When I arrived in New York back in the mid-70s, a vast fleet of tugs swarmed across the harbor like so many water beetles. Most kept busy assisting ships in docking. Now there are fewer but larger ships, many with bow thrusters, so fewer tugs are needed to get them to their berths.
Here are two videos about New York harbor tugs, separated in time by more than a half-century. The first “Workhorses of the Harbor!” is about Dalzell Towing in 1954. The second, from the PBS program “New York On the Clock” — “Chris Baker, Tugboat Captain” follows a McAllister tug captain in assisting ships to their berths in 2009. In more than one respect, the two videos are related. Dalzell Towing, which specialized in ship docking, was purchased by McAllister Towing in 1965.
In early May, 
British archeologists have located the wrecks of two
The Bermuda Triangle nonsense continues, as does the media’s fondness for dramatic headlines, whether or not there are any facts to support them. The most recent silliness is about late ice age methane explosions. The UK’s Daily Mail headline reads: “
Peter Stanford, an icon of maritime historical preservation in the United States, died yesterday at the age of 89. In 1967, Peter and his wife Norma founded the 
On March 25th, 1921, the US Navy ocean-going tug, 
In describing the internet, people often talk of “the cloud.” We connect through over an ethernet, where ether is an archaic term from the Latin aethēr meaning “the upper pure, bright air.” But as they say in Brooklyn, fuhgeddaboutit! Most of the internet is beneath the sea carried by submarine communications cables. 
The 
The wreck of the Esmeralda, a ship from Portuguese explorer 
Last November, 
SeaWorld