest Ship: Incat’s Wave Piercing Catamaran

When Peggotty Met Petunia Seaways — an iPad Assisted Collision

Posted on by March 3, 2017

Photo: Sun UK

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) recently released a report on a collision between the 50 ft wooden WWII-era training boat Peggotty and the 32,000 GT cargo ferry Petunia Seaways on the UK’s Humber estuary. The report concluded that the use of an iPad as a primary means of navigation aboard Peggotty was a key factor behind the accident. In the collision with the much larger vessel, the Peggotty sank, while the captain of the cargo ferry was not initially aware that a collision had taken place. 

At first glance it would be easy to say simply “another inexperienced mariner relying more on electronics than seamanship.” What makes this story interesting is that the statement is only half true. No doubt, too much reliance was placed on electronics, but the mariners involved were all professionals. The owner and skipper of the Peggotty, David Carlin, holds an unlimited master’s license and works as a pilot on the Humber.

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William Liebenow, Decorated WWII PT Boat Skipper, Dies at 97

Posted on by March 2, 2017

William “Bud” Liebenow recently died at the age of 97. He served on patrol torpedo boats, PT boats, in both the Pacific and the Atlantic during World War II. He was best known as the commander of PT-157, which rescued Jack Kennedy and the ten other surviving crew of the PT 109 from behind enemy lines near the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, after Kennedy’s PT boat was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer in August of 1943. Kennedy would later become the 35th President of the United States. Liebenow briefly joined Kennedy on the campaign trial during that election and he and his wife, Lucy, were invited by Kennedy to his inaugural ball in 1961.

During the Normandy landings of 1944, Liebenow was in command of PT-199 that helped rescue approximately 60 survivors of the USS Corry, the lead destroyer of the Normandy Invasion task force, which was sunk by by German artillery fire. Later in the war, he ferried Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. George S. Patton aboard his PT boat. 

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Carnival’s First Ship — TSS Mardi Gras

Posted on by March 1, 2017

Today Carnival Corporation is the largest operator of cruise ships in the world with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. Back in 1972, however, it owned exactly one ship, the RMS Empress of Canada, which they renamed Mardi Gras. On the day after Mardi Gras, it seems like a good time to take a quick look back at Carnival’s very first ship.

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African American Whaling Ship Captains: Part 2 — William Thomas Shorey, the Black Ahab

Posted on by March 4, 2017

WilliamshoreyAs we noted in our post yesterday, over nearly three centuries of whaling, some 175,000 men went to sea in 2,700 ships. Of the 2,500 masters who captained whaling ships, at least 63 were men of color. Many of the 63 sailed from the US East Coast, including Absalom Boston, Paul Cuffee, William A. Martin, and Collins A. Stevenson, among others. Here is a revised repost from 2014, about a black whaling ship master from the West Coast in last days of the whale fisheries, Captain Shorey. 

Captain William Thomas Shorey, who was affectionately nicknamed “Black Ahab” by his crew, was born in Barbados in 1859 and ran away to sea as a young man. He learned navigation from a British ship captain and became a ship’s officer by the age of 21. After only a decade at sea, he rose to command whaling ships sailing out of San Francisco.

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African American Whaling Ship Captains: Part 1 — Absalom Boston

Posted on by March 4, 2017

Captain Absalom Boston

As Black History Month for 2017 comes to a close, we look at African American whaling ship captains. Over nearly three centuries of whaling, some 175,000 men went to sea in 2,700 ships. Of the 2,500 masters who captained these ships, at least 63 were men of color. Today we will remember Absalom Boston, captain of the whaleship Industry, which sailed in 1882 with an all black crew.

Absalom Boston was born in Nantucket in 1785 to Seneca Boston, an African-American ex-slave, and Thankful Micah, a Wampanoag Indian woman. Absalom Boston’s uncle was a slave named Prince Boston, who sailed on a whaling voyage in 1770. At the end of the voyage in 1773, Prince Boston’s white master, William Swain, a prominent Nantucket merchant, demanded that he turn over his earnings. Boston refused. He took Swain to to court and won his earnings and his freedom, becoming the first slave set free by an jury verdict. 

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2nd Annual Kalmar Nyckel Foundation LEGO Shipbuilding Contest

Posted on by February 16, 2017

I do not not immediately associate a replica of a 17th century Dutch pinnace with LEGOs, which may only reflect the limits of my imagination.  The Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is hosting their Second Annual LEGO Shipbuilding Contest. It sounds like a lot of fun. From their Facebook event page: 

Calling all LEGO enthusiasts and ship builders! On Saturday, March 4th, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation will host its second annual LEGO Shipbuilding Contest. The free event will offer maritime and LEGO enthusiasts the chance to create replicas of the “Kalmar Nyckel,” other famous vessels like the USS “Maine” and USS “Wisconsin,” or any other creation of their choosing.

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This is Windjamming — Maine Schooners Captured by Fred LeBlanc

Posted on by February 25, 2017

A relaxing video for a Saturday afternoon. I’ve long been a fan of Fred LeBlanc’s photography, particularly his photos of schooners. Here is a video of LeBlanc’s photos of scenes from Maine Windjammers fleet. LeBlanc hosts photo sailing adventure aboard the schooner Heritage. His next is scheduled for June 10 – 14, 2017, sailing from Rockland, Maine. Click here to learn more.

German Bomb Dredged up in Portsmouth Harbor

Posted on by February 25, 2017

In 2011, a drought lowered the levels of the Rhine River, revealing unexploded munitions from World War II partially buried in the river banks exposed by the falling waters. Now, in Portsmouth harbor in the UK, World War II bombs are also being uncovered, not due to a drought but from dredging. On Wednesday, one of the dredges discovered what is a believed to be a German SC250 bomb, weighing 500 lbs, containing 290 lbs of “high explosives.”  The harbor is being dredged to deepen and widen a four-mile channel to allow the the navy’s new 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers to dock. From the Royal Navy website:

The entrance to Portsmouth Harbour was closed until around 7.30am as a precaution while the bomb disposal team assessed the swiftest and safest way of removing the device. Divers from the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth-based Southern Diving Unit 2 towed the bomb away from the harbour, lowered it to the seabed, and planted explosive charges for a controlled detonation of the device. Shortly after 11am, it was destroyed in a plume of smoke and spray.

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Black History Month — Harriett Tubman & the Great Combahee Ferry Raid

Posted on by February 23, 2017

Harriet TubmanAs Black History Month winds to a close, here is a throwback Thursday repost of a story I think is well worth telling and retelling.  

Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped and would become a leading “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad” which helped slaves escape from  bondage in the South to freedom in the North and in Canada, prior to the Civil War.  Nicknamed “Moses,” she is said to have made more than nineteen trips back into the slave-holding South to rescue more than 300 slaves.  Her greatest rescue mission, however, came when she planned and help lead a Union riverboat raid at Combahee Ferry in South Carolina on the second of June, 1863, freeing over 720 slaves.

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“North Into the Mist” — A Hovercraft on the Arctic Ice

Posted on by February 28, 2018

Between 1893 and 1896, the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen allowed his ship Fram to freeze into the Arctic icepack and attempted to drift with the ice across the North Pole. He came close but ultimately failed in the attempt. Recently, a new expedition was announced which hopes to succeed where Nansen failed. The MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) project will endeavor to drift in the ice using the 120m-long German research vessel, the Polarstern, starting in 2019. It is billed as “the biggest single Arctic research expedition ever planned and is expected to cost €63m (£54m; $67m).

Another group of scientists has been working on versions of Nansen’s Fram expedition on a much smaller budget. For several years, Yngve Kristoffersen, John K. Hall, and a small team of scientists have been using R/V Sabvabaa, an 11 meter hovercraft, as a mobile Arctic ice drift station. Their first expedition in 2012 was the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary, “North Into the Mist.”  (The video is after the page break.) 

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The Dragon in Winter — Draken Harald Hårfagre at Mystic Seaport

Posted on by February 21, 2017

On a recent visit to the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic CT, I came across the Viking longship, Draken Harald Hårfagre, tied up alongside a wharf, wrapped in glistening white plastic shrink-wrap, its single mast piercing what looked almost like a ship-shaped mound of snow.

The longship arrived in Mystic last October after an epic voyage across the Atlantic that began in Haugesund, Norway in April, with port calls in Reykjavik, Iceland, Qaqortoq, Greenland and Newfoundland, Canada. The ship then sailed into the Great Lakes as far as Green Bay, Wisconsin before turning around and visiting New York City in September. At 115 foot long, Draken Harald Hårfagre is largest Viking longship built in modern times. 

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Drama in Gibraltar — Sailing Yacht A Seized

Posted on by February 20, 2017

Sailing Yacht A, one of the largest, most technologically advanced and, to my eyes at least, the ugliest, sailing yacht in the world, arrived in Gibraltar recently to be turned over to its owner, Andrey Melnichenko, following extensive sea trials. Not all went as planned. Within hours of its arrival, the futuristic yacht was seized by local authorities.

Sailing Yacht A, which took four years to build and is reported to have cost €400m, was arrested based on a claim of €15.3m (£13.3m; $16.3m) for unpaid bills, filed by Nobiskrug, the shipyard in Northern Germany, which built the yacht. The yacht is 143m (469ft) long and has three free-standing rotating carbon fiber masts. The main mast is 100m tall. Sailing Yacht A can set 40,330 sq ft of sail, which is 8,000 sq ft greater than sail area on the tea clipper Cutty Sark. The yacht also features eight decks, an underwater observation pod, and hybrid diesel-electric propulsion.  Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.

Seven Still Sailing in Vendee Globe

Posted on by February 19, 2017

One month ago, French sailor, Armel Le Cléac’h, 39, crossed the finish line at Les Sables d’Olonne, France to win the 8th Vendée Globe. Since then another 10 boats have followed Le Cléac’h across the line. It is a testimony to the enormity of the single-handed around-the-world race that seven of the original 29 to set sail are still racing, in a competition where finishing is a victory in its own right. Even of the original 29 racers withdrew from the race.

The closest of the remaining racers is Alan Roura sailing La Fabruque, who is less than 100 nm from the finish, while the farthest is Sebastien Destremau sailing TechnoFirst – faceOcean, who has over 3,000 nm to sail. Rich Wilson, sailing Great American IV, , the oldest sailor in the race at 66, will in all likelihood be the next to follow Roura across the finish line. Roura is the youngest sailor in the Vendee Globe at 23.

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King Harald “Blåtand” Gormsson, Bluetooth & the Jelling Stone Ship

Posted on by February 18, 2017

Remember King Harald “Blåtand” Gormsson? No? The king of Denmark and later Norway in the late 10th century. The name still doesn’t ring a bell?  His rune mark is embedded in your phone and possibly your earbuds and speakers. His nickname, “Blåtand,” means “Bluetooth” in English.  

King Harald Bluetooth’s claim to fame is that he united Denmark and Norway. When Intel engineer, Jim Kardach, was working on a new wireless technology he was also reading a book about Viking history. He decided to name the new technology after the Danish king. Kardach was later quoted as saying, “Bluetooth was borrowed from the 10th-century, second king of Denmark, King Harald Bluetooth; who was famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.”

The Bluetooth symbol adopted for short-range wireless communications is made of King Harold Bluetooth’s initials, B and T in Viking runes.

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US & Soviet Nuclear Submarine Collision Kept Hidden Over 40 Years

Posted on by June 2, 2017

USS James Madison

A Russian spy ship lingering off the US coast has been in the news recently. Within the last day or so, the spy ship Viktor Leonov was hanging out off the US Navy submarine base at New London. (The ship has apparently now shifted to Norfolk.) The Navy has dismissed the importance of the spy ship. More threatening, however, may be submarines waiting underwater to follow US submarines from their bases. In some cases, high-stakes games of underwater “chicken” have been reported.  A recent release of documents by the CIA has confirmed a previously top-secret report of a collision between a US and a Soviet nuclear submarine off Scotland 43 years ago.

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Black History Month — William Tillman and the Privateer Jefferson Davis

Posted on by February 16, 2017

William Tillman retakes the schooner Waring

A post in honor of Black History Month. On Throwback Thursday, a slightly revised post from July, 2011. 

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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