On the 79th Anniversary of D-Day, Remembering Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Higgins Boat

Posted on by June 6, 2023

I am aware of only one man who was praised by both Eisenhower and Hitler. A repost on the 79th anniversary of D-Day.

General Dwight David Eisenhower said that “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”  

Adolph Hitler referred to Andrew Higgins as the “new Noah,” though his admiration was more begrudging. On the 79th anniversary of the Normandy landings, better known as D-Day, it seems worthwhile to remember Andrew Higgins and the amazing Higgins boat.

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More Supply Chains Woes — Strikes at West Coast Ports

Posted on by June 5, 2023

Following over a year of negotiations, labor negotiations at US West Coast ports have stalled, resulting in a wave of strikes.

As reported by Splash247.com, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents more than 22,000 dock workers at West Coast ports, said Friday that dockworkers were “staging concerted and disruptive work actions” that had stopped or severely disrupted operations stretching from terminals at southern California’s big container port complex at Los Angeles and Long Beach to Seattle, with Oakland suffering the largest disruptions. 

The industry group representing shippers announced that operations at some marine terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were “effectively shut down.”

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Navy Selects First Female Master Chief Petty Officer in the Service’s 230-Year History

Posted on by June 4, 2023

Senior Chief Petty Officer Jessica Saunders poses with Capt. Justin Long, commanding officer of Surface Combat Systems Training Command San Diego. (Surface Combat Systems Training Command San Diego/Facebook)

The Navy has selected an active-duty female gunner’s mate for promotion to master chief petty officer for the first time in the service’s 230-year history.

Senior Chief Gunner’s Mate Jessica Saunders, who joined the Navy in 2002, was slated for its highest enlisted rank last week, the service said in a statement Tuesday.

“This is not only a significant milestone for my naval career but for all sailors,” Saunders said in the statement. “The glass ceiling is shattered. From the day I enlisted, I understood that with hard work, motivational leadership, and a warfighter mentality, I could achieve my goals and help better our Navy for future generations.”

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On National Donut Day — Captain Gregory & the Birth of the Modern Donut (& the Donut Hole)

Posted on by June 2, 2023
Captain Hansen Gregory

Captain Hansen Gregory

Today is National Donut Day. Why is there a national day for donuts? The day celebrates an event created by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to honor those of their members who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I.

But who invented the modern donut? Many credit  Hansen Crockett Gregory, 1832-1921, a ship’s captain from Rockport, Maine. Here is the “hole story.” 

The first donuts in America did not have holes.  They are believed to have been introduced to the continent by the Dutch who fried dough in oil. Washington Irving was the first to mention doughnuts in “The History of New York” in 1807.  We wrote, “[I]t was always sure to boast of an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called dough-nuts, or oly koeks: a delicious kind of cake, at present known scarce to this city, except in genuine Dutch families.”

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Mystery & Tragedy on Italy’s Lake Maggiore — Fatal Boating Accident a Birthday Celebration or a “Spy Party”?

Posted on by June 1, 2023

On Sunday, an overloaded chartered houseboat on Italy’s Lake Maggiore was caught in a sudden, violent storm and capsized, killing four of the 21 passengers and two crew. Sadly, this sort of boating accident, while tragic, is not entirely out of the ordinary.

What made the accident unusual was that all of the 21 passengers aboard the boat were currently or formerly tied to Israeli and Italian defense and intelligence work, which is to say spies or former spies. Of the passengers, 13 were connected to Israel’s intelligence service Mossad, and eight were from Italian intelligence.

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Wind Turbine One, Cargo Ship Zero — Off Course General Cargo Ship Allides With Wind Farm

Posted on by May 31, 2023

Photo: Wasserschutzpolizei

We missed this story the first time around, but it seems worthwhile to mention it, all the same. For what is being referred to as the first time it has occurred, a merchant ship had an allision with a wind turbine. The wind turbine won.

Last month, the 1,685 dwt general cargo ship Petra L departed Szczecin, Poland loaded with 1,500 tons of gain bound for Antwerp. On the morning of April 25, she arrived in Emden, Germany, and port authorities noticed a hole the “size of a barn door” forward on the starboard side of the ship.  

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Malaysia Detains Chinese Barge on Suspicion of Looting WWII British Warship Wrecks

Posted on by May 30, 2023

For more than a decade, warships sunk in World War II have literally been disappearing from the ocean floor.  Illegal scrappers operating grabs from barges have been looting of Australian, American, British, Dutch, and Japanese warships for scrap metal in south-east Asian seas.

 Recently, USNI reports that the Royal Navy has expressed concern over reports of looting of the wrecks of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse off the coast of Malaysia. The Chinese barge Chuan Hong 68 is reported to have used a large dredging crane to pluck scrap from the wrecks.

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Update: Trying to Sail 1,900 NM in a One Meter Boat — Forced to Turn Back on First Day, Boat Destroyed

Posted on by May 29, 2023

A year ago, we posted about Andrew Bedwell, who planned on attempting to set a new world record for sailing the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic. His vessel, Big C is just over 1m/3.2ft long.

On Saturday, Bedwell set sail from St Johns, Newfoundland bound for Lizard Point in Cornwall. On the first day of the planned 1,900 nm voyage, however, his boat started to take on water, and he thought it best to turn around. 

When he returned to port, things went from bad to disastrous. The tiny Big C had taken on considerable water and had “basically sunk,” Bedwell said. When they attempted to lift the boat out by its framework, the structure gave way and the craft dropped, which “basically destroyed the boat.” Continue reading →

Royal Navy’s XV Patrick Blacket Tests GPS-Free Quantum Navigation System

Posted on by May 27, 2023

Last year we posted about the christening of the Royal Navy’s research ship XV Patrick Blacket. (The “XV” designation refers to “experimental vessel.”) The 42-meter, 270 tonne modified crew-supply ship is intended to be a platform on which to test new technology without the need to place demands on other navy ships, many of which are deployed permanently away from UK waters.

The Royal Navy is now collaborating with the Imperial College London to test a quantum navigation system onboard the XV Patrick Blacket. The heart of the system is a newly developed quantum accelerometer capable of determining position without the use of GPS. 

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Dueling Sea Drone Videos in Russian/Ukrainian PR Battle

Posted on by May 26, 2023

Recent videos of a sea drone attack on a Russian warship released by Russia’s Defence Ministry and by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne tell two very different stories of the encounter.

The Russian video shows a Ukrainian sea drone, a small unmanned boat packed with explosives, being destroyedmin what is described as a foiled attack. A day later, an Ukrainian video shows a successful attack, at least damaging the Russian vessel, identified as the intelligence ship Yury Ivanov.

Frank Gardner, a BBC security correspondent, commented, “I think we need to be a bit cautious over videos like this… 

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Update: Hvaldimir, Beluga “Spy” Whale Returns to Waters Near Oslo

Posted on by May 25, 2023

In 2019, we posted about fishermen off the coast of Norway who encountered a beluga whale wearing a harness that read “Equipment of St. Petersburg. Researchers think the beluga may be a Russian spy in training.

There was speculation that the harness-wearing beluga was part of Russian spycraft gone wrong. The harness was believed to be designed for some sort of camera or possibly a weapon. 

Subsequently, the whale “defected” to Norway, apparently preferring to stay in Norwegian waters than return to Russia. For some time, the whale interacted with boaters around Hammerfest Harbor in Norway, before swimming off to feed along the Norwegian coast.

The Norwegian press has nicknamed the whale Hvaldimir, a pun on the Norwegian hval (whale) and Vladimir Putin.

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The Story of the Bark Kathleen, Sunk by a Whale, Carved on a Sperm Whale Jawbone

Posted on by May 23, 2023

It took Mr. Tonkin 30 years, on and off, to finish carving the sperm whale jaw bone.(Supplied: Albany’s Historic Whaling Station)

We are all familiar with Melville’s novel, Moby Dick, inspired, at least in part, by the ramming and sinking of the whaleship Essex by a rogue sperm whale in the Pacific in 1820.  Less well-known is the sinking by a whale of the bark Kathleen.

ABC News Australia reports that for 30 years, Gary Tonkin, 74, a scrimshander from Albany, on the south coast of Western Australia, has worked carving a sperm whale’s jawbone and teeth to tell the tale of the Kathleen. His intricate engravings recount the story of the ill-fated whaling ship sunk by a sperm whale in the Atlantic in 1902.

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On National Maritime Day, Remembering the SS Savannah

Posted on by May 22, 2023

An updated repost on National Maritime Day. In 1933, the US Congress created National Maritime Day to recognize the maritime industry in the United States. The date chosen to celebrate the new holiday was May 22, in honor of the day that the auxiliary packet ship Savannah sailed from its namesake city in 1819. The Savannah is credited as the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  

Bragging rights notwithstanding, if one is to be honest about the history, Savannah was neither a proper steamship nor did she actually cross the Atlantic primarily under steam.

She was built as a sailing packet ship for Captain Moses Rogers, and while she did have a 90 HP steam engine installed, which drove twin paddle wheels, she didn’t carry enough fuel to make the passage under steam power. On her first and only voyage under steam in 1819, the Savannah used her engine eastbound across the Atlantic for 80 hours in a voyage of 29 days and 11 hours. On the westbound voyage, which lasted 40 days, she did not use her engines at all. 

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HMS Prince of Wales Crippled by Misaligned Propeller Shaft

Posted on by May 21, 2023

We now have the answer why the  Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, broke down off the Isle of Wight, in late August 2022.  The external shaft coupling on the starboard propeller shaft failed, resulting in serious damage to the shaft and the propeller, and lesser damage to the rudder. 

But why did the shaft coupling fail?  As we noted in a previous post, the failure of a propeller shaft coupling is extremely rare. The First Sea Lord described the failure as “unprecedented.” Indeed, few marine engineers can remember an instance of this happening.

It turns out that the underlying problem was not the coupling but a misaligned propeller shaft. Continue reading →

Bark Europa Falls Over in Cape Town Drydock

Posted on by May 20, 2023

The 112-year-old steel-hulled bark Europa slipped on her side while attempting to be placed back into the water from a drydock at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday morning. One crew member was injured, but is reported to be in stable condition and receiving appropriate medical care.

The extent of the damage to the ship is being assessed, and currently, no determination has been made as to the exact timeline for resuming sailing operations. The accident comes less than a month before the vessel was scheduled to embark on a 53-day sail training voyage to the Portuguese island city of Horta in the Azores, on June 13th.

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