Spain Busts First Known Trans-Atlantic Narco Sub

Posted on by December 3, 2019

Narco sub seized in Spain

Last week, Spanish authorities seized a narco sub loaded with 3 tonnes of cocaine, valued at $110 million, off the northwestern coast of Galicia. Narco subs have been caught operating in the Pacific and in the Gulf of Mexico. The vessel is believed to be the first narco sub apprehended after crossing the Atlantic Ocean from South America to Europe.

It is unclear which country the vessel departed from but media reports said police suspected it to have set off from Colombia. An international operation involving police from Spain, Portugal, the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil tracked the vessel across the Atlantic.

The crew scuttled the submarine and attempted to escape as the authorities were closing in. Three crew members, all Ecuadorian nationals, were subsequently arrested while two other persons were arrested onshore in the Spanish town of Vigo. The vessel was refloated and towed to port where officials found a cargo aboard of 6,613 pounds of cocaine divided into 152 bales.  

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Other Uses for a Narwhal Tusk

Posted on by December 2, 2019

When a terrorist began attacking people with knives on London Bridge recently, a man, described in news reports as a Polish chef, at nearby Fishmongers’ Hall, where the incident began, grabbed a narwhal tusk that was displayed by the side of the hall’s doorway and, wielding it like a lance, deployed it against the assailant outside. It was one of the more unusual uses of a narwhal tusk in recent memory. 

The Washington Post quotes British historian and journalist Guy Walters on the use of the tusk. “There’s something very British about fighting a terrorist with something as surreal as a narwhal tusk,” he said. “We don’t carry weapons in this country. But we do have narwhal tusks around.” 

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Newman’s Own Foundation Gives $225,000 Grant to Discovering Amistad

Posted on by December 1, 2019

Newman’s Own Foundation has awarded a $225,000 sustainability grant to the non-profit Discovering Amistad, the group which operates the replica schooner Amistad.  

Discovering Amistad operates the replica of the historic schooner Amistad,  a 129-foot 19th century Baltimore clipper which was the site of a July 1839 slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been enslaved in Sierra Leone, and were being transported from Havana, Cuba, to their purchasers’ plantations. The schooner sailed to Long Island and the Africans were jailed in New Haven, CT.  A series of court cases over whether the Africans should be freed or sent back to Cuban slaveholders ended in a Supreme Court case in 1841 in which the survivors were ultimately freed.

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Admiral James Holloway III Dies at 97

Posted on by November 29, 2019

Admiral James Holloway III has died at the age of 97. He had dementia, said his daughter Jane Holloway, and “finally got to landing on that great big carrier in the sky.”

Seventy-five years ago, on October 25, 1944, Holloway served as a gunnery officer on the destroyer Bennion. During the Battle of Surigao Strait, his ship scored a direct torpedo hit at point-blank range to help sink the battleship Yamashiro, sank the Japanese destroyer Asagumo with gunfire, and shot down three Zeros.

Over James Holloway’s 36-year Navy career, he would also fly fighter jets in Korea and command the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Promoted to Rear Admiral in 1970, he would command the U.S. Seventh Fleet, directing more than 150 ships in bombing operations against North Vietnam.

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Thanksgiving, Whaling Ships, Sarah Josepha Hale, Mary’s Lamb & a Liberty Ship

Posted on by November 28, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving for those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel.  (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) Here is a repost of a story I think is well worth retelling. 

Thanksgiving is one of the central creation myths of the founding of the United States. The story is based on an account of a one time feast of thanksgiving in the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts in 1621 during a period of atypically good relations with local tribes. Thanksgiving only became a national holiday in 1863.  Before the celebration spread across the country, Thanksgiving was most popular in New England. On 19th-century American whale ships, which sailed from New England ports, they celebrated only the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Of the three holidays, Thanksgiving may have been the most popular. On Norfolk Island in the Pacific, they also celebrate Thanksgiving, the holiday brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.

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Fastnet Race Finish Line Moved to France

Posted on by November 27, 2019

The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), organizers of the Rolex Fastnet Race, announced that the City of Cherbourg will host the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race for the 2021 and 2023 editions of the biennial race.  The race, first sailed in 1925, had previously departed from Cowes on the Isle of Wight and returned to Plymouth in the UK after rounding Fastnet Rock, off the southern coast of Ireland.

The RORC justified the change by saying that it will open the race to more competitors. The 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race had 388 yachts on the start line from 27 different nations, with a waiting list of 150 yachts. 

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Livestock Carrier Queen Hind Capsizes with 14,600 Sheep Aboard

Posted on by November 26, 2019

The livestock carrier, Queen Hind, carrying 14,600 sheep, capsized on Sunday after leaving the Black Sea port of Midia, near the south-eastern Romanian city of Constanta. The crew escaped safely. It is unclear how many of the sheep aboard were killed. As of Sunday, 32 sheep were reported to be rescued, with thousands believed still trapped inside the hull.

The ship, which left Midia at about 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT), was heading to the Saudi port of Jeddah with its cargo.

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What It Takes For SecNav to Get Fired — Broken Ships OK; Opposing War Crimes Not So Much

Posted on by November 25, 2019

The Secretary of the Navy, Richard V. Spencer, has been fired. What is revelatory is what he was fired for. 

As we posted last month, in January, Spencer made a promise to President Trump that the advanced weapons elevators on the new carrier USS Gerald R. Ford would be operational by the end of the summer or the president should fire him. The elevators are not operational and without them, as one critic has noted the most expensive warship in history is little more than a “$13-billion nuclear-powered floating berthing barge.”  Nevertheless, that was not what Secretary Spencer was fired for.

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Inventor of MarinaTex, Biodegradable Plastic from Fish Waste, Wins Dyson Award

Posted on by November 24, 2019

Lucy Hughes, a 24-year-old recent engineering graduate of the University of Sussex has won this year’s James Dyson Award for developing a biodegradable plastic from fish waste — the fish scales, skins, and guts discarded from fish processing plants. The material, MarinaTex, won Hughes the £30,000 (nearly $39,000) award, given to a recent design or engineering graduate who develops a product that solves a problem with ingenuity. Hughes beat out 1,078 entrants from 28 different countries.

Smithsonian reports that MarinaTex is strong, flexible and translucent, with a feel similar to plastic sheeting. It biodegrades on its own in four to six weeks, which gives it a major sustainability advantage over traditional bioplastics, most of which require industrial composters to break down. In addition to utilizing materials that would otherwise be thrown away, the production process itself uses little energy, since it doesn’t require hot temperatures. One single Atlantic codfish produces enough waste for 1,400 MarinaTex bags.

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The Loss of the Christmas Tree Ship, November 23, 1912

Posted on by November 23, 2019

One hundred and seven years ago today, the three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons, under the command of Captain Herman Schuenemann, sank with the loss of all hands in a winter storm in Lake Michigan. The schooner, known as the “Christmas Tree Ship,” carried a cargo close to 5,000 Christmas trees to be sold in Chicago.

Selling Christmas trees had been part of the Schuenemann businesses for several decades. Captain Schuenemann sold his trees directly from the dock by Chicago’s Clark Street Bridge using the slogan, “Christmas Tree Ship: My Prices are the Lowest.”  Schuenemann strung electric Christmas lights from the ship’s masts and had a tree atop the mainmast. Herman, his wife Barbara and their three daughters also made and sold wreaths, garlands, and other holiday decorations from the ship.  The trees were sold for between 50 cents and $1, but Captain Schuenemann, who came to be known as “Captain Santa”, also gave away some of the trees to needy families.

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Clipper Ship Cutty Sark Launched 150 Years Ago Today

Posted on by November 22, 2019

On Monday, November 22, 1869, the composite clipper ship Cutty Sark, built for the Jock Willis Shipping, Line was launched from the Scott & Linton shipyard on the River Leven in Scotland. The Cutty Sark, one of the last tea clippers to be built, and one of the fastest and, perhaps most remarkably, is one of only two clipper ships to survive today. Now fully restored in a drydock in Greenwich, UK, the historic tea clipper is the centerpiece of a year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary.

Because there are, to my knowledge, no photographs of the Cutty Sark’s launch, here is a news-reel video of her “last voyage” — on her way to Greenwich to be restored in 1953.  

CUTTY SARK’S LAST VOYAGE

For other Cutty Sark posts, click here.

New Staten Island Ferry, SSG Michael H. Ollis, Launched at Eastern Shipbuilding

Posted on by July 5, 2020

Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc., Panama City, FL launched the SSG Michael H. Ollis, the first of three new 4,500-passenger ferries for New York City’s Staten Island Ferry system. The Ollis Class ferries will be double-ended, with an overall length of 320 feet, beam of 70 feet, and draft of 13 feet at the design load at the waterline.

Designed by Elliott Bay Design Group, Seattle, WA, the three ferries will carry only passengers on the 5.2 mile route between the St. George Terminal on the north shore of Staten Island and Whitehall Terminal in lower Manhattan. Each of the ferries will be fitted with four diesel engines that will drive two Voith Schneider Propellers. 

With over 25 million riders per year, the Staten Island ferry service is the single busiest ferry route in the United States. The new Ollis Class ferries will replace the MV Andrew J. Barberi , the MV Samuel I. Newhouse and the 54-year-old John F. Kennedy.

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Update: Buyer Reported for Former Soviet Sub Docked Next to Queen Mary

Posted on by November 20, 2019

Last March, we posted about a Foxtrot-class Soviet-era submarine for sale in Long Beach, CA. Known as the Scorpion, the diesel-electric patrol submarine built in the Soviet Union in 1971, has been a museum ship berthed next to the hotel-ship Queen Mary for the past two decades.

Now, the LA Times is reporting that a buyer for the old sub has been found. The buyer, who remains anonymous,  is expected to remove the vessel by May. To do so will apparently require the removal of part of the stone breakwater which currently surrounds both ships. 

The submarine is owned by Palm Springs-based NewCo Pty Ltd., which is leasing it to Los Angeles real estate and development company Urban Commons, the operator of the Queen Mary as a hotel and tourist attraction.

NOAA Phasing Out Paper Chart Production

Posted on by November 19, 2019

When I bought my new-to-me old boat, I bought several booklets of paper charts covering the waters from the Chesapeake to Maine. Over the last few years, I have never used them. Never, not once. Instead, I have chart plotters on a laptop, two tablets, and my phone. My paper charts have stayed buried at the bottom of the cabinet beneath the chart table. Nevertheless, I still had mixed feelings when I read that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is phasing out the production of traditional paper nautical charts.

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Deep-Sea Mining — Electric Cars, Electronics & Climate Change

Posted on by November 18, 2019

Graphic: IUCN

Deep-sea mining may provide the material necessary to create our latest and greatest electronics, electric cars and battery backup systems. The mining may also damage the environment and worsen climate change. 

In 2018, we posted about the discovery of huge deposits of rare-earth metals in seabed mud off the Japanese island Minamitorishima, located 1,150 miles southeast of Tokyo. The discovery could have a major impact on both the Japanese and the world economy. Rare-earth metals are essential to modern technologies and are used in smartphones, hybrid vehicles, rechargeable batteries, wind turbines, light-emitting diodes, compact fluorescent lamps, screen display panels, and many medical and military technologies.  

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Documentary: Cosmic Birth — We Went to the Moon, But Discovered Earth

Posted on by November 19, 2019

Friday night I had the great pleasure to meet Orly Orlyson and to watch the US premiere of Cosmic Birth, the remarkable documentary that he co-directed, at the Explorer’s Club in Manhattan. Orly is an entrepreneur and the founder of The Exploration Museum in Húsavík, Iceland – a museum dedicated to the history of human exploration. 

In addition to exhibits on Viking exploration and on the race to reach the South Pole, the Exploration Museum features exhibits on the Apollo astronauts. What does the Moon landing have to do with a museum in Húsavík, an Icelandic town 30 miles from the Arctic Circle? It so happens that when NASA searched the globe for the most similar terrestrial landscape to the moon on which astronauts could train, they chose the lava fields outside of Húsavík. During the summers of 1965 and 1967, 32 astronauts trained on the basaltic outcroppings in preparation for landing on the lunar surface.  

Now, just over 50 years since the astronauts first traveled to Iceland and then to the moon, Cosmic Birth follows some of these Apollo astronauts back into the Icelandic highlands where they reflect on their epic missions to another world.

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LA Times: Coast Guard Rejected Calls for Stricter Safety Rules Prior to Deadly Dive Boat Fire

Posted on by November 16, 2019

The dive boat Conception was a death trap.  It was a wooden vessel with a single narrow and steep stairway from the lower berthing deck and a small emergency exit hatch. When a fire broke out on September 2, 34 people sleeping on the lowering berthing deck died in the blaze.

The Conception was also inspected and approved by the US Coast Guard as meeting all requirements of a Subchapter T, Small Passenger Vessel.  Recently, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times revealed that the Coast Guard had repeatedly rejected the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) recommendations for stricter fire safety regulations in this type of vessel.

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Update: Liberty Ship SS John W. Brown Still Looking For a New Berth

Posted on by November 15, 2019

A year ago, we posted about the search for a berth for the Liberty ship John W. Brown. Now, the ship, the last surviving troopship from World War II, must find a new home by the end of the year due to the expiration of its current lease on Pier C on Clinton Street. From the Project Liberty Ship press release:

For several years the ship was housed at a Clinton Street pier owned by the state of Maryland, but that pier was sold and the lease arrangement that enabled the Brown to stay at that pier expired. The new pier owners generously offered S.S. JOHN W. BROWN an alternate berth at Pier C on a temporary basis and have been cooperative and flexible with Project Liberty Ship’s uncertain and ever-developing future. However, the current lease agreement, despite several extensions, is expiring at the end of 2019. Continue reading →

Eugene Ely & the First Aircraft Take-Off and Landing From a Ship

Posted on by November 14, 2019

On November 14, 1910, one hundred and nine years ago today, pilot Eugene Burton Ely successfully took off in a biplane from the deck of the light cruiser USS Birmingham in the waters off Norfolk, Virginia, becoming the first pilot to fly a plane from the deck of a ship. He flew roughly three miles and landed onshore. 

Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher biplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, becoming the first pilot to land a plane on a ship.  He stopped the plane using the first-ever tailhook arresting gear, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson.

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