As we have posted before, PortSide New York, based on the historic coastal tanker, Mary A.Whalen, is one of the absolutely best waterfront educational organizations in New York harbor. For the last six years, the Mary A. Whalen has never had a permanent home. Now it needs to find one by April 30th. If not, the old tanker may be scrapped.
Canadian Cormorant helicopter
UPDATE: The Canadian government is now treating the casualty as an attempt at human smuggling. Toews links N.S. yacht accident to ‘human smuggling’
There are reports of a tragic and strange sailboat accident off Canada’s Nova Scotia coast. Nine men, reported to be from Eastern Europe, were on a 35 foot sailboat, the Tabasco 2, which became disabled and was drifting in high seas, 148 kilometres south of Cape Sable Island. Three of the sailboat’s crew are reported to be missing. One man is reported to have died.
Three of the sailboat’s crew were picked up by a passing tanker, the FSL Hamburg. Three other hypothermic and injured crew members were helicoptered to Yarmouth Regional Hospital. One of the three died in transit. The other two are said to be in serious condition. A Canadian Cormorant helicopter and a Hercules aircraft were involved in the rescue with refueling support from a U.S. Coast Guard jet.
On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and USN Lieutenant Don Walsh spent twenty minutes at the bottom at Challenger Deep in the bathyscaphe Trieste. Unfortunately, their landing on the sea bed stirred up a cloud of silt which reduced visibility to zero, and they could not see anything. On March 26th, James Cameron spend three hours on the bottom of the Challenger Deep and saw very little, because there was apparently little to see. He described it as a “barren, desolate lunar plain.” He did see a few small amphipods—shrimplike bottom-feeders. Then again, no one who climbs Mount Everest expects to find an apple orchard at the summit, either. Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.
Cameron brings back tales of “desolate” sea bed but no souvenirs
The Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock, WA, is restoring a forgotten piece of sailing history – the Felicity Ann, a 23′ wooden boat, launched in 1949. In 1952-1953, Ann Davison, at 39, sailed the Felicity Ann single-handed across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman ever to do so.
The project is a partnership between Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building, the Community Boat Project and WSU Jefferson County 4-H. From the Felicity Ann website:
Continue reading
Last night, James Cameron became the first person ever to dive in a one man submarine to the very bottom of the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, 35,755 feet (5.8 nautical miles) below the surface. He is only the third person to ever dive the Challenger Deep and is the first person in over fifty years to do so. A short video of his return to the surface following his epic voyage to the absolute bottom:
Raw Video: Cameron: “Heck of a Ride”
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/To1xu2uWUDI?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
Last week we posted about James Cameron’s preparation for his attempt to dive to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Reports are that he is now attempting the dive in his one man submarine, described as a “vertical torpedo.” If successful he will be the first person in over 50 years and only the third person in history to dive to the bottom of the the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean. Thanks to Phil Leon of the heads-up.
What really happened on the Costa Concordia in the final hours leading up to and following her grounding and sinking off Giglio on January 13, 2012? The first step in definitively answering that question began in early March when an Italian judge directed court appointed experts to examine the ship’s voyage data recorder, the so called “black box.” The examination is expected to take 90 days, so the first results will be presented to the court sometime in early May.
But exactly what is the “black box” taken off the Costa Concordia?
Continue reading
In 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five sailors set off on an 1300 kilometer voyage to South Georgia Island, across some of roughest waters in the world, in the James Caird, a 6.9 meter lifeboat, in a desperate attempt to reach help and to arrange the rescue of the twenty two men left behind on Elephant Island. Now, the Shackleton Epic Expedition led by Tim Jarvis has constructed a replica of the James Caird, named the Alexandra Shackleton, in honor of the explorer’s granddaughter. The expedition will attempt to recreate Shackleton’s truly epic voyage later this year. Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along the news.
Polar explorer’s 800 mile lifeboat journey is recreated
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/ySQ44R2yxn8?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
Photo: Canadian Department of National Defense
A 150′ foot long fishing trawler carried away last March by the tsunami off the east coast of Japan has been spotted drifting in the Pacific Ocean, 120 miles off Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. About 5 million tons of debris were swept into the ocean in by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan. The trawler is reported to have been used for squid fishing, and was moored in the port of Hachinohe, in the Aomori prefecture, when the tsunami hit. Thanks to Rick Sterling on the Facebook “All Things Nautical” group for pointing it out.
Japanese boat washed away in tsunami spotted more than a year later
The waters around Tampa Bay may appear to step back in time tomorrow as the World War II Victory ship SS American Victory leaves the dock for her first cruise in nearly three years. The critically acclaimed “Re-Live History Cruise” will feature reenactors, WWII airplane fly overs, and historical ceremonies as well as a DJ, live entertainment, and food and drink.
During World War II, 531 Victory ships were built in the United States. The S.S. American Victory is one of the few ships of her class to have survived. In addition to serving in the Pacific in the last days of World War II, she also carry food and machinery from the United States to Europe under the Marshall Plan and later would carry military supplies in the Vietnam War. She has been a museum ship in Tampa, FL since 1999.
Divers have found five more bodies in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia which ran aground and sank on January 13, 2012 off the island of Giglio, Italy. The presumed death toll remains at 32, with only two of the roughly 4,200 passengers and crew still missing. Salvage of the ship is expected to take close to a year.
If HMS Hermione, commissioned in 1783, became a symbol of Royal Navy cruelty and bloody mutiny, the French light frigate l’ Hermione, commissioned in 1779, would become a symbol of American independence. On March 21, 1780, the 23 year old Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, stepped aboard l’ Hermione to sail back to America with the then secret news that France was committing 5,500 men and five frigates to help George Washington and his forces. With this new French aid and the assistance of the young Major General Lafayette, the Continental forces under General Washington would defeat the British General Cornwallis at Yorktown eighteen months later, effectively winning independence from Great Britain.
Now l’ Hermione, “freedom’s frigate,” has been reborn in the Charente-Maritime in Rochefort, France where the original ship was built. The new frigate has been under construction since 1997 and preparations are now being made for its launch. More than three million visitors have watched the construction of the replica frigate. When completed, there are plans to sail the ship to Boston, reenacting the fateful voyage carrying the Marquis de Lafayette. The video below is a light-hearted tour and inspection of the new frigate nearing completion.
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/tdNwZwkxk8E” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
Thanks to Frank Hanavan and Alaric Bond for pointing out l’ Hermione.
There were two frigates, both named Hermione, both launched within a few years of each other. The British HMS Hermione would become a symbol of cruelty and bloody mutiny, whereas the French Hermione would carry the young Gilbert Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette on a crucial voyage to assist a rebellion against the English Crown in its North American colonies. Neither ship has been forgotten. The mutiny on the HMS Hermoine has become a fixture in nautical fiction, whereas the French Hermione is being reborn in a shipyard in Rochefort sur mer.
The British frigate, HMS Hermione was commissioned in 1783 as 32-gun fifth-rate frigate. Five captains served competently on her quarterdeck until in in February 1797 — the year of the Spithead and Nore mutinies — Captain Hugh Pigot was given command. Within a year, HMS Hermoine was the scene of the bloodiest mutiny in British history. The excellent video by Maritime Great Britain tells the tale:
1797 – Mutiny Aboard HMS Hermione
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”410″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/dfSY5wpkE2Y” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
Thanks to Dexter Donham for pointing out this trailer for Vanishing Sail, a documentary still under production and expected to be out in 2013. Filmed in the Grenadines, Vanishing Sail looks at the sailing vessels that once were both the lifeblood of Caribbean commerce. From their website: Mixed with rare archive footage and interviews with the last old Caribbean sea captains, the documentary combines dramatic sailing scenes with narration and an original soundtrack to tell the story of trading by sail in the West Indies and it’s legacy in the islands today.
[iframe: src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/32574938?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ff9933″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen]
The twenty eight year old bulk carrier Oriental Nicety was recently sold for scrap for $16 million. The ship was originally a tanker and has four owners and as many names. She is best known as the Exxon Valdez, the single hull tanker that ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, spilling more than 36,000 long tons of crude oil. It was the worst domestic maritime oil spill prior to the BP Deepwater Horizon rig disaster of 2010 which spilled over 560,000 tons of oil.
Winnie Breegle WAVE Code Talker
Earlier this month, 90 year old Winnie Breegle spoke at the 2012 Women’s History Month celebration at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City, FL. She had quite a story to tell. Not only was she a WAVE (Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in World War II but she was also a “code talker,” trained to understand Navajo code as a cryptographer.
In World War II, the code talkers were largely a group of more than 400 Marines who were bilingual Navajo speakers. By using a spoken Navajo code, they were able to dramatically speed up communications while being undecipherable to the Japanese. Most code talkers were Navajo, but as there were too few Navajo speakers, a program was set up to train WAVES to understand the code talkers. Winnie Breegle was one of the WAVES to become a code talker.
WWII WAVE, Code Talker, Keynote Speaker at NSWC PCD Women’s History Month
Continue reading
We posted previously about “Pirates and Privateers,” a documentary on CBC’s Land and Sea. The 20 minute documentary is now available on-line. It presents a distinctive view of piracy and privateering from the perspective of the Canadian Maritimes, not often seen by those of us to the South. Well worth the time to watch.
Photo of damage to the container ship bridge taken by passenger Andrew lock
The luxury cruise ship Silver Shadow may have lived up to its name on Friday morning when it collided with a container ship in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There were no reported injuries on the cruise ship, though passengers reported being knocked off their feet. The Silver Shadow’s bow damaged the bridge of the Vietnamese container ship. Silver Shadow is owned and operated by Silverseas Cruises.
In 1956, the passenger ships, Andrea Doria and the Stockholm collided in dense fog off Nantucket. Both vessels were equipped with radar and radios. The collision and subsequent sinking of the Andrea Doria is often referred to as a “radar assisted casualty.” It appears that after fifty six years, nothing has necessarily changed. Fortunately, in the case of the Silver Shadow there were no reported injuries among the passengers. There is currently no information on possible injuries to the crew of the container ship.
Continue reading
Photo: Mark Thiessen/National Geographic
James Cameron wants to dive to deepest part of the ocean – the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, 35,800 feet (5.8 nautical miles) below the surface. To do so, he plans on using a single person submersible designed to dive straight down, described as a vertical torpedo. The experimental craft, built in secrecy in Australia over eight years, also rotates on a vertical axis like a bullet fired from a rifle (although much more slowly) as it dives. The intent is to minimize the dive time so as to maximize the time on the bottom. It sounds like a great idea, provided Cameron can bring the sub to a stop at the appropriate moment.
Alan Villiers was the great chronicler of the last days of sail. In 1918, at the age of 15, he left home in Melborne, Australia to go to sea. His first love would always be the full rigged sailing ships that he had watched a boy sailing in and out of Melbourne. Over the next sixty years, until his death in 1982, he would sail the world’s oceans in square-rigged ships and write twenty five books and numerous articles, most about the last days of the great windjammers.
Villiers also took many remarkable photographs. Thanks to Captain Richard Bailey for pointing out this Collection of Photographs by Alan Villiers, which features hand-colored photographs from ships Villiers sailed, as a well as a succinct biography of Villers’ remarkable career. Britain’s National Maritime Museum has posted additional photos: The Last of the Tall Ships: Photographs by Alan Villiers.
More photos after the jump.