Last summer, the Sapphire Princess, a cruise ship operating on the South-West coast of Alaska, arrived in the port of Vancouver with a 70 foot long fin whale impaled on its bulbous bow. Wednesday, almost exactly a year later, another dead whale, an adult female humpback measuring 43 feet in length, was found pinned to bow of the same ship. This is the third reported whale strike by the company’s Alaska fleet in a decade.
Dead whale found pinned to Alaska cruise ship
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Two weeks ago the remains of an 18th century ship were found in the excavation of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. On Thursday Warren Riess, an archaeologist specializing in marine history, speculated that the ship was most likely a brigantine; the two-masted workhorse of the coastal trade. “It’s one of the ships that helped build New York.” It also now appears that work on a concrete wall last year may have inadvertently destroyed the after section of the ship.
Photos of the damage to the VLCC MV M. Star. Click on the thumbnails above for larger images.
Questions Swirl About Damaged Japanese Tanker
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The HMS Investigator was found in remarkably good shape in only 11 meters of water in Mercy Bay along the northern coast of Banks Island in Canada’s western Arctic. The image to the left is from a lithograph of the ship trapped in the ice in 1854 while the image to right is from the Parks Canada sonar scan of the ship on the bottom as she is today. The HMS Investigator, was caught in the ice and sank when on an expedition to search for Franklin. Click on either thumbnail for a larger image.
12th Annual West Coast Wooden Kayak Rendezvous
The annual West Coast Wooden Kayak Rendezvous (R2KX) is the first weekend in August at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. The event is free and open to the public (donations to cover park fees gladly accepted).
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Kathleen and May
The Bristol Harbour Festival begins today and runs through the weekend. It is expected to attract over 200,000 people and is one of the biggest free events in the UK. In addition to Brunel’s SS Great Britain, on permanent display in Bristol, the harbor will be visited by the three-masted schooner Kathleen and May, as well as the Matthew, a replica of explorer John Cabot’s ship from 1497. Also visiting for the festival is the Vilma an ex Danish fishing boat from 1934, rerigged like an old Irish trading schooner.
Lloyds List is reporting that the Skimmer “A Whale” which failed to collect significant amounts of oil in the Gulf of mexico from the BP spill is now en-route to the major spill in Dalian, China. The more concentrated oil on the water at Dailin may be better suited to the converted OBO’s skimming capabilities. Thanks to Michael Pryce on the Marine History List for the reference.
The teen-round-the-world-sailing-escapades may be starting all over again.
Laura Dekker has Dutch court permission to sail around the world
A Dutch court cleared the way Tuesday for 14-year-old Laura Dekker to embark on a risky attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, an adventure that could begin in the next two weeks.
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Depending on which of the various news reports you read, the MOL 314,016 dwt tanker M. Star suffered either an explosion, was hit by a grenade or was struck by a freak wave caused by an earthquake while transiting the Straits of Hormuz. An intriguing and developing story.
Giant Supertanker Suffers Mystery Explosion
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Earlier this month we posted about a new expedition by Parks Canada to search for Franklin’s ships, the Terrorand the Erebus. Parks Canada also intended to search for theHMS Investigator, a ship which was caught in the ice and sank when sent to search for Franklin. Today Parks Canada announced that they have found the HMS Investigator, apparently after a very brief sonar scan.
The Hiawatha, reportedly the last operational walking beam steam sidewheeler in the world, is being offered for sale on E-Bay. Built in 1983 of steel, the Hiawatha is 38 feet long with a 15.5 feet beam. Its paddle wheels are 7 feet in diameter and the ship has a top speed of 7 knots and cruising speed of 5 knots. She is currently in Bay City, Michigan.
Historic Bay City steamboat Hiawatha up for sale on eBay
Thanks to Alaric Bond for pointing out the auction.
Barque Europa
Tall Ships Duluth 2010 has an impressive line up of ships scheduled for their tall ships festival. The ships are expected to start arriving in Duluth today. The Brig Niagara, the Barque Europa, HMS Bounty, the Pride of Baltimore II, the Roald Amundsen, the schooner Zeeto, the S/V Denis Sullivan, and the schooner Roseway will sail in a “Grand Parade of Ships” on Thursday afternoon with the tall ships festival getting into full swing Friday through Sunday.
A follow-up to our previous post – 18th Century Ship Found Buried at New York’s World Trade Center Site. Workers are now beginning to dismantle what is left of the ship, plank by plank, for preservation. Last week, Atlantic Wire posted an interesting discussion on the various theories of the ship’s origin. See : Theories on Ancient Wooden Ship Found at Ground Zero
Workers in NYC begin to dismantle ground zero ship
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Be warned. If you are interested in sailing ships, do not click on the link below if you have anything important to do for the next fifteen or twenty minutes or possibly much longer. Here is a absolutely fantastic archive of roughly two hundred photos and drawings originally published in Life Magazine of sailing ships and sailors, primarily from the last days of commercial sail. The only thing that is a disappointing is that most photos are not titled and no information is given on which ship is being photographed or even the date the photo was taken. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful shots well worthy of contemplation if not outright study. The Life Picture Collection Photo Archive is owned by Time Inc. and all the images are available as prints.
Sailing Ship Archive from Life Magazine on Google
Thanks to Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski on the Tall Ship & Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In Group for pointing out the photographs.
We have previously posted about the experimental sailboat Plastiki, built using 12,500 recycled soda bottles. The craft sailed last March from San Francisco and has now arrived in Sydney, Australia after a voyage of 9,000 miles (15,000 km.)
Boat made from plastic bottles completes Pacific voyage
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National Security cutter Stratton on Friday in Pascagoula, Miss
Last Friday, Michelle Obama was the first First Lady ever to christen a US Coast Guard Cutter, the National Security Cutter Stratton. The cutter is named after the first woman to serve as a commissioned officer in the U. S. Coast Guard, Dorthy C. Stratton. Prior to joining the Coast Guard in World War II, Dr. Stratton was also the first full-time dean of women at Purdue University. Stratton died in 2006 at the age of 107.
In 1942, she was commissioned a senior lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Later in 1942, she was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard where she became the creator and first director of the Women’s Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II. Upon being named director, she was promoted to lieutenant commander and was promoted to commander in January 1944 and to captain one month later. She was awarded the Legion of Merit medal for her contributions to women in the military upon retirement in 1946.
First Lady Christens Coast Guard Cutter Dorothy C. Stratton
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Navy’s Summer Extravaganza Returns to Portsmouth in 2010
Navy Days at Portsmouth Naval Base, Friday 30th July – Sunday 1st August, will feature serving warships of the Royal Navy, ships of foreign navies, thrilling naval displays, historical re-enactments and the world-class attractions of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, including HMS Victory.
The frigate HMS Cumberland which last year was on an anti-piracy patrol in the Indian Ocean, has joined the list of top participating vessels at Portsmouth Navy Days. Thanks to Alaric Bond for pointing it out.
For the first time since 2003, Korean shipyards have lost their position as the world’s number one shipbuilder to China.
China overtakes Korea in shipbuilding deliveries
According to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a London-based market research firm, Korean shipbuilding companies came in second after Chinese ones in terms of new orders, order backlogs and delivery, the three indices that determine industry competitiveness in the sector.
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There has been considerable discussion whether the photo of a Southern Right whale breaching and landing on a sailboat off South Africa is real or Photoshopped. (See the comments on our previous post.) A video has now emerged which shows the whale approaching breaching and landing on the sailboat. We are going to cast our vote that the event was not Photoshopped.
In a related vein, the folks at Yachtpals blog have a wonderful roundup of a variety of “whale tales” documented by photographic or video evidence. Remarkably of the seven tales they highlight, five are true.
Check it out on the Yachtpals blog: Whale Tales – Truth, Fiction, and Hoax
There is reported stonewalling by witnesses who have cancelled their scheduled testimonies at the ongoing investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Nevertheless, startling testimony was presented this Tuesday:
A BP official, Ronald Sepulvado, a well-site leader, testified that BP continued drilling for oil in the days before the disaster despite internal reports of a leak on a safety device on the rig.
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