On the 100th Anniversary — Jellicoe & the Battle of Jutland

Posted on by May 31, 2016
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe

Admiral John Jellicoe

The Battle of Jutland, which was fought 100 years ago today, was one of the greatest modern sea battles and arguably, changed the course of World War I.  In the battle, 250 ships, manned by 10,000 sailors fought for 12 hours. The battle was fought between the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, against the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer in the North Sea, near the coast of Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula. After the battle, both sides claimed victory. The British lost more ships and men than the Germans, who claimed a tactical victory. The battle was, however, a clear strategic defeat for Germany, proving that the Imperial German Navy could not defeat the Royal Navy nor lift the naval blockade that was slowly starving Germany.

While the British are generally acknowledged as victors of the battle, there remains considerable controversy over the naval commanders, particularly the role played by Admiral Jellicoe. Some have claimed that if Admiral Jellicoe had acted more aggressively that he might have cut off the German navy before it could flee back to port. Others argue that Jellicoe acted prudently from a position of strength.

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On Memorial Day — Remembering the US Merchant Mariners of WWII

Posted on by May 26, 2018

mmsailorposterWhat was the most dangerous service in World War II? The Army, the Navy, the Marines?  In fact, it was the Merchant Marine. 1 in 26 mariners serving aboard merchant ships in World WW II died in the line of duty, suffering a greater percentage of war-related deaths on average than all other U.S. services. Officially, a total of 1,554 ships were sunk due to war conditions, including 733 ships of over 1,000 gross tons.  An estimated 243,000 sailors served in the Merchant Marine during the war and roughly 9,500 died either at sea, as the result of wounds ashore or as POWs. During the early years of the war, the loss of merchant ships and sailors to submarine attacks was so great there was a real concern that Germany might succeed in winning the war by starving the Allies of supplies. The mass production of merchant ships in the United States and the parallel rapid training of hundreds of thousands of merchant sailors kept the necessary supplies flowing across the Atlantic.

Despite the important of the merchant marine to the war effort and extreme dangers, merchant sailors were civilians who did not receive military benefits. Merchant mariners from World War II finally received full benefits only in 1988.

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Welcome Back, Donna Lange: Solo Sailor Finishes Second Circumnavigation

Posted on by May 29, 2016

A few days ago, Donna Lange returned home to Narragansett Bay after completing her second solo circumnavigation on Inspired Insanity, her Southern Cross 28.  An event was held in her honor at the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI for family and friends to welcome her home. Lange had set off from Bristol on July 31, 2105 in an attempt to sail single-handed non-stop around the world. As she neared Cape Horn, however, her boat suffered rigging damage and Lange decided to divert to the Panama Canal for repairs.

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New Chatham “Command of the Oceans” Exhibit Features Timbers From HMS Namur

Posted on by May 28, 2016
Timbers from HMS Namur

Timbers from HMS Namur

On Thursday, the Chatham Historic Dockyard opened its new exhibit “Command of the Oceans” to the public. The centerpiece of the display are timbers from the 90-gun second-rate ship of the line, HMS Namur.  The ship was built in the Chatham dockyard in 1756 and perhaps more importantly, also scrapped in the dockyard in 1833. At some point, some of her timbers were covered by the floorboards of a wheelwright’s workshop. In 1995, roughly 10% of the timbers of a ship were found beneath six layers of floorboards. After more than a decade of investigation, the frames were identified in 2012 as belonging to HMS Namur.  The discovery of the timbers from the Namur is described on the dockyard website as “the single most important warship discovery in Northern Europe since that of the MARY ROSE.”

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World War II Combat Footage – Sinking of the Bismarck

Posted on by May 28, 2020

Seventy-five years today, the Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismark in a three-day running battle in which the Bismark sunk the British battle cruiser HMS Hood.  Ultimately, the German battleship was disabled when her rudder was damaged in a torpedo attack by obsolescent Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.   Here is a British newsreel of the events.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

World War II Combat Footage – Sinking of the Bismarck

Fleet Week NYC Parade of Ships — View from the Deck of USS Bataan

Posted on by May 26, 2016

bataanYesterday thousands lined the shores of the Hudson to watch the Fleet Week Parade of Ships. Unfortunately, this year, I couldn’t be there. Here, courtesy of the US Navy, is a unique view of the festivities from the flight deck of one of the main attractions, USS Bataan. USS Bataan (LHD-5) is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned in 1997. The ship carried more than 500 Marines and Sailors with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit who will participate in this year’s Fleet Week.

Parade of Ships for Fleet Week New York 2016

The Morning After Bermuda Day — Thoughts on Dark & Stormy Nights

Posted on by May 25, 2016

d&sgoslingsMay 24th was not only the 75th anniversary of the tragic sinking of HMS Hood. It was also Bermuda Day.  On this, the morning after Bermuda Day, it seems worthwhile to think of the Dark and Stormy nights spent on the beautiful Atlantic Island. I have a blurry recollection of several Dark and Stormy nights on the docks in St. George after rolling off a ship. I am not referring to the classic opening line, “It was a dark and stormy night” from Edward Bulwer-Lytton‘s 1830 novel Paul Clifford. No, I am speaking the classic Bermudian sailor’s drink, the Dark and Stormy.

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HMS Hood’s Bell Rings Again, 75 Years After Being Sunk by the Bismark

Posted on by May 24, 2016

hoodbellOn May 24, 1941, the battlecruiser HMS Hood  exploded after being struck by several shells from the German battleship Bismark during the Battle of Denmark Strait. The Hood sank within three minutes with the loss of 1,415 sailors, all but three of her crew; the largest loss of life suffered by any single British warship in the history of the Royal Navy. Today, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the loss of the Hood and the sailors who died aboard her, HRH Princess Anne struck eight bells on the Hood‘s recently retrieved ship’s bell, as descendants of the lost sailors looked on.

How the bell came to be retrieved in time for the ceremony is a story in its own right. Continue reading →

New York Fleet Week May 25 – 31, 2016

Posted on by May 23, 2016

fleetweekbannerStarting Wednesday this week, the fleet will be in town, well part of it anyway, to celebrate the 28th observance of Fleet Week New York.  Eight Navy warships, two Coast Guard cutters, and a Marine expeditionary unit will converge on the harbor. An estimated 4,500 sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, as well as Royal Canadian sailors and Naval Academy midshipmen, will be participating. The festivities kick off with the Parade of Ships on Wednesday, followed by free ship tours at docks around the harbor. Click here to learn more about the ships and locations.

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Brooklyn Waterfront Past & Present

Posted on by May 22, 2016

brooklynhhtWhen I first came to New York in the last quarter of the last century, I went to work for Moore-McCormack Lines, which had a terminal in Brooklyn on the Gowanus Canal. For better or worse, the Brooklyn waterfront has undergone some major changes in the last forty years. If you are in the New York area next Thursday, be sure to catch the Working Harbor Committee‘s next Hidden Harbor tour — Brooklyn Waterfront Past & Present to catch a glimpse of what ahs changed and what has stayed the same. Highlights of the tour will include the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the city’s new waterfront recycling facility at Gowanus Bay, and the working rail-to-barge connection at Brooklyn Army Terminal.

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A Virtual Visit to the Republic of Null Island — “Like No Place on Earth”

Posted on by May 21, 2016

nullislandbannerThe website for the Republic of Null Island reads: “Welcome to Null Island! The Republic of Null Island is one of the smallest and least-visited nations on Earth. Situated where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator, Null Island sits 1600 kilometres off the western coast of Africa.” The website goes on to describe the geography, the people and the history of this “least-visited nation.”

In, fact Null Island, at a latitude and longitude of 0,0, does not exist. Or does it? It seems that thousands of addresses appearing on the Internet show up as having a longitude and latitude of 0,0. Given all the houses, restaurants and office buildings which share the same 0,0 latitude and longitude, Null Island must be a very crowded place indeed.

So, what is going on? Continue reading →

Journey to Restoration: Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport DuPont Shipyard

Posted on by May 20, 2016

mayfloweriiaMystic Seaport’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard is working in partnership with Plimoth Plantation to restore Mayflower II. Mayflower II will move back to its berth at the Plimouth Plantation for the summer and then return to Mystic for an extended restoration in the Fall lasting into 2019.  

Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th-century ship Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims to the New England in 1620. The replica was built in Devon, England and sailed to the United States in 1957 under the command of Alan Villiers. Also at Mystic Seaport is the full-rigged iron ship Joseph Conrad which Villiers sailed around the world in 1934-1936 with a crew of sail trainees.

A video of the reconstruction produced by the Seaport:

Journey to Restoration: Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport

Safran IMOCA 60 with the Dali Moustache — Foil User Manual

Posted on by November 6, 2016

safranfdaggerIn December, we posted about a new breed of ocean racing sailboats with foiling daggerboards, which look somewhat like Salvador Dali’s moustache.  Safron Sailing Team recently posted a video to explain how these foils work.  From an engineering and design point of view, the new developments are fascinating. Whether movable foils, articulating keels, and the other wonderful but complex and expensive innovations on these offshore racing sleds will translate into usable technology for the average sailor remains to be seen.

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The Engineering to Re-Support HMS Victory

Posted on by January 11, 2022

victorystern2Last week we made a post with the headline, HMS Victory ‘Collapsing’ Under Her Own Weight.  The headline was alarmist at best.  (We borrowed it from the BBC, but that is no excuse.)  The historic ship will, of course, not be allowed to collapse under its own weight.  David Hayes of the Historic Naval Fiction blog was kind enough to pass along this very interesting video about the engineering behind the 136 metal supports being installed to support, or as the video refers to it , “re-support,” HMS Victory to control the bulging and racking of the hull.

Re-supporting HMS Victory

A Tombstone for Titanic Hero Robert John Hopkins in Jersey City

Posted on by May 17, 2016
hopkinstombstone

Photo: Nancy Benecki-Hawkins | The Jersey Journal

Robert John Hopkins was one of the lesser-known heroes on the Titanic. He died in 1943 at the age of 77 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Holy Name Cemetery, in Jersey City, NJ.  Last Saturday, his descendants gathered to dedicate a black granite tombstone at his gravesite, 73 years after his death.

Able seaman Hopkins, a rigger by trade, and fireman Fred Barrett were assigned to Lifeboat 13 on the night of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15th, 1912. When the lifeboat was lowered, it drifted beneath Lifeboat 15, which was being lowered directly on top of them. Hopkins and Barrett jumped up and used their pocket knives to cut away the lifeboat falls which were holding their boat in the way of the lifeboat being lowered. They are credited with saving the lives of the more than 100 passengers in the two boats.

One of the passengers in Lifeboat 13 was Madeline Astor, the wife of John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the sinking. John Jacob Astor was believed to be the richest man aboard the Titanic and one of the richest men in the world at the time. Mrs. Astor had been the 18-year-old socialite Madeleine Talmage Force when she married the 47-year-old Astor in 1911. They were returning from an extended honeymoon when they boarded the Titanic. According to the Hudson Dispatch in 1943, “Later Mrs. Astor presented [Hopkins] with a purse for being instrumental in saving her life.”