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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SAIL Amsterdam 2010, which starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend, will feature roughly 600 ships berthing in and around the harbor, ranging from traditional tall ships to historical replicas, to traditional coasting craft, as well as modern yachts and naval vessels. Twenty Class A tall ships are expected to participate. The festival is held every five years and is Europe’s largest nautical event. The last festival in 2005 attracted an estimated 2 million visitors. A great time to be in Amsterdam.
The E Ship 1 arrived in Dublin last week with a cargo of wind turbines manufactured by Enercon. What was striking was the ship itself, with four tall pillars rising vertically from the ship, two forward and two aft. The pillars are Flettner rotors, first developed in the 1920s by German engineer Anton Flettner. They are in essence, motor powered sails, 27 meters tall and 4 meters in diameter. The spinning vertical rotors develop aerodynamic lift using the Magnus effect. As the wind blows across the spinning rotors, they develop lift similar that of an airfoil shape of a conventional sail. Unlike masts and sails, however, the vertical Flettner rotor does not interfere with cargo operations. The Flettner rotors are expected to save 30-40% in fuel costs at 16 knots.
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Earlier this month we posted about Philadelphia’s tall ship, the barquentine Gazela, returning to sea after suffering rudder damage several years ago. After participating in a Portuguese festival in New Bedford, MA the Gazela will be visiting PortSide New York,starting this Thursday August 19th to Monday the 23rd. She will be “bringing education by day and pirate cabaret at night.” There will be daytime tours of the historic barquentine and at night Philadelphia’s Cabaret Red Light’s troupe will be presenting nightly performances of Pirate Cabaret – “The Seven Deadly Seas: Waylaid & Hornswoggled.” The performaces promise “sword fights, dancing girls and plenty of vaudeville charm – definitely not your Disney pirates. Tickets may be purchased here. For photographs including dancing girls (oh my) check out Will’s post on the Tugster blog.
Gazela, the Country’s Oldest Wooden Square-Rigger, Comes to NYC
A week ago we posted about the increasing popularity of Stand-Up-Paddling (SUP) also known as paddle-boarding. The sport was new to us, but obviously we have been behind the times, at least when it comes to stand-up paddling. Last Friday, the Surfers Environmental Alliance sponsored their 4th Annual SEAPADDLE NYC, a SUP paddle and race around Manhattan (well almost all the way around.) The events raised money for eight different charities providing services to families with autism.
In other news, the NY Times is reporting tension between traditional surfers and the SUPers who are beginning to move from calm waters to take on the big waves with paddles in hand.
Rivalry as Stand-Up Paddlers Head to Bigger Surf
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In 1994, US Courts gave salvage rights to the RMS Titanic, 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic, to RMS Titanic Inc, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc, but explicitly did not grant ownership of the wreck or the artifacts. Since then the company has undertaken seven expeditions to the wreck site and has retrieved more than 5,500 artifacts. On Friday, a A US federal judge awarded the US exhibition company $110m for salvaging artifacts from the wreck of the RMS Titanic, ruling that the company is entitled to their full market value. Whether or not the exhibitions company will be granted ownership of the objects has yet to be determined.
Photo credit: Kees Stuip
In 1905, the three masted schooner yacht Atlantic sailed 3006 miles in twelve days, four hours, one minute and nine seconds; winning the Kaiser’s Cup from New York to the Lizard and setting the record for the fastest transatlantic passage by a monohull, during a race. The record stood for over a century and the Atlantic became a legend.
In 2007, Dutch entrepreneur, Ed Kastelein, commissioned the building of a new Atlantic, based on original plans of the William Gardner design. Now three years after her keel was laid, she sailed for the first time at the end of June. The schooner is 185 feet (56 metres) on deck, with a waterline length of 138 feet (42 meters) and a bowsprit to boom length of 227 feet (69 metres).
After a service life of almost 40 years, the Soviet light cruiser Murmansk was decommissioned and sold for scrap. On Christmas Eve in 1994, the ship was under tow to India when the tug lost control of the ship in a storm. The Murmansk ran aground outside the harbor breakwater just off Sørvær in northern Norway. In 2009 money was finally appropriated to remove the wreck. The plan is to enclose the wreck behind new temporary jetties, drain the water around the wreck, then cut the vessel in pieces on the dry bottom. The operation should be completed in 2011. The wreck removal is being documented as a part of a new documentary. A panoramic webcam also has been set up for those wishing to monitor progress of the project. Click on the image above to see the panorama.
The Russian Oscar-II class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kursk sank ten years ago yesterday with a loss of all aboard. One hundred and sixteen crew members and two weapons experts died in what is believed to have been the explosion of a faulty torpedo. At 154m long and four stories high, the Kursk was the largest attack submarine ever built.
10 years after Kursk sinking, questions remain
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Last Saturday we posted about a one hundred square mile ice island that broke off from the Petermann glacier in Greenland. Experts from the Canadian government, with the aid of NASA , the European Space agency and numerous other academic institutions, are planning how to deal with the massive ice island as it breaks up while drifts to the south over the next two years, potentially threatening oil platforms and shipping.
Giant iceberg drifting toward Canada could threaten ships, oil platforms
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MSC Chitra
The containership MSC Chitra and the bulk carrier Khalijia 3 collided near Mumbai, India on Saturday, resulting in the sinking of the MSC Chitra, a significant oil spill and the loss of at least 200 containers in the ship channel which posed a danger to navigation. The spill and the lost containers, both sunk and floating, shut down full port operations. Now five days later the port has reopened and the finger-pointing as to who is responsible for the collision has intensified. MSC is blaming the operation of the Khalijia 3, while local news is highlighting past safety problems on the MSC Chitra. Others are questioning the effectiveness of the response to the events by the Indian government.
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For years the schooner Hindu has been a favorite in Provincetown, MA. The classic schooner is credited in helping to establish the summer whale watching trade in the port. Sadly, after several years of battles between her investors over the ownership and operation of the schooner, she was sold at auction yesterday for $500 to the only bidder, Fairwinds Credit Union of Orlando, Fla., to whom the previous owners of the schooner owe $336,000. An unnamed group of investors in talks with the credit union to buy the Hindu and return it to New England. According to Schoonerman, “Hindu was designed by William Hand and built in 1925 by Hodgkin Bros., Boothbay, Maine.” Thanks to Tom Russell of the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In Group for the heads-up about the auction.
The just released, A Battle Won by S. Thomas Russell, is classic nautical fiction – vivid, fast paced and full of drama, both on sea and land. Master and Commander Charles Hayden is a gifted naval commander with extremely bad luck. In the previous book, Under Enemy Colors, he found himself serving aboard HMS Themis, a frigate with a tyrannical captain and a mutinous crew. Now in A Battle Won, instead of being allowed to take command of his own ship, Hayden is reassigned back to the Themis, a ship with such a bad reputation that no captain wants the command.
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The fate of the oldest composite clipper ship in the world, the City of Adelaide, has yet to b determined. In the mean time, former TV host and science educator, Dr. Rob Morrison, has designed a simple paper pattern that students can cut out and put together in class, building their very own City of Adelaide ship-in-a-bottle.
A recent Coast Guard report on boating safety noted: “Nearly 75 percent of the 736 people who died in boating accidents in 2009 drowned, and 84 percent of those victims reportedly were not wearing a life jacket,” said Rear Adm. Kevin Cook, the Coast Guard’s director of prevention policy. “The two most important things boaters can do to prevent the loss of life is to wear a life jacket and take a boater education course.”
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This is a busy week for maritime festivals in the US. In Grand Haven, Michigan, the Michigan Pirate Festival 2010 kicked off yesterday with a very Hollywood version of pirates and piracy. So aargh and shivery m’ timbers. If only the problem of piracy were so benign. The festival runs through Sunday. Also in Michigan, the White Lake Area Maritime Festival will be held from August 12-14th.
In Burlington, Vermont, the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival starts up this Thursday, with lots of music, exhibits and scenic cruises throughout the weekend. Not to be outdone by Michigan’s Pirates, Nightmare Vermont’s troupe of pirates will be swashbuckling and roaming the waterfront. Classic Sailing Vessel “Friend Ship” and the Spirit of Ethan Allen will be offering cruises from the Burlington Boat House.
On Saturday the Connecticut River Museum’s Annual Family Maritime Festival starts in Essex, CT., with maritime games, songs, and schooner deck tours offered free of charge throughout the afternoon. There will be demonstrations on how to make rope, caulk a ship, and sing a sea chantey. Tickets for afternoon sails on the the historic schooner Mary E will also be available. In the evening, a picnic concert will feature sea chanteys sung by the Freemen of the Sea and folk rock performed by Amalgamated Muck.