Remora ROV fishes out Air France Black Box

My first thought was if that is a remora there must be quite a shark out there someplace. Obviously a different type of remora.  The Remora 6000 is a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) that can operate at depths up to 6,000 meters.    It  recently  retrieved  the  black box (which is actually orange) from the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 which crashed  into the Atlantic June 1, 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people aboard.

Remora ROV fishes out Air France black box
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Navy Fires Three Commanding Officers in One Week

Last week the Navy relieved the commanding officers – Commander Jay Wylie of the guided missle destroyer, USS Momsen; Commander Etta Jones of the amphibious transport dock ship, USS Ponce; and Captain Donald Hornbeck in command of Destroyer Squadron 1.  The Navy has not fired ten commanders so far this year. In 2010 the Navy dismissed 17 ship commanders.

Navy Fires Third C.O. — This Week!
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Captain Kidd in the News – New Exhibit at Docklands Museum and Shipwreck ‘Living Museum of the Sea’

Captain William Kidd

The notorious pirate Captain William Kidd was executed three hundred and ten years ago this month, yet is far from forgotten.  A new exhibit is opening on May 20th at the Museum of London Dockyards – Pirates:  The Captain Kidd Story.   Also the wreck of the Quedagh Merchant, abandoned by Captain Kidd, is being dedicated as a “Living Museum of the Sea” by Indiana University and the government of the Dominican Republic.

Museum of London Docklands to host new Pirate exhibition

The exhibition, which is timed to coincide with Kidd’s execution on 23 May 1701 in Wapping, will explore the myths and mysteries surrounding common perceptions of pirates.
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Record-breaking floods force engineers to blow up Mississippi River levee

Last week we posted that the Ohio River may be too high to allow the running of the Great Steamboat Race on May 4th.    The river has just kept rising.   Tonight the Army Corps of Engineers will blow up a  Mississippi River levee, flooding farms in southern Missouri to save a flood-threatened Illinois town upstream near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  A legal challenge by the Missouri attorney general to stop the destruction of the levee failed Sunday, allowing the Corp to proceed with the plan.

Record-breaking floods force engineers to blow up Mississippi River levee
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Navy SEALS Kill Osama Bin Laden

US naval special forces commandos are called SEALs, referring to their ability to operate at SEa, in the Air and on Land.   Yesterday Navy SEALs were called upon to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in a mansion in Abbottabad, a garrison city of 100,000 about 65 miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan.  In an operation reported to be carried out by 20-25 Navy SEALs, Bin Laden was killed after a forty minute firefight.  Bin Laden’s body was subsequently buried at sea from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy SEALs in Firefight
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Update: MS Veendam’s New Nose

Photos : Veendam Eng.Dept

In early January we posted about Holland America Lines’ MS Veendam hitting a Southern Ocean storm, encountering waves of over 30 meters and winds of 70 knots. At the time there was no reported to the ship or injuries to passengers or crew.   That report, as least as far as the ship is concerned, was premature.  Maasmond Maritime recently posted photos of  the MS Veendam receiving a new “nose” in Bahamas Shipyard after been damaged during heavy seas near the Falklands.

Happy May Day, not Mayday!

The first of May is traditionally called May Day and is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night.  The English have been known to break out in fits of Morris Dancing around May Day.  In many countries May Day is celebrated as International Workers Day or Labor Day.

Mayday as a distress call over radio is much newer.  The Mayday callsign was originated in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897–1962).  A senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the word “Mayday” from the French m’aider. “Venez m’aider” means “come help me.”

 

The Oldest Shipwreck in the Caribbean – A Treasure in Silver and Jade

Divers from Deep Blue Marine have located a wreck site off the Dominican Republic believed to date back to the 1500s and have uncovered a treasure of silver coins and jade figurines.

‘We’ve just scratched the surface’: Divers find ‘oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean’…. and treasure that could be worth MILLIONS

A chance encounter with a fisherman has led one team of treasure hunters to discover what they believe is the oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean.
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Lard Ho! Coast Guard Ups the Weight for Average Passengers

The US Coast Guard has updated its regulations, increasing the average weight per passenger for stability and loading calculations of tour and charter boats  from 160 pounds to 185 pounds.

Lard ahoy! Coast Guard estimates average weight of cruise passengers has gone up by 25lbs to 185lbs
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Update 2: Le Papillon, the Sands of Fire Island and the Backhoe

Photo: RK8776 Noreast.com

An update to a story that we have been following. The 50′ schooner Le Papillon came ashore on a beach  on Fire Island, northeast of New York harbor, at the beginning of April.   Just as it looked like the schooner would be swallowed up by the shifting sands, some folks with a large backhoe and what looks like an earth mover, secured chains to the stricken vessel and draggedher off the beach.  Fortunately the  schooner is built of steel.  It is hard to judge how much damage has been done but the vessel is no longer in danger of being swallowed up by the Fire Island’s sands.

Thanks to Will van Dorp at the tugster blog for keeping track of Le Papillon’s saga and to RK8776 at Noreast.com’s Saltwater Fishing Discussion board for taking the photographs as the schooner was hauled up from the sand.   Click here and scroll down to see the photos.

The Liverpool Sea Shanty Festival Returns Song to the Docks

Beginning today and running for two weekends, April 29 – May , and May 7-8, the Liverpool Sea Shanty Festival will return boisterous songs to the docks on the Merseyside.    Singers from New York and the Netherlands will be joining in.

Sounds of the golden age of sail return to docks in Liverpool Shanty Festival


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Pegasus, Lilac and Clipper City to Dock at Pier Pier 25 in the Hudson River

Clipper City

In January we posted that the Hudson River Park Trust was seeking proposals to dock historic vessels on the newly refurbished Pier 25 in the Hudson River off Tribecca.   Earlier this month the the Hudson River Park Trust announced that the 1907  Tug Pegasus, the 1933 lighthouse tender Lilac and the 1984 tall ship Clipper City, a historic replica, had been selected to be the first vessels to dock at the pier.

Three historic ships find a home at a Tribeca pier
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Rockhopper Penguins Returning From Rehab on Tristan da Cunha

The Greek-owned 75,000 tonne bulk carrier, MV Oliva, ran aground  on March 16th on Nightingale Island, a 4 square kilometer island in the Tristan da Cuhna archipelago in the South Atlantic.   The resulting oil spill  threatened nearly half of the world population of endangered Northern Rockhopper penguins.  Three thousand six hundred penguins were admitted to a “rehab centre” on Tristan da Cunha after the oil spill.  Recently, the first 24 penguins were released from the center back into the wild.

First Tristan penguins released from ‘rehab’
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Beaufort Group Bids on the Cruiser Olympia

A group in Beaufort, SC is bidding on acquiring the Cruiser Olympia.

Beaufort group bids on century-old ship

A Beaufort organization is bidding to become the next home of the ship Commodore George Dewey used as his flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay that gutted the Spanish fleet in 1898, helping cement America’s role as an emerging 20th century global power.
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On this Day in History – Kon Tiki Sets Sail

On April 28, 1947, a six-man expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Callao, Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.   Heyerdahl’s book, Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, was an international best seller and the documentary, Kon Tiki, which was directed by Heyerdahl, won an Academy Award in 1951.  The Kon-Tiki raft is on display in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.

Kon-Tiki Trip Ends on Pacific Reef; Party Safe After 4,000-Mile Drift
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Pelicans Return with a Vengance

Hailing from Florida, I am a huge fan of brown pelicans.  I was therefore very pleased to hear that after several years where brown pelicans on the West Coast of the US have been mysteriously dying off,  this year the flocks of  pelicans have been unprecedentedly large.

Two years ago the headlines were dire – “California Brown Pelicans in Peril,”  and “Mystery Malady Strikes California Brown Pelicans.”    The pelicans appear to have recovered  with a vengence.  And no one quite understands why.

Buzz rising over local pelican population
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Mystery 18th Century Shipwreck Found in the Gulf of Finland

I am always amazed by how well darkness, cold and a lack of oxygen can preserve a wooden ship wreck.   Thanks to Badewanne, a non-profit group of divers that has been documenting shipwrecks in the Gulf of Finland for more than 15 years, we have a close up of an as yet unidentified 18th century ship wreck.   The wreck is more than 60 meters (over 200 feet)  down and is in remarkably good condition.

Mystery ship

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The Scuttling of the MSC Chitra

Last August, we posted about the collision of the containership MSC Chitra and the bulk carrier Khalijia 3 which resulting in the sinking of the Chitra with a significant oil spill, a loss of cargo containers and the blockage of the port of Mumbai for five days.   Maasmond Maritime’s Clipping Service recently publish dramatic photos of the scuttling of the MSC Chitra, after a six day tow to deep water by Titan Maritime approximately 385 miles off of the coast of Mumbai, India. Click the thumbnails for larger images.