New ferry to start Tonga service in November

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Olovaha

Early last August the Tongan ferry, Princess Ashika, sank with a presumed loss over seventy lives.  See our previous posts  – Princess Akisha.   A new ferry, the Olovaha, for the route is being built in Japan, with Japanese funding and is expected to go into service in November.  Until them New Zealand has donated a 45.5m flat-bottomed barge for use as a temporary inter-island ferry.   The barge ferry service is to start from the first week of April and operate until the arrival of the new ferry from Japan.

Under Sail : A Boy’s Voyage Around Cape Horn by Felix Reisenberg – A Review

Posted on by July 15, 2010

Under Sail is a remarkable account of sixteen year old Felix Riesenberg’s first voyage on a square rigger from South Street Seaport in New York, to Honolulu and back. He sailed on the A.J. Fuller, a Bath built, copper clad, wooden hulled, three skysail yard medium clipper in the waning days of the age of sail.

Riesenberg’s prose is clear and concise yet vivid. He captures the both the beauty and the hardship of windjammer sailing, as well as the often complicated personalities of his shipmates. He sat down to write Under Sail in his mid-thirties, having served both as officer and able seaman. What makes Under Sail so engaging is that Reisenberg’s views are nuanced. He understands and sympathizes with those on both sides of the mast. He knows, first hand, the nearly impossible demands made on the captain and mates as well as the hardships suffered by the able seamen.
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Trafalgar cannons fired to honor Admiral Lord Collingwood

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Trafalgar cannons fired to mark 200th anniversary

Cannons which last saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar are fired on Tyneside to mark the 200th anniversary of Admiral Lord Collingwood’s death.   They were last used in battle on board Collingwood’s vessel Royal Sovereign as it led British ships in 1805.

Collingwood was born in 1748 and went to sea at the age of 13. At Trafalgar in 1805 he was Nelson’s second-in-command and as Nelson lay mortally wounded it was Collingwood who directed the fleet to victory. He died at sea on 7 March 1810.

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Hull trawler, Arctic Corsair, joins SS Great Britain and Royal Yacht on Historic Ships Register

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Hull trawler joins SS Great Britain and Royal Yacht on Historic Ships Register

An historic trawler berthed in Hull’s Museum Quarter has joined the ss Great Britain, HMS Victory and the Royal Yacht Britannia on the list of the nation’s most treasured historic vessels.

Arctic Corsair, Hull’s last sidewinder trawler, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels after it met the final criteria for inclusion. It was built in Beverley by Cook, Welton and Gemmell 50 years ago.

Spirit of Mystery Returning Home

Posted on by April 16, 2010

A year ago we posted about the “Voyage of theSpirit of Mystery,”  the recreation of an epic voyage by seven Cornishmen, several of whom had never been out of sight of land, who set sail in 1854 bound for the gold fields of Australia in Mystery, a 37′ Mounts Bay Lugger.  Adventurer Pete Goss and his crew built and sailed the Spirit of Mystery, a Mounts Bay Lugger modeled after the original Mystery, to Australia to commemorate the original voyage, arriving in Melbourne almost exactly a year ago.    Now the Spirit of Mystery will be returning home to Cornwall, though on this leg of the trip she will be traveling as cargo on a larger ship, at least as far as Holland.  Thanks to Tom Russel on the Linked in Tall Ship & Traditional Sail Professionals group for the reference.

Spirit of Mystery will come back to Cornwall

Women and Children First – Time Permitting

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Lusitania arriving New York on her maiden voyage

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesconsiders the sinking of two well known ships, the Titanic and theLusitania,  and looks at who made it to the lifeboats and who was left behind.   Both had a similar number of passengers and a similar loss of life.   The big difference between the two ships appears to be the time they took to sink. The Lusitania took 18 minutes while the Titanic took almost three hours.  On the Lusitania a higher percentage of men made it to the lifeboats whereas women and children fared much better on the Titanic.   The implication is that where time was short, as on the the Lusitania, basic survival instincts took over in the scramble to the boats.   On the Titanic, where there was time to organize boarding, the old rule – women and children first, seems to have asserted itself.

How the Men Reacted as the Titanic and Lusitania Went Under

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Fine Arts in Boston – Ship Models

Posted on by April 17, 2010

USS Constitution

The first exhibit in the $500 expansion of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts new Art of the Americas Wing in currently being installed.   The first new exhibit –  ship models.  An excellent choice.   The new wing opens in November.  For those in the Boston area who would rather not wait, the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild’s Annual Model Ship Show – Models in the Spotlight runs through March 2oth at the USS Constitution Museum.

MFA Expansion Sets Sail With Exquisite Model Ships

Video of the Ship Models being installed

The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh?

Posted on by April 17, 2010

As a follow up to our previous post, (Cruelty on the Cowpens? Cruiser CO Relieved of Duty), a newly released report by the Navy Office of the  Inspector General details the charges of “cruelty and maltreatment” and their findings which resulted in Captain Holly Graf being relieved from duty as captain of the USS Cowpens.   As reported by Time Magazine:

The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh

Concordia Investigation Update

Posted on by April 17, 2010

In addition to the investigation underway by the Barbados Maritime Ship Registry on behalf of the government of Barbados, where the Concordia was registered, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has decided to conduct its own independent investigation into the capsizing and sinking of the sail training ship.

Transportation board to probe sinking of Concordia

Class Afloat, owners of the Concordia say the 18-year-old brigantine was designed and tested to survive the sort of  knockdown that apparently sank her.

Tall ship passed stability testing, owners say
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11th Annual Ghost Ships Festival in Milwaukee on March 5th & 6th

Posted on by April 17, 2010

11th Annual Ghost Ships Festival 2010

The Ghost Ships Festival is Wisconsin’s largest trade show devoted to Scuba Diving and Great Lakes Maritime History. Exhibits, workshops, and presentations cover just about every aspect of Great Lakes maritime history and scuba diving.

Milwaukee’s Ghost Ships Festival

Thanks to Alaric Bond for the heads-up.

Huge wave kills 2 on cruise ship, Louis Majesty, in Mediterranean

Posted on by December 3, 2022

Louis Majesty

Huge wave kills 2 on cruise ship in Mediterranean

A 26-foot wave smashed into a cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 people in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, smashing glass windshields and killing two passengers, according to officials and news reports.
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Scraping bids out for SS United States

Posted on by April 17, 2010

Yesterday we posted that the Independence Seaport Museum doesn’t have the money to support the upkeep of the USS Olympia nor does it have the money to dredge the channel to tow her away.  On the other side of the river the USS New Jersey Battleship Museum is also having financial troubles. Given the current troubles centered around the Delaware River it almost seems a shame to report that the SS United States, which has been sitting of at Pier 84 in South Philadelphia for the last fourteen years,  is now being inspected by scrap dealers.  Then again, she is a rusting, gutted shell.  Perhaps it is time to let the old lady go.    As reported in Maritime Matters:

SS UNITED STATES For Scrap?
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Persistent Sheen – After 60 Years Princess Kathleen Still Leaking Oil off Alaskan coast

Posted on by April 17, 2010

Sunken Canadian ship spewing oil off Alaskan coast: U.S. Coast Guard

A storied Canadian steamship that offered luxury cruises for decades along the British Columbia coast, then served a crucial role during the Second World War transporting troops, supplies and Jewish refugees is now adding an unfortunate chapter to its rich history: the polluting of a major Pacific Ocean inlet.
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Update: SS Olympia – Stuck in Philadelphia by Sandbars and Scandal

Posted on by April 17, 2010

Recently we posted that the Independence Seaport Museum is seeking a new owner for the USS Olympia which it cannot afford to support.  See Philly Museum Sends SOS to Care for Historic Ship.   Sadly it appears that not only can’t the museum afford to keep the Olympia at dockside, but that it can’t afford to move it either.

Historic ships steel-hulled ships should be drydocked for maintenance at least every twenty years. The Olympia has been in the water continuously for 56 years, since 1945.

Olympia needs $30m in repairs, new caretaker
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In the Wake of the Beagle – Stad Amsterdam arrives in Melbourne

Posted on by April 17, 2010
Stad Amsterdam arriving in Melbourne

Back in September we posted about a group of historians and naturalists, as well as a film crew for Dutch VPRO Television sailing on the Stad Amsterdam. The ship is retracing the voyage of HMS Beagle on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species.  See Retracing Darwin’s Journey – 150 Years Later.    The ship arrived in Sydney, Australia earlier this month and last week called at Melbourne.   Visit the project website here (in Dutch and English.)