Happy Birthday Nathaniel Bowditch, America’s Practical Navigator

Posted on by September 13, 2017

Every US naval ship and most American merchant ships carry aboard a copy of the American Practical Navigator, which most refer to simply as Bowditch, after Nathaniel Bowditch, the author of the first edition in 1802.   On March 26,  1773,  Nathaniel Bowditch, the fifth of seven children, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to a seafaring family of limited means.   Apprenticed as a bookkeeper, he was a self taught mathematician with a particular interest in navigation.

Bowditch had the radical notion that navigation could be made simple enough so that everyone aboard the ship, including the cook, could be taught to navigate.
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Harold ‘Dynamite’ Payson – Boatbuilder, Writer, Father of “Instant Boats”

Posted on by March 26, 2011

Harold ‘Dynamite’ Payson died suddenly of an an aneurysm at his home in Maine on March 23rd. He was 82.

His message was simple.  As expressed in his books and on his webpage,” Harold H. Payson … known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite… thinks you can build a boat.   In fact, if you can saw a penciled line, apply glue, drive nails, and bring a modest measure of patience to the task, you can build and launch a smart and able craft in as few as 40 work hours. You need not be driven by lack of tools, materials, skills, or time to abandon in frustration a project you conceived in a spirit of pleasurable anticipation.”
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The Marvelous Mind of an Octopus, yes, an Octopus

Posted on by March 25, 2011

This is an amazing presentation from a website called “everybody loves cephalopods.”  (I know that I do, usually lightly fried.)  I have to admit that after watching this excerpt from a 30 minute presentation by Maggie Koerth-Baker that I am indeed fascinated by octopus brains.  Definitely worth a look.

Octopus Brains

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Like a Robin in Springtime, Shipping Returns to the Great Lakes

Posted on by March 26, 2011

The wonderful thing about the US Great Lakes is that being fresh water, the ships on the lakes don’t rust like they do in the saltier oceans. Of course being fresh water, the lakes do freeze close enough to solid in the wintertime, so shipping comes to a halt.  In recent weeks the ships have started moving on the St. Clair River . Earlier this week the  St. Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal opened for business and today the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and the lower lakes are scheduled to ocean.   The Great Lakes are a wonderful if sometimes confusing place.  The water is fresh and there are no tides. The ships, even the 1,000′ bulk carrier,s too large to fit out of the locks, are referred to as “boats” and every travels in miles per hour.

Ships get warm welcome

Seaway Opens 53rd Season, 7% Increase Projected

Thanks to Phil Leon for passing the article along.

Today in Submarine History – the Short, Sorry Saga of the USS Lancefish

Posted on by March 24, 2011

On March 24th, 1945 the USS Lancetfish was decommissioned after less than thousand hours in service.  She never put to sea under her own power and never had a crew.  Delivered from the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, she was towed to the Boston Navy Yard for additional work. A shipyard worker opened a torpedo tube door and the sub sank in seven fathoms of water.  She was judged too damaged to be worth repairing and was laid up until 1959 when she was finally sold for scrap.

Thanks to Dave Shirlaw on the Marine History List for passing the story along.

Earth Hour Twilight Cruise on the Tall Ship Southern Swan

Posted on by March 24, 2011

Earth Hour is “a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.”   The observation of Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007.  This year, in Sydney harbor, the  Tall Ship Southern Swan is offering an Earth Hour Twilight Cruise, which sure sounds better than sitting at home in the dark.

New Zealand Model Fleets to do Battle

Posted on by March 24, 2011

This Sunday a grand of fleet of miniature ships will sail the lake at East Tamaki, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand.  The event is being hosted by Task Force 48, a group of radio-controlled model ship enthusiasts.

Model boats battle

The 1:48 scale replicas of the full-size Royal New Zealand Navy ships will carry out fleet manoeuvres on a lake in Highbrook.
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Shipping Out, the Story of America’s Seafaring Women

Posted on by March 24, 2011

For those in New York there is a special program, Women At Sea: Screening, Conversation, Reception, next Wednesday, March 30th, at the Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, New York, NY at 6:00 PM.    The program features a screening of the PBS documentary “Shipping Out—The Story of America’s Seafaring Women” followed by a conversation with seven women mariners who work as captains, mates, engineers and pilots.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at through the Working Harbor Committee.

No. 18 Kyotoku-maru – the Ghost Ship of Kesennuma

Posted on by March 23, 2011

“The newest landmark in the tsunami-stricken city of Kesennuma.”

Ghost ship haunts tsunami-hit Japanese city

The newest landmark in the tsunami-stricken city of Kesennuma is a massive fishing trawler that was swept up at sea and came to rest on one of the main roads to City Hall. The No. 18 Kyotoku-maru ship, with a red and blue hull and a “safety first” slogan painted just above its bridge, looms over a landscape of homes and business splintered by the March 11 tsunami and then set ablaze in an ensuing fire.
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Sinking of the Yongala – March 23rd, 1911

Posted on by March 23, 2011

Today is the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the passenger ship SS Yongala in a cyclone off Australia with the loss of 122 lives.

Yongala Centenary Expedition

CAIRNS tourism pioneer Charles Woodward is today heading for the shipwreck that claimed the life of his great grandmother Mary – and all her fellow passengers – exactly a century ago.
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Tallship Soren Larsen – New Zealand March 2011

Posted on by March 23, 2011

The calendar says that Spring is here on the banks of the Hudson River, but it is nevertheless snowing outside.  On mornings like this it is good to be reminded of warm seas and white sails. The good folks on the Soren Larsen recently posted a video that does just that.

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“Super Moon” Blamed for Five Groundings

Posted on by March 22, 2011

The Super Moon over Glastonbury Tor, Somerset

We posted a few days ago about Saturday’s “Super Full Moon” the first time in almost twenty years that full moon coincided with perigee, the passing of the moon’s orbit closest to the earth.   Now the “Super Moon” is being blamed for causing five ships to run aground.  We are a bit skeptical of the claims.

‘Blame it on the super moon!’ Five ships run aground off British coast as lunar phenomenon lowers tide
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Update: Bulker Olivia Still Leaking Oil, Threatening Bird Life on Nightingale Island

Posted on by March 22, 2011

Photo: Sean Burns

Last Wednesday the bulk carrier MV Olivia ran aground on Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cuhna archipelago in the South Atlantic.  See our previous post. By Friday, she had broken up in heavy seas with 1,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in her bunker tanks.   The spilled oil is threatening wildlife, including nearly half of the world population of endangered Northern Rockhopper penguins.  There is also serious concern that if the vessel was harboring rats that they could be an even greater threat to land birds on previously rodent-free island.  Poison and bait stations are being sent to the island.

Oil still leaking from the Oliva at Tristan’s Nightingale Island

Return of Seals to New York Harbor and the Unexpected Migration of Harp Seals

Posted on by March 22, 2011

Photo: Janet Jordon

When I first came to New York  thirty five years ago, the closest thing to wildlife in the waters of the harbor were what we referred to as “Hudson River trout” – condoms that had been flushed through the New York sewer system into the river,  that seemed to swim in and out with the tides.  Fortunately things have changed considerably since then.  Last April we posted about a harbor seal which chose to sunbathe in the Hudson River on the remains of an old Jersey City dock, directly across from Manhattan.  For over a hundred years there had been no seals in New York harbor until in 2006 when they began to return.  This year there is a colony of seals  on Swinburne Island,  just outside the mouth of the inner harbor. Seal watching boats have been running every weekend.  Seal watching season ends in New York by about the end of April when most seals migrate north.
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Lecture on Modern Piracy at the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Posted on by March 21, 2011

A very interesting presentation at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Tuesday evening for those in the area.

Commander Andrew J. Norris, USCG, will examine modern piracy in the next Sailors’ Series lecture on Tuesday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater, New Bedford Whaling Museum.
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