Last Sunday, a fire broke out in the engine room of the 3,299 passenger Carnival Liberty after docking in Saint Thomas. The passengers were disembarked and the fire was extinguished with the ship’s automated fire fighting system. No injuries were reported. The damage was serious enough, however, that Carnival ended the cruise and flew the passengers home. Port calls in Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten were canceled.
Cruise ship engine room fires have become chronic in recent years, averaging two to three a year over the last decade. “Modern” diesel-electric powered ships seem to the source of most of the fires. The number fires has been small, in absolute terms. Crew members have died in the fires but there have been no passenger fatalities. What is troubling about the fires is the frequency and the relative young age of the ships.
In her long and varied career, the historic cutter 
One hundred and fifteen years ago today, on September 8, 1900, the city of Galveston Texas was struck by what today would be classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge of 14 feet. Somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people died, making it the deadliest hurricane in US history.
This weekend, the 
On July 10, 1985, 
Recently, 
In 1869, the 
I hate jet-skis. They are noisy, exhaust-spewing and dangerous. I am amazed that more people don’t get killed by running them into other boats or seawalls, or just