Two hundred and twenty one years ago yesterday, the crew of HMS Bounty staged a mutiny that remains famous to this day. Four sailors are attempting to recreate Captain Bligh’s epic 3,700 nautical mile voyage in a 23 foot long open boat from Tonga to Kupang in Timor. The expedition is being sponsored by Talisker and is being led by Australian Don McIntyre, a veteran adventurer. His crew is David Wilkinson (United Kingdom), David Pryce (Australia) and Chris Wilde (United Kingdom). In addition to attempting to complete this most challenging of passages, they group is also attempting to to raise over $250,000 for The Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease (SIF), which is building the world’s first research Institute for Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. To learn more go to – Talisker Bounty Boat Expedition.
The first offshore wind farm in the United States has been approved by Washington. The Cape Wind project is a proposed 130 turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. It has been opposed for years by home owners in Cape Cod who claim, in essence, that it would ruin their view of the ocean. Recently, the Wampanoag tribe has made, essentially, the same claim. They say that the wind farm would obstruct their view of the sunrise for sacred ceremonies. The tribe, as well as groups in Cape Cod, have promised future lawsuits to block the project.
The US has lagged behind European countries and China in the development of offshore wind energy. There have been concerns that if the Cape Wind project was not approved that the development of US offshore wind power would be seriously setback even further.
I’ve always been a fan of Baltic traders. They were serious working craft. They aren’t necessarily graceful but do possess a certain robust beauty. The schooner W N Ragland, a Baltic trader built in 1913, converted to a yacht, is for sale. For 35 years the schooner was owned by Neil Young, the singer best known as a member of the group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. She was sold a few years ago and is back on the market again for $695,000. Last year, fellow CSN&Y singer, David Crosby, put his Alden schooner Mayan on the market as well. Hard not to be reminded of the lyric from the Crosby Stills and Nash song, “Wooden Ships.”
Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy…
Wooden ships on the water, regrettably, are never free or even easy. But, damn, they sure are lovely.
Max Hardberger’s Seized, a Sea Captains Adventures – Battling Scoundrels and Pirates while Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters is a fascinating account of one man’s remarkable career and personal journey. In addition to working professionally as a crop-duster, school teacher, lawyer, and ship’s captain, Max Hardberger developed the rather unusual specialty of returning stolen property, very large stolen property. He steals back ships wrongly seized in foreign ports and returns them to their owners.
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The prospect of women serving aboard Navy submarines will no doubt pose challenges in logistics and procedures. These may be minor, however, compared to the problems caused by banning smoking aboard subs, which the Navy will do starting December 31st of this year. Apparently roughly 35 to 40 percent of submariners are smokers. Fortunately the Navy will be providing Nicorette gum and nicotine patches to those in need of a nicotine fix. Sending the “boomers” out to sea manned by crews “jonesing” for a cigarette seems perilous indeed.
Plans to allow women and gays, ban smoking shake world of Navy submarines
In 2007, Eric Jay Dolin wrote Leviathan, The History of Whaling In America, a wonderful book that follows the American whale fisheries from shore whaling, to the fleets of whale ships that sailed in every ocean, to the industry’s decline in the nineteenth century. Highly recommended.
Dolan’s new book, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America, which will be released in July, also sounds fascinating. While not exclusively nautical, it does cover Hudson’s voyage to America as well as the sea otter trade in the Pacific Northwest, and its role in the China trade. A short video about the book:
There is an interesting conflict going on over the new draft proposal by the International Whaling Commission which would allow limited commercial whaling at levels significantly lower than currently practiced by Japan, Iceland and Norway. Depending on who you listen to this is either a good thing – decreased levels of whaling or a very bad thing – continued whaling. The coverage of the story reflects the divide. CNN reported – Proposal could save thousands of whales. The Telegraph took the other side – Endangered whales could be killed legally. In the end, it may not matter, as thus far, the Japanese are rejecting the proposal.
Recently almost one hundred endangered right whales were observed feeding in the waters of Block Island Sound. Given that only between 350 and 400 of the North Atlantic Right Whales are believed to currently exist, the gathering was quite unusual.
Scores of right whales ‘cavorting’ in Block Island Sound
“It’s like a third of the world’s population is cavorting out there,” said Grover Fugate, executive director of the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council, which is directing a massive study of the coastal waters to prepare for development of an offshore wind-turbine complex.
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Abby Sunderland
Abby Sunderland’s attempt to become the youngest sailor to sail around the world non-stop ended as she decided to put into Cape Town due to mechanical failures. The boat’s main autopilot has been giving her problems during the voyage recently failed. She intends to continue her sail around the world following her stop for repairs. Her stop will means that she will no longer be challenging Jessica Watson for the title of youngest non-stop circumnavigator. Both Abby and Jessica are sixteen.
Repairs end Abby Sunderland’s shot at record nonstop sail
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This week HMS Bounty, the replica ship built for the 1960 movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” will be the centerpiece of the “Pirate Weekend” in Newburgh, New York, on the Hudson River, sixty miles north of new York City. The Bounty has also been featured in over a dozen films and television shows, including 1989’s “Treasure Island” with Charlton Heston, “Muppet Treasure Island” and the second and third “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.
Pirate Weekend sails into Newburgh waterfront
In other news, eleven men have been charged with piracy in federal court in Norfolk, Va related to two attacks on US naval vessels off the coast of Somalia.
It is feeling like spring in New York harbor. Earlier this month a harbor seal was seem enjoying the sun on an old pier on the Jersey City side of the Hudson. Harbor seal were once common in New York harbor but were hunted and finally driven out. In 2006, after an absence of over 100 years, the first seals began returning to the outer harbor. This year a young seal appears quite comfortable in the inner harbor directly across from lower Manhattan.
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US oil rig sinks in Gulf of Mexico after explosion
An oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that caught fire after an explosion on Tuesday has now sunk, the US coastguard has said. The coastguard is still looking for 11 missing workers after the blast at the Deepwater Horizon rig. There has been no sign of the group despite efforts by patrol boats through the night and an aerial search that resumed on Thursday. The other workers on the rig, off Louisiana, were evacuated to the US. The aerial search had resumed at dawn but there has been no sign of those missing.
Sarah Breton, 45, from Essex, has been appointed as Captain of the 1,200 P&O cruise ship Artemis. As such she is the first female captain in P&O’s 173 year history and the first female captain of a cruise ship in Britain.
Experts estimate that anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 shipping containers fall off ships each year. The problem is that they do not all necessarily sink. Some remain afloat, just on the surface, almost invisible to an observer from a ship. Now a draft report of the official inquiry into the sinking of the sail training vessel Asgard II suggests that the a collision with a shipping container may account for the hull damage observed on the wreck.
Draft report shows ‘Asgard II’ may have collided with a container before sinking
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New Celebrity Ship to Repatriate Ash-Stranded Travelers
As Celebrity Cruises prepares for the launch this weekend of its brand-new Celebrity Eclipse, the line is also stepping in to help stranded travelers make their way back home.
The cruise line has announced that the first leg of Eclipse’s launch celebrations — a two-night cruise scheduled to depart April 22 — has been canceled so the ship can instead repatriate British and Irish vacationers affected by airport closures and subsequent flight cancellations after Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull volcano erupted a cloud of ash into the atmosphere.
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A new book details the history of a hotel built to look like an ocean liner perched high in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
Ship Hotel has sailed, but a jaunty new book honors its history and heyday
The story of the Ship Hotel is one of dreams fulfilled and dreams dashed, of a delightfully preposterous roadside attraction that brought comfort and joy to many before its long, sad decline and spectacular demise.
Brian Butko tells it masterfully in “The Ship Hotel: A Grand View Along the Lincoln Highway” (Stackpole Books). Part scrapbook, part family album, part communal memoir, this visually bountiful, right-sized book can be read just about in a single sitting, maybe curled up with a cuppa joe in vintage Ship Hotel china.
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Iceland volcano: Naval ships sent to rescue stranded Britons
Three Royal Navy ships are on their way to help repatriate up to 200,000 Britons stranded by five days of flight restrictions following the Icelandic volcano eruption.
The aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the assault ships Ocean and Albion have been deployed to help increase cross-Channel options as the no-flight ban across Britain was extended until 1am tomorrow. Extra capacity is being provided on coaches, ferries and Eurostar and Eurotunnel trains.
Lloyds Lists also reports – Volcanic ash cloud gives UK ferries ‘busiest day in living memory’
Pan American Victory
The last four Victory ships owned by the government are on their way toward the scrapyard. The Maritime Blog recently post somegreat photos of the Pan American Victory, as she transited the Panama Canal not too long ago. She was on her final voyage from San Francisco, CA to Brownsville, TX for scrapping. The Pan American Victory was the first of the last 4 remaining Victory Ships still owned by the U.S. Government to depart the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. She was shortly followed by the Earlham Victory, Rider Victory, and the Winthrop Victory.
Toward the end of World War II, 535 Victory ships were built in the United States. Three Victories are still preserved as museum ships – the SS American Victory in Tampa, FL; the SS Lane Victory in Los Angelos and the SS Red Oak Victory in Richmond, California.
In 2001, divers located the wreck of a ship off the Florida Keys in 220 feet of water. She had the distinctive ram bow of an early 20th century war ship but lacked guns or other weaponry. She has been identified as the Queen of Nassau which was originally the HMCS Canada, the first vessel of the fledgling Canadian Navy. As Canada prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the Canadian navy next month, marine archeologists at the US’s NOAA are working to designate the wreck as a historic site due of its significance in the evolution of Canada’s military.
Canada’s first warship to be preserved – near Florida Keys
Video of diving the wreck of the HMCS Canada/Queen Of Nassau after the jump.
One of the Steam Packet Company‘s post war vessels is to be scrapped. The s.s. Manxman, which had her last sailing in the early 80’s, is to be dismantled due to to the extent of damage after years of neglect. Over £8 Million would be needed restore the boat.
There has been uproar from many people who were passangers travelling to and from the Isle of Man. In the mid 80’s it was turned into a nightclub in preston docks, before ending up in Sunderland where it is now.