Disasters at Sea — Season 2, Now On Smithsonian Channel

Posted on by January 14, 2020

There are so few well-done documentary series involving ships and the sea that it seems worth pointing out that the excellent Disasters at Sea has been picked up for a second season. The series is produced by Exploration Production Inc. in association with Smithsonian Networks and Discovery Channel (Canada). Season Two was broadcast in Canada last summer and fall and is now being broadcast on the Smithsonian channel in the US. Episodes are also available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other streaming services.

This season’s episodes:

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Animal Magnetism — Dogs, Deer, Whales & Cow Compasses

Posted on by January 13, 2020

Six years ago, we posted about research that documented that when dogs defecate, they usually align their bodies along the magnetic north-south axis, not unlike the needle of a magnetic compass. It turns out that dogs are not unique in being able to sense the earth’s magnetic field and act like bio-compasses. Many animals, including humans, appear to be magnetoreceptive.

Scientists have documented that cows and deer graze and rest aligning themselves with magnetic north, all other factors being equal. (Wind and sun also affect the directions faced by cows, in particular.)

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The Mysteries of the Octopus

Posted on by January 12, 2020

This morning’s CBS Sunday Morning news program had an intriguing featuring the octopus, in particular, and cephalopods, in general. Both unworldly and highly intelligent they are as close to alien life forms as one can find on the planet. CBS’s Chip Reid visits scientists at New England Aquarium in Boston, and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and talks with Sy Montgomery, author of “The Soul of an Octopus,” about these curious creatures. Well worth watching.

The mysteries of the octopus

The Old Weather Project — Citizen-Scientists, Ship’s Logs, & Climate Change

Posted on by January 11, 2020

One of the better ways to tell if a model works at predicting the future is to run it in reverse to see how well it predicts the past. Climate change models so far have had their limitations. Most current models have significantly underestimated the rate of climate change. But where does one find accurate climate data for the last century or two? For more than a decade climate scientists have been using weather observations from ship’s logs to build the database they need to track climate conditions over time.

Thousands of ships logs with millions of weather observations have been collected and have provided a veritable treasure trove of climate data. One problem, however, is how to convert information recorded in pen and ink on paper in the old logs into a form that can be used for analysis in computer models. 

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Doggy Day Care on HMAS Choules

Posted on by January 10, 2020

In addition to more than 24 people who have died in the terrible Australian bushfires, an incredible number of animals have also perished. Estimates of wildlife deaths range from millions to a billion animals. More than 25.5 million acres of land — an area the size of South Korea — have been razed by the fires. 

Against this horrific backdrop, here is a minor bit of good news. As we posted previously, the Australian Navy landing ship HMAS Choules, supported by the training ship, MV Sycamore, recently evacuated 1,000 tourists and residents stranded by bushfires in Mallacoota, Australia. Along with the evacuees also came 135 dogs, two cats, two birds, and a rabbit.  

The crew of the Choules divided off a section of a vehicle deck to provide a sort of dog-dare care for the dogs. Accommodations for the cats and the rabbit were provided separately. For a video of the shipboard kennel click here.

Quarterdeck, Maritime Literature & Art Review

Posted on by January 9, 2020

The Winter 2020 edition of Quarterdeck, hosted by McBooks, is out. If you like nautical fiction, the quarterly e-journal edited by George Jepson is a treasure.

The Winter 2020 edition features an interview with Alaric Bond and a review of the Hellfire Corner; the first book in the Coastal Forces series, due out in February. Additionally, Chris Durbin has an article, The First Landing Craft, Purpose-built for British amphibious operations, as well as a feature on his latest novel, Perilous Shore. Antoine Vanner‘s new novel Britannia’s Innocent is also featured. Articles by Kathy Stockwin, Kydd’s Portsmouth, and Kim Reeman, When Heroes Die, are fascinating.

If you are not familiar with Quarterdeck, it is definitely worth checking out.

Fiskardo Shipwreck — A 2,000 Year Old Container Ship

Posted on by January 8, 2020

Good ideas are rarely new. Container ships revolutionized liner shipping in the 1960s and 70s. Nevertheless, the idea of carrying cargo in easily handled standardized containers goes back at least 2,000 years.

I was reminded of this when reading about the recent discovery of a shipwreck found near the fishing port of Fiskardo on the north coast of Kefalonia, Greece, dating between 1 BC and AD 1, according to Greek researchers. The upper portion of the 34-meter Roman ship is gone, but its cargo of an estimated 6,0000 amphorae is in remarkably good shape. The Daily Mail notes that the Fiskardo shipwreck is one of the largest four found in the Mediterranean Sea, and the largest yet found in the eastern Mediterranean.

An amphora is a distinctive type of clay container usually with two handles, a narrow neck, and often a pointed base. It was widely used in early Mediterranean shipping to carry both liquids and dry goods. While they are commonly associated with wine, they were also used to transport grains and other goods that needed protection from the weather. They came in a variety of different sizes ranging from 5′ tall to less than a foot high. Most were around 3′ tall and carried around 100 pounds of cargo. The pointed end made them easy to sit upright in sand or soil and they could either be carried by one or two persons using the handles or be rolled up a ramp to the ship for loading. Continue reading →

Yacht Racing for Fun and Profit — Schooner America and Maxi Comanche

Posted on by January 9, 2020

Shortly after winning the Sydney Hobart Race for the third time, the maxi-yacht Comanche has been sold by its current owners, Jim Cooney and his wife Samantha Grant, to Russian interests.  Perhaps, oddly enough, the transaction brought to mind the yacht America of 1851.

International yacht racing has traditionally been a sport for the rich. The cliche that a yacht is a hole in the water into which the owner pours money, is often repeated because it is, more often than not, highly accurate.

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Buoy No One Noticed Was Missing Washes Up on Florida Beach

Posted on by January 4, 2020

Just before the New Year, 21-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide Coast Guard red navigation buoy #8 washed up out of the fog in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. — its light still blinking — nearly 200 miles away from its mooring at the entrance to Port Royal Sound north of Hilton Head Island.

It was originally reported to be a buoy that disappeared in 2017 following Hurricane Irma. When that buoy disappeared, it was replaced by a new buoy, which the Coast Guard checked on after Hurricane Dorian blew through. As of last September, the buoy was still there. Sometime in the intervening months, the buoy apparently broke free and no one noticed. 

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Australian Navy Ships Evacuate 1,000 People Trapped by Bushfires

Posted on by January 3, 2020

The Australian Navy landing ship HMAS Choules, supported by the training ship, MV Sycamore, evacuated 1,000 tourists and residents stranded by bushfires in Mallacoota, Australia.

ABC News Australia reports that about 4,000 people, including some 3,000 tourists, have been stranded in the town since they were forced to shelter on the foreshore as the fire approached on New Year’s Eve. Roads in and out of the isolated town, in Victoria’s far east, have been blocked by the still-burning blaze and could take weeks to clear.

The most vulnerable in the town are being evacuated by helicopter. The process of loading the vessels took several hours, and the journey from Mallacoota to Hastings, on Western Port, should take a further 17 hours.

Mallacoota evacuations begin as thousands trapped by fires are transported to Navy ships | ABC News

Update: Liberty Ship John W. Brown May Find Home at Yard Where it Was Built

Posted on by January 2, 2020

As we have previously posted, the restored Liberty ship, John W. Brown, was at risk of becoming homeless when its five-year agreement for berthing at Rukert Terminals’ Pier C in Canton, Maryland expired last September. Now, if all goes well, the historic ship may find a new home at the site of the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, where she was built in 1942.

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Watching the Ball Drop — the Nautical Origins of a New Year’s Tradition

Posted on by January 1, 2020

The USNO Millennium Time Ball

Last night in New York City, over one million people watched a jeweled ball drop in Time Square at exactly midnight to mark the arrival of the New Year. Over a billion people are believed to have watched the festivities on television or on-line. The six-ton Waterford crystal ball covered in 32,276 LED lights is not actually “dropped” but lowered from a flag pole on the roof of One Times Square.  In New York City, the tradition dates back to 1907. But where did the tradition of dropping a ball to mark the time originate?  The practice dates back to 1829 and was related to helping sailors calculate their position at sea. Here is an updated post from several years ago.

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New York Harbor Pilot Dies in Fall While Boarding Ship

Posted on by December 31, 2019

Photo: Sandy Hook Pilots.

Sandy Hook harbor pilots guide merchant ships in and out of New York harbor, all year round, day and night, in all weather. They are highly skilled professionals who routinely make a very difficult job look easy. It easy to forget that their job is also extremely dangerous.

Early Monday morning, harbor pilot Captain Dennis R. Sherwood fell while attempting to board an inbound container ship and subsequently died of his injuries. Captain Sherwood, of Freehold, N.J., was climbing an accommodation ladder to board the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington at the Ambrose Light pilot station outside the harbor approaches at 4:30 a.m., Coast Guard officials said.

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Six Men First to Row Unassisted Across Drake’s Passage

Posted on by December 30, 2019

Six men have become the first to row unassisted across Drake’s passage, between South America and Antarctica. The effort was led by adventurer Colin O’Brady. In just under 13 days, they rowed more than 700 miles in a 29-foot boat named Ohana.

The other men on the expedition were: Fiann Paul of Reykjavik, Iceland; Cameron Bellamy of Cape Town, South Africa; Andrew Towne of Grand Forks, North Dakota; and John Petersen of Oakland, California.

Paul, Douglas-Hamilton and Bellamy are record-breaking ocean rowers, Towne is a championship rower and has climbed the tallest mountain on every continent, and Petersen was a championship college rower.

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Australia — Record Heat on Land, Devastating Heatwave Offshore

Posted on by December 29, 2019

The temperatures in Australia have been hotter than ever recorded in history. Wildfires are raging, filling the air of several cities, including Sydney, with acrid smoke.  Drought is choking a significant portion of the country.

As bad as things are on land, they are just as bad offshore where Western Australia’s coastline is in the midst of the most widespread marine heatwave it has experienced since reliable satellite monitoring began in 1993. The heat is killing fish, shellfish, crabs, and kelp. 

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75th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race — the Maxis and the Unfortunate Shark

Posted on by December 28, 2019

The five 100′ long maxi yachts dominated the 75th sailing of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, each finishing the 630 nautical mile race within the same two-hour window. Commanche took line honors finishing the race in 1 day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds.  She was followed closely by InfoTrack, Wild Oats XI, SHK Scallywag 100, and Black Jack, respectively.

The standings in the race may have been altered by an unfortunate collision by Scallywag and a shark. Continue reading →

Honoring the Coast Guard Heroes of Hurricane Harvey

Posted on by December 27, 2019

When Category 4 Hurricane Harvey devastated coastal Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, the US Coast Guard was there to assist in the rescue. Harvey was the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States and is tied as the most destructive. The hurricane’s floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people and prompted more than 17,000 rescues.

Last week in Mobile the Coast Guard awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and one Air Medial to four of the heroes of rescues in Hurricane Harvey.  The Distinguished Flying Crosses were presented to Cmdr. Scott Sanborn, Lt. John Briggs, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Gantt. Petty Officer 1st Class James Yockey was awarded the Air Medal.

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Ghost Net Kills Hundreds of Sharks Off Cayman Islands

Posted on by December 26, 2019

Ghost nets — Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Yahoo recently reported that a group of divers happened upon a gruesome sight in the Cayman Islands — hundreds of decomposing sharks and other sea creatures tangled up in a floating “ghost net.”

Dominick Martin-Mayes, a 27-year-old fisherman and diving instructor, told the Independent that he was with a group of friends when they found the “solid net of dead, decomposing fish and sharks.”

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen and that continue to entangle, trap and kill fish and other sea life long after they have been abandoned or lost. 

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