Nelson’s Sword Discovered in Wreck of HMS Victoria

Posted on by January 30, 2012

Wreck of HMS Victoria

While on peace time maneuvers off Libya on June 22, 1893, Vice Admiral George Tryon, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, gave a series of orders that resulted in HMS Camperdown ramming his ship, HMS Victoria, which sank with the loss of 358 lives, including that of the vice admiral.  Also believed to have been lost in the sinking was Admiral Tryon’s collection of Nelson’s personal effects, which he had purchased at auction, including Nelson’s sword.  The wreck of  HMS Victoria was discovered in 2004 in 150 metres of water.  Now, Diver Mark Ellyatt says that he discovered Nelson’s sword and other artifacts in Tryon’s cabin.

Nelson’s £1million sword is discovered at the bottom of the Med (but the shipwreck it’s on is called the Victoria, not the Victory)
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MV Delta Mariner in Wrong Channel in Bridge Collision, on a Long, Winding Voyage to the Gulf

Posted on by January 29, 2012

Photo: Sandy Joseph/ULA

The investigation is ongoing as to why the MV Delta Mariner  collided with the Eggner Ferry Bridge on the Tennessee River in Kentucky last Thursday night, taking out over 300′ of the span, but reportedly, the ship was in the wrong channel.  It apparently was in a recreational channel where the bridge had a lower clearance rather than the  shipping channel where the clearance would have been adequate. Sam Sacco, a spokesman for Foss Maritime, said the ship made the trip many times in the past 10 years and had an experienced captain and local river pilot on board.
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NYC’s East River Water Turbine Energy Licence Awarded to Verdant Power

Posted on by March 5, 2021

Verdant Power Water Turbine Being Lowered into New York’s East River

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued its first license for a tidal energy project to Verdant Power.  The Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project is located in New York’s East River just west of Roosevelt Island.

Since 2006, Verdant Power has been testing six underwater turbines installed on the river bed to generate electricity.  Under the new ten year license, Verdant will build and install turbines with a total generating capacity of 1 MW of electrical power. Five turbines are expected to be operating by the fourth quarter of 2013 and a total of 30 generators should be installed by 2015. The pilot project is intended to demonstrate the commercial viability of the technology and to study the environmental impact on fish and the river’s sediment.   The East River is not actually a river, but a tidal estuary through which powerful tidal currents ebb and flood daily.  The turbines will now tap some of the energy from these currents to produce clean and renewable energy.

Costa Concordia Update – 17th Body Found, Fuel Pumping Delayed & Salvors Line Up to Bid

Posted on by January 28, 2012

The body of a woman, believed to be a member of the crew, has been found in the wreck of the Costa Concordia, bringing the body count to 17. An additional 15 are missing and presumed dead. The Dutch salvor Smit has been delayed in the pumping of the 2,300 tonnes of diesel fuel from the ship due to bad weather. They hope to start pumping toward the middle of next week, when weather conditions are forecast to improve.  In the mean time, Dutch, US and Danish marine salvage firms are preparing to bid on either refloating or breaking up the stricken cruise ship.  Smit Salvage currently only has the contract to remove the fuel from the ship.  Companies bidding on the larger salvage job are expected to be Smit, an arm of Dutch group Boskalis-Westminster,  Titan Salvage, owned by the US’s Crowley Maritime Corp and Denmark’s Svitzer, owned by Maersk.

Jarle Andhoy – Berserker on Another Illegal Trip to Antarctica

Posted on by January 28, 2012

Jarle Andhoy after his failed Antarctic expedition in February, 2011, in which three people died. Photo: AFP

Jarle Andhøy calls himself as a “Wild Viking.”  He has been the subject of the Norwegian television series Berserk mot Nordpolen (“Berserk to the North Pole”), Berserk til Valhall (“Berserk to Valhalla”) and Berserk gjennom Nordvestpassasjen (“Berserk through the Northwest Passage”) which aired on NRK in 2003, 2005 and 2007.   Andhøy is best known for controversial voyages in polar regions usually without permits, or insurance, which have run afoul of the authorities in Norway, Finland, Russia and New Zealand.  He was deported from Canada in 2007. His voyage last year to the Antarctic also got three of his crew killed when his yacht Berserk II sank.

Andhøy appears to be at it again. He has on another illegal voyage to Antarctica and is wanted by the authorities in several countries.
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“Rocket Ship,” MV Delta Mariner Takes Out Eggner Ferry Bridge

Posted on by January 27, 2012

Last night around 8PM, the supply ship, MV Delta Mariner, operated by Foss Maritime, struck the Eggner Ferry Bridge on the Tennessee River in Kentucky, taking out a 300′ span.  The MV Delta Mariner is a 312-foot long and 8,000 horsepower supply ship,  designed to transport rocket booster cores for Boeing’s Delta IV rocket program. Four cars were on the bridge when the ship hit but there are no injuries reported on the bridge or aboard the ship.  The ship was not seriously damaged. The bridge normally handles around 2,800 cars per day.

Ship carrying space rocket parts to Cape Canaveral crashes into Ky. bridge, causing collapse
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Costa Concordia – The Legal Battle Begins, Lawsuits Filed, Settlement Offered

Posted on by January 27, 2012

Micky Arison, the chairman, chief executive and part owner of Carnival Corp. has been keeping a very low profile since the grounding and sinking of the Costa Concordia two weeks ago.  He has stayed in Miami and let Pier Luigi Foschi, CEO of Carnival’s Italian unit, Costa Crociere SpA, serve as the public face of the sinking, which resulted in over 30 dead or missing.  Any attempt he has made to distance the parent company, which in total operates over 100 ships, of which Costa represents only 15, has met with limited success.  A lawsuit was filed in Federal court in Chicago seeking at least $100 million in damages, naming Carnival Corporation and Costa Crociere. The suit which alleges negligence and breach of contract was filed by a crew member of the Costa Concordia and seeks class-action status to represent all victims of the Jan. 13 disaster off Giglio Island.
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Seafarers Held Hostage in Somalia – Invisible and Ignored

Posted on by January 26, 2012

The last paragraph of the Associated Press article Navy SEAL Raid in Somalia Shows Campaign Ahead, reads: Several hostages were still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

Based on the AP, there appear to be only four hostages held in Somalia. But what of the seafarers being held for ransom?  According to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, 28 ship were hijacked and 470 sailors were taken hostage in Somalia in 2011. 151 are still being held hostage.

As is so often the case, sailors are too often invisible and ignored. To learn more go to Save Our Seafarers.

USS Laffey, the Ship That Would Not Die, Returns to Patriot’s Point

Posted on by January 26, 2012

The World War II destroyer, USS Laffey, has returned home to Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, near Charleston, South Carolina after a two year $9 million dollar shipyard period to repair her hull plating. The USS Laffey was commissioned in 1944 and participated in the D-Day invasion of France. In March of 1945, while serving in the Pacific near Okinawa, she was hit by was hit by four bombs and five kamikaze planes. She would later serve in the Korean war. She continued to operate in various missions until 1963. Her lengthy period of service, as well as her actions on D-Day and her survival of the onslaught at Okinawa have earned her the nickname “the ship that would not die.” Now after after winning a battle with time and rust the USS Laffey returns to service as a museum ship alongside the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown at Patriot’s Point.  Thanks to Alaric Bond and Phil Leon for passing on the news.

USCG Air Station Kodiac Rescues 11 from Two Fishing Boats

Posted on by January 26, 2012

In two separate incidents, US Coast Guard Air Station Kodiac crews rescued eleven fisherman from two boats on Wednesday. The 58-foot fishing vessel Kimberly ran aground on Portage Bay southwest of Kodiak on the Alaska Peninsula Tuesday night around 8 p.m. but severe weather prevented the Coast Guard from rescuing the four fishermen.  As the crews returned Wednesday morning to the Kimberly, they received a Mayday call from the 68-foot fishing vessel Heritage which was sinking south of Kodiak Island.
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Still a Work in Progress, the South Street Seaport Museum Reopens

Posted on by January 26, 2012

Photo: DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

Last February, the chronically mismanaged Seaport Museum of New York (the ex-South Street Seaport Museum) laid off its staff and shut its doors. (See our post  The Rise and Fall of the South Street Seaport Museum.)  Today, under new management, with new funding but with the same loyal cadre of volunteers and supporters, the South Street Seaport Museum is opening its doors once again. It is still very much a work in progress with considerable uncertainty regarding it is future, but the museum is back and has even reclaimed its original name.

The museum, which has been taken over by the Museum of the City of New York, is opening today with sixteen galleries, interweaving the sea and the city of New York with photography, video, historical artifacts and contemporary design.

Seaport Museum Sets Sail, Again

Update: Zanzibar Ferry Disaster – Captain and Crew Charged with Murder

Posted on by January 26, 2012

Last September we posted about an overloaded ferry boat running between Zanzibar and Pemba, Tanzania which sank after capsizing taking the lives of at least 230 passengers.  Recently the captain and crew of the ill-fated ferry, MV Spice Islander, were charged with negligence and murder.  Also charged was member of Zanzibar House of Representatives and MP in the Union Parliament, Mr Jaku Hashim Ayub.  The ferry had an approved passenger capacity of 600 and was believed to be carrying at least 800 people (some sources claim as many as 2,470 passengers) and an unknown amount of cargo, when it capsized and sank on September 10, 2011.

Eleven Arraigned Over Spice Islander Disaster

Update: Scrapping the TK Bremen on Kerminihy Beach

Posted on by January 25, 2012

We posted last December about the Maltese flagged 6,600 DWT dry cargo ship, TK Bremen, which was stranded in high winds on Kerminihy beach at Erdeven, in southern Brittany, near the port of Lorient, France.  Now a bit over a month later she has been “salvaged,” in the sense that she has been removed form the beach, if not in the sense of being “saved.”  Sometimes the only choice available to a salvor, when the ship cannot be removed intact, is to to scrap her in place and a haul away the cut up steel.

The Atlantic Monthly has a wonderful series of 29 photographs documenting the ship on the beach, the clean up and removal of oil, and the ripping apart of the ship by mechanical monsters (OK, crawler cranes with hydraulic shears.) We have posted thumbnails of four of the images above. Click on the images or the link below to see all 29 photos.

Salvaging the TK Bremen

A Whale’s Tale? Did Costa Cover Up Past Grounding on the Costa Fortuna?

Posted on by January 25, 2012

Costa Fortuna

In May 2005, while the cruise ship Costa Fortuna was making a close approach to the island of Sorrento, there was a “loud bang” after which the vessel rolled from left to right according to the ship’s photographer Roberto Cappello, 59.  He later would photograph damage to the ship’s keel and a broken propeller blade, only to have the photographs and files confiscated by Costa.  Costa apparently later claimed that the ship had stuck a whale.  Italian magistrates will be asked to investigate whether Costa Cruises attempted to cover-up the previous grounding.
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US Navy SEAL Commandos Rescue American and Danish Hostage in Raid on Somali Pirates

Posted on by January 25, 2012

Paul Tisted & Jessica Buchanan Photos: Danish Refugee Council

In a pre-dawn raid, US Navy SEAL commandos freed two hostages; an American, Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a Dane, Poul Thisted, 60;  being held for ransom in a pirate compound 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adado.  Members of SEAL Team Six – the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden – are reported to have parachuted in and engaged in a firefight with pirates as they approached the compound. U.S. helicopters landed once the raid was underway and later flew the hostages to a U.S. military base in Djibouti. Nine pirates were reported to have been killed in the assault. No American casualties were reported and the hostages were not injured.
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Update: Costa Concordia – Fuel Removal Begins, Video of Staff Emerges & Body Count Rises

Posted on by January 24, 2012

Crews from the Dutch salvage company SMIT are setting up to begin pumping 2,300 tonnes of diesel fuel from the sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia.  A crane barge and temporary tanks have been moved alongside the stricken ship. Pumping is expected to begin Saturday.

A disturbing video has emerged showing  a member of the ship’s staff directing passengers in life jackets to return to their staterooms. A women says that she as an “announcement from our captain.” She then says, “We kindly ask that you return to your cabins or if you prefer you can stay in the lounges.”  She goes on to say, “We have finished addressing the  problem that we’ve had. The electrical problem with the generator. Everything is fine.”  She then asks again for passengers to return to their cabins. The video ends with her saying, “Everything is fine. OK?”

The body count has risen to 16, as another body was found this morning. Twenty three people are still missing.

Costa Concordia Staff Filmed telling Passengers to return to their Cabins

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Group Hopes to get Schooner Amistad Sailing Again

Posted on by January 24, 2012

The Amistad in better days

In May of 2010, we posted about a serious rigging failure suffered by the schooner Amistad while in heavy seas off the Florida coast.  The schooner limped back to Mystic, CT, where she built,  to undergo $100,000 in repairs.  She has not sailed since.  This year, Amistad America, the non-profit organization behind the schooner, is hoping to get her sailing again.

Group hopes it can right the Amistad

There were no trips last year as Amistad America tried to find the money to do the repairs and then restructured its $280,000 debt with TD Bank, which had filed a lien against the nonprofit organization.

“There were times last year when I was deeply concerned if we could get through the next two months,” admitted Amistad America CEO Greg Belanger in an interview last week.
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Graves Of 18th Century Connecticut & Rhode Island Ship’s Captains Discovered In Suriname

Posted on by January 24, 2012

View of the Nieuwe Oranjetuin Cemetery, Paramaribo, Suriname

The graves of four ship’s captains and merchants dating from the mid-18th century have been found in Suriname, a former Dutch sugar colony on the northern coast of South America. The graves of privateer Capt. Michael Burnham of Middletown, CT; Capt. William Barbut of New London, CT, Capt. Nathaniel Angel and Capt. William Gardner Wanton, both of Rhode Island; were recerntly found in the Dutch colonial cemetery of Nieuw Oranjetuin in Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city.

Graves Of Connecticut Sea Captains Discovered In South America
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Happy Year of the Black Water Dragon!

Posted on by January 23, 2012

Today begins the new lunar year – the Year of the Black Water Dragon.  The lunar new year is celebrated for 15 days, from the first day of the first new moon of the year to the first full moon.  We wish everyone a most happy and prosperous New Year.  Thanks to Frogma for posting the link to the video of the underwater dragon dance.

The Lunar New Year: Enter the Dragon

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Costa Concordia – the Inchino, Costa Management & the Web

Posted on by January 23, 2012

L'inchino al Faraglioni di Capri, an unidentified cruise ship "bowing" to the Faraglioni rocks

The dangerous practice of the “inchino,” Italian for “bow” and often translated as “salute,”  appears to be widespread and not limited to Costa.  The “inchino” is performed by sailing a ship close to an island or port and blowing the ship’s horn, figuratively bowing or saluting the port. It now appears that such a “bow” resulted in the grounding and sinking of the Costa Concordia off Giglio. While the practice may not be limited to Costa, the suggestion that Costa was not aware of the practice and did not approve of it, seems unlikely.

Italian news site, Napoli de Vivere, has featured a photograph of an unidentified cruise ship (not a Costa Crociere ship) passing between the famous cliffs of the Isle of Capri, the Faraglioni, from a video shot on September 24, 2006.  Navi da crociera: inchino anche ai faraglioni di Capri  They comment:  Apparently, the passage of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, near the coast of the island of Giglio was not an isolated case. Captains like to greet the coast, close to the mainland, attracting the attention of the people and astound the passengers, but the danger of certain maneuvers is not worth a salute, and tragically, we realized these days that can never be too cautious.
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