Review: Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons — A History of the American Lighthouse

Posted on by November 5, 2016

beaconsMy review of Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons : A History of the American Lighthouse, originally published in gCaptain. Reposted with permission.

Next only perhaps to an anchor, lighthouses are symbols of security and safety. Even with modern electronic navigation, there is something incredibly reassuring about seeing the lume of a lighthouse beacon shining through the darkness or hearing the moan of a fog horn reverberating through a blinding white fog. And yet, most of the time, we take lighthouses for granted. They often seem to be an integral part of the shoreline, or stony sentinels growing naturally up out of rocky reefs.

In reality, they are nothing of the sort. Lighthouses exist only because of those who built them, operated them and maintained them. Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse tells the story of how these iconic structures came to be and how they helped shape the commerce and the future of our young nation.

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SeaBubbles — Foiling Electric Water Taxis to be Tested in Paris

Posted on by November 3, 2016

seabubbleAlain Thébault is known as designer and skipper of the record breaking ocean-going hydrofoil Hydroptère, which in 2009, was the first sailing boat to sail faster than 50 knots over a measured mile.  Now, Thébault is working on a very different project. Along with Swedish windsurfer Anders Bringdal, Thébault has developed SeaBubbles, electric water taxis that sail on hydrofoils, intended to cut both congestion and pollution in urban centers near water. The SeaBubble is a five person (four passengers plus a driver) battery-powered water taxi designed to fly on foils roughly two feet above the water. A prototype SeaBubble is expected to undergo trials in the spring on the River Seine in Paris. The SeaBubbles are reported to lift onto their foils at around 6-8 knots. Various media reports have quoted a range of top speeds from 11 knots to 25 knots.

If the prototype is successful, Thébault would like to introduce SeaBubbles to London, Geneva and New York. 

Explosion Kills 21 at Gadani, Pakistan Shipbreaking Yard

Posted on by November 3, 2016

shipbreakerexplosionThe shipbreaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan is one of largest shipbreakers in the world and is literally where ships go to die. Tragically, workers too often die there as well. A series of explosions yesterday in a tanker being broken up at Gadani has left 21 workers dead and 60 injured. Additional workers remain unaccounted for. 

UPI describes the explosions and fire:  “The explosions occurred in an oil tanker ship being disassembled at the world’s third-largest ship-breaking facility, which covers about 6 miles of the Arabian Sea coast in Baluchistan province. Some of the approximately 100 workers dismantling the ship were trapped within it. Some of those who escaped jumped into the water, India Express reported.

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Panama Canal & More Cracks in LCS USS Montgomery

Posted on by November 1, 2016

ussmontgomery2The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Montgomery suffered another hull crack, this time while transiting the Panama Canal on Sunday. “Under control of the local Panama Canal Pilot, the ship impacted the center lock wall and sustained an 18-inch-long crack between her port quarter and transom plates,” according to Navy spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry. “The crack is located 8-10 feet above the waterline and poses no water intrusion or stability risk.”

The newest ship of the LCS Independence Class continues to be having a very hard time on its maiden voyage to its new homeport in San Diego, California. In September, the ship broke down only three days after being commissioned, suffering two unrelated engine failures. Then in October, after having her engines repaired, a hard knock from a tug as she was leaving port in Mayport, FL to avoid the approach of Hurricane Matthew. The ship suffered a hull crack and bent five hull stringers.

USS Montgomery is now only her way to San Diego. We can only wish her good luck.

Giant Pumpkin Paddling ! The Next Big Thing?

Posted on by October 31, 2016

pumpkinraceGiant pumpkin paddling is apparently a new, hot water sport, with competitions around the globe. Who knew? From Nova Scotia, to Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Germany and the United Kingdom, people are carving out giant pumpkins, hopping aboard with a paddle and competing in regattas and solo events.

The races are paddled in giant pumpkins which originally weighed between 400 and 1,200 pounds. They are carved out to allow room for the paddler and to make the craft as light as possible for paddling. 

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Update: José Fernández Had Cocaine, Alcohol in System During Fatal Boat Crash

Posted on by October 30, 2016

Last month, we posted about the tragic death of Jose Fernandez and two of his friends who died when their 32′ open boat in slammed into a rock breakwater at high speed off South Beach, Miami, FL at around 3AM on Spetember  25th. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office has now determined that Fernandez was legally drunk with a blood-alcohol concentration of .147 at the time of the accident. Fernandez also had cocaine in his system according to the report.  

Autopsies on the two other men, Emilio Jesus Macias and Eduardo Rivero, had levels of alcohol below the legal limit in Florida, which is .08. Rivero also had traces of cocaine in his system, the medical examiner’s report said. The three men all ded after suffering blunt-force injuries from the high speed collision. Authorities have not determined who was piloting the boat, which Fernandez owned.

According the USCG Recreational Boating Accident Statistics for 2015, alcohol use is the cause of the most deaths on the water. Ranked by number of accidents, it ranks sixth, right behind excessive speed. The top three known contributing factors to boating accidents are operator inattention, operator inexperience, and improper lookout.  Sadly, it appears likely that all of these factors may have contributed to the needless and tragic deaths of these three men.

Update: In Japan Vagina Kayaks Are Legal, Distributing Plans Are Not

Posted on by October 29, 2016

We are about six months behind on this update, but it is a worthwhile topic to catch up on. In January of 2015, we posted The Vagina Kayak and Japanese Genital Politics, which was the story of a Japanese artist,  Megumi Igarashi, who goes by the nickname, Rokudenashiko – or “good-for-nothing girl.” She had a 3D printed plastic model of her vagina fabricated which was installed on a roto-mold kayak. Not long after the vagina kayak was completed, Igarashi was arrested on multiple obscenity charges.

Last May, she won and lost her court cases. Continue reading →

World’s Largest Marine Sanctuary Created in Antarctica’s Ross Sea

Posted on by October 31, 2016

rossseasanctIn the end of August, we posted about the Obama administration‘s four-fold expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument,a marine sanctuary northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Now, twenty-four countries and the European Union have reached an agreement to establish the world’s largest marine sanctuary in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

“The Ross Sea is widely considered to be the last great wilderness area on Earth and known as the polar ‘Garden of Eden’,” according to a statement from the United Nations Environment Programme. The area is home to “50 per cent of ecotype-C killer whales (also known as the Ross Sea orca), 40 per cent of Adélie penguins, and 25 per cent of emperor penguins.”

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Vasili Arkhipov, Soviet Submarine Commander Who May Have Saved the World

Posted on by October 27, 2016

ArkhipovFifty two years ago today, the world came perilously close to being destroyed in a nuclear World War III. Fortunately, one brave Soviet naval officer stood in the way.

Imagine — a Soviet submarine is trapped by an American destroyer at the height of the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet sub commander has not been in communication with Moscow in over a week. He does not know if the world is at peace or at war. Depth charges are exploding around the stricken Soviet sub. The temperature inside the submarine has risen above 100 degrees. Unknown to the Americans, the submarine commander has a new and terrible weapon at his disposal, a nuclear torpedo that could vaporize the destroyer and most of the American fleet. Certain that his ship is under attack, the submarine commander wants to fire the nuclear torpedo.  Given everything else that is going on on the surface, that launch would likely start World War III.  Only one man stood in the way of potential global nuclear annihilation, the Soviet flotilla commander, Vasili Arkhipov.

This sounds like a movie script and yet, it indeed happened.  On October 27, 1962, at the height of Cuban missle crisis, the world came perilously close to a nuclear Armageddon. Were it not for the cool head of Vasili Arkhipov, flotilla commander and second-in-command of the nuclear-armed submarine B-59, a nuclear World War III may have broken out. Thomas Blanton, the former director of the US National Security Archive, said, “Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.”

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Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting at “Alarming Rate”

Posted on by October 26, 2016

antarcticbergWhile much of the focus has been on the melting of the Arctic ice cap, recent studies highlight the dramatic melting of ice shelves at the other end of the globe. On the west side of Antarctica, giant glaciers form ice shelves as they push out into the ocean. The rate at which these ice shelves are melting is reported to be accelerating rapidly. As the ice shelves shrink, the flow of the glaciers behind them speeds up, moving what had been land-bound ice into the ocean. It is estimated that there is enough water in the ice of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to raise sea levels around the world by 10-13 feet, if the sheet melted entirely. Partial melting or collapse could still raise sea levels by several feet. 

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USCG Cutter Tamaroa, ex-USS Zuni, to be Reefed off NJ Coast

Posted on by October 25, 2016

tamoroaThe historic USCG CutterTamaroa will soon be sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Cape May Point, New Jersey.  The old ship has had a remarkable history.  Built in 1943 as USS Zuni, the 205-foot fleet ocean/salvage tug and one of seventy Cherokee-class fleet tugs saw service in World War II in campaigns in the Marianas, the Philippines, and at Iwo Jima.  After the war, she was transferred to the US Coast Guard and renamed Tamaroa.  

USCGC Tamaroa had a 48 year long career in US Coast Guard, serving on safety patrols, in drug interdiction and fisheries protection. She was the first Coast Guard Cutter to arrive at the sinking passenger liner Andrea Doria after the collision with the the Swedish liner Stockholm 1956. Tamaroa may be best known for rescuing the crew of the yacht Satori, as well as the crew of a downed Air National Guard helicopter during the “Perfect Storm” of 1991,
described in Sebastian Junger’s book, The Perfect Storm.

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Legacy of “Blackfish” — The Last Generation of Orcas at SeaWorld

Posted on by October 24, 2016
orcalastgen

Photo: SeaWorld

In just three years since the release of the documentary, Blackfish, the world of captive orcs in the United States has undergone dramatic change. The 2013 documentary focused specifically on the death of an orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by an orca named Tillikum at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010. The documentary was also a broad indictment of the industry of breeding and training orcas to perform for public performances in large marine-parks.

The effect of the documentary was immediate and stunning. Despite a public relations campaign to counter the documentary, attendance and revenues at the company’s marine parks began to drop, in what became known as the “Blackfish Effect.”  SeaWorld reported a 4th quarter loss of $25.4 million blamed on lower park attendance the year following the release of Blackfish. By December 2014, about a year and a half after the film’s theatrical premiere, the stock price of SeaWorld had declined by 60 percent.

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Duyfken Replica Commemorates Dirk Hartog’s Voyage 400 Years Ago

Posted on by October 23, 2016

In 1606, Captain Willem Janszoon, in command of the Dutch ship Duyfken, became the first European to discover Australia. Now a replica of the Duyfken has completed a voyage to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Dutchman Dirk Hartog and his crew, the first Europeans to land on Western Australian. Hartog came ashore on an island just north of Shark Bay on October 25, 1616.  Here is a short video about the Duyfken‘s commemorative voyage.

Duyfken 2016 Dirk Hartog Commemorative Voyage and Exhibition

SSV Oliver Hazard Perry Seeking Crew

Posted on by October 22, 2016

ohplogo1The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry is looking for crew for their December-April season in Florida, Bahamas, and Bermuda.  From their announcement of their website:

After a successful first season underway, we are excited to continue our year round operations with a voyage south to Florida, Bahamas and Bermuda. This summer 160 students embarked on our programs, making our total count for trainees embarking on OHPRI programs to almost 600. We were warmly welcomes into 20 harbors and ports in New England and enjoyed many great days of sailing.

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Trafalgar Day Repost: Conrad on Nelson at Trafalgar

Posted on by October 21, 2016

Joseph Conrad

A repost from 2010 in honor of Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets on this day in 1805.  I have always been struck that of all the commentary I have read on the famous battle, Joseph Conrad is the only writer I am aware of to have asked one simple question — what if the wind had changed? How would a wind shift have altered the history which we all take for granted?

The final essay in Joseph Conrad’s wonderful, if somewhat odd book, The Mirror of the Sea,  is entitled “The Heroic Age.” It starts out rather disappointingly as a paean to Nelson. There is nothing wrong with praising Nelson, except that everyone does it, so another bit of hagiography doesn’t necessarily add  anything new.

Then, well into the essay,  Conrad does something rather remarkable.  He wonders what would have happened if the wind had shifted on that morning of the 21st of October.
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