Despite all odds, earlier this month, 492 Tamil refugees arrived in Vancouver in an old and barely seaworthy ship, then named the Sun Sea. The Tamil Ghost ship, as she has been dubbed, had been intermittently tracked by the maritime authorities of various nations as she made her way from Thailand to Canada, changing names and registries along the way. The ship was intercepted by the Canadian Navy as she approached the coast, and was allowed to dock. Who funded the voyage and even who the passengers are remains unclear.
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Earlier this week we posted about Tall Ships Chicago 2010. Among the roughly 20 tall ships participating is the 118-foot topsail schooner Unicorn whose crew includes six Chicago-area girls from the “Sisters Under Sail” program.
“Adventure of a Lifetime” is About More Than Sails, Knots
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Expedition Titanic has begun to 3D scan and map the entire Titanic debris field using AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles)and to attempt to create an accurate virtual model of the entire ship. We have learned from their Facebook page that the AUV ” Mary Ann was deployed at 2:47 am EST today. After diving for an hour and forty minutes, she reached bottom. Surveying of the Titanic wreck site has begun.”
Scientists 3D Scan the Titanic before it disintegrates
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I recently had recommended to me Robert Redick’s The Red Wolf Conspiracy, a fantasy epic which is almost exclusively set aboard the Imperial Merchant Ship Chathard, a 600 year old sailing ship of immerse proportions and age that sets out on a mission of mystery and intrigue with a huge crew and equally large and varied cast of characters.
The Red Wolf Conspiracy is an engaging and simply fun fantasy romp set on another world with a complex history of imperial warfare and contentious religious disputes as well as mages, magic, tiny creatures and “woken” animals who can think and talk. And at the heart of it all is the IMS Chathard, over six hundred years old and by far the largest ship in the empire of Arqual, and for that matter the world. The Red Wolf Conspiracy is far grittier and much more nautical than most fantasy tales I have read. I still wouldn’t quite call it nautical fiction, but it is close.
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Brooklyn Decker
Once movies were based on great novels. Of course, they usually ruined the story, but at least you could say, “I liked the book better.” Then, seven years ago, Jerry Bruckheimer produced a movie based on a Disney World amusement ride. The movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, with a production budget of $140 million, was a huge hit, grossing over $650 million worldwide, spawning two sequels, with one more on the way. Now a major studio is investing $200 million on a movie based on the Milton Bradley board game, Battleship. It will feature Taylor Kitsch, pop star Rihanna and “supermodel” Brooklyn Decker. This will be Rihanna’s first movie and Decker’s second.
Brooklyn Decker’s Cannons To Star In ‘Battleship’
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Camden, Maine’s Windjammer Festival starts Friday, September 3rd, and runs through Sunday. Camden’s harbor always seemed to me to be a windjammer festival on virtually any summer day so this gathering of the Maine Windjammer fleet and the dockside Maritime Heritage Fair should be quite an event. Unfortunately the festivities begin with a mock pirate attack on Camden harbor, which seems to be the obligatory nod to the Disneyfication of pirates. Neverthess, the rest of the activities look great.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for pointing out the festival.
Captain John Moore, submarine captain, developer of covert landings techniques of the Special Boat Service and editor of Janes Fighting Ships, died last month at age 88.
Jane’s Fighting Ships, an annual publication which became the leading authority on the world’s navies, had been founded by Fred T Jane in 1898. Moore was its editor from 1973 to 1987. Before the age of computers and electronic databases he organised this superlative, fact-packed encyclopedia from a garden shed on the Pevensey marshes.
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HMS Cassandra
Ninety years on, locations of Royal Navy warships sunk in Russian Revolution are found
The wrecks of three British warships sunk more than 90 years ago – seeking to prevent the Bolshevik Revolution from spreading West – have been located in the Baltic Sea by the Estonian Navy.
HMS Cassandra, HMS Myrtle and HMS Gentian were lost as they fought to keep Estonia out of the hands of Vladimir Lenin after his seizure of power in Russia.
The municipality of Amsterdam has a population of just under 800,000 people. Amsterdam’s population almost doubled this weekend as SAIL 2010 attracted roughly 1.5 million visitors. Some final thoughts on the festival, which ended this morning, by Marijke Peters of Radio Netherlands Worldwide:
Tis the season for tall ships festivals. Tomorrow, Tall Ships Chicago 2010 begins in the Windy City at the Navy Pier. The event runs through August 29th and is described as, “Twenty Ships. Six Days. Once-in-a-Lifetime. ”
In 1819, the SS Savannah was first steamship in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Despite this accomplishment, the Savannah was a commercial failure and was converted back to sail shortly after returning from Europe. It is somehow fitting that one hundred and forty years later in 1959, the first nuclear powered cargo ship would be named after the SS Savannah. Like her namesake the NS Savannah was a commercial failure, operating at a loss between 1962 and 1971, before being decommissioned. The NS Savannah is currently laid up in the Port of Baltimore, Maryland.
The Historic Naval Ships Association has put together a fascinating “virtual tour”of the NS Savannah, the “ship of the future” that time left behind.
Laura Dekker, the Dutch 14 year old, reportedly set sail on Saturday on her attempt to sail around the world alone, at least according to her manager. Ms. Dekker was originally reported to have departed from Portugal but is now believed to have left via Gibraltar on her 38′ yacht, Guppy. If she completes the voyage within two years she will be the youngest person to have completed a single-handed circumnavigation. Australian teenager Jessica Watson is likely to retain the tile of the youngest to single-hand around the world non-stop as Ms. Dekker is reportedly planning at stopping in as many as 20 ports along the way. Last April Ms Dekker won a court case against Dutch social services who sought to prevent her from making the circumnavigation attempt due to her age.
Astrolabe c.16th -17th century
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC has been hosting an intriguing exhibit: Lost at Sea – The Ocean in the English Imagination, 1550-1750. Unfortunately the exhibit itself is almost over, running only through September 4th. Nevertheless, for those of us who cannot make it to Washington, the exhibit website itself is fascinating.
The NY Times recently published a review of the exhibit:
The Sea and the English Who Tried to Master It.
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Recent studies by researchers at Penn State have suggested that Northern Right Whales increase the volumes of their calls to counteract increases in environmental noise, such as propeller noise from ships. This is the first time that an ability to modulate call volume to adjust to environmental noise has been documented in baleen whales.
Lone whales shout to overcome noise pollution
Just like people in a bar or other noisy location, North American right whales increase the volume of their calls as environmental noise increases; and just like humans, at a certain point, it may become too costly to continue to shout, according to marine and acoustic scientists.
Interesting news from various sources on the first large tanker to transit Russia’s Northeast Passage through the Arctic. The Barents Observer reports that the “100,000 tons tanker Baltica left Murmansk on Saturday loaded with gas condensate for China. This is the first time a high-tonnage tanker takes the Northern Sea Route from Europe to Asia.” The Barents Observer also reports, ” The tanker will be followed by the nuclear ice breakers “Rossiya”, “Taymyr” and “50 years of Victory”. The latter will have divers and specialists on oil spill clean-up as well as necessary equipment. “
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BBC is featuring a dramatization of Patrick O’Brian’s novel HMS Surprise. Very well done. Each episode is 45 minutes long and will remain on line for a week.
HMS Surprise – Episode 1
HMS Surprise – Episode 2
HMS Surprise – Episode 3
A wonderful video about the ongoing festival.
Cruiser Olympia, the oldest steel warship afloat, but for how long?
The day after Philadelphia’s tall ship, the newly repaired, Gazela, arrived in New York harbor, an article in this morning’s New York Times focussed on the three historic ships in trouble on the Delaware River, in or near Philadelphia – the Olympia, the battleship New Jersey and the passenger liner SS United States. Sadly, the arguably most historic of the three ships, the Olympia, is the ship at the greatest risk with no currently viable rescue plan.
Efforts in Philadelphia to Save Showpiece Ships
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Philadelphia’s tall ship, the barquentine Gazela Primeiro, arrived in New York harbor yesterday, on her way to PortSide New York. (See our previous post – The Gazela at Portside with Vaudeville and Pirates – Oh My!) The classic ship will available for daytime tours starting today through Monday the 23rd. By night, the ship will host Philadelphia’s Cabaret Red Light’s “The Seven Deadly Seas” tonight through Sunday. Here are a few photographs of the Gazela taken by Captain Richard Dorfman from the schooner Pioneer. Click on the thumbnails to view larger images.
USS Peleliu
Two US Navy officers, in command of the USS Gunston Hall and USS Peleliu, were relieved of their commands within days of each other over charges related to sexual harassment.
Cmdr. Fred R. Wilhelm, the Commanding Officer of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, simple assault, and conduct unbecoming of an officer. The ship’s former executive officer, Cmdr. Kevin S. Rafferty, and former command master chief, Wayne Owings, received non-judicial punishment for failing to take action after repeated observations of inappropriate conduct. Owings also faced sexual harassment and simple assault charges.
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