Photo: Shackleton Epic
In the Antarctic winter of 1916, Ernest Shackleton and a crew of five sailed in a decked over lifeboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia. They were on a desperate rescue mission across 800 miles of the roughest ocean in the world, seeking help for the rest of the crew of the Shackleton’s expedition, which had spent two years on the Antarctic ice. Now almost 100 years later, the Shackleton Epic Expedition led by Tim Jarvis has set off from near Point Wild on Elephant Island to recreate the extraordinary voyage in a replica lifeboat, named the Alexandra Shackleton, in honor of the explorer’s granddaughter. See our previous post from last March.
Adventurers recreate ‘greatest survival story’ of the Antarctic
Only on rare occasional does one find a boat that would be significantly improved if run hard aground. Here is one example, however. Many large yachts have hot tubs onboard. This 16′ boat, however, is simply a floating hot tub with a diesel-powered boiler to keep the water hot, an electric motor for propulsion, a sound system and four coolers for beverages (of course.) I wonder where the PFDs are stored. Why this nautical accident-waiting-to-happen is in any way superior to a dock-side hot tub is not clear to me. With luck it would never leave the dock. Available at
This Friday, January 25th, from 8 to 10PM, a waterfront tradition will be returning to Brooklyn. The first of planned monthly shanty sings will be held at the
The three masted iron barque 
Recent winter storms have washed ashore four large, barrel-shaped pieces of lard onto the beach at St.Cyrus nature reserve in Scotland. They are believed to be from the wreck of a merchant vessel that was bombed in WW II. Therese Alampo, St Cyrus reserve manager, said, “The depth of the swell during the storms we had over the holidays must have broke apart the shipwreck some more and caused the lard to escape….The lard was covered in the largest barnacles I’ve ever seen. Animals, including my dog, have certainly enjoyed the lard, and it still looks and smells good enough to have a fry up with.” Personally, I would prefer to avoid “fry ups” with barnacle covered lard, but perhaps I am being too picky. Thanks to Niall Sinclair for passing the news along.
Four years ago, the luxury liner 
The minesweeper 
When I first visited New York’s South Street Seaport in the early 70s, it was a fairly lonely place. There was no shopping mall on Pier 17 and the high-end chain-stores like Guess, Abecrombe and Fitch and Brookstone had not yet been attracted to the historic buildings along Fulton, Water and Front Streets. Many of the old warehouses and boarding houses were still shuttered.