Brooklyn Navy Yard Visitors Center to Open in 2011

Posted on by October 18, 2010

The Brooklyn Navy Yard, in New York on the East River in Wallabout Basin,  has always seemed to me to be equal parts working industrial park, living museum, and ghost town.   The land was purchased by the Federal government in 1801 and it became an active U.S. Navy shipyard by 1806.

An effort is being made not to lose the history of the shipyard.  A new exhibition and visitors center is now under construction in the old Building 92 and is slated to open in late 2011.   The 1857 Marine Commandant’s House is also under restoration and will feature a six-gallery exhibit.

Inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Over 100 ships were built at the yard. At its peak, during World War II, the yard employed 70,000 people.  The yard was sold to the City of New York in 1966 and space is currently leased to over 200 companies employing around 5,000 people.  The tenants include dry-docking and ship terminal services.

King’s Point Summerwind Wins Chesapeake Bay Great Schooner Race

Posted on by October 18, 2010

King's Point schooner Summerwind

The  Summerwind, a 1929 Alden schooner, donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point just last year by Mr. and Mrs. J. Don Williamson,  won the Class AA division of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race on corrected time.  The other top contenders in Class AA (rated length greater than 50 feet) were the Pride of Baltimore II and the Lynx, both sharp built privateer replicas.   Congratualtions to King’s Point.  A very impressive performance.

Cash-strapped Schooner Virginia appears dead in the water

Posted on by October 17, 2010

In 2007 the schooner Virginia won the great Chesapeake Bay Schooner race, establishing a record time which remains unbeaten.   This year, sadly, while the other schooners raced, she remained tied to a dock in  Norfolk, Virginia.

Cash-strapped Schooner Virginia appears dead in the water
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The Velux 5 Oceans Eco 60, an “affordable” ocean racer?

Posted on by October 17, 2010

American Brad Van Liew's Eco 60, Le Pingouin

Six sailors have crossed the starting line on the Velux 5 Oceans single-handed around the word race.  They are all sailing Eco 60 class sailboats.  As the race begins we thought it worthwhile to take a look at this “new” class of ocean racing sailboat, that looks somehow familiar.
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Man O’War Gunpowder Rum – Explosive Fire Water

Posted on by October 16, 2010

The story goes that the pirate, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, once mixed gunpowder in his rum, set the rum on fire and then drank the explosive mixture, sort of an early 18th century flaming jello shot, but with more incendiary and less jello.    It seems that a New Zealand bartender, Ben Simpson at Motel Bar in Wellington, was inspired by Blackbeard to develop his  Man O’War Gunpowder Rum, a tobacco, chilli, and gunpowder infused rum which may either put hair on your chest or just possibly set it on fire.
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Rogue Wave, 1905, and the Squarerigger British Isles

Posted on by October 16, 2010

British Isles

We recently have had several posts regarding rogue waves – a review of Susan Casey’s new book The Wave and the BBC Documentary  Freak Waves.   Oceanographers generally dismissed reports of rogue waves as wild exaggerations or “sea stories,” until a rogue wave was documented hitting the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway on January 1, 1995.   While rogue waves may not have been scientifically documented until 1995, ships’ captains have been reporting them for many decades.   Here is an account of a rogue wave from the deck of  three masted windjammer British Isles attempting to round Cape Horn in the winter of 1905.  The account sounds almost exactly like the descriptions given in the BBC documentary by two ship’s captains of cruise ships struck by rogue waves almost a hundred years later.

From Captain James P. Barker’s memoir, The Log of a Limejuicer:

At that moment the moon, which had been hidden behind a thick blanket of scurrying clouds, broke through a rift to reveal a scene which caused me to gasp with astonishment and awe. . . . There, stretching endlessly north and south, a mighty wall of water, towering high above its fellows and making them appear insignificant by comparison, was rolling towards the British Isles.
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Blog Action Day – Talking About the Tough Problems: Ocean Acidification

Posted on by October 15, 2010

Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers around the wold  are posting about a common theme – water.  Most, no doubt, will be blogging about the almost a billion people in the world who do not have access to clean drinking water.   This is an immediate problem which should be addressed.  I have decided to blog to about another problem, not quite so immediate and not as easy to understand but still a serious threat to all of us – ocean acidification.

Ocean acidification is one of those terms that could easily put you to sleep or at least cause your eyes to glaze over.  Nevertheless, if the scientists are correct, ocean acidification could result in the death of the worlds coral reefs by 2100.  Likewise, the real threat to whales in the Southern Oceans are not Japanese whalers, but the possible widespread death of krill that are the whales food supply, due again to ocean acidification.  Ocean acidification could cause a wholesale collapse of the ocean ecosystem.   The effects on those us on shore would be equally disastrous.

What is ocean acidification?   From the BBC:
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On the SA Agulhas, All Woman Crew Makes History

Posted on by October 15, 2010

The SA Agulhas is South Africa’s ice-strengthened polar research vessel.  The ship recently completed a five day voyage with an all woman crew and on her arrival in Port Elizabeth Harbor was guided into port by a woman harbor pilot.   As part of National Water Week, the SA Agulhas sailed from Cape Town to Durban with an all-female crew recruited from various shipping companies.

All-women SA crew sails into history books
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Blog Action Day 2010 – Water

Posted on by October 14, 2010

Tomorrow is International Blog Action Day, when bloggers around the world get together to blog about a common theme.  This year that theme is clean water.  Will a few thousand, or even hundreds of thousands, of the chattering class posting about clean water do any real magic? Somehow, I am skeptical.  Then again, can it do any harm? Probably not.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water

Model Mayflower Fashioned from Actual Ship’s Timber

Posted on by October 14, 2010

Attorney David Leslie-Hughes with model of the Mayflower

Today in the Bucks County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, a 20-inch-long and 22-inch-tall model of the Mayflower, the ship that carried English separatists, known as Pilgrims, to Massachusetts in 1620,  will go on public display for the first time in the United States.  The model is said to be built from a plank from the original ship.   The display is part of a local historian’s presentation on the lives of William Penn and his father.  What does the Mayflower have to do with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania?  Not a lot, but there is a tangential connection. William Penn died in Ruscombe, and was buried in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house, which happens to be a few hundred yards from the “Mayflower Barn.”  The barn is said to have been built from the planking and timbers of the Mayflower of 1620.  In the 1930s, members of the national Quaker society removed a piece of timber from the barn and commissioned a model maker to craft three replicas of the Mayflower, one of which is being displayed today in Buck’s  County.

Model Mayflower fashioned from actual ship’s timber

21st Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

Posted on by October 13, 2010

Around Fells Point and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor will be a glorious place for any schooner lover to be this evening.   There will be a parade of sail of the over forty schooners who are participating the 21st Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race starting at 1700.  Tomorrow the race from Baltimore to Portsmouth, Virgina starts at 1300.   This year, transponders installed on the racing schooners will allow spectators on the internet to follow the race down the bay on-line.  Click here to see more.

To celebrate the arrival of the schooners, Portsmouth Virginia is sponsoring its Schooner Days –  a celebration of the world’s largest gathering of schooners along the waterfront of Olde Towne Portsmouth.

Happy Birthday US Navy – Whenever and whereaver the place and time may be

Posted on by October 13, 2010

Today, October 13th,  is celebrated as the birthday of the United States Navy, not to be confused with Navy Day, which is celebrated on October 27th.  The current “birthday” may have more to do with bragging rights than real birthdays.

For many years, the founding of the Navy was celebrated on various dates, the most common being either March 27th, the day in 1794 when the Congress authorized the construction of five frigates, or on April 30th, the day in 1798 when the Navy Department was first established.
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Tracking Orcas by Zeppelin on the Airship Eureka

Posted on by October 13, 2010

The Center for Whale Research is using a novel approach to tracking orca whales.  They are using the only operational zeppelin in the United States,  the Airship Eureka, on loan from Farmers’ Insurance, the company that sponsors the zeppelin, which donated a day of flying for the orca survey in Washington’s Puget Sound.

Zeppelin offers rare views of whales
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Collision between Greek tanker Mindoro and Cypriot container ship Jork Ranger

Posted on by October 12, 2010

Damage to Tanker Mindoro

This morning around 4:56 UTC the Cypriot container ship Jork Ranger collided with the Greek tanker Mindoro, carrying  jet fuel off the Scheveningen coast in the North Sea.  The collision caused a fuel spill from a five-meter wide puncture in the tanker.

Oil Slick In North Sea After Tanker-container Ship Collision

Reports quoting the Dutch Coast Guard said the spill did not cause any environmental damage, as a small trail of light paraffin was evaporating soon and drifting away from the Dutch shoreline.

The leak from a five-meter wide hole was plugged by rescue teams without much delay.

Damage to the Jork Ranger

Thanks to Dick Bal for passing the news along.  Here is a remarkable AIS plot of the collision.  The video is after the jump.

Collision between Greek tanker Mindoro and Cypriot container ship Jork Ranger
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Wind Power and Hot Air – Cape Wind Still in Doubt as Google Shows Some Backbone

Posted on by October 12, 2010

Photo: Ayesha Rascoe

According to one study the US has enough offshore wind to power the country four times over.  In Europe there are currently 830 wind turbines now installed and grid connected, totalling 2,063 MW in 39 wind farms in nine European countries with over 100 GW of offshore wind projects in various stages of planning.    The US, in contrast, generates zero kilowatts from offshore wind.   Zero.

Recently Google and Good Energies, a New York based financial firm, have agreed to make a major investment in a proposed $5 billion transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms along the Atlantic Seaboard, a critical bit of infrastructure to move power ashore.   Last week,  after a nine year legal and regulatory battle, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, signed a 28 year lease for Cape Wind, a $1 billion, 130-turbine project in the Nantucket Sound that could provide up to 75% of all electricity for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.   So is the US beginning to catch up with Europe and the rest of the world?  Nope. Not even close.  Formidable legal and regulatory obstacles still  remain and it is by no mens certain that Cape Wind will ever be built.

Despite Lease Approval, Future of Cape Wind Remains Up in the Air
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Happy Columbus Day – Thoughts on What Columbus Was and Was Not

Posted on by October 11, 2010

Today is Columbus Day in the United States (and Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Happy Thanksgiving Canadians.)  Columbus Day is celebrated tomorrow in Spain.

Every year about this time,  various scholars and pundits emerge to denigrate the memory of the Genoese naviator and explorer.   There were indeed many things for which Christoffa Corombo, as he was known in his home of Genoa, could be criticized for.   He never reached China.  He severely underestimated the circumference of the Earth, (which may have been more Ptolomy’s fault that Christoffa’s.)

Of course, these are not the faults for which what the modern pundits condemn Columbus.   Columbus was indeed an imperialist and he promoted genocide.  The man was clearly a monster!  Or so they contend. Howard Zinn is his book A People’s History of The United States makes the case:
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Fairtransport and the Brigantine Tres Hombres

Posted on by October 11, 2010

We posted recently about the efforts by B9 Shipping and the Greenheart Project to develop competitive modern sailing cargo ships.   In the Netherlands Fairtransport Shipbrokers is operating the Brigantine Tres Hombres in freight service between Europe, the Atlantic islands, the Caribbean and North America.  A video about their operations:

Fair Transport

OPT PowerBuoys on the Grid in Hawaii

Posted on by October 10, 2010

PowerBuoy

Recently we have been posting about the PowerBuoys developed by Ocean Power Technology.  They will soon be connected to the word’s largest  “Wave Hub” off the coast of England. They are also working toward deploying their buoys off the Oregon coast. Ocean Power Technologies announced this week the completion of the first-ever grid connection of a wave energy device in the United States.  There is a video of the PowerBuoy in waves after the jump.

Commercial wave energy device completed at Hawaiian naval facility
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10/10/10 : Goodbye to the Netherlands Antilles, Hello Curaçao and Sint Maarten

Posted on by October 10, 2010

Flag of Curaçao

Today, 10/10/10 is proving popular as a day to be be married.   It is also apparently a good day for a divorce, or at east a reorganization. The Netherlands Antilles is being dissolved today.  The islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten are becoming independent countries while the islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba will gain Dutch municipality status.   The Netherlands Antilles Ship Register will be transferred to the Curaçao Ship Register. This register is, and will remain, located in Willemstad , Curaçao, and the new country will assume all existing flag state responsibilities for this register.  All treaties, codes and legal responsibilities will be transferred to the new government.