Sail Amsterdam bills itself as the world’s largest nautical festival. Every five years, more than 600 ships navigate along the North Sea Canal before mooring in and around the IJhaven in Amsterdam. The ninth edition of SAIL Amsterdam takes place from 19 to 23 August 2015. The festival features an impressive flotilla of vessels of all shapes and sizes; from tall ships, to traditional Dutch craft to Volvo Ocean racers and smaller private yachts. Crowds of 2-3 million visitors are expected to attend. Here is a video of the Sail In Parade. Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.
Noontime
Last year, the wreck of a the clipper ship, Noonday, was located just west of San Francisco. There was no great mystery where the ship sank in 1863, as the submerged rock where she struck has been known as Noonday Rock ever since. Nevertheless, the exact location of the ship had been lost until the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surveyed the area with the help of a remote-controlled submarine equipped with sonar and video. The ship remains buried beneath bottom and will be left undisturbed. In 1934, the ship’s bell from the Noonday was recovered when it became entangled in the net of a fishing trawler.
Noonday was the last clipper ship built at the Fernald & Pettigrew shipyard on Badger’s Island in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, Maine, directly opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Noonday was built for Henry Hastings, of Boston, who also commissioned the previous clipper ship from the yard, named Midnight.
In 2005, Ellen MacArthur broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, sailing 27,354 nautical miles in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds at an average speed of of 15.9 knots. Recently she gave a TED talk about the perspective that she gained sailing around the world alone. She returned with new insights into the way the world works, as a place of interlocking cycles and finite resources, where the decisions we make today affect what’s left for tomorrow. She proposes a bold new way to see the world’s economic systems: not as linear, but as circular, where everything comes around.
The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world
Learn more at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
When delivered sometime in 2016, Dream Symphony will be a clipper ship for the 21st century. Like the 19th century clippers, Dream Symphony will carry an impressive cloud of sail and like the clippers, it will be built of wood. That alone is remarkable as Dream Symphony is 462’7″ft (141m) long. Historically, wooden vessels could not be built longer than around 300′ long.
Conventional carvel planked wooden construction was just too flexible for longer ships. The longest schooner ever built was the Wyoming, which was 350′ on deck. Despite being heavily strapped with iron, the ship flexed and twisted in heavy seas, opening her seams and requiring constant pumping to keep her dry.
To avoid the traditional limitations of wooden vessels, Dream Symphony is built of glued layers of wood laminates. The whole structure is highly engineered and the product of extensive finite element modeling. The wood/epoxy laminates are also protected by fiberglass on the outer hull surfaces.
The 113 year old, SS Columbia, the oldest remaining excursion steamship in the United States, is one leg closer in her long journey to restoration and operation. She has just completed a drydocking in Toledo, Ohio and is being prepared to move to to Buffalo, NY for further work. The plan is to restore the boat to her 1902 appearance with the goal of operating the historic steamer on the Hudson River. The estimated $10-million restoration will take about five to 10 years to complete. Click here to help bring this wonderful vessel back to its former glory.
Divers exploring the wreck of the Gribshunden have recovered a figurehead of a sea monster with ‘lion ears and crocodile-like mouth’ which has lay on the bottom of the Baltic Sea for roughly 500 years off the coast of Ronneby in southern Sweden. The Gribshunden, which belonged to Danish King John, is believed to have sunk in 1495 after it caught fire on its way from Copenhagen to Kalmar on Sweden’s east coast.
Medieval ship’s ‘sea monster’ figurehead raised from Baltic
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.
Great news! Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) and the South Street Seaport Museum announced that the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is awarding the museum $10.4 million from FEMA’s Public Assistance Program as part of federal efforts to assist in repairing damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“We’ve been working for more than two years to secure funding for Sandy recovery. This grant is a strong step in the right direction for the Seaport Museum,” said Captain Jonathan Boulware, the Museum’s Executive Director. “Congressman Nadler’s support of our efforts has been meaningful and we’re encouraged by this news as we undertake larger efforts to improve and expand Museum programming.”
Explosions at a warehouse containing hazardous materials rocked the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Wednesday, killing at least 50 and injuring over 700, 71 critically. Tianjin, 100 miles east of Beijing, is the fourth largest urban area in China. Buildings within a 1.5 miles radius had windows blown out, office blocks were destroyed and hundreds of cars caught fire. Chemical and oil tankers have either been stopped from entering the port or discharging their cargoes for fear of further explosions.
The first explosion and fire at the Ruihai International Logistics warehouse, shortly after 11AM local time on Wednesday, was estimated to be the equivalent of 3 tons of TNT. The first blast is believed to have set off a second, much larger, explosion, equivalent to 21 tons of TNT. The explosions registered between a magnitude 2 and 3 on the Richter scale in Beijing. The blasts caused a huge fireball that could be seen from space. Fires at and near the warehouse have been burning out of control. There is considerable concern about the toxicity of the chemicals burning in the fires.
As reported by the New York Times:
According to the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, the company stored a collection of toxic industrial chemicals, including sodium cyanide, toluene diisocyanate and calcium carbide. The company was also licensed to handle highly combustible substances such as compressed and liquefied natural gas. Continue reading
Recently, there has been considerable excitement over the sighting of a white humpback whale off Australia’s Gold Coast. Initially, the whale was thought to be Migaloo, an albino humpback first seen in 1991. The white whale, however, appears to be smaller and younger than Migallo and to lack the older whale’s distinctive markings. Some are dubbing the newly sighted whale “Son of Migaloo.”
Four years ago, we posted, “Of Migaloo and the New White Calf” about Migaloo and the appearance of a white humpback whale calf sighted off Queensland, Australia. Migaloo, or “white fella” in an Aboriginal language, may be the most popular humpback whale in the world, being the subject of several web sites (see also here and here) and Facebook and Twitter pages, (of course) as well as over a dozen Youtube videos.
Movie director Steven Spielberg is putting his $200 million, 282′ mega-yacht, Seven Seas, up for sale, reportedly because it is too small. He is having a new yacht built, costing roughly $250 million, which, oddly, at 300′, is only 18′ longer than Seven Seas.
Seven Seas was built by Oceanco Yachts in the Netherlands and is only five years old. As described by the The Richest: The Seven Seas has accommodation and luxury amenities for 12 guests along with a crew of 26, including a private owner’s deck centered on a large master stateroom with a study and private deck area with a Jacuzzi. Other luxury touches include a helipad, fully equipped gymnasium, a spa and massage room and another, indoor cinema. Special stability systems allow the yacht to travel smoothly in any weather at 20 knots so the director doesn’t get jostled while viewing his latest masterpiece.
How would you like to escape to a tropical island, well off the beaten path, where land to build a house is free, temperatures stay above 62F all year round and there is even an internet connection? If that sounds good to you, you might want to consider Pitcairn Island.
Yes, that Pitcairn Island, Britain’s smallest colony, the tiny island originally settled by mutineers from HMS Bounty. The population has been dwindling in recent years and now stands below 50.
As reported by the Telegraph: “We’ve been appealing for more people to boost the population,” said Jacqui Christian, 44, who represents the island in Europe. “We’ve had many enquiries but only one person has applied to move to Pitcairn.
The 129 year old, 90 foot long schooner Isaac H. Evans, sailing out of Rockland, Maine could be yours for $125 and a 200 word essay. Captain Brenda Thomas, owner and master of the schooner, hopes to attract up to 8,000 entries, which would raise up to $1 million. The schooner was built as a Delaware oyster schooner in 1886 but has been sailing in the Maine “windjammer fleet” since 1973. The schooner is a National Historic Landmark. While the schooner is outfitted to carry passengers, the new owner does not necessarily have to continue that line of work. Captain Thomas says that “the person doesn’t have to operate it as a schooner. They could live on it, turn it into a restaurant. A Scout group could get it and offer sail training. There are no strings attached.”
USCG CUTTER STRATTON
The submarine war at sea continues. Last month, the USCG Cutter Stratton intercepted a semi-submersible vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean around 200 miles south of Mexico, loaded with 16,000 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $181 million. Four men were arrested aboard the sub and taken into custody. The 40′ long narco sub was taken under tow, but later sank in international waters.
As we posted about in 2010, The New Generation of Narco Submarines: Sometime in the 1990s, cocaine smugglers switched from high speed power boats, which were easy to spot on radar, to semi-submersibles, which were almost invisible to radar and difficult to spot from other boats. They have been dubbed narco subs and typically have been around 30-40 feet long, capable of traveling around 6 knots and carrying several tons of cocaine.
If you are anywhere near the lower Hudson River this Sunday, August 9th, be sure to stop by the Cutter Lilac for Captain Mary’s Story Hour, a family event for all ages, from 10:30 AM to 1:15 PM. Mary Habstritt, aka “Captain Mary,” will be reading Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey. In addition to hearing about the fireboat John J. Harvey which pumped water for 80 hours to aid firefighters during the Sept. 11 attacks, visitors will also be able to take a ride on the historic fireboat.
Participants may choose to depart on the fireboat from Pier 66 Maritime (in Hudson River Park at 26th Street) at 10:30 a.m. and share the story at Lilac after, or read the story at Lilac first and board the fireboat there for a trip out to the Harbor and back leaving at 12:00 noon and returning at 1:00 PM. The first reading of the storybook will be at 11:30 and the second is at 12:30 on the buoy deck at Lilac.
Reservations are required for the boat rides since space is limited and there is a $10 refundable fee per person that is forfeit if you do not take the ride. A third fireboat ride has been added at 1:30. No advance registration is needed for the reading. Click here to register for the 10:30 , the 12:00 or the 1:15 fireboat rides.
This is a time lapse of the construction of a cruise ship for the German AIDA Cruises at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works. Superficially, it is an entertaining short video in which an entire new ship emerges as if assembled from Lego blocks.
Watch a bit closer and you can get a sense of the extreme complexity of building a cruise ship. Cruise ships are among the most complicated of all ships to build. Each block is a fully fabricated sub-assembly, which must fit perfectly with the blocks on all sides. All the structure, machinery, wiring, piping, hydraulics and ventilation must line up to very fine tolerances. The design and engineering is exacting. For many years, the only shipyards which had the capacity to build cruise ships economically were European. Obviously, MHI is now fully capable of building cruise ships, as well.
AIDAprima Cruise Ship : Full Construction Time-lapse by MKtimelapse
On Sunday, 53-year-old Natalia Molchanova, a world record holder and arguably the greatest free diver that the world has ever seen, slipped below the surface on a practice dive off Ibiza. She did not surface again and is presumed dead. The search for her was suspended this morning. A joint statement was issued AIDA International and Molchanova’s family:
The Worlds Most Accomplished and Famous Female Freediver, Natalia Molchanova, is Missing
Natalia Molchanova was recreationally freediving off the coast of Spain on August 2, 2015 when she was separated from her peers. She was diving without fins to around 30 to 40m and supposable got into strong underwater current. Search efforts have been ongoing during daylight hours and the next day since she was reported missing by three peers. She disappeared while diving approximately two miles northwest of the port of La Savina at Poniente de es Freus.
Washington & Hamilton at Federal Hall
Today, on the 225th anniversary of George Washington signing of the legislation establishing the Revenue-Marine, the predecessor to the United States Coast Guard, President George Washington and his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, returned to Federal Hall in New York City, where the act was signed on August 4, 1790. OK, they were not literally Washington and Hamilton. (Alexander Hamilton is buried just a few blocks to the west at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.) Washington was portrayed by John Lopes and Hamilton by Ian Rose.
The reenactment was part of a commemoration of the United States Coast Guard’s birthday and was organized jointly by the Coast Guard, the National Park Service and the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. (Until today, I was not aware of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society.)
On July 30, 1715 the Spanish Terra Firme and New Spain fleets, bound from Havana to Spain, were hit by a hurricane off the coast of Florida. Eleven ships were blown up on to the reefs and sank. Only one ship escaped. More than 1,000 sailors lost their lives.
On July 17, Eric Schmitt and his family were diving on the fleet flagship, Capitana, when they found a trove of 52 Spanish gold coins, 40 feet of gold chain, and 110 silver coins and buttons all worth over one million dollars. The discovery was kept quiet for a few weeks to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the disaster. Who receives the benefit of the gold is unclear. The Schmitt family was diving under a contract with 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, a Florida company that holds exclusive rights to searching the wrecks.
A wing flap from Malaysia Air Flight 370, which disappeared in 2014, has washed up on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, roughly 2,300 miles away from where most believe that the plane crashed, on the opposite side of the ocean near Australia. So how did the wing flap make it the two thousand miles across the the Indian Ocean? It appears to have ridden the Indian Ocean gyre, along with the rest of the trash cast off into the Indian Ocean.
In early July, the year old Polina Star III – an extended 90ft version of the Oyster 825 — suffered some sort of hull failure and sank off the East Coast of Spain. The Oyster press release describes it as a “a serious incident which compromised the integrity of the moulded hull.” The five crew were rescued by the Spanish Coastguard before the vessel sank on July 4th. What happened to Polina Star III, delivered last May? Divers have been sent to investigate the wreck. So far, the company has only said that “the possibility of impact with an underwater object propagating structural failure has not been ruled out. Recovery of the vessel will facilitate further detailed investigation.”
Surprisingly, the only reporting that we have seen of the sinking is in the Oyster statement posted on their website on July 24th. The statement goes on to say: