“Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben James?” (If you do, it may be from the Woodie Guthrie song.) The destroyer USS Reuben James was sunk by a German torpedo while on convoy duty 80 years ago yesterday, roughly a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the world war against the Axis powers.
When the war in Europe broke out in September 1939, the United States declared its neutrality while at the same time establishing combined air and ship “Neutrality Patrols.” The fact that US naval ships were escorting English ships and had orders to “shoot on sight” German submarines, meant American neutrality was honored more in the breach than observance.
Thousands of dead crabs, lobsters, and fish washed up recently along Teesside beaches on the UK’s North East coast. Waist deep piles of seaweed and dead and dying crustaceans and fish have been reported. Variously described as the “worst case ever seen” and “
On Halloween, Sunday, October 31, at 2:30 Pacific Time (5:30 Eastern TIme), 
For years, 
In one of the stranger maritime stories of late, the 
One of the traditions of US icebreakers operating in the Arctic is “ice liberty.” When an icebreaker encounters a thick ice floe, the crew is allowed liberty to get off the vessel to walk about or play games from touch football to hockey. 
In 1960, the archaeological remains of Norse buildings were discovered at 
The 
On Thursday, 
Following an 
While under tow in the Guayas River, near Guayaquil, Ecuador, the 250′ long Brazilian sail training ship 
In early October, a crack in a pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach, California spilled some 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. On Saturday, the 
For several years, the 
The wreck of the legendary cutter 