For those in the US, the National Geographic Channel is featuring a a program “Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes” this evening at 10PM. Looks interesting.
Photo: Jeff Roberson/AP
Water transportation on two of the world’s longest river systems have been disrupted by extremes in water levels. On the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers record flooding has disrupted or halted barge traffic while on China’s Yangtze River a record drought has snarled traffic. The flooding on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers is the worst since 1937 while the river levels on the Yangtze have reached 50 year lows.
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Photo: Valentina Pop
In April we posted about the sinking of an overloaded fishing boat carrying Libyan refugees where over 200 drowned. Today it was reported that another overloaded refugee boat in the roughly the same area sank with over 500 people aboard. Fortunately, the Italian Coast Guard is reported to have rescued all aboard.
Italy rescues 500 migrants after boat runs aground near Lampedusa island
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HMS Astute, the Royal Navy’s most advanced nuclear submarine, was delivered 43 months behind schedule and £900 million over budget. Then during trials in October, it ran aground off the Isle of Skye. It was also in a collision with the tug that came to help pull it off. In December, the sub was idled by mechanical failures. Then in the beginning of April, a disgruntled sailor shot and killed one ship’s officer and wounded another while the ship was on publci relations call in Southhampton. The ship that the British papers had begun to call “HMS Calamity” is now being referred to as “jinxed.”
Today, we learn that the sub has been towed back to base after suffering a serious failure in its hydraulic system. The newspapers are pointing out that had the such a failure could have ” killed its entire crew.”
Jinxed nuclear submarine’s malfunction could have killed its entire crew
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On May 9, 1941, seventy years ago today, the German submarines U110 and U201 were attacking a British convoy in the Atlantic south of Iceland. U110 was forced to surface after being depth changed and was abandoned by her crew who thought that the submarine was sinking. A boarding party from HMS Bulldog boarded the submarine and carried off its code books, ciphers and a Naval Enigma machine. The Enigma machine and the documents allowed Alan Turing and his codebreakers at Bletchley Park to break the German Naval Enigma code, an intelligence breakthrough which changed the course of the war in the Atlantic.
Snakefish (left), Lion fish (right)
Two recent articles about alien invasive species: The New York Times reports on efforts to stop the smuggling of the Chinese snakehead fish. The fish is considered to be a delicacy in New York’s Chinatown, but is a voracious predator that can wipe out entire schools of fish and destroy an ecosystem when released outside of its natural habitat. Likewise the BBC reports on the ‘Godzilla’ lionfish and its threat to Caribbean waters, where it has no natural predators.
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This is not specifically a Mother’s Day post, but somehow, it feels right to post today. Women of the Banks Islands, a group of islands in northern Vanuatu, in the Pacific stand waist deep in the ocean and literally play the water by pounding out complex rhythmic patterns to show their appreciation to the sea. The short clip below is from a BBC Documentary ‘South Pacific’ ( ‘Wild Pacific’ in the US) and as reported by Adelle Havard in Mother Jones – Power of Communication. Thanks to Steamboat Bill for tweeting about this music of the waters.
Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy would have been 35 years old today, had he not died in combat behind enemy lines in Afghanistan in 2005. Lt. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States military’s highest decoration, for herosim. Today the USS Michael Murphy, the 62nd ship of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, named in honor of Lt. Murphy was christened at Bath Iron Works.
El Hierro is the easternmost of Spain’s Canary Islands, 750 miles from the Spanish mainland. The island itself has no energy resources beyond wind and water. There is now a plan to make the island wholly energy independent by linking wind and hydro-power together to provide a constant and reliable supply of electricity.
A Spanish Island’s Quest to Be the Greenest Place on Earth
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I remember when America’s Cup racing was fairly tame – beautiful 12M yachts gliding in light air in the waters of Rhode Island Sound. Times have indeed changed. The new AC45 wing-sailed catamarans recently underwent two weeks of testing in Auckland, New Zealand.
America’s Cup test sessions: a brave new world
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The Glenlee, a three-masted baldheaded steel-hulled barque, launched on December 3, 1896, has moved to a new home on the River Clyde in Glasgow at the new Riverside Museum.
Tall ship Glenlee moves to new home on the Clyde
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The Russian barque Sedov, the world’s largest sailing ship, is celebrating her 90th birthday in 2011.
A nuclear leak on the Russian icebreaker Taimyr forced it to attempt to return to the port of Murmansk.
Nuclear leak in Russian icebreaker
RUSSIA launched an urgent rescue mission overnight after one of its atomic-powered icebreakers developed a nuclear leak in the frozen seas of the Arctic and was forced to abandon its mission.
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In March we posted about the birthday of Claude Choules, the last combat veteran of World War I. He has now died in Perth, Australia at age 110.
Last WWI combat veteran Claude Choules dies aged 110
The world’s last known combat veteran of World War I, Claude Choules, has died in Australia aged 110.
Known to his comrades as Chuckles, British-born Mr Choules joined the Royal Navy at 15 and went on to serve on HMS Revenge.
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Linda Collison’s new book Surgeon’s Mate, the second book in the her Patricia MacPherson nautical series, was recently been released. Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction interviewed Linda Collison about her new book, which we are reposting with permission. We reviewed Collison’s previous book, Star Crossed, here, and have been looking forward to her latest.
We will be posting a review of Surgeon’s Mate next week. In the mean time, check out Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction May Newsletter.
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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.
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.
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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A well done video providing an interesting perspective on sail training.
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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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