On New Year’s Eve 1918, over 200 men crowded the dock at the port of Kyle of Lochalsh waiting to the board the HMY Iolaire, a 190′ long iron-hulled yacht requisitioned by the Admiralty. Most of the men were Royal Navy Reservists. The Great War was over and they were returning home to the Isle of Lewis on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. When they boarded the Iolaire, it was a tight fit, but after fighting the long and brutal war, no one seemed to mind a bit of crowding.
At 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of the harbor, the Iolaire hit the infamous rocks “The Beasts of Holm” and sank. Unlike the many Hebrides islanders aboard, the officers on the bridge were unfamiliar with the local waters and made a fatal error in navigation.
Of the 283 aboard, at least 205 died. Because of the crowding aboard, the number could have been higher. Among the dead, were 181 islanders. There were only 83 survivors. The sinking of the Iolaire was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Great Britain since the Titanic. Continue reading
In 2010, 16-year-old 
Around 1,800 nautical miles northwest of Oahu, the car carrier Sincerity Ace is adrift and on fire. Sixteen of her Philippine crew have been rescued, while four are feared dead and one remains missing. The fire broke on on Monday on the Panamanian flag car carrier operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, traveling from Japan bound for Hawaii. The cause of the fire is still unknown. 
Here is a wonderful sea story which appears to be more or less true. 
Sometimes the events of the day seem downright surreal. Yesterday, I read about the US Coast Guard cutter Campbell which 
Recently, teams of 
On Wednesday, 71-year-old French adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin set off to cross the Atlantic in an unlikely craft — a barrel. He departed from El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, west of Morocco, in a barrel-shaped capsule with the intention of drifting, carried by the winds and currents, across the Atlantic Ocean. He hopes to arrive in the Caribbean in about three months. The barrel in which he is drifting is 10 feet long and 6 feet 8 inches wide, built of epoxy and plywood and ballasted with concrete.
Approximately 42,000 active-duty military members of the Coast Guard remain on duty during the partial government shutdown that began Saturday, but they will work without pay until further notice, according to a statement from a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
Call it a miracle, serendipity, or just good luck, but two stranded Costa Rican fishermen were rescued by the Royal Caribbean cruise ship 
We recently visited 
Recently, the 
I will admit to being dependent on GPS. I rely on it for both maps and apps on my phone as well as the chartplotters on several tablets on my boat. Nevertheless, until recently I knew nothing of