Laura Dekker Completes Solo Circumnavigation – A Most Singular Young Sailor

Posted on by January 21, 2012

Photo: AP

Laura Dekker has arrived in St. Maarten, having sailed her 38 ft Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch, Guppy, successfully around the world alone.  Her voyage began when she quietly slipped out of  Gibraltar on August 21, 2010.  At only 16 years and four months old, Laura is the youngest solo circumnavigator in history.  The yacht club in Simpson Bay where she has arrived has been sealed off to anyone other than Laura’s family. The media is being kept at bay to give Laura time to rest before facing the media circus.  A small floatilla met the young sailor, including one boat with her parent and grandparents aboard.

Laura sails tonight port in St. Maarten

But who is Laura Dekker? Born on a sailboat in New Zealand she has had a most unusual life that has included significant family turmoil, in addition to her battle with Dutch courts to allow her to sail around the world as a minor.  An article in the Dutch News.nl describes her as stubborn, self absorbed and a devil of a sailor.
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Costa Concordia – Wreckage on Le Scole Rock

Posted on by January 21, 2012

This underwater photo taken on January 17, 2012 at the "Le Scole" rock shows twisted wreckage on the sea floor, left by the cruise liner Costa Concordia after it ran aground in front of the Isola del Giglio harbor. (AFP/Getty Images)

It appears that the question of where and on what the Costa Concordia ran aground is a bit more clear.  Wreckage, believed to be from the collision, has been photographed at Le Scole rock.  Thanks to Andy Hall at the Maritime Texas blog for pointing it out.  See also the Atlantic Monthly’s Inside the Wreck of the Costa Concordia.  Yesterday we posted:

There is a 150 foot long rip in the hull on the port side of the ship with a large piece of stone still embedded in the hull. From the position of the damage on side of the hull, it appears that the ship may have scraped along an underwater ledge rather than hitting an underwater pinnacle of rock which would have damaged the bottom of the ship. There are underwater ledges in the vicinity of the small island of Le Scole off the south-eastern of the island of Giglio. This would put the grounding just slightly to the south of the assumed position of the grounding in the AIS plot developed by Lloyds, but the damage would agree with that observed on the hull. Sky News has an animated reconstruction of this scenario.
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Floating Gold by Margaret Muir – a Review

Posted on by January 20, 2012

Margaret Muir’s novel, Floating Gold, was recently released in paperback.  A great read, we never though that it got the attention that it deserved. Here is a repost of our review from May of 2010:

Margaret Muir’s new novel, Floating Gold, is a wonderful blend of classic Georgian naval fiction, a mystery/thriller and a grand treasure hunt.   A rousing tale, well told.

Captain Oliver Quintrell is on the beach, both literally and figuratively.  Recently released from Greenwich Hospital after recovering from injuries related to a “direct contact with a four pound cannon ball,” he finds himself without a commission in a world briefly at peace following the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. He is therefore pleased to be given the command HMS Elusive, a frigate on a secret mission with sealed orders bound for an island near the bottom of the world.  Along the way they encounter storms, calm, murder, and sabotage until they finally arrive at the island, which itself may be the greatest threat of all to survival of the ship and crew.  Hidden on the island is a vast, yet mysterious treasure that Captain Quintrell, his officers and crew must find and carry back to England.

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Costa Concordia – One Week Later, What Do We Know? Not Very Much!

Posted on by January 21, 2012

One week ago, the Costa Concordia grounded off the island of Giglio.    Eleven passengers or crew are confirmed dead. Twenty four people are missing.  The ship itself has sunk in shallow water having rolled 80 degrees on its side.  What else do we know?   Several basic questions remain unanswered.

Where precisely did the Costa Concordia run aground and on what?  No one really knows.  From the charts there do not seem to be any hazards where the first grounding is supposed to have taken place.  The captain steered the ship into shallower water where she currently lies.   From Lloyd’s List:
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Gianni Scerni, President of RINA, Resigns – Was Critical of Costa Management in Newspaper Interview

Posted on by January 20, 2012

Shortly after Costa Crociere chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi blamed the grounding of the Costa Concordia on an ”inexplicable” error by the captain, Gianni Scerni, the president of RINA, sat down for an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX.  RINA, Registro Italiano Navale, is the Italian classification society that issued the certificate of seaworthiness and the Safety Management System (SMS) certification for the Costa Concordia.  The resulting article, titled Ma l’armatore non poteva non sapere (But the owner could not find out) is critical of Costa management and questions the claim that Costa was unaware of the practice of its ships presenting a “salute” or “bow” in the form of a close passage by island of Giglio.   Within hours of its publication, Gianni Scerni announced his resignation as the president of RINA.   He disputed the accuracy of some of the comments in the interview but decided to resign from RINA nevertheless.

Odd Notes on the Costa Concordia – Singers, Violinists and Theme Music from the Titanic

Posted on by January 20, 2012

According to survivors’ reports, the band on the deck of the Titanic continued to play after the last boat departed as the ship sank beneath waters of the icy North Atlantic.  Coincidentally, a singer aboard the Costa Concordia, Amelia Leon says that she is related to a ship’s violinist who died when the Titanic sank.

Sadly, a violinist on the Costa Concordia is also among the dead. Sandor Feher, a Hungarian violinist  who worked on the ship, reportedly returned to his cabin to retrieve his violin and never made it back on deck.

Finally, passengers have reported that at the moment that the Costa Concordia hit the rocks the music playing in the ship’s dining room was Celine Dion singing My Heart Will Go On, which was the theme music for James Cameron’s movie, Titanic.

‘Titanic’ Theme Song
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The Shipbuilders of Essex

Posted on by January 20, 2012

Here is a wonderful 20 minute film made in 1947 about, as the tile suggests, shipbuilding in Essex, Massachusetts.  It has the slightly corny Hollywood production values of its time but does a good job at showing the construction of a fishing boat from the laying of the keel to the launching.  Notice the characteristic Essex side launch, which hasn’t changed much since at least 1947.  See our previous post of the launch of the pinky  schooner Ardelle. Thanks to the SAIL Ardelle Facebook page for pointing out the video.

The Shipbuilders of Essex

[iframe: width=”480″ height=”360″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/6Di46QJPOKI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]

Three Italian Captains – the Costa Concordia and the Andrea Doria

Posted on by January 19, 2012

Andrea Doria 1956

Reuters reports that Italy is enthralled by the tale of the “two captains,”  while on CNN another Italian captain, from another ship and another time, is remembered – In Andrea Doria wreck, a captain who shone.

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San Diego Big Bay Whale Days and Whale Festival

Posted on by January 19, 2012

Every year, around 26,000 gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) make the 10,000 mile journey from their feeding grounds in the Arctic Sea south to their breeding groups in the lagoons of Baja.  (For an interesting view of the migration see Whale migration seen from the air)   Around this time of year, large numbers of gray whales pass right by San Diego, which is a fine excuse for a party. This Saturday, San Diego is celebrating the 4th Annual Big Bay Whale Days and Whale Festival with food, music, crafts and exhibits from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.at the Port Pavilion on the Broadway Pier.  Thanks to Brad Holderman for pointing out the festival on Facebook.

Festival salutes gray whale 

The Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ready by March for Transport to Australia

Posted on by January 15, 2012

Last October, we posted about the shipping cradle that had been fabricated in Australia and shipped to Scotland which will be used to transport the oldest composite clipper ship, the City of Adelaide,  back to her namesake city in South Australia.  The first two containers containing sections of the shipping cradle have now arrived in Irvine, Scotland. The last three containers, each carrying 15 to 20 tonnes of cradle parts, are due in late February.  Once the cradle is reassembled under the ship, the 150-year-old clipper and cradle will be moved onto a barge for transfer onto an ocean-going ship for the voyage to Port Adelaide, Australia.  The current target date is the end of March, if all goes well.

The City of Adelaide was built in 1864 by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, and was launched on  May 7, 1864. The ship was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Carrick between 1923 and 1948 and, after decommissioning, was known as Carrick until 2001. At a conference convened by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 2001, the ship’s name reverted to City of Adelaide.

Carrick ready for the off

Lloyd’s List Intelligence Plots of Costa Concordia’s Previous Close Call

Posted on by January 18, 2012

Lloyd’s List Intelligence has published its AIS plots of the course of the Costa Concordia on January 13th, when she ran aground and sank, and her course on August 14th when she came within 230 meters of the shore of the island of Giglio and passed extremely close to where she ran aground last Friday.  Click on the graphic or here for a larger plot.

Costa Concordia in previous close call

Costa Concordia: Exclusive Lloyd’s List video analysis

Not the First Time – Costa Concordia Took the Same Route Near Giglo in the Past

Posted on by January 18, 2012

MSNBC is quoting Adam Smallman, editor of Lloyd’s List, as saying that the Costa Concordia took close to the same route in August, based on satellite tracking, as it took when it ran aground last Friday night. He also is quoted as saying that the course was “authorized by the company and the coast guard.”

“Our assessment of the route this vessel took (in August) is it must have come perilously close, and I mean possibly within touching distance of the rock that it hit this time … which the company is saying wholly unauthorized in terms of its proximity to the island,” Smallman said.

Lloyd’s List also notes: No cruise ship apart from Costa Concordia has come into close proximity with Giglio in the last six months, according to an analysis of Automatic Identification System data by Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

This isn’t so much new information as confirmation of what we posted yesterday. See The Costa Concordia’s Fatal Salute – “Inexplicable Error” or “Nice Tradition”?
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Coverage of the Costa Concordia Tragedy – Unfortunate Juxtapositions

Posted on by January 18, 2012

As the tragedy of the Costa Concordia plays out, newspapers still need to sell ads.  Recently some of the juxtapositions have been, well, unfortunate. (Click on any of the thumbnails below for a larger image.)

Italy’s Il Gazzettino featured a story about the Costa Concordia on the front page while displaying a full page ad for a cruise on the back of the tabloid paper  — “WIN a cruise for the best day of your life.”

A close runner-up is the front page of a the Belfast Telegraph with a banner across the top reading “Win A Dream Holiday!” in large red type, immediately above a photo of the nearly capsized Costa Concordia and the headline in a smaller typeface, “Hunt for survivors goes on as death toll rises on stricken liner.”  
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HMB Endeavour Transit of Venus 2012

Posted on by January 18, 2012

HMB Endeavour is embarking on a special cruise to observe the transit of Venus – a very rare astronomical event when the planet Venus moves across the sun on June 6th 2012.  The next transit of Venus will take place on  December 2117! The ship will be sailing in the wake of Captain James Cook’s whose first voyage to the South Pacific aboard HMS Endeavour observed the 1769 transit of Venus.

A special on-line raffle will be held to select the 35 paying crew for the 13 day return trip to Lord Howe Island.  Those interested in joining the voyage should submit a ballot in the raffle, which starts at 9 am AEDT on Wednesday 18 January 2012 on the HMB Endeavour website and closes at midnight AEDT on Friday 10 February 2012. 35 entries will be drawn randomly on 20 February 2012. Successful entrants will be notified within five business days after the draw. To learn more, go to – Transit of Venus.

Update: Costa Concordia – Body Count Rises to 11, 24 Still Missing, Shocking Recording of Coast Guard Ordering Captain Back to Ship

Posted on by January 17, 2012

Divers searching the wreck of the Costa Concordia have found five more bodies in the submerged section of the ship.  All were wearing life jackets and are believed to be passengers.  The number of missing, which had been as low as 11, has been revised upward to 24.

A shocking audio recording has emerged in which the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was heard making excuses as the Italian Coast Guard repeatedly ordered him to return to oversee his ship’s evacuation.  Corriere della Sera put the tape, which it said was recorded by the Coast Guard, on its website.  A transcript of the recording translated into English is posted here.

The Coast Guard commander to “Get back on the ship.”