Humpback Whale sighted last April in New York Harbor
This morning while sailing on the schooner Pioneer in Upper New York Harbor, we were all surprised when the captain shouted “whale”. There, close aboard to starboard, the back and dorsal fin of a whale rose and then disappeared beneath the surface of the harbor. The whale surfaced again, some distance away swimming toward the Brooklyn shore near Red Hook. Later in the morning, we saw it again, further off. It looked to me to be a small humpback but could also have been a minke. Unfortunately, we were handling sails when the whale surfaced and it didn’t wait around for anyone to grab their cameras.
Continue reading
There will be a 
Perhaps it is the thought that counts. Swiss lawmakers have decided against joining EU anti-piracy efforts because it would violate the country’s long-held tradition of neutrality. The land-locked country lacks a blue water navy so could not send a ship or ships to support the efforts but had considered sending thirty military support personnel. The Swiss navy does operate ten patrol boats on Lakes Konstanz and Leman. Thirty-two merchant ships in international trade fly the Swiss flag.
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is hosting an Archeology Weekend tomorrow and Sunday. it will include presentations on Lake Champlain shipwrecks and feature some of their latest explorations including early steamboats, gunboats, sailing vessels and canal boats. There will be special demonstrations in the Conservation Lab, lectures and films and presentations on what threatens the lake’s collection of shipwrecks and what you can do to help protect and preserve underwater cultural resources.
We previously posted about the 
Depending on how you look at it, there is either good or bad news about the 
An update to our previous post – 
In honor of John Paul Jones’ victory in the Battle of Flamborough Head where he captured HMS Serapis on this day 230 years ago, we offer two works from the archives. (For those who have not yet discovered it, the 
Last Friday the 
Intriguing news about 
Last month we posted about 
In June we posted about ships using 
On Sept. 20, 1519, Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. (Magellan was killed en route, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)
While New York may have a great 
Following up on our previous posts –