As we have posted about previously, the greatest threat to many species of endangered whales is from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing nets. The dead 50′ fin whale that drifted into Boston harbor recently is a reminder of this. Researchers are not sure how the whale died but extensive bruising suggests that the whale may have become wrapped in some sort of line or cable. A ship strike has also not been ruled out as a possible cause of death. Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing the news along.
Video surveillance footage on the dock shows a group of people boarding the 130′ three masted schooner Silva in Halifax harbor at about 1:30 am, early Monday morning. They raised one sail and untied all but one mooring line. Around 5am, the remaining line parted and the schooner set out across the harbor on an unplanned cruise. By around 6am, the drifting schooner was sighted and towed back to her berth with minor rail and gangway damage. No other damge to other vessels was reported. The police are investigating the incident.
SSV Robert C. Seamans
The brigantine Robert C. Seamans, owned and operated by Sea Education Association (SEA) is off on a 37 day Plastics at SEA: North Pacific Expedition 2012 into the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” to examine the effects of plastic debris, including debris generated by the 2011 Japanese tsunami, in the ocean ecosystem.
“This expedition will be one of the first to unravel the impact that plastic pollution is having on our ocean’s ecosystem. SEA has over 25 years of experience sampling marine debris and, using this knowledge, we will further investigate the health of our marine ecosystem,” said Emelia DeForce, the expedition’s chief scientist. “Those onboard will have a productive and eye-opening experience with long lasting effects. We will extend this experience to the public at large through our outreach program that will take place during and after the expedition, with the goal to raise awareness of the impact that this long-lived pollutant is having in our oceans.”
Sea Education Association tall ship departs on major marine debris research cruise
Update: The death toll from the ferry collision has risen to 39 after a nine year old girl, Tsui Hoi-ying, who had been of life support in a Hong Kong hospital, is reported to have died.
It only took about two minutes for the ferry Lammna IV to sink in Hong Kong harbor off Victoria after being struck by another ferry boat around 8pm October 1st. Of the more than 120 passengers on the Lammna IV, 38 are believed to have drowned. It was the worst harbor accident in Hong Kong in more than 40 years.
How could the ferry have sunk so fast? Currently, there are far more questions than answers. The Lammina IV was built of fiberglass by Cheoy Lee Shipyard in 2003. The other ferry, the Hong Kong ferry The Smooth Sea, is built of aluminum. Both vessels were believed to be traveling at close to their full speed of 15-20 knots at the time of the collision. Two water tight bulkheads are believed to have ruptured in the collision, rapidly flooding the stern of the ferry causing it to sink rapidly with its bow pointed skyward. There is some question as to whether the watertight doors in these bulkheads were open which would have accelerated the rate of the flooding.
Why the Lamma IV sank so quickly
Seven officers and crew from both ferry boats have been arrested. The investigation into the tragic accident is expected to take six months.
Thanks to Christina Sun and Phil Leon for contributing to the post.
Yesterday we posted about Nannie Dee, the erotic yet frightening witch figurehead on the composite clipper Cutty Sark. The figurehead on Galveston’s tall ship, the 1887 barque Eliisa, is quite different.
When the ship was restored in the early 1980s, she was lacking a figurehead. Eli Kuslansky, a sculptor and woodcarver was hired. Two different women were used as the model. From Kurt Voss’ Galveston’s the Elissa:: The Tall Ship of Texas, “As a tribute to the generous support of the Moody Foundation, the face of the sculpture was styled in the likeness of a young Mary Moody Northen.” The life model for the rest of the figurehead was a part-time rigger and cadet at Texas A&M Maritime Academy, Amy McAllister.
Photo: R. Spilman
The figurehead on the Cutty Sark is dramatic – a woman, all in white, wearing a flowing robe which leaves her upper body uncovered. He face is fixed in a scowl or grimace and she is reaching out with one arm, the hand holding, oddly, a large tuft of hair. She is the witch, Nannie Dee, from Robert Burn’s poem, Tam o’Shanter. The figurehead itself tells the story of why the grand old ship is named Cutty Sark.
The Baltic Sea by Pamela Talese
For close to two hundred years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was a center for shipbuilding. These days the sprawling site is home to a museum as well as a wide range of light industry. It is also host to quite a few artist’s studios. This weekend, October 6-7, there will be an Open Studio Tour at dozens of artists’ studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from 12-5pm. One of these artists, Pamela Talese, who is also one of our favorite artists of maritime themes in New York City, was recently featured in a profile in the Wall Street Journal.
Narratively|NYC is a new web magazine with a focus, as the name implies, on narrative journalism involving New York City. For the past week, Narratively|NYC has run new features each day on New York harbor. Worth checking out. Thanks to Carolina Salguero at Portside New York for pointing it out.
- Monday – Tugs, a short documentary by Jessica Edwards : Among the scallywags and salty dogs of New York, tug boat traditions endure.
- Tuesday – Defending the Marsh by Susan M. Lee : Seed by seed, a community bands together to save the lifeblood of Jamaica Bay.
- Wednesday – Through the Porthole, essay and photographs by Carolina Salguero : A harbor-dwelling photographer explores the craziness of life at sea level.
- Thursday – I Remember the Shoeshine Man by Henry Jacobson : A Staten Island native revisits his childhood commute and discovers a foreign yet familiar ferry.
- Friday – The Park Bench by Narratively : New York’s waterways are right there, out in the open, but they remain full of mystery. Share your thoughts and experiences and discover more from our contributors and subjects.
The Argentine Navy training ship Libertad and her crew of over 200, docked in port of Tema, Ghana, were seized by a court order obtained by NML Capital Ltd., a subsidiary of Elliot Capital Management, a hedge fund run by the US billionaire Paul Singer. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry accused the Ghanaian court of violating rules of diplomatic immunity.
The conflict is over a more than a decade long legal battle between Argentina and hold-out creditors. In 2001 and 2002 Argentina defaulted on more than $100bn of debt, the biggest default in history. About 94% of these loans were restructured in 2005 and 2010, returning creditors roughly 30 cents on their dollar. Elliot Capital was among the 6% who did not participate in the restructuring and continued with legal action against Argentina.
55-gallon drums of chemical weapons near the mouth of the Mississippi River found by Texas A&M University researchers. Photo:Texas A&M University
We have previously posted about unexploded bombs from World War II being exposed by drought along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers in Germany, about similar bombs being found in the port of Marseille and about World War II phosphorus munitions burning two beachcombers at a seaside resort in the north of the island of Usedom on the German Baltic coast. Now, as offshore drilling returns to the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, Texas A&M oceanographer William Bryant warns that the thousands of tons of bombs, ordnance and chemical weapons, including mustard gas, dumped by the US military in the Gulf after World War II, could pose a serious risk to new drilling.
World War II bombs, mustard gas in Gulf of Mexico need to be checked, experts warn
A ship partialy in a bottle, Click for larger image
After a multi-year, £50 million restoration, interrupted by a near catastrophic fire, the composite clipper ship, Cutty Sark, reopened last April. Not everyone was impressed. Andrew Gilligan, the Telegraph‘s London Editor, called the restoration “a clucking, Grade A, … turkey.” In September, the British architectural trade journal, Building Design, awarded the restoration of the historic tea clipper the 2012 Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building design in Britain. The Victorian Society’s new director Chris Costelloe has opined that it’s a pity that commercial motives were placed above heritage interests.” Ouch.
While attending the Historical Novel Society 2012 conference in London last week, I spent a few hours crawling through the venerable ship. There is indeed both good news and bad. The bad is primarily related to what happens when the party planners and corporate events schedulers overrule the naval architects and ship restorers. Nevertheless, there are areas where, Andrew Gilligan’s complaints notwithstanding, the ship presentation seems much improved over the previous incarnation.
Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated Press
At least 36 people drowned when a ferry carrying more than 120 collided with another vessel and sank last night around 8:30 pm local time near Lamma island off Hong Kong. The ferry was taking staff and family members of the Hongkong Electric Company to watch fireworks in the city’s Victoria Harbour to celebrate China’s National Day and mid-autumn festival.
Square knots and clove hitches on wire bundles on the Mars Rover Curiosity
There is a wonderful discussion on the International Guild of Knot Tyers Forum titled “Knots on Mars! (and a few thoughts on NASA’s knots)” by Dfred. I had never given much thought as to how cable bundles on satellites and space craft are secured. The answer is some very old sailor’s knots. Dfred writes:
While a few of the folks here are no doubt aware, it might surprise most people to learn that knots tied in cords and thin ribbons have probably traveled on every interplanetary mission ever flown. If human civilization ends tomorrow, interplanetary landers, orbiters, and deep space probes will preserve evidence of both the oldest and newest of human technologies for millions of years.
On March 29, 2010, the Panamanian-flagged ro/ro MV Iceburg 1 was hijacked by pirates about 10 nautical miles off the port of Aden, Yemen. Her crew of 24, of which 22 are believed to have survived, have been held hostage for 29 months. The ship’s owner Dubai-based Azal Shipping & Cargo has been accused of effectively abandoning the ship and her crew. One of the crew members, Wagdi Akram, committed suicide on October 27, 2010 by jumping overboard. The ship’s chief engineer is believed to have been killed by the pirates in March or June of 2011.
Abandoned at sea – the forgotten hostages of the Somali pirates
The schooner Bluenose II has been launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The local news outlets referred to the event as the “relaunching” of the schooner though as the hull was completely replaced and only some portion of the Douglas fir deck was re-used, it is effectively a newly built vessel. The Bluenose II is a replica of the original Bluenose, a Grand Banks fishing schooner famous for its graceful lines and speed under sail. See our previous post, The Schooner Bluenose II and the Ax that Never Wears Out
Rebuilt Bluenose II ready to sail after two-year restoration effort
Some are calling her Bluenose 2½.
An interesting article on the day after Nelson’s birthday – after using synthetic mastic, a modern caulking material commonly used in yachts, for the last fifteen year without success, the folks restoring Nelson’s HMS Victory have returned to using hemp oakum and pitch, the caulking technique use when the ship was new. Apparently the modern caulking materials could not adequately cope with expansion and contraction of the planking and the large spaces between the planks, allowing rainwater to seep through, causing rot in ship’s structure. In this case, the tried, true and traditional method seems to be the best. Visitors to HMS Victory will be able to see the ship being caulked just as it was before the Battle of Trafalgar in1805.
The replica of the HMS Bounty built for the 1962 movie, Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando make the port of Galveston, its winter home. The deal apparently has not been finalized but the Galveston Daily News reports that negotiations are on-going. Thanks to Stacy for passing along the news.
Herman Melville’s grave
Herman Melville died September 28, 1891. He was indeed a great American writer, some would argue the great American writer. He was also the greatest failed writer of his day. When he died all of his books had been out of print for more than 30 years. When he died, many commented that they thought that he had been dead for years. The book that would ruin his career was Moby Dick, which we know call his greatest masterpiece.
Melville is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in New York City. The grave is distinctive because it features a blank scroll. It is said that Melville designed the memorial, some say out of bitterness for the way his life’s work as a writer had come to naught. Whether there is any truth to the story may be unknowable. Nevertheless, every writer understands both the opportunity and the terror of the blank page.
Melville’s grave has become a shrine of sorts for writers. Many leave pens behind in homage. Some leave all or parts of manuscripts weighted down by rocks or pebbles. The cemetery park rangers say that when the rains come, the sheets of paper soften then melt away until they seem to blend into the stone.
It just so happens that tonight I am in London at the Historical Novel Society Conference, which begins in about an hour with a cocktail party. I will be sure to raise a class to Herman Melville and to all writers who daily must face the blank page.
The press release says that the Lloyd’s List Global Awards are “a celebration of the best that shipping industry has to offer and the finalists are the innovators and the visionaries. They are the boldest and the brightest. They are shipping’s success stories.” Unfortunately, one award granted on Wednesday night in London detracted and distracted from the awards in the various categories which were indeed awarded to “shipping’s success stories.” In what appears to be an understandable attempt to retroactively find heroism in tragedy, the Lloyd’s List 2012 Award for “Seafarer of the Year” was awarded to the crew of the Costa Concordia.
Imagine an antique Victorian desk purchased for £30, that has a stuck drawer. A determined auctioneer, working on the drawer with a screw driver for around 20 minutes, managed to un-stick it only to find that the object blocking the drawer was a small bone cribbage board with a label on the back that read: ‘The cribbage board used by Victory Nelson & Admiral Quilliam.‘ The cribbage board had been hidden in the drawer for more than 70 years. The cribbage board will be auctioned and is expected to attract bids of several thousand pounds. Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along the article.