If you are fond of obscure and slightly absurd history, the Pig War of 1859 is the war for you. It involved a territorial dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest. On the American side, 461 soldiers armed with 14 cannons on San Juan Island faced over 2,140 British sailors, soldiers and marines on five British warships mounting 70 guns. Famous or soon-to-be-famous army officers, naval captains, an admiral, and even the German Emperor would play a role in the conflict which lasted over 12 years. When it was all finally over, the only casualty was a pig.
Spain’s new S-80 submarines, under construction, will be able to operate at depths of at least 350 meters. If one gets into trouble, however, the Spanish Navy’s only ship set up for rescue and recovery can only hold its position in depths of around 80 meters. To remedy this, El Pais reports that the Spanish Navy is building a Military Action Ship for Underwater Intervention, (whose acronym in Spanish is BAM IS.)
The €192 million BAM IS, including equipment, will feature dynamic positioning, side-scan radar, two hyperbaric chambers, two remotely-operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), two underwater communication systems, emergency supply systems and a helipad to evacuate the injured and receive supplies. It is based on the Meteoro-class offshore patrol vessel design the Spanish navy already operates, but will have a higher tonnage (5,000 tons compared to 2,670) and double decks.
In addition to its capabilities as a submarine rescue ship, it will also be outfitted for multiple tasks. Continue reading
Rockhopper penguins on Tristan da Cuhna, Photo: Andy Schofield/Pew Charitable Trust via AP
Tristan Da Cuhna is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The government of the island is now creating the fourth largest completely protected marine area in the world and the largest in the Atlantic. Fishing and other “extractive activities” will be banned from 627,247 square kilometers (242,181 square miles) of ocean around Tristan da Cunha and the archipelago’s three other major islands.
The Associated Press reports that the sanctuary will be the biggest “no-take zone” in the Atlantic Ocean and the fourth biggest anywhere in the world, protecting fish that live in the waters and tens of millions of seabirds that feed on them, the territory said. The isolated area, roughly equidistant between South Africa and Argentina, supports 85% of the endangered northern rockhopper penguins, 11 species of whales and dolphins, and most of the world’s sub-Antarctic fur seals, according to the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project.
The 2020-2021 Vendee Globe Race set off last Sunday from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France. The 24,000 nautical miles race, sailed every four years, is billed as the world’s greatest singlehanded, non-stop, yacht race. Notwithstanding the impact of the global pandemic, this year’s race is notable for attracting the largest fleet in the history of the race. There are also more woman skippers than ever before, and even one couple sailing in competition with each other and the rest of the fleet.
Fleet Size and Makeup
Thirty-three IMOCA 60 (“Open 60”) sailing yachts crossed the starting line, the largest fleet in the history of the race which began in 1989 when 13 boats participating.
Oak trees in Colbert’s forest
We recently posted about Constitution Grove, a 50,000-acre private forest maintained by the US Navy, in part to provide white oak trees used in maintaining the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. The forest is part of the Naval Support Activity Crane, 35 miles southwest of Bloomington, Indiana.
The United States is by no means the only country to set aside forests for ship construction and repair. Indeed, Constitution Grove is relatively new and largely ceremonial. The grove was only dedicated on May 8, 1976. By contrast, French Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert ordered the planting of oak groves to supply the needs of the future French navy way back in 1607. Planting continued up and through the Napoleonic era.
Crew on SMS Hegoland were among the first to mutiny in 1918.
In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, when the guns finally fell silent after four years of bloody conflict.
Today is a good time to recall the mutiny of the German High Seas Fleet, which played a significant role in the abdication of the Kaiser and in finally ending the war. Here is a revised repost from a few years ago about the naval mutinies of late 1918.
Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber & Lieutenant Madeline Swegle
Two recent firsts in the US Navy. Congratulations to Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber who has been awarded the position of brigade commander next semester at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Brigade commander is the highest leadership position within the student body. Barber is the first Black female midshipman to serve in the position and the 16th woman to be selected for brigade commander in the 44 years women have been attending the academy.
Barber, of Lake Forest, Illinois, is a mechanical engineering major and aspires to commission as a Marine Corps ground officer, according to the Navy press release.
Also, our belated congratulations to Lieutenant Madeline Swegle, who made history as the U.S. Navy’s first Black female tactical fighter pilot. She received her wings of gold at the end of July.
Ocean sunfish are weird. One scientist who specializes in the fish described them as “looking like a mistake.” They are the heaviest bony fish in the ocean, weighing between 545–2,205 lb.
They look like a flattened silver disk. In English, they are called sunfish because they can often be found near the surface apparently sunbathing. Their Latin name is mola, meaning millstone for their heavy disk-like shape. They are also called moon-fish for the same reason. In German, they are called Schwimmender Kopf, or “swimming head” as some think they look like a fish head with fins.
Lacking a true tail, they swim by waving their ventral and dorsal fins. With their fins extended, they are frequently as tall as they are long. They also have no swim bladder to control buoyancy so they often float near the surface. Their dorsal fin protruding from the water can be mistaken for a shark fin.
The Royal Navy Admiral Collingwood would famously slip a handful of acorns into his pockets before taking a walk in the woods near his home. He would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for an oak tree to grow. He wanted to make sure that the Navy would never lack oak trees to build the fighting ships upon which the country’s safety depended.
The US Navy has gone one step further. At a high tech facility in Indiana, hundreds of miles from the sea, the navy maintains “Constitution Grove“, a private 50,000-acre white oak forest dedicated to supplying timber to maintain the one remaining commissioned wooden sailing ship in the US Navy, the USS Constitution. The sailing frigate was built of primarily white oak in 1797.
It is often referred to as the Caspian Sea Monster. To my eye, it looks more like a spacecraft from a sci-fi movie than a creature of cryptozoology. It is, in fact, a huge vessel, part plane, and part ship, that has lay abandoned on the shore of the Caspian Sea for three decades.
It is more properly known as a Lun-class Ekranoplan, the only one of its kind ever put into service, between 1987 and sometime in the 1990s. An Ekranoplan, also known as a Ground Effect Vehicle, is classified by IMO as a ship, but derives its unique high-speed capabilities by skimming the surface of the water at a height of between one and five meters (three to 16 feet). The aerodynamic ground effect allows low drag and relatively high speeds.
Recently, two kayakers off California inadvertently got between a lunge feeding humpback whale and its lunch. Videos of the encounter show the whale surfacing between the yellow kayak, almost appearing to swallow the kayakers and their boat. Fortunately, neither the two kayakers nor the whale appears to have been injured.
On Monday morning, Julie McSorley and her friend, Liz Cottriel, were kayaking off Avila Beach, Calif., in San Luis Obispo County. In the distance, humpback whales were feeding and breaching. The two kayakers, paddling a yellow double sit-on-top kayak, found themselves surrounded by a large school of small silver fish churning the water, making a sound that one of the kayakers likened to “crackling glass.” Above them, sea birds wheeled and dove, feeding on the silver fish.
Suddenly, a humpback whale surfaced beneath their kayak, lifting them about six feet above the water. The whale was lunge feeding and the kayak was apparently in the way.
In July 2017, we posted about the calving of a massive iceberg from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice-shelf. The iceberg, which would be designated as A68a, is the world’s biggest iceberg, weighing roughly one trillion tons and measuring 4,200 sq km, or almost the size of the state of Delaware.
At first, A68a stayed more or less stationary, temporarily aground close to the ice-shelf. In July, it broke free and started to drift. There is now a real concern that A68a is on a collision course with the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. The massive berg is roughly the same length as South Georgia island itself. There is now a strong possibility that the berg could ground and anchor itself offshore of the wildlife haven. If that happens, it poses a grave threat to local penguins and seals.
New York Yacht Club American Magic, the U.S. Challenger for the 36th America’s Cup, completed their first week of training on the brand-new AC75 racing yacht Patriot.
A commuter train car careened off the end of elevated train tracks yesterday near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was saved from plunging more than 30 feet to the ground when it landed on the sculpture of a whale’s tail. It was indeed a fluke.
The NYTimes quotes Ruud Natrop, a spokesman for safety in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond area, where the accident occurred. “It’s like the scene of a Hollywood movie,” he said. “Thank God the tail was there.”
The derailment, in the city of Spijkenisse, happened around 12:30 a.m. on Monday, according to local news outlets. The driver was the only person on the city train and was unharmed, Mr. Natrop said, and was taken to the hospital for an evaluation and then to the police station for questioning.
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The fishermen knew. They told stories of swordfish using their eponymous swords to stab sharks and other large fish and mammals. Scientists, however, were skeptical. Recently, however, more than six dead sharks have washed up around the Mediterranean, all apparently stabbed, usually in the head, by swordfish.
Boaters were recently surprised to find a man working in a fully outfitted office on a raft anchored in New York’s East River. The office was the brainchild of Improv Everywhere, a New York City-based comedy collective that stages unexpected performances in public places. They refer to the workspace as New York’s Most Socially Distanced Office.
From their website: The floating office included a water cooler, a battery-powered computer with working internet, and a variety of contemporary office furniture. Workers were transported to the office by a shuttle boat at Brooklyn’s Main Street Park.
On Halloween, it seems appropriate to look at the legend of the Gray Man of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, a benevolent ghost said to warn residents of coming severe storms and hurricanes. Those who heed his warnings are said to survive the storms while their homes and property remain undamaged.
The story, with several variations, is said to date from 1822. Its origin is alleged to be of a young man going to visit his fiance, who dies after falling into quicksand on Pawley’s Island. His ghost is said to continue to walk the beaches of the island, providing warnings of foul weather — a ghostly freelance meteorologist, of sorts.
On October 29, 1815, 205 years ago yesterday, the Demologos, the first steam-powered warship, was launched from Adam and Noah Brown‘s shipyard on New York’s East River. It was a steam-powered floating battery designed by steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton to be used to protect New York harbor from the British during the War of 1812. After sea trials, the battery was delivered to the United States Navy in June, 1816.
The design of the vessel featured a catamaran hull with a single centerline midship paddlewheel capable of propelling the battery at five knots, under good conditions. Originally designed to mount thirty 32-pounder guns, later drawings show eighteen. She was also intended to carry two 100-pounder Columbiads, which were never installed.
While the design was innovative, the timing was poor. Robert Fulton died the previous February of 1815, at the age of 49. Also during the same month, a peace treaty was signed, ending the War of 1812.
You might call it yodeling for Covid. Following a folk-music themed cruise on MS Swiss Crystal, 60 of 92 passengers have tested positive for Covid-19. The cruise was from Passau to Frankfurt between October 10 and 17, on the Danube and Main rivers.
The organizers say that pandemic precautions were observed, with notable exceptions. The cruise featured several music events which included hours of singing in enclosed spaces – including yodeling. Social distancing and mask wear was reportedly observed during part of the cruise but not during the music-making.
Delayed for months by both hurricanes and the pandemic, Versabar’s heavy-lift catamaran VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches,” arrived yesterday at St. Simons Island, GA to begin the scrapping of the wrecked car carrier, Golden Ray. The car carrier rolled on its side in September of 2019 as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles. VB-10,000 is the largest heavy-lift vessel ever built in the United States. It will use chains to slice the Golden Ray into eight sections, to be placed on barges, and towed away to be scrapped.
VB-10,000 Heavy-Lift Vessel Arrives at Golden Ray Wreck Site