Last November, Sarah Schmidt, a 25 year old cadet fell to her death from the rigging of the German sailing training ship, Gorch Fock. It is now being reported that shortly after Schmidt’s death the cadets aboard the ship mutinied and refused orders to go aloft. It is also alleged that the ship’s commanding officer, Captain Norbert Schatz, verbally abused and demeaned the cadet crew. Yesterday, the German government ordered the ship to break her round the world cruise and to divert to the Argentine port city of Ushuaia, pending a investigation of the events.
Cadet ‘mutiny’ scuppers German navy’s tall ship
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A group of former workers at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay Area has launched a campaign to bring the USS Olympia to San Pablo Bay. The Olympia, Commodore George Dewey’s flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay, is the only surviving steel warship of its era.
Nelson style speed dating? I hope this doesn’t involve boarding with cutlasses.
As one who is shivering in the snow, I am highly envious of the good folks in San Diego who will be celebrating their 3rd annual 
This story is a few days old, but remains strange and disturbing. The Dutch coaster Leopard, carrying a cargo of weapons, was reported to have been hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Oman last week, but when a Turkish naval vessel located the ship, there was no sign of the crew of six, nor of the pirates. A hijacked Taiwanese owned fishing vessel, believed to be being used as a pirate mother ship, was observed heading towards Somalia. There is speculation that the crew was aboard the hijacked fishing vessel. There is also concern that the crew, two Danes and four Filipinos, may have been killed. The Leopard was carrying a cargo of arms but was apparently abandoned by the pirates, leaving the arms cargo untouched.
Grim news. Late Saturday night, the wooden vessel Hasan Reis in the Mediterranean, carrying over 260 passengers, reported to be illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, began to leak in heavy seas and subsequently sank. The Dutch ship 
An interesting followup to a 
