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 Big Bay Whale Days & Whale Festival this Saturday, January 22nd, in observance of the annual gray whale migration along the California coast. There will be concerts, free whale watching cruises and discounts to maritime museums and attractions. Sounds like a great time.
San Diego Celebrates Gray Whale Migration at 3rd Annual Big Bay Whale Days in January
Joan Druett’s new book, Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, fills an important blank space in the history, as well as the legend, of Captain Cook. On his first voyage to the Pacific in HMS Endeavour, during a stop in Tahiti, Cook took aboard a Polynesian high priest named Tupaia. Tupaia was also a skilled navigator and would serve as translator and diplomat for Cook when he encountered the warlike Maoris of New Zealand.
While Tupaia played a critical role in the success of Cook’s first voyage, he died of complications from scurvy in Batavia and was never given the credit he was due by either Captain Cook or Josephs Banks in their accounts of the expedition. Finally Tupaia’s story is being told, in this, the first full biography of the remarkable navigator, linguist, artist and priest. It is a fascinating tale, well told.
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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.
Thanks to Phil Leon for pointing out the strange story.
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 Momentum Scan rescued the survivors and carried them to Corfu. Twenty two immigrants are dead or missing.
“Hasan Reis” sank, 22 Afghan immigrants died
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Photo: Hudson River Park Trust
The Hudson river docks in New York harbor were once elegant terminals that greeted the arrival of passenger ships in the 1900s. Several were designed by the same architects that designed New York’s Grand Central Station. By the 70s, when I first arrive in the New York, they were largely abandoned – urban nightmares, known for violence, drugs and illicit sex. In the eighties and nineties, many of the old sheds were torn down, leaving bare concrete piers jutting into the river. Now, the Hudson River Park Trust is seeking proposals for the long term docking of historic vessels on at least one surviving pier, the newly refurbished Pier 25.
Hudson giving berth – River park will host historic ships
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Some absolutely wonderful photography and video as photographer Lisa Denning talks about her process of making pictures of humpback whales off the island of Rurutu in French Polynesia. From Time magazine:
American Brad van Liew sailing his Eco 60 yacht Le Pingouin won the second leg of the Velux 5 Oceans race, arriving in Wellington 120 miles ahead of his nearest competitor. Van Liew also won the first leg from La Rochelle to Capetown, South Africa.
One year ago last Wednesday, Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The port of Port-au-Prince was severely damaged. Now a year later the damage to the port remains unrepaired, but floating barges have temporarily replaced the damaged docks. Click the thumbnails for larger images. To see more photos of Haiti before and after the earthquake: Destruction in Haiti, Then and Now
Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth sail past the Statue of Liberty
Last night was clear and bitterly cold in New York harbor. Wind chill from the northwesterly breeze made the temperature feel like it was in the single digits. A new layer of snow from a storm two days before added to the existing snowbanks. Nevertheless, as darkness fell, groups of hearty New Yorkers began lining up along the promenade at Battery Park to watch the Royal Rendezvous, the three Queens of the Cunard fleet sailing in company out of New York harbor to music and fireworks.
An interesting followup to a previous post:
Retirement of adm. on hold in video inquiry
In an indication of just how seriously the Navy is taking the investigation into the racy shipboard videos aired four years ago aboard the carrier Enterprise, the scheduled Feb. 1 retirement of the ship’s captain at the time — now Rear Adm. Larry Rice — has been put on hold.
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Congratulations to the Capt. Shane Granger, Meggi Macoun, Joanne Har and all the good folks on the historic vessel Vega for being honored with the Asia Pacific Laureate Foundation annual award for Social Services in recognition of “Humanitarian Services to Isolated Island Communities.”
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Enchantment of the Seas
Two news stories recently on drugs aboard cruise ships suggest two very different types of drug problems. U.S. Customs and Border Protection raided the MSC Poesia, on Jan. 4, prior to the ship departing on a “Jam Cruise” a floating music festival featuring 44 performers and bands. As reported by NBC Miami: “The raids resulted in 15 seizures of LSD, marijuana, mushrooms, hash oil, prescription drugs, Ecstasy, and drug paraphernalia, all in mostly small quantities.”
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What is it about model ships made of LEGOs? The little plastic blocks are such an unlikely raw material for model shipbuilding. Here is a lovely 1:50 scale reproduction of the Cutty Sark created by Henrik Hoexbroe. Click the photo for a larger image. To see more of Hoexbroe’s work also check out his Brickshelf site and Flickr pages.
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Gifford and her husband Captain Mark Kelly
Maritime Reporter points out the connection between the US Merchant Maritime Academy and this weekend’s tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and nineteen others at a supermarket in northwest Tucson, Arizona, which left six dead and Representative Giffords in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Representative Gifford’s husband, U.S. Navy Captain Mark E. Kelly, a NASA Astronaut, earned a B.S. degree in marine engineering and nautical science from the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) at Kings Point, NY in 1986. He is reported to have proposed marriage to Gabrielle Giffords on the King’s Point campus in 2006. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families impacted by this tragedy.
This Thursday, January 13th, the three ships of the Cunard fleet – the Queen Mary II, the Queen Elizabeth and the recently delivered Queen Victoria – will rendezvous in New York harbor near the Statue of Liberty around 6:45 PM. A fireworks display will help to celebrate the “Cunard Royal Rendezvous.” The last time that three Cunard liners were together in New York harbor was 2008 when the fleet assembled for the retirement of the Queen Elizabeth II.
Three Cunard Line Queens meet in New York Harbor
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