The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race 2011

Posted on by October 24, 2011

Photo: Steve Earley, The Virginian-Pilot

Last Friday, 39 schooners set off from Baltimore, Maryland sailing 127 miles down the Chesapeake to Portsmouth, Virginia in the 22nd Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race.  This year the first schooner to cross Thimble Shoal with an elapsed time of 23 hours and 36 minutes was the America 2.0, with Andrew Neuhauser at the helm.   The schooner Woodwind, captained by Ken Kaye, won Class A honors, while Adventurer, Mark Faulstick, captain, and the Avelinda, Diane Sternberg, captain, won Class B and C honors, respectively.

Click here for more race results and here for more photos.

Thanks to Tom Russell on the Linked-in Traditional Sail Professionals list for pointing out the photos.

Message in a Bottle Helped Rescue Crew of MV Montecristo

Posted on by October 17, 2011

Photograph: AP

The current recommended response on a merchant ship on being boarded by pirates is to radio a distress call,  disable the ship’s engines and to retreat into a “citadel,” a safe locked-down space aboard the ship and await either rescue or until the pirates simply give up and go away.   That is exactly what the officers and crew of the MV Montecristo did when boarded by pirates last week.

Once they retreated to the citadel, however, they apparently lacked a means to communicate with their NATO rescuers. Whether they neglected to bring portable radios or batteries into the citadel is not clear. Lacking all else, they relied on a more traditional means of communication – they stuffed a message in a bottle, stuck a flashing beacon on top and threw the bottle out a port hole into the sea. When NATO forces retrieved the bottle and learned that the crew was safe and secure behind locked doors, they launched a raid on the ship and captured the pirates.

Message in a Bottle: Old-School S.O.S. Helps Rescue Hijacked Ship

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing the story along.

Tanker Markets – Back to the 80’s ?

Posted on by October 15, 2011

Those of us of a certain age, who were active in merchant shipping, remember the tanker industry in the 1980s.  And none too fondly.   After a period of rising charter rates and robust new construction, the market effectively collapsed in the 80s, resulting in a large fleet of laid up tankers. Some new ships steamed straight from the shipyard to lay-up. It is too soon to tell if conditions will turn as dark as they were thirty years ago, but the signs are not encouraging.

Charter rates are now the lowest they have been in 14 years and the number of large tankers in lay up are approaching levels from the 80’s.  To reinforce the comparison, a new Aframax tanker, managed by Wilhelmsen Ship Management, recently sailed directly from being delivered by a shipyard to layup in Malaysia,  the first recorded tanker to go directly from delivery to lay up since the 1980s.

Most Supertankers Idled Since ‘80s Still Won’t Buoy Charter Rates: Freight

Fighting Pirates with USVs ?

Posted on by October 15, 2011

In August, we posted about an experimental unmanned “roboship” being developed as a coastal patrol craft.   Recently there have been proposals to use USVs (unmanned surface vehicles) to fight pirates.  USVs also known as autonomous surface vehicles (ASV), are any surface vessel operating without a crew.  At least so far, the idea is to use the USVs for surveillance and intelligence gathering.   While the USVs could be used for more aggressive activity, it is highly unlikely that the technology and control systems are sufficient to send armed unmanned vessels out to attack targets at sea, not to mention issues of international law.  The larger issue may have nothing to do with technology. Thus far the nations involved in anti-piracy activities have lacked the political will to prosecute the pirates.  As long as the navies of the world play catch and release with pirates, it seems unlikely that new technology will necessarily make much of a difference.  Thanks to Miroslav at Antic.org for passing the story along.

Fighting Pirates with USVs

Clipper City of Adelaide at Risk as Aussie Government Backs Out On Funding

Posted on by October 14, 2011

The future of the oldest, just barely surviving, composite clipper ship in the world, the City of Adelaide, is again in question. Shortly before it was due to be scrapped in Scotland last August, an agreement was reached to send the City of Adelaide to her namesake city in Australia. Work has been started on preparing the ship for transport. Now, the Australian Culture Minister, John Hill, says that the Australian government will not fund the project.  Mr Hill went on to suggest that he needed guarantees that Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd, the group hoping to restore the ship, had funds to restore the ship before it would be granted a permanent berth on the city’s quayside.  Four years ago, the government  spent AU$18 million to build pens in the City of Adelaide zoo for pandas on loan from China.  It appears that Australian history cannot compete with borrowed bears.
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MV Rena Cracking, Risking Breaking Up, Containers Washing Ashore

Posted on by October 13, 2011

The Liberian flagged container ship, MV Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, New Zealand last week is continuing to suffer structural cracking and is continuing to spill bunker oil and losing containers overboard. Several beaches on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island were closed after oil and containers from the ship washed ashore.   Attempts at salvage has been prevented by bad weather.

Cracks appear in ship stranded off New Zealand

Jeffrey Allison, 73, Circumnavigates the Arctic Clockwise

Posted on by October 13, 2011

Jeffrey Allison is a fascinating gentlemen. Now 73, from  Middleton Tyas in the UK, he only started sailing when he retired from a career in engineering. Since then, he has sailed across the Atlantic six times, as well transiting the Panama Canal, and sailing the Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans. He has just returned from a 40 day circumnavigation of the Arctic. Allison and his crew, Australian crewmate Katherine Brownlie, 28, are the first to circumnavigate the Arctic in a clockwise direction. Two yachts previously circumnavigated the Arctic counter-clockwise in 2010.

Allison made a previous attempt to circumnavigate the Arctic in 2009 but was arrested by the Russian coastguard for allegedly crossing into Russian territorial waters.

British sailor first to circumnavigate the Arctic Circle

“Don’t Give Up the Ship” – One of the Odder Naval Battle Cries From a Forgotten War

Posted on by June 1, 2020

We are rapidly approaching the bi-centennial of the War of 1812, a largely forgotten conflict which was, in many respects, a continuation of the American War of Independence from Great Britain. The war was characterized by American incompetence and bumbling on land and surprising success on the seas. The early days of the war were marked by American victories at sea in which three American heavy frigates defeated and burned or captured three British frigates in single-ship battles.  In the battle between HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake in June of 1813, however, the Americans would not be so fortunate.  The Shannon captured the Chesapeake.
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Glow-in-the-Dark Lantern Shark Can Also Become Invisible

Posted on by October 12, 2011

Lantern sharks, a type of small dogfish sharks, are well known for their bioluminescence, indeed that is how they were given their name.  Researchers have recently discovered that the rare splendid lantern shark can adjust its coloration and lighting so as to become effectively invisible to predators.  Harry Potter apparently is no the only one with an invisibility cloak.

Lantern Sharks Can Become Invisible, Glow-In-The-Dark

 “The photophores replace the down-welling light from the sun, which is absorbed by the shark’s body,” lead author Julien Claes explained to Discovery News. “The silhouette of the shark therefore disappears when seen from below.”

Update: MV Rena – Increasing Oil Spill and Container Loss

Posted on by October 11, 2011

Photo : Maritime New Zealand

Bad weather is adding to an already bad situation as salvage and clean up crews struggle to staunch the flow of oil from the container ship, MV Rena, which has been grounded on Astrolabe Reef in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty near Tauranga for the last week.  Reports say that one of the main bunker tanks has been breached, dramatically increasing the volume of oil spilled.  An estimated 130 – 350 tonnes of oil have leaked as of Tuesday morning, making this the the largest maritime oil spill in New Zealand’s history .  30 containers are also reported to have fallen off the ship.

Crew of MV Montecristo Rescued from Pirates by NATO

Posted on by October 11, 2011

The Italian owned bulk carrier, MV Montecristo, was hijacked by pirates off Somalia on Monday.  The ship’s crew retreated to a protective citadel “safe room” ahead of the pirates.  Today RFA Fort Victoria and USS De Wert, acting as part of NATO’s counter piracy operation stormed the ship and rescued the crew, which was unharmed. A British Ministry of Defense spokesman said, “10-15 Royal Marines were involved. The pirates are now in NATO custody. No special forces were involved.”   Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the story along.

UK Forces Free Ship’s Crew From Somali Pirates

Diving HMS Hermes

Posted on by October 10, 2011

Last Friday we posted about the USS Arthur W Radford as an artificial reef.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing on this video of the wreck of  HMS Hermes, which is a popular dive site off near Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.   HMS Hermes, commissioned in 1924, was the first ship designed and built as an aircraft carrier. Previous aircraft carriers had been conversions of other ships. She was sunk in 1942 by Japanese aircraft during World War II with a loss of over 300 men.

HMS Hermes 2011

Columbus, Eratosthenes & Posidonius

Posted on by October 10, 2011

Eratosthenes

Happy Columbus Day to those in the United States and Happy Thanksgiving to those in Canada.

On Columbus Day, it seems appropriate to consider the role of  error in discovery.  While many of us were taught in school that Columbus proved that the world was round, that is a rather shoddy myth. The ancient Greeks understood that the world was round by the 6 century BCE.   Indeed the  Libyan mathematician, Eratosthenes, calculated the circumference of the globe to be 250,000 stadia. Let’s put aside the fact that no one agrees on the length of a stadia, literally the length of a stadium.  If one uses the Egyptian stadia, Eratosthenes’ estimate of 25,000 miles came within just 100 miles over the actual circumference at the equator (24,901 miles).  Eratosthenes, in fact, made several mathematical errors but they cancelled out.
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Kick ’em Jenny – Rocking Out Underwater

Posted on by October 9, 2011

Watch This Space Photo:Blah Bloh BLog

A quick quiz.  Is Kick ’em Jenny a rockbilly singer, a Dutch Celtic Symfo-Folk band or an active submarine volcano on the floor of the Caribbean Sea?  The answer appears to be yes to all three.

Kick ’em Jenny is a Dutch rockabilly singer who performs with the Real Deal.  Kick ’em Jenny is also a Dutch Celtic Symfo-Folk band.  (One can only hope that the rockabilly and Celtic Symfo-Folk bands don’t get double-booked.)  KIck ‘Em Jenny is also an active  submarine volcano in the Eastern Caribbean.   The Caribbean Yacht Charter Blog recently posted about the volcano – “The Caribbean May Soon Have a New Island.”   The word “soon” may be a bit optimistic, unless one is thinking in geological terms.
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Hurricane Irene Breaks Up USS Arthur W Radford – Recently Sunken Artificial Reef

Posted on by October 8, 2011

USS Radford on her way to becoming an artificial reef

Just last August, the USS Arthur W. Radford, a Fletcher-class destroyer which served in the Gulf War, was sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape May, NJ. The 563-foot destroyer was the longest vessel ever sunk as an artificial reef on the Atlantic coast.

Recently local divers were shocked to find that Hurricane Irene apparently broke the sunken ship in two and carried the larger section over 200 feet from its original location.  Some are speculating that the hurricane damage may make the ship more interesting to sport divers.  Thanks to Dave Shirlaw of the Marine History List for pointing out the story.  And thanks to Reno Pankau Verstaendig for pointing out that I initially had the wrong destroyer!

Irene ripped USS Radford, sunk for a reef off Cape May