For the last sixty years or so, scientists have been puzzled how to classify the xenoturbella, a mysterious sea creature which resembles a purple sock. The xenoturbella has no brains, guts or even eyes. It only has a gaping mouth that allows it to take in food and release waste. Scientists have now identified the species, rather farther down on the “tree of life” than they had expected.
The Bermuda Triangle nonsense continues, as does the media’s fondness for dramatic headlines, whether or not there are any facts to support them. The most recent silliness is about late ice age methane explosions. The UK’s Daily Mail headline reads: “Has the secret of the Bermuda Triangle finally been discovered? Scientists find giant craters underwater which may explain how ships disappear without trace.” The International Business Times headline reads: Bermuda Triangle mystery: Missing ships victim of enormous methane blowouts on ocean floor? Likewise, the Guardian leads with: “Do giant gas bubbles explain the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle?” There are literally dozens of other articles and posts that are variations on the same theme.
What is this all about? It seems that scientists have found underwater craters in the Barent Sea off Norway. The craters were apparently caused by methane explosions on the ocean floor that occurred after the last ice age, or more than 10,000 years ago.
What does this have to do with the so-called, Bermuda Triangle? Virtually nothing, as it turns out. Continue reading
When I think of E.B. White I think of the classic children’s books, Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan, among others. He was also the co-author of the English language style guide The Elements of Style.
E.B. White was also a sailor. His adopted home was in Brooklin, Maine, where he lived for almost 50 years. His son, Joel White, was a naval architect and boat builder, who owned Brooklin Boat Yard. Here is a video, Lobsterman, written and narrated by E.B. White from the PBS show Omnibus.
Lobsterman by E.B. White from Two Fish on Vimeo.
Peter Stanford, an icon of maritime historical preservation in the United States, died yesterday at the age of 89. In 1967, Peter and his wife Norma founded the South Street Seaport Museum on New York City’s East River waterfront. Peter Stanford was its first president. Stanford played an important role in campaigns to preserve many historic vessels including the lightship Ambrose, the brigantine Black Pearl, the barque Elissa, the schoonerErnestina (now Ernestina-Morrissey), the Liberty ship John W. Brown, the fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard, the steam tug Mathilda, the four-masted barque Moshulu, the four-masted barque Peking, and the iron-hulled sailing ship Wavertree.
On March 25th, 1921, the US Navy ocean-going tug, USS Conestoga, with a coal barge in tow, steamed out of Mare Island, California, bound for Tutuila, American Samoa, by way of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The tug, barge and crew disappeared. For three months that summer, the Navy would launch the largest sea-and-air search to in its history looking for the tug and its crew of 56. Aircraft and destroyers searched more than 300,000 square miles of sea around Hawaii. The only trace of the tug found in the search was a lifeboat bearing the initial letter of her name found near Manzanillo, Mexico. Yesterday, NOAA announced that the wreckage of the tug has been found, but nowhere near Hawaiian waters. The wreck was located in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a few miles from Southeast Farallon Island, about 30 miles from the mouth of San Francisco Bay, off the California coast.
The US Navy is currently testing some potentially revolutionary new weapons, including electromagnetic rail guns. This is not the first time that the navy has experimented with new and exotic weapons systems, not all of which have been successful. USS Vesuvius, commissioned in 1890, featured three 15-inch (38-cm) cast iron pneumatic guns, which used compressed air to propel “dynamite shells.” The shells were steel or brass casings 7 feet long packed with nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. The three dynamite guns had a range of between one to two miles depending on the weight of the charge. Oddly, the guns themselves were fixed, so to aim the projectiles they needed to aim the ship toward the target.
In 1897, USS Vesuvius saw action in the Spanish-American War engaging in eight bombardments against Santiago, Cuba. Admiral Sampson wrote that Vesuvius’ firing had “great effect.” Nevertheless, this was the first and last time that the Vesuvius’ dynamite gun would see combat. The relatively short range of the guns, the ship’s limited maneuverability and the likelihood that a single enemy shell concussion might set off the dynamite magazine limited her future service. In 1905, USS Vesuvius was recommissioned as a torpedo testing ship in Newport, RI. 1915, a torpedo fired from Vesuvius ran a circular course and punctured the hull. She was grounded to avoid sinking. In 1922, she was decommisioned and sold for scrap.
In describing the internet, people often talk of “the cloud.” We connect through over an ethernet, where ether is an archaic term from the Latin aethēr meaning “the upper pure, bright air.” But as they say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboutit! Most of the internet is beneath the sea carried by submarine communications cables. By some accounts, the cables carry 95 percent of daily communications. Now there are serious concerns in the US military and intelligence that Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications. If the Russians, or anyone else, should attack the cables, they could potentially shut potentially shut down large sections of the Internet.
It is a huge challenge to build, operate, maintain and fund a historic sailing vessel, not to mention providing great educational programming to deck loads of school kids. The Sultana Educational Foundation of Chestertown, MD does a great job on the replica 1768 schooner, Sultana. Here is a short video describing their summer programs. Click here to learn more.
Sultana – Summer Programs from Aloft on Vimeo.
The British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is asking for suggestions for a name for the new polar research ship, currently under construction at Cammell Laird’s yard in Birkenhead. The closing date for entries is 16th April 2016.
They have gotten quite a response. As of this morning if you attempt to submit your suggestion online, you are sent to a page which reads: “NAME YOUR SHIP IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A HIGH VOLUME OF TRAFFIC — Our website is currently experiencing an extremely high volume of traffic. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. This team of penguins are doing their best to fix the problem! Please try again later.”
Nevertheless, many have gotten through and have offered their suggested names. According to an article by the Irish Examiner, the currently most popular name is RRS Boaty McBoatface. RRS Henry Worsley, RRS David Attenborough and RRS Pillar of Autumn are also ranking name suggestions. Somewhat further down the list are RRS Usain Boat, RRS Ice Ice Baby and RRS Boatimus Prime.
The wreck of the Esmeralda, a ship from Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s second voyage to India in 1502 and 1503, is believed to have been found close to Al Hallaniyah island, near the coast of Oman according to an announcement made by the country’s Ministry of Heritage and Culture this week. The wreck is believed to be the oldest wreck dating from “Europe’s Golden Age of Exploration.”
The wreck had been first discovered in 1998 and excavated between 2013 and 2015 by a partnership between the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the shipwreck recovery company Bluewater Recoveries Ltd., which is directed by David Mearns. More than 2,800 artifacts, including rare coins, have been recovered since the beginning of the excavation.
Last November, we posted about two balsa rafts which had set out from Lima, Peru, intending to sail to Easter Island and back, on the Kon-Tiki 2 expedition. Yesterday, the Chilean Navy rescued 14 crew members from the two rafts after they had been swept far off course by currents as the rafts were on the return leg of the voyage.
The voyage was intended both as an homage to Thor Heyerdahl’s famous voyage on the raft Kon-Tiki in 1947 and a voyage to collect data on climate change, ocean currents, marine life and plastic pollution. This expedition attempted to steer the rafts using adjustable “guara boards,” but were still unable to keep to their intended course.
SeaWorld has announced that they are ending their program to breed captive orcas. The 24 orcas, also known as killer whales, currently held at parks in California, Texas and Florida will be the last generation of captive orcas at SeaWorld. In an op-ed in the LA Times, Joel Manby, president and CEO of SeaWorld, wrote:
Americans’ attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically. When the first SeaWorld Park opened in 1964, orcas, or killer whales, were not universally loved, to put it mildly. Instead, they were feared, hated and even hunted. Half a century later, orcas are among the most popular marine mammals on the planet. One reason: People came to SeaWorld and learned about orcas up close.
For some time, SeaWorld has faced a paradox. Customers visit our marine parks, in part, to watch orcas. But a growing number of people don’t think orcas belong in human care. Lawmakers in Sacramento and even in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed legislation to phase out orca captivity. Even the California Coastal Commission — a state agency with oversight over land use and public access — moved last year to ban orca breeding at SeaWorld San Diego.
Farewell Topsails is a short film about the last topsail schooners in the British china clay trade. Remarkably for a film made in 1937, the short is in color, using the Dufaycolor process. The film was made by Humphrey Jennings who would become known for his work during World War II with the Crown Film Unit, a film-making propaganda arm of the Ministry of Information. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 1954 as: “the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced.” Jennings died at the age of 43, on the island of Poros, Greece after falling from a cliff while scouting locations for a film.
One celebrity at Weymouth during the Weymouth Leviathan was the tall ship Earl of Pembroke. The barque has been featured in seventeen movies of TV shows. Unfortunately, like so many other movie stars, the ship was not accessible, behind locked gates and high fences. Nevertheless, I could get a good look at the ship from the other side of the river.
Earl of Pembroke started out in 1945 as Orion, a Baltic lumber schooners. She carried lumber until 1974. The ship was restored on in 1985 when the rig was changed from the original fore and aft schooner rig to her current barque rig. She was renamed Earl of Pembroke, which was the original name of HMS Endeavour. Earl of Pembroke is now owned by Metaco LLP.
From 1862 to 1956, yachts competing in the America’s Cup were required to sail to the races “on their own bottoms.” My, how things have changed. Today, the AC 45 foiling catamarans sailing in the current America’s Cup Races in Bermuda are far more like giant foiling beach cats than ocean-going yachts. On the other hand, they are both fast and fun. Here is the Oracle Team USA AC45 capsizing. Fortunately, no one was injured and no damage was done to the boat.
I am attending the Weymouth Leviathan, a maritime literary festival, in the lovely, historic port at the mouth of the River Wey in Dorset on the south-western coast of England. It is a fitting locale. Most of the writers attending write historical nautical fiction, history or both. Weymouth indeed has no shortage of interesting history.
The headlines are great. “Iceberg that Sank the Titanic 100,000 years old” and “Titanic iceberg was a 100,000-year-old giant” and “Iceberg that sank the Titanic was 100,000-years-old and of monstrous size” and so and so on. Dozens of headlines and all are variations on the same theme. It must be true because so many news outlets are repeating it! Or maybe not.
This ancient berg frenzy was apparently set off by a recent study by Grant Bigg, professor of earth system science at Sheffield University, whose team has been tracking the paths of icebergs. They chose to model the path of the iceberg with which the Titanic had its unfortunate meeting in 1912. Apparently the scientists said that the iceberg came from a glacier formed by snow which fell “over 100,000 years ago.” Viola, a hundred-year-old iceberg is born.
Congratulations to Linda Collison! Her novel Water Ghosts is a Foreword Reviews’ 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist.
In our review from last May we wrote: In Linda Collison’s new novel, Water Ghosts, seven troubled teenagers embark on a vintage Chinese junk on a Pacific “adventure-therapy” voyage, to either help them work out their problems or just possibly to get them out of their parents’ hair. …
Water Ghosts is an absolutely gripping paranormal nautical adventure. While intended for young adults, it can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. Highly recommended.
I am on my way to the Weymouth Leviathan, a maritime literary festival on the south-west coast of England. I am looking forward to seeing old friends, as well as meeting many fine writers who I know only through the magic of the internet. I also hope to swing by Bristol and Southhampton to visit several historic ships that I have admired from afar.
ALL ABOARD: Weymouth set to launch first maritime literary festival
Originally posted in gCaptain by Rick Spilman. Reposted with permission.
In Alaric Bond‘s most recent novel, HMS Prometheus, the eighth of his Fighting Sail series, the Mediterranean is a dangerous place for the Royal Navy. In the autumn of 1803, the British fleet is overextended and vulnerable. Britain is still under the threat of invasion, and Nelson needs every ship he can lay his hands on to reinforce his blockade of Toulon. French squadrons are a constant threat while Barbary pirates snap up the weak or unwary.