USS Narcissus, Civil War Shipwreck off Egmont Key, May Become Florida’s 12th Underwater Preserve

Posted on by January 10, 2012

Wreckage of the USS Narcissus

When I was in high school in Flordia, before I learned the error of my ways and become a sailor, I ran all over Boca Ciega Bay and the around the mouth of Tampa Bay in an outboard motor powered skiff.  One place I was particularly fond of was Egmont Key, just off the shipping channel into Tampa Bay. At one end of the island was the lighthouse and the pilot’s station where the harbor pilots waited for ships entering from the Gulf of Mexico.  Along the Gulf-side beach were old gun emplacements from the Spanish-American war as well as lumbering gopher tortoises and waters full of pods of dolphins, black fin sharks and schools of rays.

Just off Egmont Key is also the wreck of the Civil War wooden steam tug, USS Narcissus, which has emerged from the Gulf sands that swallowed her after she sank in 1866.  The wreck is about 2 miles off the northern end of the island in only 15 feet of water.  State officials have proposed making the shipwreck site Florida’s 12th underwater archaeological preserve.

USS Narcissus, Civil War shipwreck off Egmont Key, could become Florida’s 12th underwater preserve
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China to Open Luxury Hotel on Soviet Aircraft Carrier Kiev

Posted on by January 9, 2012

Hotel Kiev?

The Chinese are opening a 148 room luxury hotel in the refurbished Russian aircraft carrier Kiev.  Since 2004, the aircraft carrier has been part  of what is billed as “the world’s biggest military theme park” in Tianjin, a municipality close to Beijing.   The Chinese also own the Russian aircraft carrier Minsk, a sister vessel to the Kiev, which is the centerpiece of Minsk World,  a military theme park in Shenzhen, China.  The Chinese military owns a third Russian carrier, the Varyag, whose keel was laid in 1985 but which was never finished.  The Chinese have been working to finish the ship as an aircraft carrier for roughly the last decade. The ship returned from a second round of sea trials in mid-December and is said to be near completion but is not yet capable of landing planes on its deck.
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Rescue Mission to Nome – Russian Tanker Renda & USCG Icebreaker Healy Battle Ice to Deliver Fuel

Posted on by January 8, 2012

The Russian tanker Renda and the USCG icebreaking cutter Healy are on a rescue mission to the Alaskan city of Nome. After a major storm prevented a pre-winter fuel delivery by barge, the Russian tanker Renda was chartered to deliver 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline to the town of 3,600.  Without the emergency resupply the residents would have run out of fuel before spring.  The Renda is an ice strengthened tanker but found itself repeatedly stuck in sea ice last week. The Coast Guard icebreaking cutter Healy has had to cut paths for the tanker through ice that has ranged from 10 inches thick to several 5 foot thick pressure ridges.  Both ships are now expected to arrive in Nome on Monday or Tuesday.  When the ships arrive it will be the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter.

Fuel tanker Renda escorted by Coast Guard ice breaker Arctic sea ice

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Update: Container Ship Rena Breaks Up on New Zealand’s Astrolabe Reef

Posted on by January 8, 2012

In early October, the MV Rena, a container ship owned by the Greek shipping company Costamare Inc, ran hard aground on the Astrolabe Reef in in the Bay of Plenty off New Zealand’s North Island.  When she struck the reef, the Rena was loaded with approximately 2,100 containers and around 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel.  With the bow of the ship on the reef and the stern floating, structural cracking in the hull began to appear within two weeks of the grounding. The ship has now finally broken completely in half.  There is now concern that the stern of the ship could sink, potentially causing a new oil spill.  Also between 200 and 300 containers are believed to have fallen into the sea when the ship broke up, creating additional hazards to navigation.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the news along and the Phil Leon for pointing out the video.

2012-01-08 – 3NEWS – RENA BREAKS IN HALF IN SEVERE STORMS

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Update: Cracking on the Vale Beijing – Offloading Bunkers and Transferring Cargo

Posted on by January 7, 2012

In early December, on her maiden voyage, the VLOC (Very Large Ore Carrier) Vale Beijing suffered structural cracking while loading cargo in northeast Brasil.  As reported by Maritime Propulsion , the extent of the damage was significant – the hull plating was found to have cracked in the vicinity of a water ballast tank, and from there water was making its way into a cargo hold. Vale Beijing is classed by DNV whose preliminary inspection reportedly described (in addition to the crack in outer hull plating) fairly substantial internal damage to web frames and longitudinals in the vicinity of the water ballast tank. 

Thanks to Dirk Bal for passing along a condition update and photos of the ship at anchor in the outer roads of Sao Luis,   The Vale Beijing is one of 35 Valemax class ore carriers delivered or under construction and are the largest ore carriers ever built.
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Jules Verne Trophy : Banque Populaire V – Closing on Finish Line and a New World Record at Almost Thirty Knots

Posted on by January 6, 2012

Update:  Banque Populaire V crossed the line at 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes, 53 seconds, beating the previous record by 2 days and 18 hours.  An amazing performance by Captain Loick Peyron and his crew. Our heartiest congratulations.

The live satellite map shows the maxi-trimaran Banque Populaire V  within 40 nautical miles of the finish line sailing at roughly 30 knots.  French skipper, Loick Peyron, and the crew of the maxi-tri are within hours of breaking the around the world speed record under sail and claiming the Jules Verne Trophy, smashing the previous record of 48 days 7 hrs and 45 min set by Frank Cammas’ Groupama 3 in 2010.   Banque Populaire V should cross the finish line line after roughly 45 days, 14 hours.

Brian Thompson, the only Briton in the crew, reports,  “Top speed I did on my last watch was 43.6 [knots]! That’s the fastest I will get to till the finish, as the wind will drop slowly. It might well have been my last full on blast on this mighty machine.  We have been doing 800 miles a day, doing 35 knots, and you wonder if something will go wrong at those speeds.”   Thompson will be the first Briton to circumnavigate the globe non-stop for a fourth time, beating existing records held by fellow sailors Dee Caffari MBE and Mike Golding OBE.

Brian Thompson thunders towards record books at 43 knots in Banque Populaire V
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Shanty Sings All Over – Mystic, New York, San Francisco, Port Townsend & Washington DC

Posted on by January 5, 2012

William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Sessions at the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor

This Saturday night, January7th, the Mystic Seaport will be hosting a “Chantey Blast and Pub Sing” from 1-5 PM in the Frohsinn Hall (aka the German Club), 54 Greenmanville Avenue, in Mystic CT as a fundraiser for the 33rd Annual Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival  coming up in June.  The suggested donation is $15.

Around New York harbor, we have been fortunate to have had a monthly shanty (or chantey, if you prefer) sing for over a dozen years. In its current incarnation, it is called the William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Sessions at the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor.  William Doeflinger, who died in 2000, “collected” many well known sea shanties at the Sailor’s Snug Harbor retirement home in Staten Island, NY.  The shanty sing is held in one of the buildings where the old sailors sang their shanties for Doeflinger.  The acoustics are great and there is a sense of magic as the old songs are sung again where sailors from the great age of sail lived out their final days.  The shanty sessions are held on the third Sunday of every month.   from 2 to 5 PM, at the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center at 1000 Richmond Terrace, building D, in Staten Island New York. For a short video see our post: The William Main Doerflinger Memorial Shanty Session, 5/15/11
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Laura Dekker, Banque Populaire V, Jules Verne, the Internet & and Our Shrinking Globe

Posted on by January 5, 2012

This morning, when I logged onto my computer, I checked the position of the max-trimaran Banque Populaire V as its screams it way across the North Atlantic at roughly 30 knots, seeking to seize the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation. It is roughly 1,000 NM and less than two days, baring the unforeseen, from claiming the trophy.  I also read Laura Dekker’s blog.  The 16 year old single handed sailor is also sailing northward in the Atlantic, though much much slower than the Banque Populaire V. Her blog posts are straightforward and usually cheerful and upbeat. It is easy to see why so much of the sailing world is a fan of this remarkable young woman. Recently she wrote:

Waves behave nicer now and the wind is blowing from behind so Guppy still keeps rolling back and forth. Yet the wind is pulling at 15 knots which is unusual around here in the doldrums. Guppy is getting to be an oven now so I sleep during the day and stay up at night… and it is nice, what with the moonlit sea and the many many thousand stars up above.. It is real cool just to look at. Good winds keep Guppy happy and we are making good progress too with 3000 nautical miles already done which is more than halfway through this crossing. Let’s hope the second half will be just as good… Laura

I was struck how very strange it is to be tracking a racing trimaran in real time across the Atlantic or to be listening to a 16 year old sailor as she marvels at a moonlit sea while transiting the doldrums.
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The Lenox Project – Building a Restoration Warship

Posted on by January 4, 2012

A very interesting, if ambitious, new project.  While we often focus on the Georgian Navy, the Royal Navy during the Restoration is fascinating it own right.  The Lenox Project hopes to build a replica of the Lenox, a 17th century warship in the restored dockyard at Convoys Wharf, the site of Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards, in Deptford, on the River Thames in London.

The Lenox Project 
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The Diversity of the Sea – Hybrid Sharks and Newly Discovered Species at Deep Sea Vents

Posted on by January 4, 2012

Given that we live on an ocean planet, it is remarkable how little know of the creatures of the sea. Recently, for example, scientists discovered the first hybrid sharks to be found in Australian waters. Also, teams of American and British researchers have just discovered new species of life in deep sea hydrothermal vents.

The Australian sharks are believed to be the result of in-breeding between genetically distinct Australian blacktip, whose range extends north from Brisbane, and the larger common blacktip found in southeastern coastal waters.

Hybrid Sharks Found in Australian Waters
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Berths Available on TS Pelican from Liverpool to the West Indies Next September

Posted on by January 4, 2012

The headline in the Liverpool Daily Post reads, “Places available on first Liverpool transatlantic tall ship voyage for more than 100 years.”   Whether this is literally true or not, the trip looks very interesting for a number of reasons. The three-masted barquentine Pelican will sail from the River Mersey with 28 passengers on a crossing from Liverpool to the West Indies on September 22.  Pelican is operated by Adventure Under Sail Ltd.
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Update: ValeMax Ship Finally Makes it to China

Posted on by January 3, 2012

It would have been almost funny, if billions of dollars were not at stake.  As we posted last June, the Vale Brasil, first of the Valemax class of Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC) sailed on its maiden voyage with 391,000 tons of iron ore for China, only to be turned away. Vale S.A., the world’s largest iron ore producer, is building a fleet of 35 of the largest ore ships the world has ever seen specifically for the China trade, but China would not grant permission for the huge ships to call at Chinese ports.  Now, the first of the Valemax VLOCs has finally unloaded a cargo in China.  The Berge Everest, a Valemax ship owned by Berge Bulk Ltd and chartered to Vale, discharged what is reported to be a full cargo in the China’s Port of Dalian and has now sailed for Singapore.

Giant Vale ship completes maiden journey to China
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Tall Ship Elissa Fundraising On Track – Not So Endangered After All

Posted on by January 2, 2012

Last week we posted about America’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Ships of 2011, a list compiled by Joe Follansbee at the Fyddeye Guides.  This sort of list is interesting and useful in that it starts conversations about ships which require attention and could easily be overlooked.

There is at least one ship on the list, the barque Ellisa, that, while needing repairs, is in no danger of being ignored and is not “endangered” in any real sense.  This summer, it was found that a number of hull plates on the the 134-year-old barque had suffered serious electrolytic corrosion.  It is believed that the corrosion was a result of stray current from an underwater electrical cable broken by Hurricane Ike. The Fyddeye Guide noted that “the U.S. Coast Guard found severe hull deterioration and declared the ship unseaworthy, and thus unable to earn her keep.”  The problem with this statement is that while, like the Star of India, the barque Elissa is sailed at least once yearly, she does not “earn her keep” from sailing.
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The Passengers are Fatter so US Coast Guard Revises their Regulations

Posted on by January 2, 2012

For roughly the last fifty years, the US Coast Guard regulations for the loading and stability of passenger vessels has assumed an average weight of 160 pounds per person.  Conceding to the reality of a more corpulent population, the regulations were updated last month, increasing the  Assumed Average Weight per Person by 25 pounds, to 185 pounds.  So far the impact, particularly on larger vessels, has been small.  The Washington State ferry boat Wenatchee, which previously was rated for 2,000 people, can now legally hold about 1,700, which is not an issue as the ferry generally operates no where close to full passenger capacity. Likewise in New York harbor, the World Yacht and Circle Line cruises, deliberately operate at about 50 percent of capacity, about 300 people, to make for a roomier, more pleasant experience according to Jason Hackett, a company spokesman.

Smaller vessel owners who may be impacted by the change, are considering new stability tests and revised passenger calculations to maintain their current capacity.

Bulk’s Not Just in Bulkhead, So Coast Guard Steps In