Columbus, Eratosthenes & Posidonius

Posted on by October 14, 2024

Eratosthenes

Happy Columbus Day to those who celebrate in the United States and Happy Thanksgiving to those in Canada.

On Columbus Day, it seems appropriate to consider the role of error in discovery. An updated repost.

While many of us were taught in school that Columbus proved that the world was round, that is a rather shoddy myth. The ancient Greeks understood that the world was round by the 6 century BCE.

Indeed the  Libyan mathematician, Eratosthenes, calculated the circumference of the globe to be 250,000 stadia. Let’s put aside the fact that no one agrees on the length of a stadia, literally the length of a stadium.  If one uses the Egyptian stadia, Eratosthenes’ estimate of 25,000 miles came within just 100 miles over the actual circumference at the equator (24,901 miles).  Eratosthenes, in fact, made several mathematical errors but they cancelled out.
Continue reading →

Endurance — New Documentary Reveals Shackleton’s Ship as Never Seen Before

Posted on by October 10, 2024

A new National Geographic documentary “Endurance,” will premiere at the London Film Festival on Saturday before being released in UK cinemas from Monday and on Disney+ later in the year.

The documentary includes a 3D digital scan of Sir Ernest Shackleton‘s ship, created from 25,000 high-resolution images taken after the ship was found in 2022. The 3D scan, by Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, reveals amazing details about the ship that sank in 1915 and lies 3,000m down at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. The documentary tells the story of Shackleton’s ill-fated voyage, as well as that of the expedition that discovered the wreck of the Endurance.

The BBC notes that the 3D scan was made using underwater robots that mapped the wreck from every angle, taking thousands of photographs. These were then “stitched” together to create a digital twin.

Continue reading →

Google AI Tracks Mysterious Deep Sea “Biotwang” to Help Study Bryde’s Whale

Posted on by October 9, 2024

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has partnered with Google AI to analyze an ocean of long-term passive acoustic data. Using AI and machine learning, they have analyzed in hours what would otherwise take decades to process.

In 2014, an Oregon State University autonomous seaglider survey in the Mariana Archipelago heard a new sound: a mechanical-sounding whale vocalization. They called it a “Biotwang.”

Without visual observers to identify the source of the sound, they guessed that it might be made by a baleen whale, but could not determine the species.

In 2018, NOAA scientists conducted a visual and acoustic survey of marine mammals in the Mariana Archipelago. During the month-long survey, they spotted 10 different groups of Bryde’s whales. In nine of those groups, they also recorded Biotwangs—solving the mystery of the source of the unique call.

Continue reading →

New Zealand Navy Support Vessel Grounds & Sinks off Samoa, All Onboard Rescued

Posted on by October 6, 2024

HMNZS Manawanui, a multi-role offshore support vessel commissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy, ran aground while surveying a reef off the island of Upolu in Samoa on Saturday night local time. The ship subsequently caught fire before capsizing and sinking.

All 75 people on board were evacuated onto lifeboats and rescued early on Sunday, New Zealand’s Defence Force said in a statement. Officials said the cause of the grounding was unknown and will be investigated.

The reef being mapped had not been surveyed since 1987. The vessel is the first New Zealand naval vessel to be unintentionally sunk since the Second World War and the first to be lost in peacetime.

Continue reading →

Tentative Agreement Ends ILA Port Strike After 3 Days

Posted on by October 3, 2024

The longshoremen’s strike appears to have ended with a tentative agreement on wages. This afternoon, the ILA and the USMX released a joint statement:

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. have reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues. Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume.

Continue reading →

Day 2 of ILA Port Strike & the Maritime Origin of the Term “Strike”

Posted on by October 2, 2024

We are now in day 2 of the first International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike in almost 50 years. The ILA represents 45,000 dockworkers at 36 ports from Maine to Texas on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. The strike is over wages and the use of automation on the docks.

The two sides are attempting to negotiate a six-year master contract between ILA port workers employed in container and roll-on/roll-off operations, and the US Maritime Alliance, known as USMX, representing shipping firms, port associations, and marine terminal operators.

More than a third of US exports and imports could be affected by the strike, hitting the nation’s economic growth to the tune of at least $4.5bn each week of the strike, according to Grace Zemmer, an associate US economist at Oxford Economics, though others have estimated the economic hit could be higher, according to the BBC.

Labor actions have a long history in the maritime trades. The first recorded use of the word “strike” to describe a labor protest dates to April of 1768 when sailors in the Port of Sunderland in Great Britain announced that they would “strike the topsails” of merchant ships to prevent them from sailing unless wages were increased. The ship owners subsequently agreed to their demands.

Continue reading →

Yacht Builder’s Rogue Lawyer Fired After Filing €222 Million Suit Against Bayesian Crew & Widow

Posted on by September 23, 2024

The initial reports were bizarre. On Friday, Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer who works with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), the builder of the superyacht Bayesian that sank at anchor in August off Sicily, killing Mike Lynch and six other passengers, filed a €222 million ($244 million) lawsuit against Lynch’s widow and crewmembers of the ship, citing reputational damage.

Immediately after the sinking,  Giovanni Costantino, CEO of TISG, described the vessel as “unsinkable” and claimed that a series of “indescribable, unreasonable errors” by the crew led to the shipwreck.

The lawsuit filed on Friday by Bertuccelli alleges that TISG has already lost business due to the sinking, including a well-known fashion house that retracted plans to launch its branding on the company’s yachts.

Continue reading →

Update: SS United States Docking Dispute in Philadelphia Heads to Mediation

Posted on by September 15, 2024

We recently posted about a tentative deal to sell the historic ocean liner SS United States to be sunk to create the world’s largest artificial reef, off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, FL in the Gulf of Mexico.  That deal is now in jeopardy as the battle between the non-profit SS United States Conservancy and the operator of Pier 82, Penn Warehousing, took a new turn throwing the fate of the ship back in the hands of the US District Court.

CBS News reports that a federal magistrate judge will oversee mediation between SS United States Conservancy, the operators of Pier 82 in Philadelphia and officials from Okaloosa County, Florida, a judge ruled in a virtual hearing Friday.

In a hearing on Zoom on Friday morning, the federal judge said this is the best option going forward.

Continue reading →

USS New Jersey, First Coed Submarine, Commissioned

Posted on by September 14, 2024

The US Navy commissioned its first-ever coed submarine, the Virginia-class attack submarine USS New Jersey, at a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, NJ.

The US Navy has allowed women to serve on US Navy submarines for more than a decade. In 2010, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates lifted the ban on females serving aboard US submarines. A year later, the first female officers began reporting for duty on Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines.

What sets the USS New Jersey apart is that it is the first of its kind to be designed from the keel up with specific modifications for gender integration.

Continue reading →

Gotham Whale Fundraiser Whale Watch, Saturday, September 21st

Posted on by September 12, 2024

How many whales and other marine mammals frequent the waters adjoining the New York Metropolitan Region? At last count, at least 400, which was news to me. This is according to Gotham Whale, the area’s preeminent civic organization that tracks, studies, and advocates for our marine mammal neighbors.

If you would like to learn more, while enjoying food, dessert, and craft beer, plus 3 hours of whale watching, Jersey Shore Whale Watch is hosting a Gotham Whale fundraiser and cruise from Belmar, NJ on Saturday, September 21st. Tickets are $75/person, which includes an afterparty at the dock and a Gotham Whale t-shirt. You can buy tickets here or scan the QR code below.

Continue reading →

On the 23rd Anniversary of 9/11, Remembering the Great New York Boatlift

Posted on by September 11, 2024

An updated repost. There is a line from a Paul Simon song, “These are the days of miracle and wonder.” One might not think to apply that lyric to the events of 9/11, 23 years ago today. Yet for at least part of that strange and horrible day, they fit.

The great New York boatlift was part of the “miracle and wonder.” The wholly unplanned boatlift was the spontaneous maritime evacuation of an estimated 500,000 people trapped in Lower Manhattan in less than 10 hours. The boatlift has been under-reported by the media, which is all the more reason to remember the mariners of New York who stepped up to perform what has been called the largest sea rescue in history.

Continue reading →

Candela’s Electric Hydrofoil Ferries to Fly in Sweden & Saudi Arabia

Posted on by September 5, 2024

Three years ago, we posted about all-electric hydrofoil runabouts designed and built by Candela that succeeded in combining high speed with substantial range. Bloomberg referred to the company as “Sweden’s Tesla of the Sea” for challenging the conventional internal-combustion-powered leisure-craft industry.

At the time Candela offered 25′ and 28″ runabouts. The firm was also developing a 30-passenger electric foiling commuter ferry. This fall, the first such ferry, the model P-12, will enter service in Stockholm, traveling between City Hall and the suburb of Ekerö.

The Candela P-12 can cruise at a destination-to-destination speed of 30 knots. Because the ferry flies on foils and is powered by batteries, it is almost silent, creates virtually no wake, and has a cost per passenger mile of only 10% of traditional diesel ferries.  The P-12 uses up to 80% less energy than traditional diesel ferries.

Continue reading →

Animal Rights Groups Say Hvaldimir, the Beluga “Spy” Whale, Was Shot

Posted on by September 4, 2024

Animal rights groups on Wednesday said gunfire killed a beluga whale nicknamed Hvaldimir, which became famous in Norway after its unusual harness sparked suspicions the creature was trained by Russia as a spy.

The organizations NOAH and One Whale said they had filed a complaint with Norwegian police asking them to open a “criminal investigation.”

He was found dead on Saturday in a bay on Norway’s south-western coast.

Continue reading →

Sailing Cargo Ship Anemos Arrives in New York Harbor

Posted on by September 3, 2024

The sailing cargo ship Anemos arrived in New York harbor today, completing her maiden transatlantic voyage, her holds filled with over 1,000 tonnes of French cargo. The 266-foot vessel completed the voyage in 15 days, sailing at an average speed of just under 10 knots.

Anemos is the first in a series of eight sailing cargo vessels under construction or on order for TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT.) The small ship took two years to build, drawing on advanced sail technology from ocean racing.  

Anemos benefits from French expertise in this demanding field. Multiple French manufacturers and designers contributed to the ship’s design, said French shipbuilder Piriou. The hull was built at Piriou’s Romania yard, then transferred to Concarneau, France for outfitting. 

Continue reading →

The Strange & Tragic Saga of Hvaldimir, the Beluga “Spy” Whale

Posted on by September 1, 2024

Hvaldimir, the beluga “spy” whale has died. The Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported that the whale’s body was found floating in the Risavika Bay in southern Norway on Saturday by a father and son who were fishing.

The beluga, whose nickname was a combination of the Norwegian word for whale – hval – and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was lifted out of the water by crane and taken to a nearby harbor, where experts will examine it.

In the Spring of 2019, fishermen off the coast of Norway near Hammerfest, encountered a beluga whale wearing a harness inscribed with the label “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” After being freed from the harness, the whale remained in the area and appeared to enjoy interacting with humans. Researchers think the beluga may have been a Russian spy in training.

Continue reading →