Dutch Shipyard to Build Canopée, French “Rocket Ship” with Wing Sails

The Dutch shipyard Neptune Marine has begun construction of the sailing cargo vessel Canopée, which will transport Ariane 6 rockets from Europe to the launch site in Kourou in French Guyana. The ship will feature 1,500 square meter sails to lower fuel consumption and emissions.

The cutting of steel was started just before last Christmas and the first bottom sections are under construction. The outfitting completion will be executed at Neptune Hardinxveld. Delivery of the vessel is scheduled end of 2022 after a series of trials and tests.

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New Study Reveals Multi-Ethnic Crew on the Mary Rose

The Mary Rose, often described as King Henry VIII’s favorite warship, sank on July 19, 1545 during the Battle of the Solent with the loss of most of its crew of 415. When the ship was raised in 1982, the remains of at least 179 crew members were discovered, together with thousands of objects ranging from weaponry to tools and games. Many of the crew’s skeletal remains were found to be well preserved, allowing scientists to investigate the backgrounds of the crew.

A recent study by researchers from Cardiff University, the Mary Rose Trust, and the British Geological Survey, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, used a technique called multi-isotope analysis on teeth to investigate where eight crew members spent their early years. The results suggest significant ethnic diversity in the Tudor Navy.

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New Global Craze — Shipwreck Wine Without the Shipwreck

Retrieved submerged bottles of Ocean Fathoms wine.
Image: Lara Castaognia

A new craze is spreading across the world of wine. Call it “shipwreck wine” without the shipwreck. Off the shores of California, Croatia, Spain, Britain, France, Argentina, Italy, and China; vintners are aging wines underwater in specially constructed ocean wine cellars. They report that the ocean-aged wines mature faster and, depending on the wine, were brighter and fruitier. The near-constant cool temperature underwater coupled with the total lack of oxygen is credited with the improved quality of the wine when it emerges from the briny deep.

The underwater wine cellars around the globe were inspired by the discovery of a shipwreck in the Baltic in 2010. In the wreck’s hold, divers found 30 bottles of champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution on the Baltic seabed.  Remarkably, the champagne was still highly drinkable. When the Baltic bubbly sold at auction, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, believed to date from between 1782 and 1788, went for 30,000 euros or roughly $43,500. 

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Remembering Susan Ahn Cuddy, First Female Asian American Officer, Gunnery Officer in US Navy

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so it seems appropriate to remember the life and accomplishments of Susan Ahn Cuddy, a Korean American who would serve as the first female Asian-American officer in the US Navy and would also become the first female Navy gunnery instructor.

After leaving the Navy at the end of World War II, Cuddy also worked as an intelligence analyst and section chief at the National Security Agency and ran a think tank during the Cold War. She worked on top-secret projects for the Defense Department and supervised more than 300 scholars and experts in Russian affairs.

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Fin Whales Found Dead Beneath HMAS Sydney at US Naval Base

As if anyone needed a reminder of how vulnerable whales are to ship strikes, when HMAS Sydney pulled into Naval Base San Diego over the weekend, it brought with it a grim cargo. The carcasses of two fin whales were dislodged from beneath the hull of the Royal Australian Navy destroyer. One whale was 20m long while the other was about 8m and are suspected to have been a mother and a calf.

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Cruise Line Threatens to Pull Out of Florida — When Politics and Policy Collide

Florida politics on Covid-19 vaccinations threatens to disrupt the cruise industry restart in Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced guidelines for trial cruises with volunteer passengers to test safety measures, which will be required for each ship before resuming regular passenger voyages in US waters. To bypass the trial cruises, the CDC says at least 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers must have been vaccinated.

Almost simultaneously, the Florida legislature passed a law prohibiting businesses from asking whether employees or customers have been vaccinated against Covid-19. In response, Frank Del Rio, the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. said that the new law could cause the company to suspend Florida departures and move its ships elsewhere.

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Billionaire Jeff Bezos Spending $500 Million on Three Masted Superyacht

Yacht Eos, reported to be similar but smaller than Bezos’ new yacht.

Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is spending upwards of $500 million to have a 417 feet (127-meter) long three-masted superyacht built at Oceano in the Netherlands.

Few details are available on the newbuilding, but reports are that it will have a second yacht as a tender and that the tender will be large enough to have its own helipad. (It has been suggested that the rigging on the superyacht would interfere with landing a helicopter.)

In terms of size, the new yacht will be roughly twice as long as the clipper ship Cutty Sark, and, in financial terms, will cost twice what Bezos paid when he purchased the Washington Post newspaper in 2013.

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Mysterious Gray Whale Die-Off On West Coast Continues

In early April, four gray whales were found dead in the San Francisco Bay area in a span of eight days. Last week another three dead gray whales washed ashore in the Bay area. Further north, a dead gray whale was also found on Klipsan Beach, WA, last week.

The deaths are a continuation of elevated gray whale strandings occurring along the west coast of North America from Mexico through Alaska since January 1, 2019. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have declared the occurrences as an “unusual mortality event,” or UME, defined by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act as an unexpected and significant die-off of a marine mammal species requiring an immediate response.

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HMS Victory Safely Berthed

Here is a new video from The National Museum of the Royal Navy describing the 20 year-long project to secure HMS Victory in her dock at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard.

As we posted back in August 2020, when HMS Victory went into drydock in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in 1922, she was supported by 22 steel cradles. In the almost 100 years that she has remained on the dock, the historic ship’s 3,500-tonne hull had been to slowly collapse in on itself. To save the ship, the cradles have been replaced by an innovative system of 134 “props” to distribute the load across the hull.

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Migaloo, “Rockstar” White Whale, Sighted Off New South Wales

There are reports that Migaloo, an all-white humpback whale, has been sighted off the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, on his annual migration from Antarctica to Queensland. Migaloo is considered by many to be a “rockstar” and is arguably the world’s most famous living whale.

First sighted in 1991, the all-white whale is among some 35,000 humpback whales that migrate north to subtropical waters where they mate and give birth. The timing of the migration depends on water temperatures, sea ice, predators, and the availability of food. 7news.com.au notes that this year, Migaloo is early.

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Update: Marine Corps Suspends General Over Deadly AAV Accident

Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Barker/Navy

The Marine Corps suspended Maj. Gen. Robert F. Castellvi last week as it investigates his role in the sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) that killed eight U.S. Marines and one Navy sailor.  

Marine Corps investigation, released in March, determined that the two-star general “bears some responsibility” for the incident in which a 35-year-old armored amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) sprang numerous leaks and sank off the coast of California last July. The investigation report concluded that the deaths were the result of poor training, a vehicle in “horrible condition,” and lapsed safety procedures in a rush to deploy an operational AAV platoon.

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Large Pods of North Atlantic Right Whales Sighted in Cape Cod Bay

WWLP-22News reports that at least 160 North Atlantic right whales were spotted in Cape Cod Bay and along South Shore at the end of last week. Given that the highly endangered species are estimated to number fewer than 400 animals, the right whale sightings in the area are extremely impressive. 

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has extended the small vessel speed restriction in Cape Cod Bay through May 15, 2021. Small vessels (less than 65’) are required to travel at speeds no greater than 10 knots in this area. Right whales are highly susceptible to injury and death due to vessel collision. A complementary federal speed restriction in the area applies to vessels 65’ and greater until May 15.

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Mermaiding — Freediving with a Tail Goes Global

The title of an article in CNN was intriguing — Why so many people in China are becoming mermaids. The article featured a recent event described as the “largest underwater mermaid show” that set a Guinness World Record at the Ambassador Lagoon inside China’s Atlantis Sanya resort on the island of Hainan.

Apparently, mermaid diving, also known as mermaiding, has become very popular in China. Akin to freediving, the would-be mermaids don’t wear a tank or use any external aids except for their mermaid tail. While the name may imply females, men are also joining in the fun.

Mermaiding’s popularity is not limited to China, however. Continue reading

VindØ – The World’s First Energy Island To Be Built Off Denmark

Denmark is planning on building three offshore wind farms with 200 turbines with a 3 GW capacity 100 kilometers off the coast in the North Sea.  Later phases of the project include an additional seven wind farms with 470 turbines.  On its completion, the entire project will have a capacity of 10 GW. 

To manage and service these new wind farms, Denmark has decided to build an artificial island to serve as an energy hub 80 kilometers from the shore of the Jutland peninsula. The artificial island will be owned by a public-private partnership through the VindØ consortium

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Sailor Finally Released From Abandoned Ship After Four Years

First Officer Mohammed Aisha had been stranded on the “cursed” MV Aman, for almost four years onboard, stuck off the Egyptian coast. He has finally been freed and has flown home to Syria.

The BBC reports that it began in July 2017, when the MV Aman was detained at the Egyptian port of Adabiya. The cargo ship was held because it had expired safety equipment and classification certificates.

It should have been easy enough to resolve, but the ship’s Lebanese contractors failed to pay for fuel and the MV Aman‘s owners in Bahrain were in financial difficulty.

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Bob Bartlett and His “Little Morrissey” — Voyage to Greenland

We recently posted about the schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, ex Ernestina, ex Effie M. Morrissey, beginning a new chapter as a sail training vessel for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Here is a repost of a documentary, narrated by the polar explorer, Captain Bob Bartlett, describing a voyage to Greenland in the schooner he refers to as his “Little Morrissey.”

Captain Bartlett sailed with Robert Peary in his expeditions to the North Pole. Bartlett sailed the schooner Morrissey in twenty voyages to the Arctic.  In total, Bartlett spent more than 50 years mapping and exploring the waters of the Arctic and led over 40 expeditions, more than anyone before or since.  While this film is dated 1947, it was shot on an earlier voyage north, as Captain Bartlett died in 1946.

Effie M Morrisey (Ernestina) Coastal Schooner 1947 Classic Film

Wood From a 17th Century Shipwreck Gives Guitars a Unique Sound

We recently posted about two “heritage desks” built for the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of the Navy from timbers and fittings from the USS Constitution and several other historic ships. The CBC recently had an account of guitars made from shipwrecked timber:

When Greg Fleming was looking for some old wood to make a new guitar, he knew just where to look. What he didn’t know for a while was just how old that wood was.

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Comparing Carbon Footprints — Ships, Planes, Trucks & Germany

We recently posted “No, 15 Large Ships Do Not Pollute More Than All the Cars in the World.” It was based on a claim made by Dr. James Corbett in 2009, that only addressed sulfur pollution. Enthusiastic journalists picked up on the catchy claim and said that 15 large ships create more total pollution than all the cars in the world. The problem with that assertion is that Corbett’s rough calculation did not, among other things, include the trillion-tonne gorilla in the room, the carbon footprint of cars vs ships. Cars actually produce far more greenhouse gases than ships.

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Faux Fish — Fighting Seafood Fraud

Do you know what you are getting when you buy fish in a store or order it prepared in a restaurant? It isn’t always easy. An analysis of 44 recent studies of more than 9,000 seafood samples from restaurants, fishmongers, and supermarkets in more than 30 countries, performed by Guardian Seascape, found that 36% were mislabelled, exposing seafood fraud on a vast global scale.

The Guardian reports that many of the studies used relatively new DNA analysis techniques. In one comparison of sales of fish labeled “snapper” by fishmongers, supermarkets, and restaurants in Canada, the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, researchers found mislabelling in about 40% of fish tested. The UK and Canada had the highest rates of mislabelling in that study, at 55%, followed by the US at 38%.

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