Schooner: Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard

Posted on by May 25, 2010

I haven’t seen it yet but Schooner: Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard by Tom Dunlop,  looks fascinating.

From the publisher:   Schooner takes you through the construction of Rebecca of Vineyard Haven, a sixty-foot wooden schooner designed and built by one of the few boatyards in the United States devoted exclusively to the design, construction and repair of traditional wooden boats. At the time Rebecca was constructed, she was the largest sailing vessel built on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard since the election of Abraham Lincoln and the only boat of her type being built anywhere in the world.
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Spy Cruising?

Posted on by May 25, 2010

I am not entirely sure why I find this funny, but I do. Perhaps it is because it seems like it all should be secret.  Nevertheless, there appears to be an affinity cruise for everyone so why not a “SpyCruise?”  I wonder if a cloak and dagger is required in the dining room?

SpyCruise® A National Security Educational Lecture/Seminar Series
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HMS Bounty and Privateer Lynx in Portsmouth, NH

Posted on by May 23, 2010

HMS BOUNTY

HMS Bounty and the Privateer Lynx will be in Portsmouth, NH for the annual Tall Ships Portsmouth Festival on Memorial Day weekend from May 29-31. It sounds like a great event.  The local paper reports all the details, which is all well and good. What is a shame but probably unavoidable  is the description of  HMS Bounty as a “”classic pirate ship?”   While any ship could be used for piracy, the Bounty was a converted collier, for goodness sakes, seaworthy but slow.  The Lynx would make a far better pirate ship but that  might trigger the old “pirate vs privateer” discussion which is another topic all together. Oh well.  Shiver me timbers and all that.

Tall ships bring swashbuckling weekend to Portsmouth for Memorial Day, May 29-31
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Operation Dynamo – the Little Ships Return to Ramsgate for 70th anniversary

Posted on by May 22, 2010

This Wednesday the surviving “Little Ships” of the Dunkirk evacuation will rendezvous in Ramsgate to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the famous World War II evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo.

Little Ships gather in Ramsgate for 70th anniversary of Dunkirk evacuations
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HSM Bounty in Bath, Maine this Weekend

Posted on by May 22, 2010

HMS Bounty open to public in Maine

The HMS Bounty tall ship is open to the public during its stop in Maine.   The three-masted, 120-foot ship is open for tours Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.  The vessel arrived at the museum on Thursday and was also open to the public on Friday.

The ship is a full-scale reproduction of the British merchant ship that gained notoriety for a maritime mutiny more than 200 years ago. The mutiny was the basis of the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando.  The ship used in the movie was bought in 2001 by the HMS Bounty Organization, which is dedicated to keeping the ship sailing.

From Bath, it will sail to Portsmouth, N.H., for a tall ship festival next weekend.

Just Before Fleet Week, President of Intrepid Museum Resigns Suddenly

Posted on by May 21, 2010

Bill White, the longtime president of the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, resigned abruptly on Wednesday morning.   No clear reason was given for his resignation which comes just one week before New York Fleet Week, in which the museum is a key player.   The Intrepid Air and Space Museum is also in the middle of bidding for the right to display a space shuttle at the museum.   White, at the helm of the legendary museum since 1992, is under investigation in a pay-to-play pension scandal under former Controller Alan Hevesi.

President of Intrepid Museum Quits

Kalmar Nyckel to Star in “The Ship That Changed the World”

Posted on by May 21, 2010

The Kalmar Nyckel will be featured in an upcoming documentary, “The Ship That Changed the World.”

Delaware’s sailing star – Kalmar Nyckel the ‘wow factor’ in new documentary

F ilm director Malcolm Dixelius knew he had found his “star” when he traveled from near Stockholm to Delaware two years ago to scout the Kalmar Nyckel, a replica of the Dutch-built sailing ship that preceded him here by about 370 years.
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Windmills in New York Harbor – Isaac Edge’s Windmill 1815-1839

Posted on by May 20, 2010

Edge's Windmill

Yesterday we posted about a proposed wind farm on New York harbor between Jersey City and Bayonne.  These will not be the first windmills on the harbor, of course.  In 1815 Isaac Edge finished a windmill on the banks of the Hudson River in Jersey City.   From Jersey City and its Historic Sites by Harriet Phillips Eaton, published in 1899:

EDGE’S WINDMILL

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North Korean Torpedo Sank Patrol Ship – “There is No Other Plausible Explanation”

Posted on by May 20, 2010

Now that a South Korean investigation has concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the South Korean Corvette Cheonan killing 46 sailors, the real question becomes, how to respond?

Torpedo accusation raises Korean security stakes
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Wind Farm in New York Harbor?

Posted on by May 19, 2010

Port Authority Plans to Build Wind Farm

The Port Authority is planning on creating a wind farm on one of its shipping piers in New Jersey. The five windmills would help power the port’s cargo operations.

A private company would build and maintain five 288-foot-high wind turbines. They’d be located on the New Jersey side of Upper New York Bay, about halfway between the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island. The windmills, about the height of a 30-story building, would be visible from Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn waterfront. Officials say the location shouldn’t be controversial because the area’s already industrial. Taken together, the turbines should generate electricity equivalent to the amount needed by 2,000 homes.

Thanks to Bowsprite for passing this along.

The Making of Privateer Lynx

Posted on by May 19, 2010

The schooner Lynx, a replica of a War of 1812 privateer,  is sailing on the US East coast these days on her way to the Great Lakes to celebrate the upcoming War of 1812 Bicentennial.   J. Dennis Robinson will give an informal talk about the Privateer Lynx at the Discover Portsmouth Center and Piscataqua Maritime Commission at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.   (A limited number of spaces are available for guest crew. Click here to learn more.)

Robinson shares story behind Privateer Lynx
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True Colours by Alaric Bond, a Review

Posted on by May 18, 2010

Alaric Bond is a frequent contributor to the Old Salt blog.  He is also a wonderful writer.   His latest novel True Colours has recently been published.  I liked it  – a lot.  A review:

Alaric Bond’s new novel, True Colours, the third in his Fighting Sail series, is a fascinating and exciting look at a most perilous moment in British history. The novel begins in 1797. Britain is at war with the French and her Dutch allies. A French invasion force, supported by the formidable Dutch Navy is massing across the channel when the unthinkable occurs. The British fleet at Spithead mutinies. Not long after, the fleet at the Nore follows their example. The frigate Pandora returns from convoy duty after an attempted mutiny onboard, and only narrowly escapes being drawn into the Nore mutiny, as well.
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The Final Demise of the SS C. W. Pasley

Posted on by April 14, 2013

The S.S. Pasley arrives in Yaquina Bay to be sunk circa 1950.

Concrete ships were constructed in both World War I and World War II when steel was in short supply.  They were not wildly successful, as they were limited in deadweight and had a tendency to crack.  (No concrete ships were built after the end of the wars.) Nevertheless they were extremely durable ships.

The S.S. C. W. Pasley and the S.S. Francois Hennebique, two concrete ships built in Tampa Florida by McCloskey and Company in 1944, have served as the foundations for the docks in Yaquina Bay, in Newport, Oregon for almost sixty years.    The S.S. Francois Hennebique is apparently in good shape but the S.S. Pasley is cracking, shifting and oddly, leaking oil. (One might have though that tank cleaning was in order before converting the ship into a dock.)  So 66 years after her keel was poured, the S.S. Pasley will be broken up and replaced by a more conventional pier.

Dock to replace WWII ship


Ship-spotting on a Monday Morning

Posted on by May 17, 2010

Will, over at the Tugster blog, is no doubt the preeminent New York harbor ship-spotter.  If one is so inclined, it is easy to spent far more time than one might have planned browsing his thousands of photographs – all well organized and accompanied by fascinating commentary.  On the other side of the Atlantic,  Fred Vloo’s Ship-spotting channel on You-tube is extremely well done.  His Shipspotting Rotterdam 15 mei features great footage of tankers, bulker carriers, tugs, pilot boat, launches and container ships of all sizes, including the 8,000 TEU Anna Maersk.

Shipspotting Rotterdam 15 mei

The Wavertree and Pioneer Turn 125

Posted on by May 16, 2010

On Saturday May 24th, the  Southstreet Seaport Museum in New York will celebrate the 125th birthdays of two fine ladies,  the full rigged ship Wavertree and the schooner Pioneer.

Built in 1885 in Southampton, England, the Wavertree was one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron.   Also in 1885 the cargo sloop Pioneer, built in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, was the first of only two American cargo sloops ever built with a wrought iron hull.  Ten years later she was rerigged as a schooner.  The Pioneer regulatory sails from the South Street Seaport.

Lt-Cdr Bobby Lawson – Swordfish Pilot who Attacked the Bismark

Posted on by December 13, 2016

Lawson (second from left) with other members of The Black-Hand Gang (from left) Eric Margetts, John Moffat, Buster May and Glan Evans

It was a classic contest between David and Goliath.  On May 27, 1941, the German battleship Bismark had just sunk the pride of the Royal Navy, the HMS Hood. As she was close to escaping into safe waters, she was attacked by a swarm of obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplanes launched from the carrier HMS Ark Royal.   Lt-Cdr Bobby Lawson, one of the Swordfish pilots,  recently died at 91.

Lt-Cdr Bobby Lawson
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