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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
This news story sounds like a bad sequel to the movie Snakes on Plane.
Ship turned away after spiders started ‘pouring’ from cargo hold
A South Korean cargo ship had to be turned away last week after an infestation of spiders was discovered in the cargo hold.
Continue reading
As an update to our previous post, the fire on the Charlotte Maersk, which started July 7th, was finally extinguished last Sunday after 11 days of firefighting.
Charlotte Maersk blaze is extinguished after 11 days
Continue reading
As a follow-up to a post from early June, the remains of what is believed to be the wreck of a merchant ship from the mid-1600s are being moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum for preservation. The wreck was uncovered by winter gales on Corolla beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and is believed to be the oldest shipwreck ever found on the North Carolina coast. The museum is about 90 miles from where the wreck was found.
What may be N.C.’s oldest shipwreck to be moved
Archeologists from the museum discuss the importance of the wreck:
New York City is metropolis of eight million organized into five boroughs, four of which are islands or are on islands. This Saturday, the 3rd Annual City of Water Day Festival will be hosted by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance to help remind the island and shore dwellers of the potential of the New York waterfront for entertainment, education, adventure and flat out fun. The festivities will he held across the harbor on Governors Island, at Liberty State Park, at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Staten Island and at the Atlantic Basin. There will be free kayaking, boat tours, waterfront bike rides, fishing demonstrations, and a kid’s fair as well as lots of music and food. Sounds like lots of fun.
Greg Gushaw 68, an experienced volunteer, docent and a member of the board of trustees of the Maritime Museum of San Diego fell to his death last Sunday from aloft on the Star of India. Ironically, he fell during a safety training exercise. His death is reported to be the first on the Star of India since the 1800s. The Star of India, built in 1863, is the world’s oldest ship that still actively sails.
Man Dies After Falling Overboard From Star Of India Ship
Continue reading
Last week, twenty six of forty two crew members on the Brig Niagara were sickened by salmonella, forcing the ship to cut short a visit to a tall ships festival in Cleveland. Fortunately, the crew is reported to have recovered, and the Niagara set sail again Monday for Duluth, Minn. The Niagara is a replica of the ship that Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry used to defeat the British at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
Update: South African authorities are investigating whether the whale was harassed before breaching.
A breaching Southern Right Whale landed on top of a ten meter long sail boat off the coast of South Africa on Sunday. The remarkable photos below were shot by a passenger on a nearby boat. Fortunately no one was hurt on the sailboat and the whale swam away without apparent injury. The sailboat however was considerably worse for the encounter. Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images.
Kaboom! Whale Crash-Lands on Boat
A worker struggles to rescue a struggling colleague in the Chinese port of Dalian
Sadly the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not the only ongoing major oil spill.
China oil spill doubles in size, is deemed ‘severe threat’
China’s largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 square miles by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a “severe threat” to sea life and water quality.
Continue reading
Pirates of the Narrow Sea, Book 1 – Sallee Rovers by M. Kei is well written nautical adventure fiction with a twist or two, or perhaps three.
The novel is not set during the Napoleonic wars and features, as the title suggests, Sallee Rovers, Barbary Coast corsairs, sailing from the Atlantic coast of what is now Morocco. In this novel the Spanish are the villains while British are not necessarily the heroes. The corsairs are the somewhat more heroic of the novel’s contending forces. The main character is a young, British officer, Lt. Peter Thorton, who for a range of reasons, both logistical and personal, gets caught up with the corsairs and eventually joins them.
Continue reading
One of the most beautiful tall ships on the water, the Chilean Navy’s Esmeralda, will be docked in Balboa, Panama through tomorrow. Esmeralda, a steel-hulled four-masted barquentine, is nicknamed the “White Lady.” She is the sister ship to the four-masted topsail schooner Juan Sebastián Elcano, a training ship for the Spanish Navy.
Continue reading
Indiga and Varzuga
With the onset of limited trans-arctic navigation environmentalists have voiced concern about the potential for pollution due to increased ship traffic. The recent collision between two arctic tankers, the Indiga and Varzuga, on the Russian Northern Sea route, demonstrates the basis for these concerns. Fortunately it appears that no oil was spilled.
Last month we posted about the Ketch Bessie-Ellen carrying French wine to the Festival of Valleys in Ballyvaughan, in Ireland’s County Claire. The Bessie-Ellen will soon set sail on a new 21-day voyage, carrying 20,000 bottles of Château Smith Lafite and Château de Cayx Bordeaux, from Bordeaux, France to Montreal, Canada.
20,000 bottles of wine transported to North America by sailing ship
Continue reading
On this the thirtieth anniversary of the movie Jaws, the SyFy Channel has teamed up with the legendary B-Movie Director, Roger Corman, to produce Sharktopus, a thriller about a Navy-engineered half-shark-half-octopus killing machine which, surprise, surprise gets out of control and starts chomping on beach goers, with a particular interest in beautiful women in bikinis. This just might be so bad, it’s good. Or may not.
HMAS Warramunga (FFH-152) engages Ex-USS New Orleans (LPH-11) with her 5" gun during a surface engagement, part of Exercise RIMPAC 2010.
RIMPAC 2010, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, is one of the world’s largest maritime exercises, with participation by 14 nations, including including Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, France, Colombia, Chile, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea and Thailand. RIMPAC began on June 23rd and will continue through the end of July. Ships from the various navies started arriving late last month.
Continue reading