Commodore David Hughes, believed to be the Royal Navy’s oldest veteran, has died, just shy of his 107th birthday. An excerpt from the obituary on the Royal Navy website:
The New Zealand-born officer was one of the last survivors of the Yalta Conference – where Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin drew up plans for post-war Europe – one of many remarkable moments in a 32-year naval career.
Yesterday, more than 20 Russian aircraft and two coastguard ships shadowed the Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Defender, sailing near Crimea. Moscow’s defence ministry said a patrol ship fired warning shots and a jet dropped bombs in the path of HMS Defender as it sailed some 12 miles (19km) off Crimea’s coast. The UK government rejected Russia’s account of the incident and denied that any warning shots had been fired.
The BBC reports that HMS Defender was sailing from Odessa in southern Ukraine to Georgia. To get there, it passed south of the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that has not been recognized internationally.
The US Navy is having a problem with its Virginia-class fast attack submarines. Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker told the Senate Armed Services Committee that some parts are wearing out far faster than expected. The Navy has had to cannibalize hundreds of subs for working replacement parts.
“There are parts on the Virginia class that we thought were going to be life-of-the-submarine parts, and they are failing more quickly than we originally envisioned,” Harker said, adding that the service’s sub crews and parts support are having to go back in and find replacement parts.
Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Navy has swapped more than 1,600 parts among its new Virginia-class submarines since 2013 to ease maintenance bottlenecks as components that are supposed to last 33 years wear out decades sooner.
Dhow Obaid
Last October, the mightly dhow Obaid set sail from the Majid Obaid Bin Majid Al Falasi & Sons shipyard on Dubai Creek. The Guinness Book of World Records has confirmed Obaid as the largest wooden Arabic dhow in the world. It is also one of the largest wooden ships ever built.
The Obaid of 2020 brings to mind the schooner Wyoming of 1909, often referred to as the largest wooden ship ever built. Although the two vessels are separated in time by 111 years, they have much in common. Both were built primarily of wood with steel and iron for additional strength and both push the limits of how large a wooden ship can be practically built.
German battle Cruiser Derfflinger Image: Orkney Library and Archive
Following the Armistice of November 11, 1918, which ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I, the German High Seas Fleet of 74 ships was interned at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. While the armistice ended the fighting, it would still take six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Part of the haggling over terms of the treaty involved how to divide up the ships of the German fleet amongst the victors.
On the morning of June 21, 1919, German Admiral Erich Raeder, in command of the interned ships, sent out a flag signal, “To all Commanding Officers and the Leader of the Torpedo Boats. Paragraph Eleven of today’s date. Acknowledge. Chief of the Interned Squadron.” The signal was repeated by semaphore and searchlights.
The British had no idea what the message meant, but the German officers understood. It was an order to scuttle the fleet. Continue reading
Before chemical or petroleum-based sealants, tar made from pine trees had a myriad of uses; from protecting hemp ropes, lines, and cable from rot; to waterproofing canvas; for preserving wood; to being used as an antiseptic in chronic skin conditions. It was also known as Stockholm tar because a single company held a royal monopoly on its export out of Stockholm, Sweden.
In the 17th century, the Royal Navy bought most of its tar from Sweden, shifting in the 18th century to importing from its North American colonies, primarily from the Carolinas. British sailors whose hands would become stained by handling tarred lines became known as “tars.” Residents of North Carolina, where tar was produced, became known as “tar heels.”
But how does one make tar from pine? Continue reading
USS Cornubia, ex lady Davis
Happy Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth National Independence Day is also the newest Federal holiday. The legislation, passed by both the House and Senate, was recently signed into law by President Biden. The holiday commemorates when emancipation arrived in Galveston, Texas by steamship, 156 years ago today. Here is an updated repost.
Although the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the nation’s Civil War on April 9, 1865, emancipation did not arrive in Texas until two ex-Confederate steamships sailed into Galveston Harbor two months later.
Schooners Stephen Taber and Lewis R French in the 2018 Great Schooner Race. (Credit: Richard Ball)
The Maine Windjammer fleet was hit hard by the pandemic last summer. Most of the schooners didn’t sail and those that did offered fewer trips. As things return closer to normal, it is a good time to consider two of the oldest commercial sailing vessels still in service, the schooner Stephen Taber and the Lewis R. French, each celebrating their 150th year.
We recently posted about Michael Packard, a Cape Cod diver, who found himself scooped up inside the mouth of a humpback whale. Most of the media reports used the term “swallowed” by the whale. If the word “swallow” is defined as “cause or allow something to pass down the throat,” the description is impossible. A humpback’s esophagus is only about 4 to 5″ in diameter, far too small to swallow a diver, especially one wearing a SCUBA tank. As one might expect, Mr. Pollard was promptly spat out by the whale, fortunately with minor injuries.
Perhaps ironically, some of the largest whales are filter feeders which feed on krill, plankton, and small fish. They have throats too small to swallow a human. Toothed whales are a different story. Sperm whales, the third-largest whale species, are toothed and prey on giant squid. Some sperm whales have an esophagus several feet in diameter, large enough to swallow a squid or a human whole.
Indeed, there is the story of James Bartley, who in the late nineteenth-century on a whaling expedition off the Falkland Islands, was said to have been swallowed by a sperm whale and was found to be still alive days later in the stomach of the whale.
Exciting news from the crew of the Barque Picton Castle. Full scholarships are now being offered to those accepted in the highly regarded Picton Castle’s Bosun School. From their announcement:
We’re thrilled to hold our tenth session of Bosun School this summer from July 14th to September 29th in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. Bosun School is a land-based marine skills enhancement program designed for aspiring mariners who want to improve their hands-on ship and boat-related abilities.
Thanks to the support of generous funders and benefactors, we’re offering a full scholarship for every Bosun School student. Continue reading
One hundred and seventeen years ago today, the disaster on General Slocum resulted in the largest loss of life in New York City prior to the attacks of 9/11/01. An updated repost.
At around 9AM on June 15, 1904, approximately 1,350 passengers, mostly women and children from the German-American community of New York’s Lower East Side, boarded the Knickerbocker Steamship Company paddle steamer, General Slocum, for an annual end-of-school outing to Locust Grove Picnic Ground at Eatons Neck on Long Island. The trip was sponsored by the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Instead of a fun-filled day away from the city, the trip shortly turned into a nightmare. Continue reading
A diver from Cape Cod, Massachusetts was gulped up and then spat out by a humpback whale feeding off the coast of Provincetown early Friday morning. The diver, Michael Packard, 56, of Wellfleet, was hunting for lobsters while about 45 feet down. He told WBZ-TV, after he was released from Cape Cod hospital, how “all of a sudden I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark.”
This seems like a good video for a summer Sunday — two 60-foot long whale kites flying over Delray Beach, Florida, flown by Randy “the Kite Man” Lowe. Video by Larry Richardson.
When Whales Fly — Giant Kites Soar Over Delray Beach, Florida
A thick, slimy layer of so-called “sea snot” has spread in Turkey’s Sea of Marmara to the south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.
Reuters reports that scientists say climate change and pollution have contributed to the proliferation of the organic matter, also known as marine mucilage, which contains a wide variety of microorganisms and can flourish when nutrient-rich sewage flows into seawater.
When the cruise ship Celebrity Millennium departed from St. Maarten on June 5 for a seven-night cruise visiting Aruba, Curacao, and Barbados, each of the 600 passengers (over 12 years old) and 700 crew members had been fully vaccinated and had been recently tested for Covid-19. Nevertheless, yesterday the cruise line announced that two passengers had tested positive for the virus. The two infected passengers had shared a stateroom and are reported to be asymptomatic. They have been isolated and are receiving medical care.
How did the two passengers become infected? While the vaccines are highly effective, they are not 100%. A small number of so-called breakthrough cases have been observed. There were apparently a few unvaccinated children onboard the ship as well.
Are these two cases an indication of failure or success? Continue reading
Photo: Caitlyn Nieblas/Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari
The Orange County Register had an interesting article recently. They reported that last Saturday a whale-watching boat reported seeing what they believe to be a “flue” whale, a hybrid blue-fin whale, swimming off Dana Point, CA. The whale has been spotted on and off in the waters off Southern California since 2004. Blue whales are the largest creatures to have ever existed on earth. Fin whales are the second largest.
The first hybrid blue-fin whale was recorded in 1984 off the coast of Spain. The roughly 4-year-old whale had coloration and body proportions that were intermediate between those of a fin and a blue whale, although at 19.4 meters was significantly larger than a fin whale of a similar age. DNA analysis revealed that the mother of the hybrid was a blue whale and the father a fin whale.
The ex-Cunard luxury liner Queen Mary, which had served as a tourist attraction and hotel in Long Beach, CA since 1972, was shut down by the pandemic. Then in January, the manager of the ship on behalf of the City of Long Beach filed for bankruptcy. Now, the Long Beach Post reports that a recent Queen Mary inspection survey reveals that urgent repairs have been neglected over the last five years, leaving the historic ship vulnerable to flooding or possibly even capsizing if critical work isn’t addressed.
The report from a city-hired naval architecture and marine engineering firm Elliott Bay Design Group, which inspected the ship on April 28, says the city would need an additional $23 million in urgent safety repairs to keep the ship “viable” over the next two years.
In a few days, the composite clipper ship Cutty Sark will be graced with a new carved wooden figurehead carved by one of the last master carvers, Andy Peters. The figurehead, like its two predecessors, represents the witch Nannie Dee, from Robert Burn’s poem, Tam o’ Shanter. She is scantily clad and holds a long tuft of a horse’s tail in her outstretched hand. The figurehead itself tells the story of why the grand old ship is named Cutty Sark.
Back in 2017, we posted Inflated Wing Sail — Rig of the Future? The post showed a prototype daysailer with a single inflatable wing sail (IWS) without winches, halyards, shrouds, or complex deck gear. Now French tire manufacturer Michelin has collaborated with the two Swiss developers to scale up the IWS design to provide sail assist on merchant ships. Their Wing Sail Mobility (WISAMO) project design is an automated, telescopic, inflatable wing sail system that is expected to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%.
I am aware of only one man who was praised by both Eisenhower and Hitler. A repost on the 77th anniversary of D-Day.
General Dwight David Eisenhower said that “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”
Adolph Hitler referred to Andrew Higgins as the “new Noah,” though his admiration was more begrudging. On the 77th anniversary of the Normandy landings, better known as D-Day, it seems worthwhile to remember Andrew Higgins and the amazing Higgins boat.