For only 105 million Norwegian krona (thats € 14 million or roughly US$17.5 million) you too can own an Arctic submarine base. Norway’s Olavsvern Naval Base just outside the city of Tromsø, has been on the market since January 2011, but for the last several weeks has been listed for sale on a Norwegian web site. The base, Norway’s only submarine base north of the features a large dock and a deep-water berth as well as a fuel depot, a tunnel system and emergency power system, all designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Overall the base includes 13.500 square meters of buildings and a 25.000 square meter mountain plant. You must provide your own submarines, however. No subs are included in the deal. Also, the electric bills are reported to be rather large. On the other hand, as pointed out in the Geekologie blog, a secret Arctic submarine base would confer “instant evil villain” status to the owner.
The crews sailing in the Clipper Round the World Race represent over 40 nationalities. You can get a sense of the international makeup of the fleet by the banners and flags that they fly now that they have arrived in port. Here is a short video I shot yesterday of the ten boat fleet in Liberty Landing marina in Jersey City, immediately across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan.
Banners in the Breeze – Clipper Round the World Fleet at Liberty Landing, New York Harbor
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The ten boat fleet of the Clipper Round the World Race will officially and formally arrive in New York harbor on Sunday, June 3rd to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. As Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sails the Suhaili, the 32ft yacht on which he became the first person to sail single-handed non-stop around the world in 1969, up the Thames River in the Diamond Jubilee Pageant, the ten racing yachts of the Clipper Round the World Race fleet will sail up New York Harbor to the North Cove. Their arrival is expected to be covered live by the BBC. Among his many exploits, Sir Robin Knox Johnston was the founder of the Clipper Round the World Race in 1996 and is the chairman of Clipper Ventures, which organizes and runs the race.
Until then, the Clipper fleet will hang out, unofficially, in Liberty Landing marina in the Morris Canal Big Basin in Jersey City, immediately across the the Hudson River from North Cove. The ten boats will have been in the harbor for almost a week prior to their “official” arrival.
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On Sunday, June 3rd, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend will culminate with a seven-mile flotilla of 1,000 ships and boats making up the biggest gathering on the Thames in 350 years. One of those vessels will be the sail training ship Pelican. The Pelican, a 148ft long three-masted barquentine, is one of our favorite ships. She is square rigged on the main mast but fore and aft rigged on the fore mast and mizzen — a modern hybrid between a traditional square rig and the mixed square and fore and aft rig of the Barbary coast Xebecs. A short video of the ship shot by The Telegraph. Thanks to Malcolm Mendey for pointing it out on Facebook. See also our previous post – Tall Ship Pelican For Sale.
Exclusive: on board the Pelican of London, a Diamond Jubilee Thames pageant Tall Ship
It is really all just one big ocean. Low levels of nuclear radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast, 6,000 miles from the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. Small amounts of cesium-137 and cesium-134 were detected in 15 tuna caught near San Diego in August 2011. The radiation levels were 10 times higher than those found in tuna in the same area in previous years, but still low enough so that the tuna are considered to be safe for human consumption. The tuna, which spawn off the coast of Japan and the Philippines often migrate to the coast of California.
Bluefin tuna caught off California contains radiation from Japan’s Fukushima plant
Mystic Seaport has put together a wonderful short video where lovers of sea music speak of just it means to them, just in time for the Seaport’s upcoming 33rd Annual Sea Music Festival from June 7-10, 2012 in Mystic, Connecticut. The three day festival features music from maritime cultures around the world and includes concerts, special performances for children, instructional workshops, and a unique opportunity to witness sea music at work aboard the Museum’s historic vessels.
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This seems like a suitable post for a Monday morning. The tide was high, the bridge was low and the ship was light. Captain Guo Lai, 48, was in command of the brand new luxury cruise liner, Pearl No 7, on her maiden voyage from the shipyard, when they passed under a suspension bridge on the Oujiang River near Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. Or at least most of the ship made it under. The ship’s two funnels were sheared off when the clearance between the ship and the bridge turned out to be negative. The Pearl No. 7 has the capacity for 1,000 passengers and cost $44 million to build. She has now returned to the shipyard, Wenzhou Mingzhu Yacht Co., Ltd., for funnel repairs.
The old cliche that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money applies far too well to tall ships. They are expensive to build or restore and chronically costly to maintain and keep running. It should come as no surprise that most of the ships in the recent Parade of Sail at OpSail New York were training vessels funded by the navies of various governments.
Recently, the schooners Virginia and the Spirit of South Carolina have fallen on hard times. The historic schooner Ernestina ex. Effie M. Morrissey, the official “tall ship of Massachusetts” is in dire straits, needing significant repairs to keep her afloat. The replica HMS Bounty has been actively for sale for some time and the brigantine Pelican is also actively for sale. The list of vessels in financial distress or actively for sale, goes on and on. Recently Aaron Applegate, writing for HamptonRooads.com, looked at the economics of “tall ships.”
Scientists have observed, in two different locations off the Hawaiian islands, humpback whales giving dolphins “rides” on their heads. A dolphin will swim up over the top of the humpback whale’s head. The humpback will then gently lift its head allowing the dolphin to slide down its back. In one encounter the dolphin and the whale repeated the “ride” six times in succession. The actions of both dolphins and whales appeared to be slow and gentle showing no signs of aggression. They appeared to be involved in inter-species play, which is extremely rare in the natural world. Thanks to Wojtek ‘Voytec’ Wacowski for pointing it out on Facebook.
Science Bulletins: Whales Give Dolphins a Lift
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On October 5, 2011, the containership MV Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, resulting in one of the worst maritime environmental disasters in New Zealand history. Yesterday, in a New Zealand court, the captain, Mauro Balomaga, and second officer, Leonil Relon, were found guilty of a total of eleven charges and each was sentenced to seven months in jail. In addition to poor seamanship, the captain and second officer attempted to cover up their actions by altering the ship’s GPS log, its passage plan and its computer records to mislead the investigators.
Not quite too sure what to make of this. Of all sports, beachcombing seems like one of the safest. Apparently, a woman, beachcombing with her family on a San Clemente Beach in Southern California, pocketed a few rocks which may have contained naturally occurring white phosphorus. Friction between the rocks may have caused an ignition, setting the woman’s shorts on fire and resulting in severe burns to the woman’s leg.
Rocks Set Fire In Pocket: Woman Burned By Beach Rocks That Spontaneously Combusted In Her Pants
Cannon showing the mark of Sir Thomas Gresham
Shipwrecks tend to be pretty stationary. They are not prone to wandering about. Now, however, an Elizabethan shipwreck dating from 1574, which was recovered from the River Thames in 2003, is on the move. The remains of the 16th-century “Gresham Ship’’ are set to be transported 160 miles to Stoney Cove in Leicestershire on June 1 and lowered into a lake. The move is being co-ordinated by the Nautical Archaeological Society, which will use the ship as an “underwater classroom’’ to train the next generation of nautical archaeologists.
Elizabethan shipwreck to be moved to Leicestershire
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The US Navy’s newest strategic weapon may be a Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame. If it works for HALO and gears of War, why not the Navy? The project is a joint effort between the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Institute for the Future (IFTF). The approach is to “crowdsource ideas and strategies that may provide insight to some of the Navy’s toughest problems.”
The game’s first round was “piracyMMOWGLI” in Summer of 2011 and focused on countering Somali piracy. The next round, energyMMOWGLI, is launching this month. As the name suggests, this game deals with energy, specifically asking the question, “How can the Navy best meet future energy demands?” The game is focused on reducing fossil fuel dependency. ironically, as pointed out by TPM, “the timing of the new game’s launch is somewhat unfortunate given that the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee voted last week to effectively prohibit the Department of Defense from purchasing any alternative fuel that costs more than petroleum. That effectively eliminates biofuels, at least for the near future.” Of course, biofuels are only one component of energy policy, but they could play an important role.
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Photo: Maksim Ivanov MarineTraffic.com
Simply trying to keep up with what is going on the battle against piracy is not as easy as it might appear.
For example, Maersk Texas, a US flag cargo ship came under attack by pirates in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday around noon local time, or at least that is what Maersk says. The European Union’s counter-piracy force said it had reviewed the incident and determined there was “no case of piracy and it’s a false alarm,” according to Timo Lange, a spokesman for the Northwood, England-based EU Navfor. Maersk says that the pirates, attacking in multiple skiffs, were driven off by armed guards aboard the ship. The Iranian Navy, however, says that they drove off the pirates, who fled only after Iranian naval vessels appeared on the scene.
Everyone does agree that no one was hurt aboard the Maersk Texas and that she proceeded on her voyage. We hope that the rest of the voyage proves uneventful. Thanks to Phil Leon for the heads up.
New York harbor is not the only port on the North-Eastern coast of the United States with a wealth of tall ships over Memorial Day Weekend. Greenport, New York is hosting the Greenport Tallships Challenge 2012. Greenport, on the easterly tip of Long Island, is the second stop on the Tall Ships America’s 2012 TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE Race Series. The sail began in Savannah, Georgia. The participating ships raced up the East Coast to Greenport, Long Island, and then will head off to Newport, Rhode Island (July 6-9) and Halifax, Nova Scotia (July 19-23).
The ships participating include HMS Bounty, Picton Castle, the privateer schooner Lynx, the privateer schooner Pride of Baltimore II, as well as the schooners Roseway, Unicorn, and Summerwind. All vessels will be open to visitors and the Roseway will offer sail excursions.
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Photo:Elizabeth Dinan/www.seacoastonline.com
Crew responded to a fire on the nuclear submarine, USS Miami, at around 5:40 PM last night at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. This morning, the Navy reports that the fire has been put put. Three shipyard firefighters, two civilian firefighters and two crew members are reported to have received minor injuries. There were no weapons aboard the submarine and the reactor had been shut down for several months prior to the fire breaking out. The USS Miami (SSN-755) is a United States Navy attack submarine of the Los Angeles class. She was commissioned in 1990. Groton, CT is her home port.
The fleet began to appear from the harbor haze around 9 AM and headed north up the inner harbor and the Hudson River. They were a mix of full rigged ships, barques, barquentines, topsail schooners and schooners. Most were naval vessels, but without guns or missiles. (The only gunfire was a salute by the replica privateer, Pride of Baltimore II.) The navies of the world understand the value of sail training if their young naval officers are to truly understand the sea. Naval training ships from Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Spain, France, Ecuador and the United States joined in the grand parade of sail.
OpSail New York 2012 – Parade of Sail 5/23/12
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A portrait of a naval ensign, in a heavy gilt frame, hung in a lonely corridor in the labyrinth that is the Pentagon. The plaque on the portrait read:
ENS CHUCK HORD, USNA,
CIRCA 1898, LOST AT SEA 1908
Fortunately for Ensign Hord, he was not lost at sea in 1908. He was, in fact, born in 1959 and currently lives in Burke, VA. How his portrait came to be hung at the Pentagon is the story of an extended series of practical jokes played on an officer who himself was known as a jokester. Unfortunately, the portrait’s blown-dried hair finally gave it away. The portrait no longer graces the Pentagon hallway. Thanks to Phil Leon for passing the story along. As reported by the Wall Street Journal:
Walk the Prank: Secret Story of Mysterious Portrait at Pentagon
Last night I went out to see some of the participating OpSail tall ships in New York’s Outer Harbor. The trip was organized by the Working Harbor Committee with commentary provided by Richard Taylor and Captain Richard Dorfman. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.
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- CISNE BRANCO (Brazil)
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- EAGLE, the sail training ship of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
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- BAE GUAYAS, the sail training ship of the Navy of Ecuador
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- KRI DEWARUCI, the sail training ship of Indonesia
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- CUAUHTEMOC (Mexico)
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- CISNE BRANCO (Brazil)
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- JUAN SEBASTIAN de EL CANO (Spain)
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- JUAN SEBASTIAN de EL CANO (Spain) Figurehead
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- BAE GUAYAS & GLORIA
Many visitors think of New York as the island of Manhattan. The City of New York is in fact five boroughs, only one of which is connected to the mainland. If Brooklyn, the largest borough, had remained an independent city, as it was until 1898, it would now be the 4th largest city in the United States.
When the fleet of visiting tall and military ships arrive in New York starting tomorrow, Brooklyn will host ten of the ships, more than any other borough in the city. Portside New York has put together two wonderful guides to the festivities -the Complete Guide to Brooklyn – Opsail 2012 and the Guide to the Columbia Waterfront. Each has a wealth of information about the ships, schedules, local lore and even discount coupons for shopping. So, if you are in New York for Opsail and Fleet Week but don’t plan on visiting Brooklyn, as they used to say on the docks, fuhgeddaboudit.