Happy Juneteenth — When Emancipation Arrived by Steamship 160 Years Ago

Posted on by June 19, 2025

USS Cornubia, ex Lady Davis

Happy Juneteenth! Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth is also the newest Federal holiday, signed into law in 2020. The holiday commemorates the arrival of emancipation in Galveston, Texas, by steamship, 160 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 months later, when two ex-Confederate steamships sailed into Galveston Harbor. 

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Terminally Ill Sailor, Jazz Turner, Sailing Solo Around UK

Posted on by June 18, 2025

On June 2, Jazz Turner set sail from Brighton, UK, to attempt to become the first disabled person to complete a solo, non-stop, and unassisted 2,070 mile (3,331km) circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland in a sail boat. 

Turner, a 26-year-old, engineer from Seaford, lives with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a debilitating genetic condition that affects connective tissue. She was diagnosed with the illness when she was 18, which causes fainting and seizures.  A full-time wheelchair user, doctors have told her that her condition is now terminal, due to complications.

Turner is sailing an Albin Vega 27-foot yacht named FEAR which stands for “Face Everything and Rise.” She is currently sailing north-west of Cape Wrath, Scotland, the most north-westerly point in Great Britain. 

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Update: First Salvage Tug Arrives at Burning Car Carrier Morning Midas Adrift in the Pacific

Posted on by June 11, 2025

The car carrier Morning Midas, adrift off the coast of Alaska, is still burning, with the first salvage tug arriving at the scene on Monday, as reported by Splash.

The tug Gretchen Dunlap arrived Monday afternoon with salvage personnel and has begun a full assessment of the conditions on scene. An additional two vessels are scheduled to arrive in approximately six days, while the second should arrive in around 12 days.

The fire on the Zodiac Maritime-managed car carrier with 3,048 vehicles aboard, including over 700 fully electric or hybrid electric vehicles, started a week ago, during the vessel’s voyage from Mexico to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico. The vessel is chartered to China’s SAIC Anji Logistics. It is located some 355 km south of Adak.

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Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship

Posted on by June 8, 2025

USNS Harvey Milk

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to take the rare step of renaming the USNS Harvey Milk, an underway replenishment oiler, named after the late gay rights leader. The Pentagon is also reviewing changing the names of ships named after Black and Hispanic civil rights leaders and prominent women, officials say.

“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.”

Raised in a Navy family, Harvey Milk joined the US Navy in 1951 during the Korean War. He served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) as a diving officer. He was later transferred to San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. Then, in 1955, he was forced to resign from the Navy for being a homosexual. He held the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.

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Car Carrier Morning Midas Abandoned Mid-Pacific as EVs and Hybrids Burn Out of Control

Posted on by June 6, 2025

The car carrier Morning Midas was on a voyage from China to Mexico when it caught fire on Tuesday in the mid-Pacific, some 300 miles southwest of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The ship was carrying 3,048 vehicles, including over 700 fully electric or hybrid electric vehicles.

“Smoke was initially seen emanating from a deck carrying electric vehicles,” reported a spokesperson for Zodiac Maritime, the manager of the Liberian-flagged car carrier. “The crew immediately initiated emergency firefighting procedures using the vessel’s onboard fire suppression systems. However, despite their efforts, the situation could not be brought under control.”

The fire’s intensity ultimately forced all 22 crew members to abandon ship.  In consultation with the United States Coast Guard, the crew disembarked the vessel using its lifeboat. The Coast Guard reports that three merchant ships were directed to the scene and that the containership Cosco Hellas rescued the crew. They are all reported to be in good condition. 

A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard said that it was allowing the fire to burn out and watching from a safe distance because of the risk that lithium-ion batteries in the cars could explode. 

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Update: Retired Four-Star Navy Adm. Robert P. Burke Found Guilty of Bribery

Posted on by May 22, 2025

Last June, we posted about the arrest of Robert P. Burke, a retired four-star Navy Admiral, on bribery charges. This week, a federal jury convicted the former Vice Chief of Naval Operations of four counts of bribery for steering a contract to a private company in exchange for a post-retirement job. Burke, the Navy’s former second-in-command, becomes the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to be convicted of a crime while on active duty, according to The Washington Post.

Burke was convicted of one count each of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, affecting personal financial interest and false official statement in connection with his relationship with the executive training firm, Next Jump.

Burke is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 22. He could face 20 to 30 years in prison.

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Mad as a Lighthouse Keeper — Not the Solitude, but the Mercury

Posted on by May 19, 2025

Lighthouse keepers had more to worry about than simply storms and terrible conditions. In the 19th century, lighthouse keepers had a high frequency of madness and suicide.  Many assumed that they went mad from solitude and the demands of the job. It turns out it was something simpler and more sinister. An updated repost.

Fresnel lenses were the great lighthouse innovation of the 19th century.  The lenses developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel greatly increased the intensity and range of the lighthouse beacon. For rotating lights, just as important as the strength of the light, however, was maintaining a specific speed of rotation, so that if the chart said that the light flashed every twenty seconds, the light, in fact, rotated so that the light was visible every twenty seconds.  The best near-zero-friction bearing of the day was created by floating the light and the lens on a circular track of liquid mercury.  When dust, dirt, or other impurities built up in the mercury, part of the lighthouse keeper’s job was to strain the mercury through a fine cloth.

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Mexican Navy Sail Training Ship ARM Cuauhtémoc Hits Brooklyn Bridge — 2 Crew Dead, 22 Injured

Posted on by May 18, 2025

On Saturday evening, shortly after the Mexican Navy sail training ship ARM Cuauhtémoc departed  New York City’s South Street Seaport, Pier 17, on the East River, something went terribly wrong. The roughly 300′ long, steel-hulled, three-masted bark reportedly suffered some sort of mechanical failure and traveled, stern first, into the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.

The top of the training ship’s masts was 44.81 meters above the water, while the maximum clearance under the bridge was only 39 meters. When the ship’s masts struck the bridge, the top masts were knocked down, leaving the crew stationed in the rigging dangling from safety harnesses amidst the wreckage.

Of the 277 people on board the ship, two of the crew were killed. At least 22 others were injured in the crash, including 11 who were in critical condition and nine in stable condition, the Mexican Navy said in a statement.

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How Ice Cream Replaced Booze in the US Navy

Posted on by April 19, 2025

General Order 99
One hundred and eleven years ago on July 1, 1914, Secretary of the US Navy Josephus Daniels issued General Order 99, banning “the use or introduction for drinking purposes of alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station.”

The US Navy had ended the rum ration in 1862 and imposed progressively more stringent restrictions on what alcohol sailors could have on shipboard. General Order 99 ended even the serving of alcohol in the wardroom and the captain’s cabin. An updated repost.

Prohibition and Ice Cream
Six years later, in 1920, the entire country followed the Navy’s example. With the ratification of the 18th Amendment, the United States banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The thirteen year period known as Prohibition led to the growth of criminal gangs and the proliferation of “speakeasies,” illegal drinking establishments. 

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Tragic Launching of HMS Albion, 1898, Caught on Film

Posted on by April 25, 2025

On June 21, 1898, HMS Albion sat on the launching ways at the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall. The launching that would soon end in tragedy was also one of the first disasters to be captured on film. An updated repost.

The Albion was the largest warship ever launched on the Thames and the first battleship built for the Royal Navy in the shipyard in more than a decade. An estimated 30,000 people packed into the yard ­to see the Duchess of York launch the Royal Navy’s latest ship-of-the-line. Local schoolchildren were given the day off to attend the launch. In the crowd were two crews operating motion picture cameras ready to film the launching.

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Ships in Bottles — A Bit of the History and Lore

Posted on by April 18, 2025

A Facebook video by my friend Frank Hanavan showing him inserting a ship in a bottle (after the page break) got me thinking about, well, ships in bottles. When, where and why did sailors start putting ships in bottles? After looking into the history of ships in bottles (or SIBs, as the aficionados refer to them), I don’t claim to have all, or even most, of the answers but I have come across some interesting lore. An updated repost.

The first mention of objects in bottles dates back to 1719. A German artist, musician and magician, Matthias Buchinger, built models, although not necessarily of ships, inside bottles. He was also well known as an illustrator and engraver, all of which was remarkable given that he was born without arms or legs. He was also quite the lady’s man, having married four times and having at least 14 children by eight women.

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Captain Henry Every – The Pirate Who Got Away

Posted on by April 18, 2025

During the “Golden Age of Piracy,” the most successful pirates amassed huge fortunes over short periods and then died bloody deaths in combat, on the gallows, or in shipwrecks.  The one notable exception was Captain Henry Every. While his career as a pirate lasted only two years and was vastly successful, unlike other well know pirates, Every got away.

During just two years prowling the seas, Every and his band captured roughly a dozen vessels and made off with tens of millions of dollars in booty. His exploits inspired songs, books and plays, including one called “The Successful Pyrate” that was performed on London stages for several years. Most astonishing of all—and unlike Blackbeard and many others—he did it all without getting captured or killed.

For a time, he was the most wanted criminal in the world for his plundering of a Mughal treasure fleet in 1695, yet he seemed to simply have vanished. Now discoveries of Arabian coins found in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and North Carolina suggest that Captain Every and his crew may have found refuge in the British North American colonies.

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Salt in their Veins — a Short Documentary About the Bajo of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Posted on by April 19, 2025

Salt in their Veins is a breathtaking and thought-provoking short documentary by German photographer & filmmaker Rita Hencke. The documentary explores the lives of the Bajo people of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, descendants of sea nomads with a deep connection to the marine environment. Once ocean-roaming fishers and traders, the Bajo now face the stark realities of overfishing, pollution, and biodiversity loss as they adapt to life in coastal villages and stilted homes.

Salt in Their Veins has been internationally recognized, earning awards such as Best Direction at the 2024 Environmental Film & Screenplay Festival.

Salt in their Veins

When the Frigate USS Stein Was Attacked by a Colossal Squid

Posted on by May 7, 2025

Last month, we posted about the first-ever confirmed image of a colossal squid in the deep ocean. Ironically, the first colossal squid caught on camera was anything but colossal. It was a juvenile of only about 1 foot in length. Here is an updated repost of an account of a US Navy frigate that appears to have been attacked by a full-grown colossal squid.

The legend of the Kraken, a giant cephalopod from Greek and Norse mythology that attacked ships and dragged sailors to their doom, is many hundreds of years old. In 1978, the US Navy frigate USS Stein sonar dome was attacked by what appears to be a Kraken-like creature, which could have been a colossal squid.

USS Stein was underway when her anti-submarine sonar gear suddenly stopped working. On returning to port and putting the ship in a drydock, engineers observed many deep scratches in the sonar dome’s rubber “NOFOUL” coating. In some areas, the coating was described as being shredded, with rips up to four feet long. Large claws were left embedded at the bottom of most of the scratches.

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On the 80th Anniversary VE Day, Remembering the “Shetland Bus”

Posted on by May 7, 2025

Some of the “Shetland Gang” crew pictured at the pier in Scalloway in 1944

On this, the 80th Anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day,  the Liberation Convoy 2025 of five historic Norwegian veteran vessels, alongside partners from both Norway and the United Kingdom, is commemorating Anglo-Norwegian heroism on the North Sea during the Second World War. The ships sailed in convoy from Bergen, Norway to Lerwick, Shetland, where they are celebrating 8 May, Liberation Day. Following the ceremony, the vessels will split up to visit as many ports as possible before returning to Norway.

These historic ships are commemorating the convoys nicknamed the “Shetland Bus” made up of fishing boats and other small vessels that sailed from Scotland’s most northerly islands to deliver valuable cargo and special agents across the North Sea to coves and fishing ports 200 miles away along the coast of Norway, following the invasion of Norway in April 1940.

Crossings were mostly made during the winter under the cover of darkness. This meant the crews and passengers had to endure very heavy North Sea conditions, with no lights and constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats. There was also the possibility of being captured whilst carrying out the mission on the Norwegian coast.

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