Happy 4th of July – A Toast to Madeira, the Wine of the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Riots

Posted on by July 4, 2022

An updated repost fitting for the day.

Happy 4th of July!  Those of us in the United States celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776. Immediately after declaring independence from Great Britain, the representatives in the Continental Congress drank a toast with glasses of Madeira wine.

Why Madiera?  It was virtually the only wine available in the American colonies at the time. Wine carried by sailing ship was often spoiled in transit by the constant jostling of the ship and the wide variations of heat and cold. Wine from the island of Madeira, however, was fortified with a small amount of sugar cane brandy to help it survive the ocean voyage. Not only did the fortified wine survive the voyage but it was found that the heat and motion of the ship actually improved the quality of the wine.

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Update: Historic Rotterdam Bridge Will Not Be Dismantled for Bezos’ Yacht

Posted on by July 3, 2022

In February, we posted Billionaire Bezos’ Really Big Boat and the Rotterdam Railroad Bridge about reports that Rotterdam would dismantle the center span of a historic railroad bridge to allow the 417-foot-long, three-masted sailing yacht built for billionaire Jeff Bezos to access the sea. The fully rigged superyacht has too great an air-draft to safely fit beneath the Koningshaven Bridge, which has a clearance of 131 feet over the Nieuwe Maas River.

Now, Trouw is reporting that the Dutch shipbuilder Oceanco has informed the municipality of Rotterdam that it is canceling the plans to dismantle the bridge. The yard said that it was shocked by the social unrest over the potential dismantling and that shipyard employees feel threatened and the company fears vandalism. 

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27 Missing & Feared Dead After Typhoon Chaba Breaks Vessel in Half Off Hong Kong

Posted on by July 2, 2022

Three crew members were rescued after Typhoon Chaba broke an unidentified engineering vessel in half. Twenty-seven crew remain missing and are feared dead. Search and rescue operations continued for others about 300 km (200 miles) southwest of the city, the Hong Kong Government Flying Service said.

27 Feared DEAD as Typhoon Chaba Tears Ship in Half

“Fat Leonard” Corruption Trial — Jury Convicts Four Former Navy Officers

Posted on by July 1, 2022

“Fat Leonard” Francis

We recently posted about how the “Fat Leonard” Navy corruption scandal is being dramatized in a new television series, based on an award-winning podcast.

In the real world, the decade-long investigation and years-long trials are wrapping up. 

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a federal jury in San Diego convicted four of five former U.S. naval officers on conspiracy, bribery and fraud charges on Wednesday, capping a four-month-long trial and a decade-long investigation of the worst corruption scandal in the history of the Navy.

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Update: Palmer’s Titanic II & China’s Romandisea Cancelled?

Posted on by June 30, 2022

For a decade, we have followed the various announcements by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer regarding his Titanic II project. In 2012, Palmer announced the construction of a modern “replica”  of the doomed passenger liner RMS Titanic which sank after striking an iceberg in 1912.

Palmer’s Titanic II was to be built in a Chinese shipyard and go into service in 2016. Since then the project has moved in fits and starts. The project finances fell apart for several years. The ship delivery dates moved first to 2018 and then to 2022. Despite an abundance of announcements, CGI drawings, and videos, apparently, no steel has actually been cut and no new delivery date has been announced.

Recently, Bright Sun Films posted a Youtube video, Cancelled – Titanic 2, that looks at the history of various projects to build a “replica” of the ill-fated ship. And while there is no definitive word that Palmer’s Titanic II has been “canceled,” the prospects for it moving forward look exceptionally dim. Continue reading →

Norwegian Sun Alaskan Cruise Cut Short After Hitting Small Iceberg

Posted on by June 29, 2022

Norwegian Cruise Line reports that the cruise ship Norwegian Sun hit a small iceberg on Saturday while underway in foggy conditions near Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. The company characterized the berg as a growler, a type of very small iceberg that only rises a meter or less above the waterline and is often difficult to see from the bridge of a ship.

Following the collision, visits to Hubbard Glacier and Skagway, Alaska, were canceled and the ship sailed directly to nearby Juneau for an assessment of damage to the vessel.

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Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg Asia Expedition: The Pioneer Leg

Posted on by June 28, 2022

Last October, we posted about the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg Asia Expedition, a voyage intended to promote and open new trade opportunities for Swedish and Asian companies. The expedition has now begun. Here is a short video of the first leg of the voyage from Gothenburg to Helsingborg in southern Sweden. The ship is still close to home but the footage is wonderful.

Asia Expedition: The Pioneer Leg

Hyundai Ultra-Large LNG Carrier Makes First Semi-Autonomous Crossing of the Pacific Ocean

Posted on by June 27, 2022

Earlier this month, the 180,000 cubic meter ultra-large LNG carrier Prism Courage completed a voyage from the Gulf of Mexico to South Korea using a semi-autonomous navigation system developed by HD Hyundai subsidiary Avikus.

Delivered to South Korea’s SK Shipping last year by shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries,  Prism Courage, arrived at the Boryeong LNG Terminal in South Korea from the Freeport LNG terminal, Texas, via the Panama Canal, after completing a 33-day voyage.

The ship is equipped with the HiNAS 2.0, Level 2 (Hyundai intelligent Navigation Assistant System) autonomous navigation solution developed by Avikus, and sailed half of the roughly 20,000 kilometers voyage utilizing the HiNAS 2.0 autonomous navigation technology.

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USS Samuel B Roberts: World’s Deepest Shipwreck Located

Posted on by June 25, 2022

The BBC reports that explorers have found the deepest shipwreck ever identified, a US navy destroyer escort sunk during WWII.

The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during the Battle Off Samar in the Philippine Sea in October 1944. It lies in 6,895m (22,621ft) of water.

Texan financier and adventurer Victor Vescovo, who owns a deep-diving submersible, discovered the “Sammy B” battered but largely intact.

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Pip Hare Gives a Tour of Her Foiling IMOCA 60, Medallia

Posted on by June 24, 2022

Here is a short video of Pip Hare giving a tour under sail of her foiling IMOCA 60 Medallia to Yachting Monthly’s Katy Stickland. Hare recently completed the Vendée Arctique, a qualifying race for the Vendée Globe 2024/25 in Medallia. Pip Hare was the first British skipper to finish the Vendée Globe 2020/21, placing 19th overall. She is also only the 8th woman to ever finish the race.

Pip Hare gives us a full tour of her foiling IMOCA 60 – Yachting Monthly

“Fat Leonard,” a Major Navy Corruption Scandal, Then an Award Winning Podcast, and Soon a TV Series

Posted on by June 23, 2022

“Fat Leonard” Francis

The “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal has been described as “perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War.” More than two dozen Naval officers have pleaded guilty to taking bribes in the slow-moving investigation. 

As perhaps a sign of the times, the scandal has spawned an award-winning Fat Leonard podcast and now, it has been announced that the producers are developing a TV series based on the podcast. 

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World’s Largest Fresh Water Fish, 660 Pounds, Caught and Released in Cambodia’s Mekong River

Posted on by June 22, 2022

On June 13th, Moul Thun, a 42-year-old fisherman from Kaoh Preah, a remote island in the Mekong River, in northern Cambodia, hooked an exceptionally large giant freshwater stingray. At 4 meters in diameter and weighing 660 pounds (about 300 kilograms) it proved to be the largest freshwater fish ever documented.

The BBC quotes Dr. Zeb Hogan, a biologist who leads Wonders of the Mekong, a USAID-funded conservation project, saying, “In 20 years of researching giant fish in rivers and lakes on six continents, this is the largest freshwater fish that we’ve encountered or that’s been documented anywhere worldwide.”

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Hong Kong’s Iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant Sinks Under Tow in South China Sea

Posted on by June 21, 2022

Jumbo Floating Restaurant, an iconic Hong Kong landmark, has capsized and sunk in the South China Sea, while under tow to an undisclosed location.

NPR reports that the restaurant encountered “adverse conditions” on Saturday as it was passing the Xisha Islands, also known as the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea, and water entered the vessel and it began to tip, according to Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Ltd.

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World’s Largest Cruise Ship to be Scrapped Before Being Delivered

Posted on by June 20, 2022

A cruise ship that would have ranked as one of the world’s largest is going straight from the shipyard building ways to the scrappers. 

Cruise and resort business operator, Genting HK, contracted with its own shipyard in 2016 to build two 9,000-passenger cruise ships. The ships were to be the world’s largest, by number of passengers if not quite in tonnage. 

The first ship, the Global Dream was about 80% complete when Genting HK collapsed into bankruptcy last February. The shipyard, MV Werften, owned by Genting, also filed for bankruptcy.

The second vessel, unnamed but often referred to as the Global Dream II, was roughly half-finished when work stopped.  Most of the ship’s machinery and equipment had already been delivered to the shipyard. 

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Happy Juneteenth — When Emancipation Arrived by Steamship

Posted on by June 18, 2022

USS Cornubia, ex Lady Davis

Happy Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth National Independence Day is also the newest Federal holiday. The legislation, passed by both the House and Senate, was signed into law by President Biden a year ago. The holiday commemorates when emancipation arrived in Galveston, Texas by steamship, 157 years ago today. Here is an updated repost. 

Although the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the nation’s Civil War on April 9, 1865, emancipation did not arrive in Texas until two ex-Confederate steamships sailed into Galveston Harbor two months later. 

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Santo Cristo de Burgos — Legendary “Beeswax” Shipwreck Found On Oregon Coast

Posted on by June 18, 2022

In 2010, we posted about the mystery of the “beeswax ship,” the wreck of a Spanish galleon that left shards of Chinese pottery and blocks of beeswax in the sand of an Oregon beach. Now, National Geographic reports that timbers from the ship believed to be the 17th-century galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos have been discovered in sea caves on the Oregon coast this week. The ship, sailing from the Philippines to Mexico in 1693 was lost when it veered off course and vanished. Its cargo included costly Chinese silk, porcelain, and blocks of beeswax for making candles.

The extraordinarily rare hull remains were removed from sea caves near Manzanita earlier this week in a risky emergency recovery mission involving archaeologists, law enforcement personnel, and search-and-rescue teams from multiple state and local agencies.

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China Launches “Mother Ship” — First Semi-Autonomous Drone Carrier

Posted on by June 16, 2022

China has launched a semi-autonomous unmanned research vessel designed to serve as a “mother ship” for more than 50 unmanned aircraft, surface vessels, and submersible drones.

The 290-foot Zhu Hai Yun is intended to deploy unmanned devices en masse for a 3D, networked observation system, above and below the surface – an “Intelligent and Agile Ocean Stereoscopic Observation System” covering an area about 50 nm in diameter.

Beijing has officially described it as a maritime research tool, but some experts have said the ship has the potential to be used as a military vessel. 

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Arctic “Whisky War” Ends as Canada and Denmark Divide Hans Island

Posted on by June 14, 2022

Canada and Denmark have ended the good-natured “whisky war” over Hans Island, a tiny, barren and uninhabited island in the Nares Strait roughly equidistant between Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island. The dispute originated in 1971 when Canada and Denmark discovered that both countries had laid claim to the slightly over one square kilometer island. 

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. It leaves Copenhagen to manage certain policy areas, including foreign and security policy.

As noted by the New York Times, the dispute between Canada and Demark over the decades has been fought in often whimsical ways.

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Schooner Eleonora E Sunk by Out of Control Search and Rescue Vessel

Posted on by March 2, 2023

Sad news. On Friday, the 49.5-meter schooner Eleonora E was struck by a 60′ long search and rescue vessel in Port Tárraco, Tarragona, Spain and subsequently sank. The search and rescue vessel Punta Mayor was maneuvering in the harbor and became stuck in reverse. The vessel struck Eleonora E at midships on the starboard side, crushing the schooner against a seawall. 

Built in 2000, at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland, Eleonora E is a replica of the Herreshoff-designed Westward, one of the most famous racing schooners in the world which raced against yachts such as Britannia and Lulworth in the early 1900s.

Drone photos taken following the collision show the schooner rolled over on her starboard side, completely submerged, with just the tip of the masts above water. Salvage operations are reported to be ongoing.

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Farewell “Battle Cat” : Carrier Kitty Hawk Arrives at Scrap Yard

Posted on by June 10, 2022

The carrier USS Kitty Hawk has arrived at a scrapping yard in Brownsville, Texas after an epic 16,000-mile journey from Washington state. The carrier, too large to fit through the Panama Canal at over 280 feet wide, was towed around South America, via the Strait of Magellan before it docked in Texas.

Kitty Hawk, nicknamed “Battle Cat”, was the last conventionally-powered aircraft carrier to serve in the US Navy.  A veteran of the Vietnam and Afghan wars, Kitty Hawk also served as America’s only forward-deployed carrier in Japan.

The carrier was decommissioned in 2009, after returning from forward-basing in Japan, and has remained in storage at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington. Naval Sea Systems Command sold Kitty Hawk and her sister ship, USS John F. Kennedy, to International Shipbreaking Ltd. in October 2021 for just one penny each.

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