According to a saying often attributed to Mark Twain, “History may not repeat itself. But it often rhymes.” This came to mind recently when posting about the sad state of the windjammer Falls of Clyde, which recently nearly sank at the dock in Hawaii. In addition being the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, the Falls of Clyde is also the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker.
After an almost 30-year career carrying general and bulk cargos around the world, in 1907, the Falls of Clyde was converted into a tanker by Standard Oil, one of the firm’s 16 sail driven tankers. The Falls of Clyde would operate as a tanker carrying oil to Hawaii and molasses to California for another twenty years until 1927.
Why a sail-powered tanker? The economics made sense. Sailing ships cost less to operate than motor ships of the day.
For the first time in 150 years, baby giant tortoises have been born on the Galapagos island of Pinzón. Biologists reported that they had observed 
We are a few days late in wishing the iconic cartoon character,
We recently posted an incomplete list of some of the great things that the US Coast Guard was doing while not getting paid during the government shutdown. One of the missions was the resupply of the US McMurdo Station in Antartica by the US heavy icebreaker 
More bad news for the 
For the “blue water” Navy veterans suffering from the effects of Agent Orange from their service in Vietnam, a federal appeals court in Washington has done what the politicians have refused to do. 
Last April, we 
After 221 days alone at sea, 73-year-old French sailor, 
The El Dorado, a 157 foot-long, 300-ton, casino boat broke free from her moorings when 
No doubt about it. Winter is with us with a vengeance. On Friday rising waters and ice jams on the Hudson River between Albany and Troy, New York tore 
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia, 
Excentric Australian billionaire Clive Palmer made quite a splash in 2012 when he announced his plans to build 
There is a tragic irony in the collision of the guided-missile cruiser 
Recently the containership MOL Empire passed an 
In 2013, a 20′ great white shark was caught on video by Mexican shark expert Mauricio Hoyos Padilla off Guadalupe Island. Believed to be the largest great white shark ever filmed and among the largest great whites ever encountered, she was nicknamed “
As the wholly unnecessary and reckless partial government shutdown rolls on, 41,000 active duty US Coast Guard personnel are still doing their jobs, without getting paid. Roughly 8,500 civilian support staff are furloughed, also without paychecks.
For Throwback Thursday, an updated repost of an event from ten years ago — the other “Miracle on the Hudson.”