Fifty Three Years Ago, the Exploding Whale or How Not To Remove a Whale Carcass

Posted on by January 11, 2023

Fifty years ago this November,  the residents of Florence, Oregon learned how not to dispose of a dead whale We recently posted about the burial of a dead humpback whale on the beach in Atlantic City. This was the correct way to dispose of a dead whale’s carcass.

Fifty-three years ago, in Florence, OR, local officials attempted to dispose of a beached whale carcass the wrong way.  Rather than cut up and bury the carcass, they decided to use dynamite to blow it up. While, no doubt, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time, it wasn’t. The explosives blasted large chunks of decayed whale skyward, raining down on curious bystanders, and even crushing a nearby parked car.  The moment was caught on video and has since been memorialized on YouTube (see below.) 

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After Grounding, Maryland Bans On-Duty Marine Pilots From Using Cell Phones

Posted on by January 10, 2023

The Maryland Board of Pilots has decided to enact a rule change that forbids on-duty pilots from using their phones after the Coast Guard determined that a distracted pilot’s cell phone use contributed to a container ship grounding. 

In March of last year, the container ship Ever Forward near Baltimore in the Chesapeake Bay failed to make a turn in the Craighill channel and ran hard aground on a mud flat, where it remained stuck for more than 35 days. The Coast Guard accident investigation report in late October determined that a “causal factor” contributing to the accident was the pilot’s inattention while on his cell phone, including sending texts, making a series of phone calls, and drafting an email while the ship was underway. 

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Humpback Whale Burial Draws Crowd to Atlantic City Beach

Posted on by January 9, 2023

On Sunday, a crowd gathered to watch the examination and burial of the carcass of a beached humpback whale in the sand in the beach at Atlantic City, NJ. It was the second whale to come ashore in the city in the last month.

The Press of Atlantic City reported that dozens of observers came and stood on the sand dunes over the approximately five hours crews were working, watching them dissect and dispose of the corpse. A bulldozer was driven onto the beach to dig the whale its grave and bury the sea creature. The most common observation made by passersby was the pungent smell of the decomposing whale.

The whale, a female humpback, was about 10 yards long and described as a “sub-adult.” Experts on the site hoped to collect the samples to help determine the cause of death. The team examined the whale’s superficial features as well as its internal organs and stomach contents.

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Wanted: Two Innkeepers on San Francisco Bay’s East Brother Light Station

Posted on by January 8, 2023

The East Bay Light Station Bed and Breakfast Inn, at the entrance to San Pablo Bay from San Francisco Bay, is looking to hire two innkeepers for a period of two years. The joint positions, which start in April of this year, come with some very specific requirements.

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Iran Converting Two Panamax Container Ships to “Drone Carriers”

Posted on by January 6, 2023

In 1982 during the Falklands conflict, the Royal Navy commandeered two British container ships and converted them into impromptu carriers carrying Harrier jump jets and Harrier helicopters. Now over 40 years later, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard is reported to be converting two Panamax container ships to “drone carriers” according to Iranian social media and naval analyst H.I. Sutton. 

Maritime Executive reports that it appears the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be converting two container ships to drone carrier configurations. One has been reported as the former 3,300 TEU Panamax container ship Sarvin – currently listed in Equasis as “in repair/conversion” – and Sutton has identified the other as a sister ship, the Perarin. Both were last seen on AIS in 2019, lying at anchor off Bandar Abbas. 

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After Fire, Union Calls For New Staten Island Ferries to be Docked Pending Investigation

Posted on by January 3, 2023

On December 22, the new Ollis Class Staten Island ferry Sandy Ground suffered an engine room fire at the height of rush hour, requiring the evacuation of 866 passengers and 16 crew members aboard. The ferry was anchored as firefighters extinguished the fire. Five passengers were reported to be injured. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

Now, the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association — which represents captains, mates, and engineers on the Staten Island Ferry — has written a letter to the city Department of Transportation, calling for three Ollis-class ferries to be put out of service while the city probes the blaze on the Sandy Ground ferry.

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Cruise Ship Viking Orion Denied Port Entries Due to “Biofouling” — What Happened?

Posted on by January 2, 2023

Eight hundred passengers, reported to be mostly Americans, found themselves stranded on the cruise ship Viking Orion off South Australia for seven days after the ship was denied permission to dock in Adelaide, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hobart, due to marine growth or “biofoul” on the ship’s hull.

Australia’s National Maritime Coordination Centre established that the ship’s hull had small amounts of biofoul – marine microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animals.

The Guardian reports that authorities ordered the Viking Orion’s agent to have its hull cleaned before entering Australian waters.

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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, 2022

The USNO Millennium Time Ball

Tonight, millions 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, 2023. In recent years, the crowd in Times Square has been limited due to the pandemic, whereas this year, the pandemic restrictions have been lifted, so there should be a sizeable in-person turnout, despite forecasted rain this evening. 

Regardless of the turnout, the ball will 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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More Than 275 Artifacts Recovered from Franklin Expedition’s HMS Erebus

Posted on by December 30, 2022

A team of researchers conducted 56 dives over 11 days in September on the wreck of the HMS Erebus from the 1845 Franklin Expedition near Gjoa Haven recovering more than 275 additional artifacts from the historic shipwreck. The newly retrieved artifacts included a corrective lens from a pair of eyeglasses, a leather portfolio with a quill still pressed inside as well as a decorative box for drafting, a piece of paper that may be infused with metal, and a box of officers’ epaulets.

In 2020, archaeologists from Parks Canada retrieved more than 350 artifacts from the wreck site, including epaulets from a lieutenant’s uniform, ceramic dishes, wine bottles, a hairbrush with strands of human hair, and a pencil case. 

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Greenland’s Glaciers Melting 100 Times Faster Than Estimated

Posted on by December 29, 2022

A disturbing report from Phys.org. Greenland’s glaciers are melting 100 times faster than previously calculated, according to a new model that takes into account the unique interaction between ice and water at the island’s fjords. 

Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the model is the first designed specifically for vertical glacier fronts—where ice meets the ocean at a sharp angle. It reflects recent observations of an Alaskan glacier front melting up to 100 times as fast as previously assumed. According to the researchers, the model can be used to improve both ocean and ice sheet models, which are crucial elements of any global climate model.

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Ex-RN Patrol Boat Scimitar for Sale

Posted on by December 28, 2022

Was there something missing from your stocking this holiday season? Perhaps the used, but still in good shape, Royal Navy patrol boat of your dreams? Then you could be in luck. Alaric Bond was kind enough to pass along an E-Bay classified ad for Scimitar – a former Royal Navy patrol boat on offer for £134,995. The 16 m (52 ft 6 in) Scimitar is one of two Scimitar-class fast patrol boats that served in Northern Ireland in their early careers and as guard ships with the Gibraltar Squadron from 2003 to late 2020. Scimitar and her sister vessel Sabre were decommissioned in Portsmouth on March 30, 2022.

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Sting — Christmas At Sea (Live from Durham Cathedral)

Posted on by December 25, 2022

We hope everyone is having a joyous holiday season.  Here is a repost of a beautiful version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Christmas at Sea,” performed by Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting.

Sting – Christmas At Sea (Live from Durham Cathedral)


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Over the Holidays & in the New Year, May St. Nicholas Hold the Tiller

Posted on by December 24, 2022

An updated holiday season repost.

Saint Nicholas, long associated with Christmas and gift-giving, is also the patron saint of ships and sailors. The St. Nicholas Center notes: “Many ports, most notably in Greece, have icons of Nicholas, surrounded by ex-votos of small ships made of silver or carved of wood. Sailors returning safely from sea, place these in gratitude to St. Nicholas for protection received. In some places, sailors, instead of wishing one another luck, say, “May St. Nicholas hold the tiller.”

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Repost on the Winter Solstice — Shortest Day & Longest Shadows, or No Shadow At All

Posted on by December 21, 2022

Happy Winter Solstice to all! In the northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The sun is at its southernmost point of travel, over the imaginary circle on the globe we refer to as the Tropic of Capricorn. Today is also the day in which a person standing outside at noon in the northern hemisphere, outside of the tropics, would cast the longest shadow. If you are on the Tropic of Capricorn, however, at noon today, you would have no shadow at all. 

Reading an article in The Sailors’ Magazine and Seamen’s Friend, Volume 43, Issue 3, of  1871, got me thinking about shadows and the solstice. (I will admit that this is more than a touch odd.) It seems that at an 1871 gathering at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, a Rev. Mr. Miner, of Canada presented a paper called “The Snow Line” in which he observed, “Should a man start from the Tropic of Cancer at the winter solstice and walk 18 miles per day northward for six months, his shadow would remain nearly the same each day at noon.”  If instead of starting at the Tropic of Cancer one began at the Tropic of Capricorn, you might do away with your noon shadow altogether. 

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