This week the Maersk Alabama was attacked by pirates for the third time in the last two years. In April of 2009, pirates boarded the Maersk containership and took her captain, Richard Phillips, hostage. He was later rescued when Navy sharpshooters killed the pirates who were holding him. Then in November of 2009, another group of pirates attacked the ship, but were driven off by armed guards aboard the ship. This week, fire from armed personnel on the ship also drove off the pirates.
Piracy in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean can be wildly profitable and is relatively risk free. If a pirate is caught by any of the multinational naval task force, chances are that they will simply let the pirate go free. So I suppose it isn’t surprising that that not only has the scope of piracy expanded to encompass the Indian Oceans and Arabia Sea, but now it also appears that the pool of pirates is also becoming multi-national. In addition to Somalis, Yemenis are also getting into the act.
Red Sea piracy may be going multinational – U.S.
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What’s that smelt? (Sorry.) Actually it was a million dead sardines (or anchovies depending on the news reports) that washed up dead in the King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach California.
‘One million’ dead sardines clog Redondo Beach marina
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Today is International Women’s Day. Indeed, it is the 100th Anniversary of the first International Women’s Day in 1911. We have followed with interest the women who have progressively stepped up to serve in jobs that not too long ago were reserved solely for men – whether on submarines, the bridge of a cruise ship, from the engine room flat to the bridge of a research vessel, or rowing alone across a mighty ocean. Now in honor of International Women’s Day, here is an interview with US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Petty Officer Second Class Sara Faulkner. She is one of 300 rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard and one of only four women.
Yesterday the Independence Seaport Museum posted a “NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF TRANSFER APPLICATION PROCESS FOR CRUISER, OLYMPIA” to formally begin the process of seeking a new owner for the historic cruiser launched in 1892. From the notice:
The Olympia, Admiral Dewey’s flagship and once the most celebrated, state-of-the art naval vessel afloat, will be scrapped or scuttled unless a new owner can be found. In terms of historic value, the National Historic Landmark Olympia has been equated to the USS Constitution and the Constellation as one of the most important vessels in U.S. Naval history. The ship straddles the shift between the age of sail and the age of steel, and marks the launch of the modern steel Navy. Deferred maintenance has reached a critical stage and the ship requires $2-5 million of immediate stabilization. A further estimated $10-20 million will be required for dry-dock and restoration.
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Commandos from the USS Bulkeley boarded the Japanese owned tanker MV Guanabara on Sunday after the crew reported that the ship was under attack by pirates. The commandos captured four pirates aboard the ship without firing a shot. The crew had withdrawn to the ship’s “safe room.”
U.S. Commandos Free Ship, Crew From Pirates
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Last July, there was a collision involving the tug Caribbean Sea pushing a barge and a disabled “Duck boat” DUKW 34 at anchor in the Delaware River off Philadelphia. Two of the 35 passengers on the duck boat drowned in the collision. The mate, the officer on watch, was apparently talking to his mother on the phone prior to and during the collision.
Tug boat lookout on phone during fatal crash, safety board says
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When the sun was out the Vikings could navigate with “sun compass,” a sort of modified sundial. According to legend, when the sky was overcast the Vikings used a “sunstone.” A new study suggests that the sunstone might not have been legend.
Did Vikings navigate with ‘sunstone’?
Vikings could have navigated the oceans in inclement weather with the aid of a crystal that pinpointed the sun’s location behind banks of clouds and fog, a new study suggests.
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In June of last year, we posted about the Quest for the South Magnetic Pole. Recently the Independent featured an article describing how the magnetic north pole is moving faster than at any time in human history, apparently shifting from Canada to Russia.
Adjust your compass now: the north pole is migrating to Russia
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On Thursday Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., the head of Fleet Forces Command, announced the results of the investigation of the aircraft carrier Enterprise videos and recommended punishment for 40 officers and senior enlisted sailors.
Lewd Navy Videos Sink More Than The Captain Who Made Them
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Commander Nigel MatthewsCommander Nigel Matthews, who has died aged 89, survived being run over by an aircraft carrier and flew again the same day.
Nigel Matthews died on December 19. His first wife died in 1977; he married, secondly, Annette Pask (née Pinhey) in 1979 and she predeceased him in 2008. He is survived by four children of his first marriage and a stepdaughter.
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I was recently sent The eNotated Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Enotation is electronic annotation, where instead of footnotes or endnotes, there are embedded links in the text of an e-book. A book like Slocum’s which contains a fair amount of sailing jargon and many geographical references is a perfect candidate for eNotation.
Before discussing this edition, however, a few words on Sailing Alone Around the World are in order. In 1895, Joshua Slocum was as ship’s captain at loose ends in the last days of sail. He rebuilt a 37′ gaff rigged oyster sloop named Spray, and proceeded to sail it around the world alone, the first person ever to do so. His book about the voyage, Sailing Alone Around the World, is a nautical classic. I would argue that it is a literary classic, period. Slocum’s direct, deceptively simple yet vivid language reminds me of Mark Twain. If you haven’t read Slocum, you should. Soon. This edition might not be bad place to start.
Star of India at Maritime Museum of Sand Diego
News from both the Seaport Museum in New York and the Maritime Museum of San Diego. The Seaport Museum, until recently the South Street Seaport Museum, is shutting down its exhibits and shops. The ships will still be open for tours. We have posted recently about the latest financial crisis at the beleaguered museum.
Struggling Seaport Museum closing exhibit, ships open
In contrast, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, has two major projects underway – the construction of a replica of Cabrillo’s galleon, San Salvador, and a new exhibition of art and artifacts from three Westerners — the explorer Capt. James Cook, writer Herman Melville and artist Paul Gauguin — adrift in Polynesia.
Maritime Museum sails into uncharted waters
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Robert Prescott, a marine archeologist, believes that he has located the final resting place HMS Beagle.
The Fate of HMS Beagle After Darwin´s Voyage to the Galapagos Islands
HMS Beagle was the ship that sailed around the world with the young naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin onboard. The ship was sold for scrap in 1870 but until now it´s final fate has remained one of the world´s great naval mysteries.
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Reports are surfacing of Navy veterans contracting cancer after serving at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica when the station was powered by a problem-prone nuclear power plant.
Nuclear plant leak in Antarctica suspected of causing cancer
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I recently purchased Joe Follansbee’s The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History – 2,000+ Tall Ships, Lighthouses, Historic Ships, Maritime Museums, and More. Rather than purchasing a dead-tree version, I bought the guide as an e-book for Kindle. This is, therefore, a dual review – a review of the guide book itself and how it works as an e-book.
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Shabab Oman
Christopher Biggins, captain of the Omani national sail training ship Shabab Oman, for over two decades, died recently. An obituary by Frank Scott, author of A Square Rig Handbook, reposted with permission from the Marine History List:
Commander Christopher Biggins
Chris Biggins who recently died of cancer was Captain of the Omani national sail training ship Shabab Oman for over 20 years, and during that time he made her a major force in the international world of sail training.
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Photo: Donnie Reid
Six guns from the ships of privateer Admiral Sir Henry Morgan are believed to have been found in the Chagres River in Panama.
Henry Morgan’s cannons found in Panama, archaeologists say
Archaeologists have recovered six cannons from the ships of Welsh privateer Henry Morgan, the first artifacts found in Panama to be linked to the man who remains a legend there, the team said Monday.
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The US Coast Guard Cutter Midgett recently busted a midget sub loaded with cocaine while on a cruise of the Eastern Pacific. The 35′ long self-propelled semi-submersible was carrying 6,000 kilograms of cocaine from Columbia bound for the United States. This was only the second ever seizure of a self propelled semi-submersible by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. In addition to the catching the narco-sub, the Cutter Midget seized 11 tons of cocaine and marijuana on five trafficking vessels and detained 20 suspected narcotics traffickers. The cutter also performed three search and rescue missions while on patrol.
Coast Guard cutter returns from patrol, interdicts semi-submersible with cocaine
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Definitely not a containership
I saw the headline and immediately shook my head. There may indeed be an application for sails on bulk carriers, but containerships, well, not so much. With a five high (or higher) stack of boxes on deck, containerships have exactly the stability they need – no more, no less. Adding sails without removing cargo capacity could be a challenge. I clicked on the link and had to smile. The drawing was of a tanker with hybrid solar cell sails, and not a containership. Tankers generally have no shortage of stability. Even Sail-World should know the difference between containerships and tankers. I guess the moral of the story is that not all ships are containerships and you have to take what you read in the press with a proverbial grain of salt. The designs by Eco Marine Power look very interesting, nevertheless.