Starting this Wednesday, June 13th, Baltimore, MD will host its “Star-Spangled Sailabration,” a week long festival with 18 tall ships and 22 naval vessels, marking the start of Maryland’s three year commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812. In addition to the parade of tall ships, the festivities will include parachute jumps into Camden Yards as well as music, fireworks and an air show over Fort McHenry. Click here to learn more and to find “sailabration” schedules and maps.
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These are busy time for the World War II vintage Iowa Class battleships. The USS Iowa arrived yesterday in the Port of Los Angeles to tie up alongside her new permanent home, Berth 87, in San Pedro, California, where she will become a museum ship.
On the East coast, the USS New Jersey, a museum ship in Camden, NJ since 2001, has been suffering hard times financially due to a drop in tourism and a cut in state funding. Last Wednesday, it received a a $900,000 loan guarantee from the Delaware River Port Authority. This doesn’t solve the ship’s financial problems, but certainly buys some time.
In Hawaii, the USS Missouri, a museum ship since 1999, helped to fight off an alien invasion and save the the world. OK, it actually fought off the alien invasion in the big budget movie, Battleship. Apparently, the rest of the navy is blocked by an impenetrable force filed so a group of renegade officers and World War II vets and museum volunteers put the USS Missouri to sea to save the planet. The movie only got a 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes but we hear that the USS Missouri gave a wonderful performance.
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The recent transit of Venus, the passing of the shadow of the planet Venus across the face of the sun, brought to mind the voyage of Captain Cook in HMS Endeavour in 1768-1771. Now, archaeologists in Rhode Island believe they may have located Cook’s ship.
in 1768, Cook’s orders were to search for “Terra Australis Ignota,” the “unknown land of the South” a vast continent believed to exist in the far Southern Pacific. While he was there, he was to observe the transit of Venus on 1769 in Tahiti, to help determine the distance between the Earth, the Sun and the planet Venus. Cook’s mission on HMS Endeavour was truly a voyage of discovery on both sea and space.
Cook’s Venus endeavour recalled
After Cook’s voyage HMS Endeavour was largely forgotten. Renamed Lord Sandwich, she served as a troop transport, carried commercial cargoes and was even a prison ship for a time during the American Revolution. She was finally sunk by the Royal Navy in Narragansett Bay in August of 1778 in the blockade of Newport, RI. Recently, Dr. Kathy Abbass, the director of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, believes that they have located the location where the Endeavour/Lord Sandwich was scuttled.
Sarah Outen Photo: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images -- Charlie Martell Photo:Johnny Green/PA
Tropical cyclone Marwar ended attempts by two solo British rowers to row across the Pacific this week. Sarah Outen, 27, was attempting to traverse the globe using only human power, by either rowing, kayaking or cycling. She began her attempt from London in April of 2011. Her quest ended on Thursday, roughly 575 miles off Japan, when tropical Cyclone Marwar capsized her seven-metre (23ft) boat Gulliver. The boat was damaged in the capsize and was taking on water. The car carrier Texas Highway was the first to reach the stricken boat and stood by until the Japanese Coast Guard arrived.
Charlie Martell, 41, a Royal Engineer Commando, was attempting to row from Choshi, Japan, to San Francisco, California, when his boat was also caught in tropical cyclone Marwar. In 50 foot waves, his boat, Blossum, was rolled several times, damaging a bulkhead. Martell was picked up by the bulk carrier MV Last Tycoon.Continue reading
The masts of the SS Richard Montgomery – too dangerous to move, too dangerous to ignore
The Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery, with a cargo of high explosives, was wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary in 1944. Shortly after the wreck, an attempt was made to remove her cargo but the ship broke apart with 1,400 tonnes of high explosives still aboard. And there, in the Thames Estuary, 1.4 miles from the town of Sheerness, the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery has lain for the last 68 years, its masts still rising above the water, with an orange buoy marked “Danger” bobbing nearby. Now the wreck may have sunk a proposal for an airport on the Thames Estuary.
MP says explosion risk from sunken WW2 munitions ship makes Thames Estuary airport plans a non-starter
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A recent ruling by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, determined that orca trainers must either remain at a greater distance from the orcas, stand behind a physical barrier or use other devices to keep them safer during performances. This ruling comes two years after the death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer who was dragged underwater and killed by an orca at the SeaWorld park in Orlando.
Ruling Puts Distance Between Killer Whales and Trainers
Ironically, the whales that are called “killer” are not dangerous to humans in the wild. Only once they are split from their family groups and held in small tanks to entertain ticket buyers, do they live up to the name. There are no documented cases of a wild orca killing a human. There is only one documented case of a wild orca ever actually biting a human. By contrast, there have been at least two dozen cases of orcas attacking humans since the 1970s, exclusively perpetrated by captive animals. Four of these attacks have resulted in deaths.
Tomorrow, a truly impressive fleet of tall and naval ships will be proceeding in a “Sea and Air Parade of Sail.” The parade will pass through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry, through Thimble Shoals Channel via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, past Fort Monroe in Hampton, and into downtown Norfolk along the Elizabeth River. Click here for times and best viewing locations. Click here for a complete list of tall ships and here for a list of naval vessels.
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We have posted last March about the replica of the French light frigate l’ Hermione, which has been under construction since 1997 at the historic dockyard in Rochefort, France. The original l’ Hermione carried the 23 year old the Marquis de Lafayette back to America in 1780 carrying news of France support for the revolution.
This weekend, the replica l’ Hermione reached a major milestone. The Hermione is now afloat for the first time. The celebration of the ship’s launching is scheduled for July 6 – 8th.
A 66 feet long, 165 tonne, starfish and barnacle encrusted, steel and concrete floating dock has washed up on Agate beach, south-west of Portland, Oregon. A plaque on the dock identifies it as coming from the port of Misawa in northern Japan, washed free during the tsunami of 2011. The dock has tested negative for radiation. The dock drifted 5,000 miles over 15 months. Debris from the tsunami continues to be a hazard to navigation. Fortunately, no vessel collided with the floating dock at sea. Unfortunately, two other docks from the same port are still missing.
Victims of Vacuum Cleaners?
There is a new threat to our nautical heritage and our nation’s defense! In 2007, the composite tea clipper Cutty Sark, built in 1869, was ravaged by fire. An investigation revealed the culprit – an industrial vacuum cleaner. Now, it appears that a vacuum cleaner has struck again! Investigators say that a vacuum cleaner caused the recent fire on the nuclear submarine USS Miami in a shipyard in Maine, causing an estimated $400 million of damage.
The Normandy landings, on June 6, 1944, was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, with over 160,000 troops and 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships.
MSC Divina dwarfs the historic domes of Venice Photo: Splash News
MSC’s newest passenger ship, the MSC Davina, recently called at the Venice lagoon setting off a storm of protests. The protesters think that such a large ship creates too much pollution and could damage the fragile environment of the lagoon.
The MSC Davina is 139,400 GT, almost 1,100 feet long, about 125 feet wide and carries up to 5,329 passengers and crew, or about 40,000 GT and almost 500 passengers larger than the Costa Concordia.
The MSC Davina was christened at the end of last month by the Italian actress Sophia Loren. No doubt, in hopes of garnering publicity, the “No Big Ships Venice Committee” has written an open letter to Ms. Loren asking her to revoke any endorsement of the ship. Thus far there has been no response from the Italian actress.
Monster ship that’s the menace of Venice: Furious protesters call for ban on huge cruise liner which carries 4,500 people
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The Space Shuttle Enterprise at Weeks Marine as seen from Port Jersey Boulevard in Jersey City on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, being moved to a larger barge. Photo: Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal
After damaging a wingtip that extended beyond the side of the barge when the Space Shuttle Enterprise was moved from Kennedy Airport on Sunday, today the shuttle was moved to a larger barge for its last and shorter leg of its voyage to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the Hudson River in Manhattan.
The latest schedule for the move is for the shuttle to pass the Statue of Liberty around 10:50 a.m. and the World Trade Center at 11: 40 a.m., arriving at the Intrepid Museum at 12:30 p.m.
Wing of space shuttle Enterprise scraping against piling. Photo: Dennis Jenkins/collectspace.com
The Space Shuttle Enterprise has not had an easy time in New York. When it was barged last Sunday between Kennedy Airport and Bayonne, New Jersey, prior to its final move to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, it suffered minor damage to one wingtip when the barge brushed alongside a New York railroad bridge. We understand that NASA is not pleased. The final move to the museum was scheduled for today, but was delayed to Wednesday by inclement weather. Currently, we understand that the shuttle on the barge will be off the Statue of Liberty around 9:50 AM Wednesday morning for a photo shoot. Estimated arrival time at the Intrepid at Pier 86 is 11:15 AM, with offloading expected later during the day. Thanks to Tony Seideman fro contributing to the post.
Patrick O’Brian is a well known name in nautical fiction. Now another Patrick O’Brien, with a different spelling of his last name and an American, rather than an Englishman pretending to be Irish, is making a name for himself as a marine artist. Here is a short video produced for the National Maritime Historical Society by Rick Lopes of XXLMedia.
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On June 5th and 6th, depending on where you are in the world, there will be the last transit of Venus, where the planet Venus visibly passes between the earth and the Sun, until the year 2017. The previous transit of Venus was in 2004. The transit has only been visible eight times since Galileo. NASA will feature a live streaming webcast of the transit from Mauna Kea, Hawaii from its site – 2012 Transit of Venus – Sun-Earth Day: Shadows of the Sun.
Transit of Venus 2012: How to view once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon
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Photo: Will Van Dorp
The Space Shuttle Enterprise was built as a prototype. As such it never flew in space. That is not to say, however, that it hasn’t traveled. In April, we caught it on video taking a ride on a NASA 747 up the Hudson River to land in Kennedy Airport on its way to a permanent home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Yesterday, it took a short sea voyage by barge, out past Coney Island, up through the Verrazano Narrows Bridge before finally docking at Port Elizabeth, N.J. It will stay in Jersey until Tuesday. The shuttle goes on permanent display on July 19th. For more photos, check out Will van Dorp’s tugster blog. Video of the move after the jump.
An estimated million spectators lined the Thames to watch what has been described as the largest river pageant in history to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who, at 86, is England’s oldest reigning monarch. Over 1,000 boats participated and the pageant was dubbed a success notwithstanding a steady rain. All concerned, including the UK’s oldest reigning monarch, did their best to ignore Britain’s raining weather.
Gareth Glover, the skipper of the yacht New York, was good enough to sit down yesterday and provide a glimpse of sailing in the Clipper Round the World Race.
Clipper Round the World Race – Interview with Skipper Gareth Glover
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In anticipation of tomorrow’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, a map from LondonTown.com. Click on the map below for a larger version.
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On Sunday 3rd June 2012, over one thousand boats will muster on the River Thames in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen to take part in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
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