A new documentary by Thomas Michael Conner, “Once Upon a Nuclear Ship,” tells the story of the NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear powered merchant ship. It is an interesting and worthy tale to tell. Without having seen the documentary, however, the documentary web site seems to suggest that it may be a film targeted at nuclear enthusiasts, at least based on the copy that describes the NS Savannah as “once the diamond in the crown of the US merchant fleet only to be kicked to the curb by dimwitted politicians and bureaucrats.” With all due respects, the reason that the Savannah, in particular, and nuclear merchant ships, in general, did not succeed is a bit more complicated than the actions or in-actions of “dimwitted politicians and bureaucrats.”
The film’s trailer also raises concerns. Early on, it states that, “among all those ships who sailed all those seas, there was only one merchant ship powered by atomic energy, the NS Savannah…” That simply isn’t true. The NS Savannah was not the only nuclear merchant ship . The NS Savannah was the first, put into service in 1962. There were, however, three other nuclear power merchant ships, the German Otto Hahn, the Japanese Mutsu and the Russian Sevmorput, which is still in service, more or less. The icebreaker Lenin, which began operation in 1959, claims the title as the first civilian ship with a nuclear power plant.
Divers may have found the wreck of a British privateer, Port-au-Prince, which was sunk off the island of Lifuka in the Ha’apai island group of Tonga, in December 1806. The ship was attacked by Tongan warriors on the orders of King Finau ‘Ulukalala II. The Tongans then salvaged iron and cannons from the ship before scuttling it. Legend has it that the ship was carrying considerable treasure when it was sunk in the form of copper, silver and gold, along with silver candlesticks, incense pans, crucifixes and chalices. The seizing of the Port-au-Prince was finally 
France Telecom-Orange
In the middle of July,
Consider these two statements:
After being threatened the by Republican cost-cutters, the 
Barbados Bound
Two hundred and twenty years ago today on August 4th, 1790, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton established the Revenue Cutter Service, predecessor to the United States Coast Guard. (In 1915, the service merged with the United States Life-Saving Service and adopted its current name.) So happy birthday to the US Coast Guard, the nation’s oldest seagoing service.