Suez Canal Operating Normally, Port Closures Causing Concerns

Posted on by February 1, 2011

There are an estimated two million protesters in the streets on Cairo today; most rail, trucking and buses are shut down across Egypt, yet  the Suez Canal, which can represent up 8 percent of global seaborne trade, remains open and in operation.  Military escorts for protection through the pirate-prone Gulf of Aden are unavailable and crew repatriation and purchase of provisions have not been possible for some ships.   Troops have been deployed to protect the SuMed pipeline transporting crude alongside the Suez Canal.

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Collision in Mumbai – INS Vindhyagiri & MV Nordlake

Posted on by February 6, 2011

MV Nordlake

Mumbai can be tough on container ships. Last August the bulk carrier Khalijia 3 steered into the containership MSC Chitra , sinking her, causing a significant spill and closing the port for five days.    Yesterday, the  Indian warship, INS Vindhyagiri and Cyprus-flagged container vessel, MV Nordlake, collided head-on in Mumbai Harbor.  No casualties or oil spill was reported but this time the warship got the worst of it.  It is reported to have capsized after catching fire.  An investigation of the collision has been launched by the Directorate General of Shipping.   The Jewaharlal Nehru Port Trust blamed the collision on naval personnel.

Navy warship INS Vindhyagiri capsizes

Experts race the clock to preserve N.C. Corolla shipwreck

Posted on by January 30, 2011

Last July, we posted about North Carolina’s oldest shipwreck which was moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum for preservation.    Now the curators at the museum are trying to learn,as quickly as possible, how to preserve the crumbling wreck.

Experts race the clock to preserve N.C. shipwreck
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Hundreds of ships stuck as Rhine still blocked by Waldhof shipwreck

Posted on by January 30, 2011

Cranes attempting to salvage chemical tank barge Waldhof

An update to a post from last week:   A backlog of close to 400 ships is still bottled up on the Rhine River following the capsizing of the 110M chemical tank barge, Waldhof, on January 13th  near the Lorelei Rock.  The  Waldhof is carrying 2,400 tonnes of sulfuric acid.

Hundreds of ships stuck as Rhine still blocked by shipwreck
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Choice of Broadsides – Kindle Text Game, a Review

Posted on by January 29, 2011

Before video games and personal computers, there were gamebooks.  They were novels where at critical scenes you as the reader were given a series a choices.   “A troll comes out of the cave carrying a large club. You will (a) run away, (b) say hello or (c) barter for gold. ” Depending on which choice you made you would be told to go to page 34 or whatever where your choice would be played out until you reached another branch and another set of choices.

“Choice of Broadsides” is a game book in e-book format available on the Kindle.
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Sweetheart Cruise and Sailor’s Valentines

Posted on by January 29, 2011

Museums on two coasts have special Valentine’s Days events planned for sailors.  The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine is offering a sailor’s valentine workshop for adults on Saturday, Feb. 12, just in time for Valentine’s Day.    In San Diego’s warmer climes, the Maritime Museum of San Diego is offering sweetheart cruise on the Californian, the state’s official tall ship.

San Diego: Tall ship offers ‘Sweetheart Sail’ for Valentine’s Day
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What if Hitler Made a Titanic Movie? (He Did)

Posted on by January 29, 2011

A wonderful post from John Edwards’  Ocean Liners blog.   Captain John asks the question, “what if Hitler made a Titanic movie? ”   He then answers it, “he did.”   A heavily fictionalized and equally anti-British version of the Titanic tragedy was made in Germany in 1942 and released in Paris in 1943.

What if Hitler Made a Titanic Movie? (He Did)

Captain John writes:  Unsurprisingly, it’s a propaganda film. To say the movie doesn’t quite stick to the facts and has its own unique point of view on the disaster is an understatement. But then, of course, what do you expect from Nazis?

The entire film is available for viewing on online. Watching the movie is not unlike sitting in the audience for Springtime for Hitler in that your jaw will likely be dropped open for the film’s entire length.

Titanic (1943) – Part 1

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Indian Navy’s New “Beautiful Lady” – Sail Training Ship INS Sudarshini

Posted on by January 28, 2011

INS Sudarshini is launched by Letha Sushil, wife of Vice-Admiral

The Indian Navy has launched its second sail training ship, INS Sudarshini. The name means “beautiful lady.”   She will be a three masted barquentine and will join  INS Tarangini, the Indian navy’s other sail training ship which was commissioned in 1997.  Both ships were designed by naval architect, Colin Mudie, and both were built in Goa Shipyard Limited.

Indian Navy launches sail ship INS Sudarshini

Restoration work for HMS Victory

Posted on by January 28, 2011

HMS Victory

Earlier this month we posted about a report which features dire warnings about the condition of HMS Victory.     Thanks to David Hayes for passing along  an update on the restoration work planned for the old ship.

Restoration work for HMS Victory

Major restoration work is to be undertaken to ensure that Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory in Portsmouth is fully preserved for future generations.

Recent survey work on the 18th century warship revealed that it was leaking, suffering from rot and being pulled apart by its own weight.
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Historic steamship SS Shieldhall needs £80,000 to keep sailing

Posted on by January 28, 2011

The great challenge of ship preservation in these times always seems to be largely  financial.   SS Shieldhall, the UK’s “2009 Flagship of  National Historic Ships” is in danger of scrapping unless funds can be raised to complete and upcoming drydocking.

Historic steamship SS Shieldhall needs £80,000 to keep sailing
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Was the Gorch Fock “Germany’s largest floating brothel?”

Posted on by January 27, 2011

Last Saturday, we posted that the commander of the German sail training ship, Gorch Fock, had been dismissed from his command and ordered home after reports of a mutiny in November, following the death of a cadet.  Now there is a very disturbing article in The Maritime Executive suggested that the range of problems aboard may be more extensive than originally known.

German Navy Training Ship Dubbed ‘Floating Brothel’
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175th Australia Day Regatta

Posted on by January 26, 2011

The Australia Day Regatta was held today in Sydney harbor and featured more than 50 classic wooden yachts, many gaff-rigged, and several built more than a century ago. The Australia Day Regatta is the oldest continuously-conducted annual sailing regatta in the world, having been held each year since 1837 to commemorate the anniversary of the first European settlement of Australia.

175th Australia Day Regatta

Waterfront Webcams – Bluenose II and the “Tea Party” ship

Posted on by January 26, 2011

The old expression goes “I love work. I could look at it for hours.”  The web cams at the Lunenburg Shipyard give us a fine glimpse of the work being done rebuilding the Bluenose II.   There are actually three webcams, a bow, a stern and an overhead view.    Here also is also a web cam of master shipwright Leon Poindexter’s Boston “Tea Party” ship in Gloucester.   Thanks to Captain Richard Bailey for passing the links along.      Click on the image below to go to the Bluenose II cams.

German Submarine UC42 Rediscovered in Cork Harbor

Posted on by January 25, 2011

Propeller from UC 42 with identifying markings

Divers in Ireland have located the intact hull of German World War I submarine, the UC42, in Cork harbor.   The  discovery of the intact ship came as a surprise as the submarine was believed to have been destroyed by Royal Navy divers with explosives in 1919.   The submarine is believed to have sunk on September 10th in 1917 while laying on a mine laying mission in the harbor at Cork, Ireland.

German U-Boat Rediscovered in Cork Harbour

The Kelly Brothers – Starship Sailors

Posted on by January 25, 2011

Captain Mark E. Kelly (right) and Captain Scott J. Kelly (left)

U.S. Navy Captain Mark Kelly, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ husband,  has been by her side since she was tragically shot in Tucson earlier this month.  We posted previously about how Captain Kelly, who is a NASA astronaut,  went to the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY.

Captain Mark Kelly has a twin brother, Scott, who is also an astronaut and who also went to a merchant marine academy, the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, only a few miles across the water from Kings Point.  The Kelly brothers are the only twins and the only siblings who have both traveled in space.  Captain Scott Kelly is currently in space as the commander of the International Space Station.  Both brothers each have two children from earlier marriages.  Scott is currently divorced. Mark married Congress woman Giffords on November 10, 2007.

The Pineapple has landed – 5 missing Americans arrive in Philippines

Posted on by January 24, 2011

Catamaran Pineapple

Five sailors aboard the catamaran Pineapple, which had been reported missing last Tuesday have arrived in the port of Maasin on Leyte Island, in the Philippines after being escorted in by the Philippines Coast Guard.   The 38 foot catamaran suffered rudder damage in heavy seas.

The US Coast Guard which had been searching for the missing boat criticized the crew for failing to have long-range  communications  equipment, emergency distress equipment and for not filing a comprehensive sailing plan.  The 38 foot catamaran suffered rudder damage in heavy seas sailing from Guam to the Philippines.   Reportedly, communications were established when the catamaran drifted withing cell phone range and  a woman on board managed to contact her husband by phone yesterday afternoon. The husband called rescuers in Guam to give the boat’s coordinates.

Five Americans rescued off Philippines after heavy seas left catamaran drifting for a week

Pride and Piracy: The Diary of Captain Bartholomew Sharpe

Posted on by January 24, 2011

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York city has a new exhibition that opened on Friday, “The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives,” which chronicles three hundred years of diaries and journals of the famous and the obscure. In particular interest to those of a nautical bent is the diary of the pirate Bartholomew Sharpe,  who in 1682, stood trial for piracy and murder. He was acquitted after turning over to to King Charles II a true pirate’s treasure – a hand-drawn chart book—or derrotero—seized from the Spanish ship Rosario. The chart book provided the English with invaluable intelligence in challenging Spanish domination of the Americas.   Instead of dancing in the gibbett,  Captain Sharpe was feted and had his diary copied in manuscript form bound in fine red leather, and presented to members of the royal court.
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LEGO Love Boat – LEGO Mania at its Finest

Posted on by January 24, 2011

Interior Bow of the LEGO "Love Boat"

A quarter of a million LEGO blocks!   That is what it took to build the model of the Pacific Princess “Love Boat”  in LEGOs. The model took six months to construct, is 10.5 feet long and 5 feet high.   It is the work of professional LEGO builder, Ryan McNaugh.   (I was unaware that LEGO building could be a profession.)   The model features both the interior and exterior of the ship.   Very impressive.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Lego Love Boat