Joseph Conrad, the Tusitala, the Three Hours for Lunch Club and James Farrell

Posted on by September 20, 2013

Tusitala

On May 25th, in addition to other items in their collection, the Seaman’s Church Institute is auctioning off a letter written by Joseph Conrad in 1923 to the “owners and ship’s company of the Tusitala, ” in which he sends “my brotherly good wishes for fair winds and clear skies on all their voyages. And may they be many!”   (Thanks to Joan Druett, author of  Tupaia: Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, for posting about the auction on her blog.)

But who were the “owners and ship’s company of the Tusitala” to whom Conrad passed on his best wishes?  Therein lies a tale. Continue reading →

Talking with Dolphins by Computer Translator?

Posted on by May 17, 2011

Photo: Flip Nicklin/Minden/FLPA

Roughly a year ago I went skin diving with dolphins in Honduras.   We were told that the dolphins liked to play catch with eel grass.  I dove to the bottom, pulled up a handful of eel grass and held it out in front of me. A dolphin would swim up and I would put some eel grass in its mouth.   The dolphin would spit it out and I would grab it and we would start the game again.   It was hard to tell if I was playing with the dolphin or the dolphin was playing with me.  I would have loved to be able to communicate with these fascinating creatures.  Now scientists may have developed computers that will allow divers to communicate directly with dolphins for the first time.

Talk with a dolphin via underwater translation machine
Continue reading →

The William Main Doerflinger Memorial Shanty Session, 5/15/11

Posted on by October 2, 2011

Last week we posted about the upcoming first William Main Doerflinger Memorial Shanty Session to be held at the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor.    The shanty sing was well attended and the space was beautiful as well as historic.  The accoustics were quite good as well.    I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, to sing along and to shoot a bit of video.   Here is a short clip.

William Main Doerflinger Memorial Shanty Session, 5/15/11

Admiral Mickey Mouse & SEAL Team 6

Posted on by May 16, 2011

Mickey Mouse now apparently owns SEAL Team 6, or at least the name.  Disney has filed  three trademark applications to to claim the rights to the phrase “SEAL Team 6.”   SEAL Team 6 is believed to be the Navy commando squad that killed Osama Bin Laden in the recent raid on his compound.   How can Disney copyright the term “SEAL Team 6?”   “Officially, the team’s name is classified and not available to the public, technically there is no team 6.”

That is no longer the case.  It is now a trademark of the Walt Disney Company.

Disney Trademarks ‘Seal Team 6,’ Name Of Unit That Killed Bin Laden
Continue reading →

A New Plan and New Hopes for New York’s South Street Seaport Museum

Posted on by May 16, 2011

Photo: DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

Great news for supporters of New York’s South Street Seaport Museum which has been in a state of near collapse since February.  The Save our Seaport grassroots organization reports the following:

The NYS Attorney General has told the Seaport Museum New York that all vessels must remain where they are. This effectively blocks the Museum’s efforts to remove them from New York Harbor. Whether they can stay at the Seaport is not known at this time. But staying in New York allows them to be looked after in a better manner.
Continue reading →

The SBX-1 Comes to Seattle

Posted on by May 15, 2011

Click thumbnail for larger images

The SBX-1 , the Sea Based X-Band Radar 1, looks like something out of science fiction.    It recently arrived at Vigor Shipyard on Seattle’s Harbor Island for three months of maintenance and upgrading.

The SBX-1  is a huge white dome with a  half dozen or so smaller domes ontop of  a modified MODU, a Mobile Offshore Drilling unit, on which high tech radar arrays have replaced the drilling rig.   It is 240 feet wide, 390 feet long, and 280 feet high from its keel to the top of the radar dome (radome) and can cross an ocean under its own power at eight knots.

Massive radar could track baseball from across a continent
Continue reading →

Was the Japanese Tsunami Good for Fin Whales in Iceland?

Posted on by May 14, 2011

Time recently posted an article “Why Fukushima Is Good for Whales (in Iceland).” The article,  in fact, had almost nothing to do with the damaged nuclear power plants at Fukushima (at least as applied to whales) and quite a lot to do with the damage done by the tsunami.  Iceland exports the meat of endangered fin whales to Japan.  Tsunami damage  to whale processing plants in Japan may delay the start of the Icelandic whaling season.   The Time article reports that the Icelandic whaling season has been “called off” while other sources say that it has been postponed or delayed.
Continue reading →

Basketball on an Aircraft Carrier?

Posted on by May 18, 2011

How can you tell when you have too many aircraft carriers? Possibly, when you start using this expensive hardware for sporting venues.

On Nov. 11, 2011, the Veteran’s Day Carrier Classic basketball game between North Carolina and Michigan State will be played on an aircraft carrier in San Diego harbor. Either the USS Ronald Reagan or the USS Carl Vinson is expected to host the first ever collegiate basketball game on a warship. The USS Carl Vinson was recently in the news as the ship from which Osama bin Laden was buried at sea.

Carrier Classic could be played on ship that buried bin Laden at sea
Continue reading →

Two Constants – Bligh Reef and Human Error

Posted on by May 13, 2011

On March 24, 1989 the third mate on the Exxon Valdez lost track of the ship’s position and  ran the ship into  Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, resulting in a spill of roughly 40,000 tons of crude oil, the largest offshore spill in the US prior to last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.

After the Exxon Valdez spill, new safety measures were instituted in Prince William Sound including the addition of tugs to scout for ice. On December 23, 2009 the captain of the Pathfinder, an ice scout tug, lost track the tug’s position and ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling about 6,400 gallons of diesel fuel.   A report from the US Coast Guard’s investigation is due out this week and is reported to blame a lack of crew communication for the grounding.

Twenty year separates the two accidents. The two things they have in common is that Bligh Reef hasn’t moved and that human error is still with us.

Report faults captain in tugboat grounding on Bligh Reef

Happy 100th Birthday to the Barque Passat !

Posted on by May 12, 2011

Today through Sunday, there will be a 100th birthday party in Travemünde, Germany, for one of the last of the true windjammers, the four masted barque Passat.  One of the F. Laeisz Flying P-Liners, she was in launched 1911 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg.   She carried commercial cargoes under sail until 1949, rounding Cape Horn 39 times.  In 1951, she was converted to a school ship and in 1959 was purchased by the Baltic Sea municipality of Lübeck.

Happy birthday to a grand old ship!

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

Posted on by September 22, 2016

This Sunday, May 15, from 2 to 5 PM, the first monthly  William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Session will be held at the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center at 1000 Richmond Terrace, building D, in Staten Island New York.
Continue reading →

Charleston Harbor Fest – Mix of Old and New

Posted on by May 11, 2011

The Charleston Harbor Fest which begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday features a mix of old and new on the water.  The four competing ECO 60 sailboats in the Velux 5 Oceans Around the World Race will be on display as will the three traditional vessels, the schooners Pride of  Baltimore II,  the Spirit of South Carolina, and the brigantine Fritha.  Sharp-built privateers like the Pride of Baltimore were among the fastest vessels on the way in their day, so it seems fitting that they are joined by the ECO 60s which are among the fasting sailing vessels of our time.

Velux 5 Oceans Race centrepiece in Charleston Harbour Fest
Continue reading →

Seattle Maritime Festival 2011

Posted on by May 11, 2011

The Seattle Maritime Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Saturday, featuring the world’s largest tug boat race, National Fisherman’s Eleventh Annual Stories of the Sea Fisher Poetry Slam, World Invitational Survival Suit Races, Pacific Maritime Magazine Quick & Dirty Boatbuilding Competition, and the Fourteenth Annual Seattle Waterfront Neighborhood Waterfront Chowder Cook-Off , as well as free vessel and harbor tours and special activities for kids. Sounds like a great time.

Seattle Maritime Festival 2011

The “Swash Channel Wreck”, 400 Hundred Years Old, Rotting Away

Posted on by May 11, 2011

Photo: BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY

An unidentified wreck, believed to be 400 years old, has been described as the “biggest discovery since the Mary Rose.”  For centuries, it was covered by sand but is now rotting away so fast that it may effectively disappear within five years.

Battle to save remains of 400-year-old wreck

The remains of the ship, known simply as the Swash Channel Wreck, were preserved for centuries under the seabed in six metres of water off the Dorset coast. But now its ornately carved timbers, the earliest still in existence in Britain, are literally being eaten away.
Continue reading →