SS Columbia’s Rebirth Fundraiser

Posted on by April 27, 2010

c-in-her-primeSS Columbia, built in 1902, is the oldest surviving passenger steam vessel in the United States. The SS Columbia Project is dedicated to restoring and operating the classic passenger steamer.  They are holding their first official fundraising event tommorrow featuring a cruise on the Detroit River on board the M.V. Friendship.  Complimentary pizza, delivered by the J.W. Westcott II mailboat, will be served and a cash bar will be available.

Click here to learn more.

From the SS Columbia Project :
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Australian adventurer & teenage circumnavigator to re-enact Capt. Bligh’s epic open boat voyage

Posted on by April 27, 2010

bountyboatAustralian adventurer Don McIntyre and teenage circumnavigator Mike Perham to re-enact Capt William Bligh’s epic mutiny on the Bounty open boat voyage

Australian adventurer and solo round the world sailor, Don McIntyre announced today that Mike Perham, the world’s youngest solo circumnavigator, has signed up as Second-in-command for the 2010 Bounty Boat Expedition. This is a 4,000-mile re-enactment 221 years after Capt William Bligh and his supporting crew were forced into an open-boat by the mutineering crew on HMS Bounty and successfully sailed from Tonga to Timor in the Pacific.

McIntyre and Perham will face the same deprivations, with little food, no charts or toilet paper and only the limited navigation implements that were available to Bligh.

The search is now on for two extra crew to join this expedition, which has a serious scientific purpose, as well as raise money for MND research. This opportunity of a lifetime to re-create history will cost each individual £10,000 to participate. Only those with an extreme sense of adventure need apply.

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Amanda Ridgely Lake

Posted on by April 27, 2010

amanda-lakeSad news regarding a a remarkable woman and sailor.

Amanda Ridgely Lake

Amanda Ridgely Lake died in her home in Fairhaven, MA on August 19. Ms. Lake was 44.  Ms. Lake was only one of a handful of women to ever earn a 100-ton Near Coast Master’s License, allowing her to pilot large vessels in and out of commercial ports. At the time of her death, she taught classes on advanced ship-handling and maritime safety at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to help others achieve similar licenses.  An accomplished sailor of all size ships, Ms. Lake served as Chief Mate and in various other positions aboard the Massachusetts tall ship Ernestina. After age and funding cuts forced the 115-year-old schooner dockside in 2003, she joined the crew of Pete Seeger’s Hudson Sloop, Clearwater.

A memorial service will be held for Ms. Lake on the deck of the schooner Ernestina on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 2:00 pm in New Bedford, MA.

Read the rest of the obituary

John Stobart and the Ships of South Street

Posted on by April 27, 2010

stobartLast year the National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) published a fascinating booklet, John Stobart and the Ships of South Street, which features the pre-eminent maritime artist’s paintings of ships arriving or departing from New York’s South Street docks.

At first the presentation struck me as odd.  The NMHS describes it as a booklet rather than a book, which is apt, as it is soft cover and only twenty four pages.   John Stobart’s work is best enjoyed at full size.  The prints of his paintings are breathtaking and worthy of study for their technical accuracy as well as his skillful composition and his breathtaking use of light and shadow.   Can such a slight volume do Stobart’s work justice?  After a few minutes of study, it became clear to me, that it can and indeed does.
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SELI 1 Update: Lee Shores and Legal Disputes

Posted on by April 27, 2010

seli1Lee shores were long the bane of sailing ships. They are no better for motor vessels who lose their engines or drag their anchors.   Table Bay where the SELI 1 grounded is just such a lee shore and has been a hazard for ships for hundreds of years. An interesting perspective from Ports & Ships Maritime News – Table Bay as a lee shore – the grounding of the SELI 1 and other similar incidents.
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The Schooner Elena – A Legend Returns

Posted on by April 27, 2010

elana“Super yachts”  rarely impress me.  Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich’s megayacht, “Eclipse,” may be the largest private yacht now sailing but it is, to my eye at least, a bit boring.   It may be over 550 feet long and cost a bazillion rubles, but so what?

The new Schooner Elena on the other hand is both breathtaking and a resurrected bit of history. The first Elena was built for New York’s Morton Plant in 1911 by Nathaniel Herreshoff. She was beautiful and the fastest yacht of her day, winning races for years including the 1928 Trans Atlantic King’s Cup from New York to Santander.
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Panels on Solar Assisted Car Carrier Auriga Leader Perform Well

Posted on by April 27, 2010
Solar Panels on the Upper Deck of the Augira Leader

Solar Panels on the Upper Deck of the Augira Leader

After four voyages the solar panels on the upper of the NYK car carrier Auriga Leader have performed better than was expected but  have also demonstrated how far there is to go in harnessing solar power.

The ship has generated 32,300 KW hours of electricity, the equivalent of seven months of electricity by 17 households in Japan, which was 1.4 times greater than that generated during land-based tests. Nevertheless, the electricity was the equivalent of only 0.05% of the ship’s propulsion power and 1% of its onboard electricity consumption.
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Spotted Dick Off the Menu

Posted on by April 27, 2010
Spotted Dick

Spotted Dick

The Aubrey/Maturin series of novels by Patrick O’Brian introduced the world to, among other things,  a range of obscure traditional British cuisine, which notably included suet puddings such as “Floating Island”, the unappetizing “Drowned Baby” and the perennial favorite “Spotted Dick”.   This week at a Flintshire council canteen in the UK, the traditional suet pudding “Spotted Dick” has been renamed “Spotted Richard” – because customers keep making jokes about the name.  Outrage has ensued.

As reported by the Sun:
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Fireboat named for FDNY heroes killed on 9/11

Posted on by April 27, 2010

fireboat350From Marine Log:

A fireboat launched September 11, 2009 at Eastern Shipbuilding, Panama City, Fla. is named the Three Forty Three in honor of the 343 New York City firefighters killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The Three Forty Three is expected to arrive in New York City in December and will be assigned to Marine 1, stationed on the Hudson River in Manhattan, replacing the 50-year-old John D. McKean.

The FDNY Marine Fleet consists of more than 30 vessels responsible for over 450 miles of coastline and harbors and has protected New York City residents for 134 years.

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The unseen tragedy behind Superferry 9

Posted on by May 1, 2010

superferry9I’ve always been struck by the tragedy that those most in need of ferry service are often also most at risk.    We have seen recent ferry accidents in the Philippines with the sinking of the Superferry 9 resulting in nine deaths, in Tonga with the loss of  73 passengers with the sinking of the Princess Ashika and earlier this year the deaths of an estimated 250 passengers when a ferry capsized near Sulawesi, Indonesia.    Last year, MV Princess of the Stars, capsized in the Philippines with the loss of 800 lives.

Barista Uno writing in the Marine Café blog in the Philippines has an intriguing perspective and insight on the sinking of the Superferry 9 and similar casualties:

The unseen tragedy behind Superferry 9
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The Floating Chapels of the Seamen’s Church Institute

Posted on by April 23, 2014

seachurchIf you can’t get sailors to church, bring the church to the sailors.  That was the strategy used in 1844 by the Protestant Church Missionary Society for Seamen, which was renamed the Seamen’s Church Institute. As they celebrate their 175th anniversary, it is a good time to remember the Floating Chapels of the Seamen’s Church Institute.

The Floating Chapel of our Savior for Seamen was built on the hull of a ferry boat. Originally moored  at Whitehall Slip, it soon was moved to Pike Street on the East River in New York City.  Services were held there from 1844 to 1866 when the chapel was deemed unseaworthy and replaced with another. The second chapel remained at Pike Street until 1910 when it was moved to Staten Island and taken ashore to become the All Saints Episcopal Church where it remained in use until it burned down the day after Christmas in 1958.

In 1846, only two years after the construction of the Floating Chapel on Pike Street, the Floating Chapel of the Holy Comforter was built and moored at the end of Dey Street where it remained until 1868.

The Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia built its own Floating Church in 1848, the Floating Church of the Redeemer, which was in use for roughly ten years.

The Floating Church of the Seamen’s Church Institute

A Bad Week for Bulk Carriers – Black Rose Sinks, Seli 1 Aground

Posted on by May 1, 2010
Seli-1 Aground off Cape Town

Seli-1 Aground off Cape Town

Last week was a bad week for bulk carriers.   The MV Black Rose, a bulk carrier with a crew of  27 which had loaded 23,847 tons of iron ore,  sank near the port of Paradip on the east coast of India.  All but one of the crew were rescued.  The Chief Engineer is believed lost.

MV Black Rose Sinks Off Paradip Port
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Update: Beluga Shipping Underway in the North East Passage

Posted on by May 1, 2010

passage_600aWe have been following the progress of Beluga Shipping in their attempt to make a commercial transit of the “Northern Sea Route” which is also referred to as the “North East Passage.”  See our “Beluga Group attempts the Northern Sea Route” and “Arctic Waters are Getting Busier“.

Captain D. Peter Boucher has a great update on Beluga’s progress on the Nautical Log Blog , in his post, North East Passage , as does yesterday’s New York Times, Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws.
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Henry Hudson on Manhattan Island – 400 Years Ago Today

Posted on by May 1, 2010

halfmoon3Today there are 1.6 million or so residents on the island of Manhattan.  How things have changed. Four hundred years ago on September 12th, 1609, when Henry Hudson first stepped onto the island, there were roughly 600 Lenape Indians living there.  The natives called the island Manna-hata, as recorded in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Hudson’s ship, Half Moon. Manna-hata is translated from the Lenape to mean the “island of many hills.”

The Lenape Indians would later gave a different account of the name to Moravian missionary John Heckewelder. They called it Manahachtanienk, which in the Delaware language, means “the island where we all became intoxicated.”  OK, so maybe things haven’t changed so much after all.

On that note I will raise a glass to Henry Hudson who arrived in what is now New York City 400 years ago on this day.

Dick Dowling Days

Posted on by May 1, 2010

sabinepassLast February, we posted about Dick Dowling and the battle of Sabine Pass.  This weekend , September 12th and 13th, during “Dick Dowling Days” there will be re-enactments of the Civil War battle on the Sabine Pass State Historic Battleground Site in Texas, commemorating the 146th anniversary of the battle.   Re-enactors portraying Union and Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines will drill, display their gear and re-enact two battles each of the two days.   Admission is free.

Click here for a schedule of events