The good news is that the events were more like the Carnival Splendor than the Titanic. No one died. No ships were lost to icebergs. Nevertheless, there was high drama, bordering on the operatic, on the cruise ship MSC Opera on its voyage from Southhampton to the Baltic last month. There was a blackout, the ship adrift, a passenger mutiny and the detention of the ship by the authorities. Now that the ship is back in service, it seems worthwhile to take a look at the unsuccessful cruise.
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Victor Hugo wrote, “Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.” There are some ideas whose time always appears to be coming but somehow never quite arrive. As a young naval architect in the 1970s, I recall predictions that tug boats would be towing icebergs to areas where fresh water is in short supply. On Sunday, Time magazine posted an article asking, “Can Towing Icebergs to Water-Short Areas Really Work?” With the aid of new technology, the answer may finally be “yes.” Then again, this is not the first time that Time magazine has addressed the idea of towing icebergs. It’s article “Science: Towing Icebergs” was published in the magazine in October of 1977.
Just Thaw And Serve (May 29, 2011)
Science: Towing Icebergs (October 17, 1977)
An explosion in a fuel tank on the cruise ship docks in Gibraltar today injured several on the dock and over twelve passengers on the 3,634-passenger Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Independence of the Seas. The injuries to passengers were all reported to be minor.
Explosion, fire in Gibraltar fuel tank, two injured
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RMS Titanic ready to launch
On May 31, 1911, the RMS Titanic was launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. After continued outfitting, the ship was delivered to White Star Line on March 30, 1912. She set sail for New York City on her maiden voyage on 10 April 10, 1912 with 2,223 passengers and crew. Four days into the crossing, she struck an iceberg and sank at 2:20 on April 15, with the loss 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. After years of not publicizing that the Titanic was built in Belfast, the memory of the ship is being used to attract visitors. A new tourist center is being built on the old docklands, christened Titanic Quarter.
Belfast cheers 100th anniversary of Titanic launch
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USS Olympia at the Battle of Manila Bay
We have recently posted about attempts to find a home for the USS Olympia, the oldest steel-hulled American warship afloat and Commodore George Dewey’s flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. On Memorial Day it seems worthwhile remembering the USS Olympia’s last mission in 1921, when she carried an American “unknown soldier” killed during World War I from a cemetery in France back to the Washington to be in entombed Arlington National Cemetery. The Olympia was decommissioned the following year.
Memorial Day: Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery
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In April of 2007, the cruise ship Sea Diamond struck a reef off the island of Santorini and sank. Nearly 1,600 passengers where rescued and two passengers drowned. Now four years later the Greek government has says that it cannot afford to remove the wreck, while the ship’s owner, Louis Cruise Lines, is denying all responsibly.
Santorini cruise ship wreck ‘too costly’ to remove
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Artist's Impression of the USS Gerald R. Ford "Supercarrier" estimated to cost over $12.5 billion
For seventy years, battleships were the unchallenged masters of the oceans, until technology swept them aside. Now the aircraft carrier reigns supreme. The US currently has five times more aircraft carrier capacity based on flight deck acreage than the the rest of the world combined.
A recent article in the US Naval Institute magazine Proceedings, “Twilight of the $UPERfluous Carriers” by Captain Henry J. Hendrix, U.S. Navy, and Lieutenant Colonel J. Noel Williams, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), suggests that the latest “super carriers” are becoming superfluous in addition to being unsupportably expensive. “In short, the march of technology is bringing the supercarrier era to an end, just as the new long-range strike capabilities of carrier aviation brought on the demise of the battleship era in the 1940s.”
The times are changing. No news there. Rather than welcoming the sailors and marines on the docks, some New Yorkers are reaching out to sailors during Fleet Week using social networking. Some sailors and marines are connecting with New Yorkers the same way. Craigslist seems a particularly popular way to make connections.
Fleet Week 2011: Navy sailors and Marines connect with New Yorkers on Craigslist
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We recently posted about the tanker Mary Whalen being deemed eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. PortSide New York and the Mary Whalen are also participating in New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides meaningful summer work for inner city youth between the ages of 14 and 24. To support the program PortSide needs to raise $16,000 within the next month. PortSide New York is a 501c3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
PortSide 2011 summer youth employment program
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What looks like a great exhibition, “Storm Stories! 1991: An Island Remembers” opened yesterday at the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum and will run through October 10, 2011. The exhibition commemorats the 20th anniversaries of Hurricane Bob and The No-Name Storm.
The Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson’s ship, will be open for dockside tours at the Hudson River Maritime Museum through June 16th.
Replica of Henry Hudson’s ship open for tours until June 16
The ship, a replica of the one Henry Hudson sailed up the river now bearing his name in 1609, sailed down the river from its winter home in Athens and docked in Kingston at the Hudson River Maritime Museum Wednesday afternoon.
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Back in February of last year, the Independence Seaport Museum announced that it could no longer afford to care for USS Olympia, the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War in 1898. There was open discussion of scrapping or sinking the historic ship if a new owner could not be found. Ironically the museum, plagued by scandal and financial malfeasance, lacked the funds to dredge around the Olympia so that she could be the vessel could be towed away from her berth on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
Now, slightly over a year later, the Olympia’s rescue is not assured, but there are at least four groups trying to save her. In addition to the South Carolina Olympia Committee and the Navy Yard Association of Mare Island, the Friends of the Cruiser Olympia is working to keep the ship in Philadelphia while Save USS Olympia, Inc. seeks to move the ship to Baltimore.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Piscataqua Maritime Commission is sponsoring Sail Portsmouth 2011, featuring the Gazela Primeiro. The Gazela, a three-masted, square rigged barkentine built in 1883, is said to be the world’s oldest active wood hulled sailing vessel. Joining the Gazela will be the the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Flying Fish.
Sail Portsmouth 2011- Tall ship Gazela Primeiro
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Last week we posted about Disney filing three trademark applications to to claim the rights to the phrase “SEAL Team 6.” Apparently, Admiral Mickey Mouse has changed his mind.
Disney Withdraws ‘SEAL Team 6’ Trademark Application
Out of “deference” to the Navy, Walt Disney Co. has withdrawn an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for use of the term “SEAL Team 6,” a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.
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Deck Gun of the WWII submarine USS R-12 (Photo: Tim Taylor/RV Tiburon Inc.)
On June 12,1943 in 600 feet of water, the submarine USS R12 sank in 15 seconds in 600 feet of water, taking 42 of her crew with her to the bottom. Recently, a team led by Tim Taylor on the “RV Tiburon” has located and documented the wreck of the submarine.
Missing WWII submarine found with 42 entombed US sailors
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Fleet Week in New York Harbor kicked off today with a parade of ships. A short video we shot and edited of the parade:
Fleet Week New York 2011, Parade of Ships, 5/25/11
[iframe: width=”480″ height=”300″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/OfXk0ASrwKY” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
The ships, in order of appearence, are: USS New York (LPD 21), USCGC Willow (WLB 202), USS Kauffman (FFG 59), USCGC Tampa (WMEC 902), USS Carr (FFG 52), USCGC Katherine Walker (WLM 552), USS John L. Hall (FFG 32), and the USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7).
Congratulations to PortSide New York and the tanker Mary Whalen, which has been deemed eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places! The Mary Whalen is a 172’ long coastal tanker built by the John H. Mathis Company, of Camden NJ in 1938. PortSide New York is an innovative non-profit which provides educational, cultural, and social service programs for the community and runs an H2O Arts program that offers talks, walks, concerts, readings, movies, ship tours and performing arts. And at the center of it all is the good ship Mary Whalen.
Last week we posted about Disney filing three trademark applications for the rights to the phrase “SEAL Team 6.” Proving that they are only a step or two behind Mickey Mouse, the US Navy has now trademarked the phrases “NAVY SEALS” and “SEAL TEAM.”
Claiming What’s Theirs: Navy Files Trademarks for ‘SEAL TEAM’ and ‘NAVY SEALS’
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USS New York
Tomorrow the USS New York returns to the Hudson River to help kick off Fleet Week New York. The USS New York (LPD-21) is the fifth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship and is the seventh ship of the United States Navy to be named after the state of New York. Parts of the bow and stern of the ship were fabricated using over seven tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center, after it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks. Earlier this year we posted about problems that the ship had with bad bearings and undersized welds. After an extended repair period, the ship is said to be in good shape and will participating in the parade of ships up the Hudson from 8:30 AM to 12 noon tomorrow.
The USS New York comes to town to kick off Fleet Week
Thanks to Bowsprite for passing the news along.
Over the weekend, HMS Bounty, on the first stop of her four month European tour, was boarded by buccaneers on the Barbican in Plymouth. Plymouth’s “Pirate Days” coincided with the release of the latest Disney ‘Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, “On Stranger Tides.” The Plymouth Herald noted, “An authentic Captain Jack Sparrow look-a-like – albeit not Hollywood star Johnny Depp himself – joined HMS Bounty’s Captain Robin Wallbridge on board.” HMS Bounty was featured in a previous movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest.”
The most recent iteration of the movie franchise, which opened on Friday, has earned a Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 33%, the lowest of any of the four “Pirate of the Caribbean” movies. Our 14 year old in-house reviewer gives it a slightly better rating, opining that “it was better than the third one, but not as good as the first two.”