In Aftermath of Volcanic Eruption, Tonga Plunged Into Digital Darkness

Posted on by January 19, 2022

The underwater volcano that erupted off Tonga on Saturday with the force of 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs covered the island nation with ash and sent tsunami waves of up 50 feet (15 meters) striking some islands, killing at least three. Efforts are underway to clear ash from blocked airports and repair port damage to allow the transport of much-needed supplies to be delivered.

This work is being complicated by the severing of a 2″ diameter fiber-optic underwater cable that has cut Tonga off from most digital communications with the outside world, plunging the nation of 105,000 people into “digital darkness.” 

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Record Cargo Shipped Through Suez Canal in 2021

Posted on by January 18, 2022


Despite challenges created by the pandemic, the ongoing chaos in the supply chain, and the six-day closure of the canal by the grounding of the ultra-large container ship Ever Given last March, larger volumes of cargo were shipped through the Suez Canal in 2021 than in any other time in history.

In 2021, some 1.27 billion tons of cargo were shipped through the canal, earning $6.3 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) in transit fees, 13 percent more than the previous year and the highest figures ever recorded, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie said.

Congratulations to Admiral Jude Terry, First Female Royal Navy Admiral

Posted on by January 17, 2022

Congratulations to ex-Commodore Judith Helen “Jude” Terry, who was appointed today the first female admiral in the history of the British Royal Navy.  Rear Admiral Terry, 48, with 25 years’ service around the globe and at home in the UK, will serve as Director of People and Training and Naval Secretary. 

From the RN announcement:

That makes the rear admiral responsible not only for more than 40,000 regular and reservist sailors and Royal Marines, but also the Royal Fleet Auxiliary – who operate the Navy’s crucial support ships – plus civil servants and contractors, all part of the gigantic jigsaw which allows the Royal Navy to operate around the globe 24/7/365.

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Flight 1549, NY Harbor Ferries, & the Two “Miracles on the Hudson”

Posted on by January 16, 2022

An updated repost — a look back at the twin miracles on the Hudson from thirteen years ago yesterday. On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s pilots, Captain Chesley “Sulley” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles had not glided the plane in at exactly the right angle and airspeed, it is likely that the plane would have broken apart and that all the 155 passengers and crew aboard could have died.

The landing is often called the “Miracle on the Hudson.” There was, however, a second miracle on the Hudson that day. Remarkably, New York harbor commuter ferries began arriving at the flooding plane less than four minutes after the crash.  Had it not been for the ferries’ rapid rescue of the passengers from the icy waters, the “miracle” might have ended as a tragedy.

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Underwater Volcanic Eruption Near Tonga Triggers Tsunami

Posted on by January 15, 2022

Tsunami waves caused by a major underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano have hit the Pacific country of Tonga. A tsunami warning sent residents scrambling to higher ground. Tonga’s capital lies just 65km north of the volcano, on the country’s main island of Tongatapu.

The eruption was heard across the South Pacific, reportedly as far as New Zealand and Australia. The plumes of gas, smoke and ash pouring from the volcano reached 20km into the sky, Tonga Geological Services said.

Prof Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, said the eruption was one of the biggest in Tonga in the past 30 years. “This is a pretty big event – it’s one of the more significant eruptions of the last decade at least,” he told the BBC. Continue reading →

HMS Victory & the Ship of Theseus, Thoughts on Varied Lives of A Ship

Posted on by January 14, 2022

We recently posted about an announcement that an additional £35m is being committed for continued repairs to the HMS Victory, specifically to replace rotting planking and frames and to complete the rerigging of the ship. As it has been 256 years since the ship was launched and 244 years since the ship was commissioned, how much of the original ship remains after over two centuries of active service, repairs, and rebuilding? Depending on which source one uses, estimates range from 17% to 20%. The new funds for restoring the ship will no doubt reduce the percentage.

Is there a point at which HMS Victory is no longer the same ship whose decks were trod by Nelson at Trafalgar? Or will HMS Victory always be the same historic ship no matter how often she is restored and repaired?

These are not new questions. They were discussed by the Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato by c. 500–400 BC in a thought experiment called the Ship of Theseus.

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EcoClipper Raising Capital to Fund Sailing Cargo Fleet

Posted on by January 13, 2022

The Dutch firm EcoClipper has plans to launch retrofitted and purpose-built sailing vessels to carry cargo and passengers on a variety of international routes. Today, they announced that they have started to raise capital in cooperation with blockchain partner Bondex, to fund a fleet of sailing cargo ships, one vessel at a time. From their press release:

It takes substantial investments to build a global sustainable sailing ship fleet. However the strategy of EcoClipper is based on investing in one ship at a time. As such, a series of investment tranches are offered through certificates in the EcoClipper Coöperatie U.A. The first tranche is aiming for €140,000, to purchase the first retrofit vessel. The second and third tranche will bring the financing to almost one million Euros. Follow-up rounds will become larger as the community of the company grows.  Investments for the first tranche start at 50 certificates for a total price of €350. Investors in the early rounds purchase certificates for a discount, while also investing in the future growth of the company. Continue reading →

On 100th Year Anniversary of Drydocking: £35m Committed to Ongoing Restoration of HMS Victory

Posted on by January 11, 2022

HMS Victory in dry dock c1926 or 1927 (National Museum of the Royal Navy/PA)

One hundred years ago today, on January 12, 1922, Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory was moved to Drydock No. 2 in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for restoration and preservation. In honor of the anniversary, it was announced that an additional £35m is being committed for continued repairs to the historic ship. 

A dockyard spokeswoman said: “Rotting planking will be removed from the hull and replaced with new oak, repairs made to the ship’s structural framework, and she will be fully re-rigged, in a process lasting 10 to 15 years and costing £35 million.

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Skeletal Remains Of At Least 6 Pirates Found At 1717 Whydah Shipwreck Off Cape Cod

Posted on by January 11, 2022

Model of the Whydah

Last February, archaeologists in Cape Cod recovered six skeletons from the ruins of the Whydah, a British pirate ship that sank during a 1717 storm with 146 men—and a trove of treasure—on board.

A team led by Barry Clifford, who discovered the wreck in 1984, found the remains inside huge concretions, or rigid masses that form around underwater objects. Experts at the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, now plan to examine the skeletons in further detail.

These are not the first human remains revered from the wreck site. In 2017,  human bone fragments were found near the wreck of the ship.  The bones were located close to where a pistol, which possibly belonged to the ship’s captain, “Black Sam” Bellamy, had been recovered.  Forensic scientists from the University of New Haven in Connecticut compared the DNA from the bones to a DNA sample given by one of Bellamy’s living descendants in the United Kingdom and determined that the fragments were not from the pirate captain.

Now the team hopes that modern technology will allow them to identify these pirates and reunite them with any surviving descendants. Continue reading →

Ichthyosaur: Huge Fossilized ‘Sea Dragon’ Found in UK Reservoir

Posted on by January 11, 2022

Last February, Joe Davis, a landscaper who works at Rutland Water Nature Reserve. spotted something odd poking out of the mud. He called the county council and said, “I think I’ve found a dinosaur.”

It wasn’t a dinosaur. But it was the fossilized remains of a 10m-long reptilian sea predator called an ichthyosaur. And it was the largest of its type ever discovered in the UK.

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New York City Seeks To Revitalize “Blue Highways” To Reduce Pollution & Congestion

Posted on by January 9, 2022

Photo: DHL Express UK

Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to shift traffic away from the city’s roads to its rails system and, particularly, to “blue highways,” the network of waterways that have for so long defined the city.

“For centuries, maritime freight was the core of New York City’s economy. Now, it’s time to re-engage the blue highway that can make deliveries safer, faster, and more sustainable,” he said.

“This report charts a real path forward for the future of a greener local economy — all while creating jobs and reducing traffic and pollution.”

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Night Sky Timelapse Of Hatteras Island NC, Outer Banks

Posted on by January 8, 2022

On a cold winter’s day, here on the west bank of the Hudson River, the idea of sitting on a beach in a slightly warmer climate, watching the stars in their inexorable progression across the night sky, sounds absolutely glorious. For those of us not in a position to travel to the Outer Banks and spend the night enjoying the beach sky, here is the latest timelapse from Wes Snyder Photography — While You Sleep – Night Sky Timelapse Of Hatteras Island NC, Outer Banks.

Congratulations to Cmdr. Billie J. Farrell, First Woman to Command USS Constitution

Posted on by January 7, 2022

Congratulations to Commander Billie J. Farrell who will be the 77th commanding officer and the first woman in the 224-year ship’s history to command the USS Constitution. She will assume command of the ship, known as Old Ironsides, during a change-of-command ceremony on Friday, January 21.

USS Constitution, based at Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard, is the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat. It played a crucial role in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812 and defended sea lanes from 1797 until 1855. The ship was undefeated in battle and destroyed or captured 33 opposing vessels. It earned the nickname Old Ironsides during the War of 1812, when British cannonballs were seen bouncing off its wooden hull.

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On 100th Anniversary of Shackleton’s Death, Two Memorial Expeditions in His Honor

Posted on by January 6, 2022

Endurance trapped in the ice.

Sir Ernest Shackleton died 100 years ago yesterday, on January 5, 1922, of a heart attack on South Georgia on an expedition to map the still uncharted coastal regions of Antarctica. He was only 47 when he died. Now, two very different expeditions will honor the memory and the accomplishments of the intrepid explorer. 

A team of scientists, part of the Shackleton Commemoration Expedition by Antarctic Quest 21, held a ceremony in the Antarctic honoring Shackleton. The expedition in his memory will cross Antarctica’s Forbidden Plateau to discover whether microplastics have permeated the peninsula.

Yesterday, there was also an update on a quite different expedition. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust confirmed that the Endurance22 Expedition, which is aiming to locate, survey and film the wreck of Endurance, the lost ship of renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, is undertaking final preparations ahead of its scheduled departure for Antarctica’s Weddell Sea from Cape Town, South Africa, on 5th February 2022.

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Ex-Queen Mary Operators in Alleged $2.4 Million PPP Loan Fraud

Posted on by January 5, 2022

In January of last year, we posted that the operator of the ex-Cunard Queen Mary filed for bankruptcy. The converted ship is owned by the City of Long Beach and has been managed by Eagle Hospitality, ex-Urban Commons, since 2016. Now, two executives of the bankrupt operator have been accused of stealing $2.4 million from a COVID-19 relief loan meant to pay their employees during the pandemic.

As reported by the LA Times: At the center of the bankruptcy proceedings are Urban Commons executives Howard Wu and Taylor Woods. In court filings, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi has labeled the two as “fraudsters.”

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Will Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford be Ready to Deploy in 2022?

Posted on by January 4, 2022

When the USS Gerald R. Ford was delivered in 2017, it was still years away from deployment as an aircraft carrier. Most of the 11 Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) didn’t work. The electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) that make up the Ford’s next-generation aircraft launch and retrieval capabilities were very unreliable. The new Dual Band Radar (DBR) system had problems. Even the toilets were not working. Some predicted that the ship would not be ready to deploy until 2024. Critics referred to the most expensive warship the world has ever seen as a $13 billion dollar berthing barge.

Now, it appears that the Ford may be ready to deploy in 2022, still years late and billions over budget but earlier than the worse case predictions. Just days before Christmas, the Navy announced that the last of the 11 weapons elevators was finally functional, fulfilling a promise made by the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mike Gilday, that the last of the troublesome elevators would be operational by the end of the year.

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CDC : Avoid Cruise Ship Travel Due to COVID-19 Omicron Variant

Posted on by January 3, 2022

Late last week, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised its COVID-19 travel health notice level for cruise ships to its highest warning level and said people should avoid traveling on cruise ships regardless of their vaccination status, as daily COVID-19 cases in the country climb to record highs due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The health agency has or is investigating COVID-19 cases on more than 90 ships. It starts an investigation if 0.10% or more passengers on guest voyages test positive for COVID-19.

CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association, responded:

The decision by the CDC to raise the travel level for cruise is particularly perplexing considering that cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard—far fewer than on land—and the majority of those cases are asymptomatic or mild in nature, posing little to no burden on medical resources onboard or onshore. No setting can be immune from this virus—however, it is also the case that cruise provides one of the highest levels of demonstrated mitigation against the virus. Cruise ships offer a highly controlled environment with science-backed measures, known testing and vaccination levels far above other venues or modes of transportation and travel, and significantly lower incidence rates than land.

The CLIA went on to note that COVID-19 infection rates on cruise ships are 33 percent lower than occurring currently onshore and that vaccination rates onboard cruise ships typically are upwards of 95 percent—significantly higher than the overall U.S. population which is hovering at 62 percent.  

Murdoch McGregor, UK Sailor of the Year for 2021 at Age 82

Posted on by January 2, 2022

Congratulations to Murdoch McGregor, who was named Sailor of the Year 2021 at the British Yachting Awards. At the age of 82, Murdoch McGregor completed a 1,900-mile trip around the UK in June.

The 80-day-long solo voyage in his 23-foot yacht, Artemis, raised more than £10,000 for the Mental Health UK charity.

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New Year’s Repost: Watching the Ball Drop — the Nautical Origins of a New Year’s Tradition

Posted on by December 31, 2021

The USNO Millennium Time Ball

Tonight, many will watch in person, online, or on television, as a jeweled ball drops in Times Square in New York City at exactly midnight to mark the arrival of the New Year, 2022. In past years, the crowd in Times Square numbered up to a million people. This year, as a result of the pandemic, there will be only a few thousand in attendance.

Nevertheless, the ball will still drop at midnight. The six-ton Waterford crystal ball covered in 32,276 LED lights will not actually be “dropped” but lowered from a flag pole on the roof of One Times Square. In New York City, the tradition dates back to 1907. But where did the tradition of dropping a ball to mark the time originate?  

The practice dates back to 1829 and was related to helping sailors calculate their position at sea. Here is an updated repost.

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