The collier Shen Neng 1 has been refloated and removed from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where it grounded ten days ago. In its wake it has left severe damage to the reef. As reported by the BBC: The Australian authorities have said a Chinese bulk carrier which ran aground off Queensland has caused widespread damage to the famed Great Barrier Reef. The cleanup is likely to be the biggest operation ever undertaken there. Toxic paint from the ship’s hull is reported to have killed coral in a swath over a kilometer long. Oil spilled from the ship’s bunker tanks has washed up at a nature sanctuary threatening birds and baby turtles. The Chinese owner of the ship has apologized while the government of Australia has arrested two of the ship’s senior officers.
In his poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described HMS Somersett on the night of April 18, 1775:
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Now HMS Somerset has risen again like a phantom, this time from a beach on Cape Cod, near where she sank on Nov. 2, 1778.
British warship Somerset resurfaces off Cape Cod
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My family and I got away to Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras for a week of diving. Here is a short clip of diving with Caribbean reef sharks. There were only three sharks, but that was enough to hold my attention. On a related topic, nations meeting at the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species earlier this month voted down a proposal to protect several species of sharks. In addition to be being feared and hated, many species of sharks are also now endanged.
They were the largest Navy oilers of their day and nearly 500 of them were built between 1940 and 1945. Now the last T2 tanker, the USNS Mission Santa Ynez, is soon to be on her way from San Fransisco to a scrapyard in Beaumont. From the Maritime Blog. Thanks to Dave Shirlaw for pointing it out.
Bark Swallow
If you are like me, relatively busy yet easily distracted and very fond of paintings, drawings and old photos of ships, you should probably skip this post. The New York Public Library Digital galley has a wonderful collection of drawings, paintings and photographs of all sorts of ships available on-line. A search on the word “ship” results in 2,097 images. A great place to loose an hour or two while browsing. Consider yourself warned.
It was announced recently that Swashbuckle would be joining the 40 heavy metal bands on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. Swashbuckle, for those who are not aware of the group, is a pirate themed metal band from New Jersey. From their Facebook page, they describe themselves thusly:
Forged upon the seven seas, Swashbuckle hath come to take the metal community by storm. We’ve faced rum-runners of the northern Caribbean to bring you the most brutal in yar face metal upon the Spanish Main. If ye be double crossin’ us, we’ll make ye walk the plank ye scurvy dogs! Yarr! Swab the poop-deck, and set sail for the Pirate Metal experience of your lifetime ye hornswogglers! Cheers!
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Forty two years go the Lyttelton–Wellington ferry Wahine sank in Wellington harbor with the loss of 53 lives. It was New Zealand’s worst modern maritime disaster. The Wahine’s sinking coincided with the advent of television news broadcasting in New Zealand bringing images of the sinking into New Zealand homes and to television screens around the world.
The idea that cushion of air bubbles might significantly reduce ship resistance through the water has been around for some time. Now Stena is testing the concept with 15 meter prototype vessel.
The narration is informative if rather annoying. (Reminding me of Bart Simpson playing it straight.) Nevertheless the clip has some great footage of one of the more exotic and fascinating of the arctic whales, the legendary narwal.
Large Model of H.M.S. Leviathan to be Sold in Aid of Rotherham Sea Cadet Corps in Maritime Sale
A monumental model of H.M.S. Leviathan will be offered by Charles Miller Ltd on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 in his sale of Maritime Models, Instruments & Art in London (25, Blythe Road, W14).
A dockyard model, this 1st class armored cruiser was built by John Brown & Co. Ltd of Clydebank for the Royal Navy in 1901 and is 1/48th of the original size. Measuring over four metres in length, the ship is estimated at £40,000-60,000. The ship is being sold by the Rotherham Sea Cadets, who have had it for the last 50 years. The money will be used to support the day to day running of the cadets.
Charles Miller Ltd’s sale will comprise almost 250 lots ranging from artifacts relating to the Georgian Navy to Fine Ship Models as well as Scientific and Navigational Instruments and Marine Works of Art.
The Hodgdon Group and Boothbay Region Boatyard has announced that “Big Boat Racing” is back in Maine. The 2010 Shipyard Cup will be held 27-29 August, 2010.
The Tall Ship Soren Larsen is returning to the Pacific in 2010
In May the ship will depart from New Zealand for the South Seas with a voyage route chosen to encompass some of our favourite island destinations, including the whale breeding grounds of Tonga, the southern and western isles of Fiji, our beloved Vanuatu, including the northern Torres isles which we’re visiting for the first time, and volcanic Tanna (as seen on the Brit TV’s brilliant ‘Meet the Natives’). The Pacifique chic of New Cal is followed by our unfulfilled passage to Australia via Lord Howe, a long awaited return to Sydney harbour and a trans Tasman passage home to NZ.
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This isn’t a new, but I find it fascinating nevertheless. Larger than the giant squid, the colossal squid has never been seen alive. Two years ago an autopsy was performed in New Zealand on the biggest intact colossal squid ever collected.
The Norwegian Government has announced that the wreck of the WW2 German submarine U-864, which contains 65 tons of mercury, is to be raised, and that the contaminated seabed be covered with clean sand. The submarine, which lies off the Norwegian west coast near Fedje, north of Bergen, has long been considered an environmental hazard by environmental groups and local people.
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We have posted extensively about the oldest just barely surviving composite clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, which is in danger of being broken up in May. We have also noted the arguments over the HMAS Adelaide, which may or may not be sunk as an artificial reef. Now, with thanks to Dick Kooyman, we have learned of another City of Adelaide at risk of being moved to a local dump.
Kalmar Nyckel crew readies for spring sailing
You can’t cobble up in a book all of what Captain Lauren Morgens and the 20-plus crew members who will be traveling abroad the Kalmar Nyckel for several months have learned from being on the ship.
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Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is a small town located in the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, located just north of the Great Smokey National Park. It is one of the more unlikely locales in which to find a half scale recreation of the Titanic opening in early April as a “Museum/Attraction.” Then again Pigeon Forge is not your typical mountain hamlet either. It has a population of somewhere over 5,000 but is visited by 11 million tourists each year. It’s largest draw may be “Dollywood” a theme park owned in part by country music singer Dolly Parton, well know for her big hair, breasts, and voice. The town is also a center for car shows and various music and entertainment venues.
Titanic museum to open: Regis Philbin to host grand opening for $25 million attraction
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Chinese Freighter Slams Into Great Barrier Reef
The Shen Neng 1 crashed into the reef at full speed a few hours after leaving the port of Gladstone, the Australian authorities said. The ship, which was nine miles outside its authorized shipping lane, was hauling 72,000 tons of coal and had 1,000 tons of bunker fuel aboard.
Australian officials warned that the vessel was in danger of breaking apart, and there were reports on Sunday night of traces of oil leaking from the vessel. An Australian aircraft reportedly dropped chemical dispersants on the oil.
Pirate Latitudes by Micheal Crichton, published a year after his death, is a romp. It is full of swashbuckling action and completely familiar characters. There is a bold captain, who is either a privateer or a pirate; several fair and comely maidens of high birth and low; and a band of adventurers each with special skills and powers.
The rough and tumble hero, Captain Charles Hunter, sets off to capture a Spanish galleon laden with treasure, at anchor under the guns of an impregnable fortress.
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Barista Uno at the Marine Café Blog shares his perspective on ” downside and upside, the agony and joy, of maritime blogging.”
Confessions of a maritime blogger
The Marine Café Blog was launched in late August of 2009, succeeding the old Marine Café news website. This makes bllogging a fairly new game for us, although we were into international maritime journalism long before some of the manning fellas in Manila became rich and started driving around town in Mitsubishi Pajeros and Ford Expeditions. Seven months is a short time but enough for us to see the downside and upside, the agony and joy, of maritime blogging.
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