Assuming that Hurricane Earl doesn’t interfere, the 3rd annual Fish & Ships Labor Day Weekend Seafood Festival will be held at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut this Saturday through Monday.
The inner harbor of beautiful Victoria, Canada on Vancouver Island will be filled with between 75 to 100 classic boats beginning today and running through the Sunday at the 33rd Annual Victoria Classic Boat Festival.
An oil platform operated by Mariner Energy exploded today near Vermilion Bay in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. One worker was reported injured. No one was killed and no significant oil spill resulted. Mariner Energy has been involved at least 13 offshore accidents since 2006 in Gulf of Mexico waters — including a blowout and four fires.
Oil platform explodes off La. coast; crew rescued
Mariner involved in 13 Gulf accidents since ’06, seven with violations
One Day Before Explosion, Mariner Energy Employees Rallied Against Offshore Oil Drilling Moratorium
The 2010 Port of San Diego Festival of Sail kicks off today with a parade of tall ships on San Diego Bay at 11 a.m. The festival runs runs through September 6th and features more than 20 tall ships and other vessels from around the world, including the Californian, a replica of the original America’s Cup racing yacht America, the gaff topsail schooner Bill of Rights, the Kaisei, a brigantine from Antigua. For a more complete list of participating ships click here. It sounds like a great festival, and unlike the East Coast, the weather is forecast to be beautiful.
Two major maritime festivals on the US East coast, scheduled for the Labor Day weekend, appear to be generally in the path of Hurricane Earl. The organizers of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival and schooner race and the Camden Windjammer Festival, both of which are scheduled for September 3 -6, will be watching the Earl’s path closely. So far the Downtown Gloucester Block Party has been cancelled and a note on the website reads: If weather conditions require changes be made to this weekend’s festivities, information will be posted on this website.
The folks in Camden are keeping an eye to weather as well. The Bangor Daily News reports:
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This can’t be good unless it is so bad that it is good. A new movie is coming out whose high concept pitch had to be, “It is Moby Dick but with dragons, instead of whales.” The trailer is below and the plot summary from IMDB is after the jump. Notice that whaleship Rachel in the book has morphed into Ahab’s beautiful daughter and love interest for Ishmael. Danny Glover plays Ahab and while the lovely newcomer Sofia Pernas plays Rachel.
Age of the Dragons
Timeshare Carriers"
What would Lord Nelson have thought of this? There were various news reports out recently that the British and the French may share aircraft carriers.
UK, France closer to carrier sharing deal
Britain and France are moving closer to a deal to share aircraft carriers, a British newspaper reported Tuesday — a move that could save the one-time rivals money in an age of austerity. The possibility of pooling carriers has been suggested before, but The Times of London claimed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were due to outline the proposal during a planned November summit.
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Last week, a paddler in a kayak race on the Missouri River was hit on the side of his face by a 20-30 pound jumping carp, almost causing him to capsize. Fortunately he was not seriously injured but had to retire from the race due to a significant headache.
Asian big head and silver carp were first brought to the southern United States back in the 1970s to clean catfish farms, and they have made their way north through the Mississippi River basin spreading to the Missouri River and the Wabash Rivers, also invading Canadian waters, particularly the Great Lakes. Not only are they a threat to native fish, but have proven to be dangerous to recreational boater. Silver carp, in particular, are notorious for jumping when excited.
Flying carp hits racing kayaker in the head
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Intriguing, if it turns out to be true.
Czar’s gold treasure found on Baikal Lake bed
The legendary gold treasure of Russia’s last Czar could have been found by Mir-2 mini submarine on the bed of the world’s deepest fresh water lake Baikal in Siberia, according to reports.
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An intriguing article from the Independent. Elizabeth Wynne was Lord Nelson’s nurse following the loss of his arm. She left 40 volumes of diaries and was a witness to several key events of the 18th century. She married one of Nelson’s “band of brothers”, Admiral Thomas Fremantle. Nevertheless her diaries and the story of her life were almost lost to history. For the first time, a definitive biography of “Betsey” Wynne is being written.
Diaries tell forgotten story of Nelson’s nurse
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Last week the yacht, Making Waves, a 48 foot Sea Ray Sundancer, with its engine running and the autopilot engaged, came ashore on Redding Beach, FL, on the Gulf of Mexico, with no one aboard. The boat is estimated to be worth around a million dollars. Not quite the Mary Celeste but mysterious all the same.
Beached yacht removed, but owner has yet to claim it
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John Glover
On August 29th, 1776, George Washington faced certain defeat. Howe had been able to flank the Americans in Brooklyn, turning the Battle of Long Island into a rout. Washington was left with the remnants of his army on Brooklyn Heights, with the East River at his back and otherwise surrounded by the victorious British army. Only a north-easterly wind kept the British fleet from sailing up the East River and attacking the American forces from behind. The northeaster brought heavy rain. In the evening, the rain abated, replaced by a heavy fog.
Washington called on the 14th Continental Regiment commanded by John Glover to evacuate the army across the East River. Glover’s regiment was largely made up of fisherman and sailors and was called the “amphibious regiment” or simply the “web-footed Marbleheaders”. Over night in the rain and the fog, John Glover’s Marblehead Regiment saved Washington’s Army and the American revolution.
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Clipper Adventurer
Stan Roger‘s classic song begins, “Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage; to find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea.” Stan died in 1983, but his son, Nathan Rogers, also a singer, recently set out on the Canadian cruise ship Clipper Adventurer bound for the Arctic via the Northwest Passage only to discover the challenges that remain in these icy waters. On Friday, the Clipper Adventurer struck an uncharted rock in about three metres of water, about 55 nautical miles east of Kugluktuk, Nunavut, which is also known as Coppermine, near the border with the Northwest Territories. After attempts to free the ship failed over the weekend the Canadian icebreaker, Amundsen, evacuated the passengers and crew. They were ferried to Kugluktuk and are expected to fly to Edmonton some time today.
‘To seek a Northwest Passage’: Son of iconic folk singer Stan Rogers aboard grounded Arctic ship
For Rogers fans here is Stan singing Northwest Passage, often referred to as the unofficial Canadian national anthem:
Another article about stowaways, though of a completely different sort – zebra mussels on the Brig Niagara. Earlier this month, the Niagara, a historically accurate reconstruction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victorious 1813 flagship, visited Isle Royale, an island National Park in northwestern Lake Superior under terms of a special use permit that required that the ship be free of aquatic invasive species, especially the zebra mussel. Despite the efforts of volunteer divers to clean the hull prior to her arrival, National Park Divers found zebra mussel infestation. After an initial attempt at cleaning the ship was judged too risky, raising the possibility of seeding the harbor with the invasive mussel, the ship left the park and sailed for Duluth.
Historic Ship Brings Unwelcome Stowaways to Isle Royale National Park
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Great news! The oldest just barely surviving composite clipper ship in the world, the City of Adelaide appears likely to be moved to Australia to its namesake city, Adelaide. The ship, which is currently at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, Scotland, has been threatened by scrapping as the museum lacked the fund to care for the ship. The announcement, made by Scottish Culture Minister, Fiona Hyslop, was a disappointment to a competing group which wanted the old clipper to be moved to Sunderland – where she was built in 1864.
Historic clipper City of Adelaide to be sent to Australia
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Photo: Will van Dorp
One of the ways that stowaways can get aboard liner ships these days is to hide in cargo containers. Atlantic Container Lines will be using containers for a related if rather different purpose. The shipping line will soon take delivery of five containers converted to temporary prison cells to hold stowaways found aboard their ships.
ACL to utilise ‘prison boxes’ for stowaways
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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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