Windjammer Peking Bound for Hamburg in Late June on Combi Dock III

Posted on by June 1, 2017

A recent post on the Combi Lift company blog says that the windjammer Peking, long a resident of New York’s South Street Seaport, will travel back to its original homeport of Hamburg Germany carried by the heavy lift ship Combi Dock III  at the end of June. From their May 26th post:

Stiftung Hamburg Maritim (Hamburg Maritime Foundation) chose Bremen-based heavy lift expert Combi Lift as its logistics partner for the transport of the historic windjammer Peking. The steel-hulled, four-masted barque will be carried home to Germany this summer on-board a Combi Lift ship. Combi Lift, founded in 2000, is a member of the Harren & Partner Group.

At the end of June 2017, Combi Lift’s semi-submersible vessel Combi Dock III (Loa 169.40 metres, 11,000 tdw) will carry the tall ship to northern Germany to be the centrepiece of a new EUR 120 million museum complex under construction in Hamburg’s harbour. Peking has spent more than four decades at the South Street Seaport in New York City, USA. However, extensive repairs and maintenance were not carried out at this time. In September 2016 she was taken to Caddell Dry Dock, Staten Island, to spend the winter.

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Alexander Hamilton’s Lighthouse

Posted on by May 29, 2017

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse marking the shoals which have become known as the “graveyard of ships,” is often referred to as Hamilton’s lighthouse. (The current lighthouse is the second built at the site.) The story goes that when the teen-aged Alexander Hamilton was sent from St. Croix to the North American colonies to pursue an education in the summer of 1772, he sailed on the Thunderbolt, which caught fire off Cape Hatteras and very nearly sank. Young Alexander was said to have helped fight the fire. The ship is said to have come perilously close to drifting onto the deadly Diamond Shoals. Years later, in 1802, as Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton recalled his brush with death and supported building a lighthouse on Cape Hatteras.

That is the story anyway. Is any of it true? Hard to say. As the Secretary of the Treasury, the first lighthouse authorized by the Department of the Treasury was not the Hatteras lighthouse but the Boston light as well as several other lighthouses in New England. That may not challenge the story, but it complicates it.

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Navy SEAL “Leap Frogs” and the Disturbing Number of Parachuting Deaths

Posted on by May 31, 2017

They usually make it look so easy. The United States Navy Parachute Team “Leap Frogs,” a highly trained group of SEAL parachutists, regularly perform at airshows, sporting events and other celebrations. Last Sunday, during Fleet Week in New York, something went tragically wrong. A SEAL Leap Frog skydiver, Remington J. Peters,  died when his chute detached and he fell into the Hudson River near Liberty State Park as thousands looked on in horror.  

The Navy is currently investigating the events which led to the SEAL skydiver’s death.  As relatively rare as such accidents may be, the Military Times published last February the results of their analysis which showed that there has been a 60 percent increase in parachuting deaths among Navy SEALS and other special operators over the previous five-year period, according to 13 years worth of records obtained and analyzed by the publication.  Overall, since 2004, 21 US military Special Operators have died in parachute training.  11 have died in such training accidents between 2011 and 2016 alone.  From the Military Times article, The Navy SEALs and other secretive units are quietly battling a frightening rise in parachute deaths: 

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Last Mission of the USS Olympia — Carrying the Unknown Soldier Home

Posted on by May 29, 2017


USS Olympia at the Battle of Manila Bay

On Memorial Day, an updated repost from six years ago about the last mission of the USS Olympia in 1921, when she carried an American unknown soldier killed during World War I  from a cemetery in France back to the Washington to be in entombed Arlington National Cemetery.   The Olympia was decommissioned the following year. 

USS Olympia is the oldest steel-hulled American warship afloat and Commodore George Dewey’s flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898.  The ship is is now a museum ship at Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum.

Memorial Day: Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery
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Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport — the Restoration Continues

Posted on by May 28, 2017

Here is a fascinating new video from Mystic Seaport Museum describing the restoration of Mayflower II  at the seaport’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard.  Mayflower II is a  reproduction of the original Mayflower  built from 1955-1957.  

Restoration Continues: Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport

From the Seaport website: 

Two sawmills slice massive logs of white oak into manageable pieces, sending sawdust floating through the air. Nearby, a shipwright shapes the pieces expertly with a broadax. Piece by piece, Mayflower II is being restored to her original grandeur, and it’s a sight to behold. Continue reading →

The 35th America’s Cup Begins — Is it Still Relevant?

Posted on by May 27, 2017

After being postponed for two days by high winds, the 35th America’s Cup is scheduled to start this morning. Many consider the races to be the greatest show on the water — a thrilling, high-stakes extravaganza featuring cutting-edge technology and the best sailors in the sport. Others view the races as an ego-fueled billionaire’s extravagance featuring obscenely costly beach-cats, wholly unrelated the rest of the world of sailing. There may be elements of truth in both viewpoints.

The races have certainly changed from the more stately America’s Cups of old, before the competing sailors started wearing crash helmets as part of their uniforms. The 35th competition is a continuation and refinement of the “foiling revolution” introduced in the last running of the races. The 50′ catamarans in this year’s race are among the most advanced sailing vessels ever seen and can sail at 45 knots in a 15-knot breeze, and up to 30 knots upwind.

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On the Historic USCGC Lilac — Great Shipwrecks of New York’s ‘Great’ Lakes and The Hidden Hulks of New York Harbor

Posted on by May 24, 2017

For those near New York harbor, there is a very interesting exhibit opening on the historic USCGC Lilac at Pier 25 in the Hudson River.  The exhibit “Great Shipwrecks of New York’s ‘Great’ Lakes  and The Hidden Hulks of New York Harbor”  kicks off the Lilac’s 2017 summer season and will be on display through  July 4, 2017.  The exhibit opens Thursday, May 25 with a reception that is open to the public from 6:00 to 9:00 PM with a cash bar.  David White, Recreation Specialist from New York Sea Grant (NYSG) will share reflections on “The Future of Our Maritime Heritage.” More information from their press release: 
 
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Shark Oil Barometers

Posted on by May 12, 2017

Shark Oil Barometer during a hurricane
Photo: Ronnie Chameau

One of the earliest and best ways of predicting the weather was the barometer.  The first to measure changes in atmospheric pressure was developed by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643. By 1668 Robert Hooke recognized that a barometer could foretell storms at sea. The odd thing is that there are several very different types of barometers that bear almost no resemblance to the marine barometer. One of the more interesting is the Bermudian shark oil barometer, which is said to predict the weather, even if no one is quite sure how. 

Bermudian shark oil barometers are made by putting a small amount of oil extracted from a shark liver, sealed in glass. They are often small jars or even clear wine or liquor bottles. They can be seen hanging outside homes across Bermuda and are said to be able to predict the weather with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Strictly speaking, the devices are not barometers as they do not react to or measure atmospheric pressure. The “baro” in the word barometer is from the Greek word “baros” meaning weight. Barometers literally measure the weight of the air, which the shark oil “barometers” do not do. They are said to do a number of other amazing things, however. 

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Repairing Sextants in the Age of GPS

Posted on by May 23, 2017

I first arrived in New York harbor forty years ago, as a freshly minted naval architect working for Moore McCormack. In those days, the Brooklyn docks were crowded with US flag shipping companies, many with their headquarters or sales offices in Lower Manhattan. Just to the north, in the narrow streets of Tribecca and Soho were clusters of little workshops where often elderly craftsmen repaired or calibrated chronometers and sextants, and rebuilt or reconditioned everything from pumps and valves to ship’s order telegraphs to the old tube radar sets.  

In New York, these shops are long gone now. I was please to recently learn of a shop in Medford, MA, where Ridge White, 73, proprietor of Robert E. White Instrument Services, is carrying on a three generation family tradition of maintaining and repairing nautical instruments, particularly sextants. From an interview with Cindy Atoji-Keene in Boston.com:

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Listening to the Eerie Songs of Icebergs & Glaciers

Posted on by May 12, 2017

Photo: Andreas Weith

In the summer of 1997, researchers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected a mysterious ultra-low frequency underwater sound over an acoustic hydrophone array in the Pacific ocean.  They had no idea what it was. was it some form of unknown sea mammal? It matched the frequency of some whales, but was like they had ever heard before. Was it a sea monster? Was it something man-made? Whatever it was, it was loud. The sound was heard on multiple sensors over a range greater than 5,000 km. NOAA scientists called the mysterious sound, the the “bloop.” Only fairly recently have researchers concluded that the bloop was an “icequake”, the sound made by the the cracking and fracturing of a large iceberg. 

Now, scientists are focusing their hydrophones on glaciers and icebergs and have been hearing a wide range of bloop-like sounds as well as eeire and mournful songs, created as massive blocks of ice in glaciers and bergs rub together and break apart.  

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Not Just the Rum that Kills You — Lead Poisoning in Sailors and Soldiers in the 18th Century West Indies

Posted on by May 10, 2017

For Royal Navy sailors and British soldiers in the West Indies during the 18th century, rum was a refuge for the discomforts of the duties of the day. The rum also may have been killing them. It wasn’t the alcohol, but the way it was distilled that proved deadly.

A group of scientists from Lakeland University, Ontario have examined 31 bodies found in the Royal Naval Hospital cemetery in English Harbor, Antigua.  As reported by the Daily Mail: 

‘Excessive drinking and lead poisoning have been suggested as being serious health issues for the navy of the period,’ Professor Varney told MailOnline. 

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Derelicts & Ghost Ships — Are Catamarans the New Lumber Schooners?

Posted on by May 10, 2017

Rainmaker, somewhat worse for the wear, after being adrift for over a year

Derelicts, abandoned ships often waterlogged and just barely afloat, are fascinating ghosts which wander the seas according to the vagaries of the winds and the currents. They are also significant hazards to navigation. In the later half of the 19th century, American lumber schooners were particularly susceptible to become derelicts. When these schooners were abandoned by their crews in heavy weather or after a collision with another ship, their buoyant cargoes of timber would often keep the schooners drifting with their main deck just above the surface for extended periods, sometimes for literally years.

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