The Mystery of José Salvador Alvarenga & His 13 Months Adrift at Sea

Posted on by February 4, 2014

Castaway-Jose-Salvador-AlbarengoOn Saturday, we posted about a man who drifted ashore in a 22-24′ fiberglass boat on Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands, claiming that he had spent the last 13 months lost at sea. He claims that his boat was blown offshore in a storm off Mexico in December 2012.  He said that he set off from the fishing village of Costa Azul on the coast of the Mexican state of Chiapas on a one-day fishing trip with a 15-year-old, whom he knew only as Ezekiel . The teenager is said to have died after one month. The man had no identification and has since been identified as José Salvador Alvarenga. He said that he survived by eating birds, sharks, turtles, fish and barnacles.  If his story is true, Alvarenga drifted more than 6,000 across the open Pacific before washing up on the tiny atoll in the Marshalls.

Many, however, have questioned his story. Continue reading →

Black Sails, A Treasure Island Prequel with Dirt, Violence, & Sex — A Review

Posted on by February 2, 2014

blacksailsThe Starz premium cable channel has a new big-budget original series, Black Sails, which appears to be intended as a gritty, realistic look at piracy in the early 1700s in the pirate’s haven of New Providence in the Bahamas.  In terms of plot and characters, Black Sails is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure novel for children, Treasure Island.  Black Sails is, however, not for young viewers. The violence and the sex are considerably more explicit  than anything hinted at in Stevenson’s novel which was originally serialized in the children’s magazine,Young Folks in 1881. Surprisingly, or on second thought perhaps not so, the original Treasure Island is more engaging and scarier than Black Sails.

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Harriett Tubman and the Great Combahee Ferry Raid

Posted on by February 1, 2014

Harriet TubmanToday’s Google Doodle is of Harriet Tubman.   Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped and would become a leading “conductor” on the “Underground Railroad” which helped slaves escape from  bondage in the South to freedom in the North and in Canada, prior to the Civil War.  Nicknamed “Moses,” she took made more than nineteen trips back into the slave-holding South to rescue more than 300 slaves.  Her greatest rescue mission, however, came during the Civil War, when she planned and help lead a Union riverboat raid at Combahee Ferry in South Carolina on the first of June, 1863, freeing 724 slaves.

Paul Donnelly of the New York Times described the scene on the 150th anniversary of the raid:

It is arguably the most beautiful scene ever recorded in war. Two Union gunboats, the Harriet A. Weed and the John Adams, converted ferryboats, churning up the Combahee River with their big side paddlewheels. Steam whistles signal, while in the bow of the Adams, a small, powerful woman is… singing. From all around, hundreds hear Harriett Tubman’s call and run for the boats, for freedom. At least 727 men, women and children escape, mothers carrying babies, including one pair of twins: the largest liberation of slaves in American history.

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Man Drifts onto Ebon Atoll — Claims to Have Survived 16 Months at Sea

Posted on by February 1, 2014

MapMarshallIslandslocatorA man recently drifted ashore in a 24′ fiberglass boat on Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the northern Pacific.  He speaks only Spanish and says his name is Jose Ivan.  He claims to have set off from Mexico heading for El Salvador with a companion in September 2012. The companion apparently died at sea several months ago.  If his story is true, he survived for 16 months and drifted across 8,000 miles of open ocean from Mexico.

Man Washes Up On Marshall Islands, Claims He Floated From 8,000 Miles Away

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Caribbean Princess Cruise Cut Short — Dense Fog or Norovirus?

Posted on by January 31, 2014

Caribbean_PrincessPrincess Cruises announced that the Caribbean Princess would be returning to Houston one day early “because we were informed that dense fog is expected to close the port for much of the weekend.” Others have suggested that it was because of a norovirus-like gastrointestinal illness that had sickened 165 passengers and 11 crew members aboard the ship. Personnel from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) will be boarding the ship today to make inspections. The outbreak on the Caribbean Princess, sickened slightly over 5% of the passengers. On the Explorer of the Seas, which also returned this week from a cruise shorted by an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, more than 20%, or almost 700 of the passengers became sick.  Princess Cruises is owned by Carnival Corp.

The Ships of the Super Bowl — Norwegian Getaway, Cornucopia Majesty, & the Intrepid

Posted on by January 31, 2014
Photo: AP

Photo: AP

Super Bowl Fever has taken over New York and New Jersey.  (Personally, I am sick of it and we are still two days away from the game.) Football fans are swarming all over, on both sides of New York harbor. Four thousand of those fans are staying on NCL’s brand new cruise ship, the gaudily painted 1,063 feet long Norwegian Getaway.  It has been chartered as the “Bud Light Hotel.” This is not the first time that Budweiser has taken over a hotel for Super Bowl, but it is the first time it has chartered a ship. The ship has a passenger capacity comparable to the largest New York City hotels and larger than any hotel in new Jersey.  As reported by the New York Times:

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RCCL’s Explorer of the Seas Sets New Record for Contagion with Almost 700 Ill

Posted on by January 31, 2014

eothesea2It is no doubt not a record that Royal Caribbean would have aspired to. Their ship, Explorer of the Seas, on its voyage from New York harbor to the Eastern Caribbean, from January 21-29, 2014, had the largest outbreak of gastro-intestinal sickness among the passengers and crew than on any other cruise ship for as long as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been keeping records of such things. Almost 700 of the passengers and crew became ill on the cruise. Testing has not been completed, so there is no determination that the outbreak was a norovirus, but all symptoms suggest that a norovirus was the culprit which sickened so many.

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The Left Coast Lifter Arrives in New York to Build the New Tappan Zee Bridge

Posted on by January 30, 2014

The “Left Coast Lifter” has arrived in New York.  The Lifter is described by the New York Times as the “superman of floating cranes.” It is a shear-leg crane barge capable of lifting over 1,800 tons, built to help lift bridge sections during the replacement of the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2009-2010. The barge, nicknamed the “Left Coast Lifter,” has been towed to the right coast, err.. the East Coast to help dismantle the old Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River, north of New York City and then help to rebuild the new bridge.

Left Coast Lifter Departure

Fleet : the Complete Collection by Andrew D. Thaler, a Review by Joe Follansbee

Posted on by January 29, 2014

fleet_coverA review by Joe Follansbee of Andrew D. Thaler’s Fleet: The Complete Collection, a fascinating, post-apocalyptic tale of survival in a nautical world.

Review: ‘Fleet’ revives sci-fi’s nautical tradition, By Joe Follansbee

Science fiction’s nautical tradition goes back to the genre’s origins. In 1870, French writer Jules Verne predicted the nuclear submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and he created one of the great megalomaniac characters in literature, Captain Nemo. My own love of sci-fi was sparked in part by the 1960s TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which featured the research vessel Seaview and its resourceful crew. In recent years, however, the ocean has fallen out of fashion as a sci-fi platform. The 1995 Waterworld, the most expensive movie ever made up to that time, killed Hollywood’s interest in the watery parts of the world for years. And few of today’s science fiction writers regard the sea as a place for storytelling.

Andrew D. Thaler’s work Fleet may signal a change. Continue reading →

Pete Seeger, the Hudson River and the Sloop Clearwater

Posted on by January 28, 2014
pete_sloop

Pete Seeger singing on the Clearwater

Pete Seeger died last night at the age of 94.  Seeger was a folk singer and song writer, as well as an activist who thought that song just might change the world.  It is hard to believe that he has died.  In his latter years, he developed a sort of craggy but cheerful, timelessness, not unlike the Palisades along the Hudson River that he so loved.   Arlo Guthrie, who was with Seeger shortly before he died, commented that Pete has “passed away but he hasn’t gone.”

Seeger will long be remembered for his music but he will also be known for his love of the Hudson River. In the 1960s, Pete and his wife Toshi started an organization whose goal was to bring people back down to the Hudson River, which had become heavily polluted with industrial waste.  They decided to “build a boat to save the river.”  In 1969 the organization launched a replica of a Hudson River sloop, the once ubiquitous sailing cargo vessels that had plied the river a century before. They named the sloop, Clearwater, and began sailing up and down the river giving concerts and talking about the environment.   Continue reading →

Norovirus on RCCL Explorer of the Seas — Worse than Cannibal Rats

Posted on by January 27, 2014

explorer2My next door neighbors left last Tuesday for a 10 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship Explorer of the Seas.  I saw them shortly before they departed.  We were both shoveling snow from our front sidewalks.  The Explorer of the Seas would be sailing from New York in a winter snow storm and my neighbor commented that at the very least it would be “a memorable trip.” It turns out that this voyage will be memorable for reasons other than weather.  It is now being reported that close to 600 of the more than 3,000 passengers have been sickened by a norovirus aboard the ship.  The cruise schedule was modified and now has been shortened.  The ship is on her way back to a berth in Bayonne in New York harbor.  I only hope my neighbors were among the roughly 80% of the passengers not made ill by the virus.

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Humanitarian Vessel Vega Needs a Mast!

Posted on by January 30, 2014

The Vega desperately needs a mizzen mast. Specifically, they are looking for a fir or spruce to shape the 10m x 26cm mast and a shipping company able to transport the wood from either Brisbane, Australia, or Vancouver, Canada, to Singapore.  If they cannot find a replacement mast by April, their 2014 humanitarian mission, delivering medical and school supplies to over 50,000 people in remote island communities, may be at risk.

154886_10153750773035603_622155822_nTheir website and Facebook page refer to the craft as the “Historic Vessel Vega,”  which is appropriate given that the ketch was built in 1892 in Norway and has had a long illustrious and varied career. In recent years, however, it would be more appropriate to refer to her as the “Humanitarian Vessel Vega,” as under the command of Captain Shane Granger and his crew, the Vega has been delivering critically needed supplies to villages in very remote parts of Eastern Indonesia and East Timor.  In 2011, Captain Granger and the Vega’s crew were honored with the Asia Pacific Laureate Foundation annual award for Social Services in recognition of “Humanitarian Services to Isolated Island Communities.”

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“Gasparilla Pirate Fest” and the Fictitious Pirate, Jose Gaspar

Posted on by January 25, 2014

gasparillaToday, Tampa, Florida will be “invaded” by pirates. Every year about this time, Tampa celebrates the Gasparilla Pirate Fest notionally in honor of Jose Gaspar, reputed to be the “Last Buccaneer.” It is described as “a swashbuckling good time” involving silly costumes, parade floats and heavy drinking. This has been going on in Tampa since around 1904, when some of the city’s elite formed the ‘Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla’  and staged a mock invasion by Jose Gaspar and his crew.

Who was Jose Gaspar? He is claimed to be a pirate who is said to have raided the west coast of Florida during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  In fact, he is entirely fictional.  There is no historical record of his existence and the first stories of his exploits did not appear until the 20th century.  At least no one is claiming that he sailed with a ship full of cannibal rats, not yet anyway.

A Quarter of Shark & Ray Species on the Verge of Extinction

Posted on by January 25, 2014

tiger-sharkA recent study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published in the journal eLife suggests that of more than a thousand species of sharks and rays in the world, one in four species are at the brink of extinction. Overfishing is the greatest threat to these species. Demand for shark fin soup is a major cause of the depletion of both sharks but also some species of rays.  It has been estimated that over 11,000 sharks are killed per hour for their fins. For a truly astonishing graphic representation of what that means click here.

The progress in protecting sharks and rays is decidedly mixed.  The good news is that limits were put on shark and ray fishing last year in Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Bangkok.  New Zealand also recent;y banned shark finning.   The very bad news is that a massive trade deal now being negotiated, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is reported to undo the Bankok limits.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

One in Four Shark and Ray Species at Brink of Extinction

The Ghost Ship, the Irish Coast Guard, Chris Reynolds and Uri Geller

Posted on by January 24, 2014

I may owe Chris Reynolds an apology.  In a reply to a comment about our post, Lyubov Orlova, Ghost Ship Crewed by Cannibal Rats Drifting Toward the UK — Phony Hysteria on a Slow News Day?, I suggested that Reynolds, Director, Irish Coast Guard, “appears to one of those helping to fuel the hysteria, not that the media needs much help.” That was probably unfair as we later received a comment from Chris Reynolds, as follows:

actually I never said I thought it was still afloat since the EPIRBs went off but the fact is no one cant prove it sunk. the ship had a number of EPIRBS in lifeboats we are told so the signals are only an indication. However professionally speaking its demise is pretty certain. the rats thing came from an Icelandic April Fools prank and some creative journalism. There ya go. Be careful believing what you read.

PS We are not annoyed at Canada as this is such a rare event.

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British Maritime & Coast Guard Agency Statement on the “Ghost Ship” Lyubov Orlova

Posted on by January 24, 2014

Lyubov-Orlova-_2799136bThe Twitterverse has gone crazy (crazier?) over reports of the Ghost Ship Swarming With Cannibal Rats Bound for Britain. Dozens of newspaper websites have feaverishly picked up the story.  In all the foolishness, I was reminded of Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel “Scoop” in which an unlikely journalist “scooped” the competition by reporting on fictitious battles in a civil war in an obscure African country. The story of the “Ghost Ship” Lyubov Orlova  is a bit like that — there appears to be no there there. All indications are that the ship sank many months ago and, even if didn’t, there aren’t likely to be many surviving rats on the ship, in the unlikely event that the ship is still afloat.  In all the hub-bub, the British Maritime & Coast Guard Agency (MCA) saw fit to release a statement:

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has received no sightings of the former Soviet cruise ship ‘Lyubov Orlova’ since April last year and there is no evidence to suggest it is still afloat. 

Any ‘ghost’ ship entering European waters is highly likely to be reported due to the large number of vessels passing through the area. We would then act accordingly.

Clipper Ship City of Adelaide — Close to Home but Short on Cash

Posted on by January 24, 2014
cityofadelaideph

Photo: Sheldon Pettit

The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, City of Adelaide, has arrived in Port Hedland, Western Australia. She has been carried from Scotlandon the deck of the heavy-lift ship MV Palanpur, with intermediate stops to load and discharge other cargo.  MV Palanpur is in Port Hedland discharging six trains loaded in Norfolk.  If all goes well, City of Adelaide will arrive in its namesake city in just less than a week.  In the mean time, the City of Adelaide Preservation Trust is continuing to raise money to bring the 1864-built ship back to Adelaide, to prepare a site and to preserve the ship.  Thus far, they have raised $156,000 of their $750,000 fundraising target.  Click here to help support the historic ship. 

City of Adelaide Preservation Trust calls for more donations as the clipper hits Port Hedland in Western Australia

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Lyubov Orlova, Ghost Ship Crewed by Cannibal Rats Drifting Toward the UK — Phony Hysteria on a Slow News Day?

Posted on by January 23, 2014
MV Lyubov Orlowa

MV Lyubov Orlowa

A story has exploded across the UK press about the Lyubov Orlova, a cruise ship which broke free from its tow in a winter storm and was abandoned in the Atlantic in February of last year.  What evidence exists suggests that the ship sank in the mid-Atlantic in March.  Nevertheless, in the past 24 hours more than a half-dozen newspapers in the UK and the commonwealth have published stories with lurid headlines like that of the Independent, which screams “Ghost ship ‘crewed by cannibal rats heading to Britain.”  Similar stories have been published by the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Metro, the Mirror, This is Cornwall, News.com.au and the International Business Times. Even the German Web.de gets into the act with its article, “Geisterschiff: Treibt das “Rattenschiff” auf Großbritannien zu?”

This makes such a wonderful story because, while all evidence suggests that the the ship sank last year, there is no absolute proof that it did. Also, all rats are cannibals and it is likely that there rats aboard the ship when it was towed out of Newfoundland.  So, viola, the lost and probably sunken ship becomes the “Ghost Ship Crewed by Cannibal Rats Drifting Toward the UK.”  Except that it probably isn’t drifting anywhere, and if it were the rats aboard may have already eaten each other, so that if the ship is afloat, there may only be one fat rat left, if it doesn’t starve first.

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