Scientists Baffled by Orcas Ramming Sailboats, Grabbing Rudders

Posted on by September 20, 2020

Another 2020 story. Despite being dubbed killer whales, orcas in the wild have a long history of not attacking humans and rarely attacking boats. [Edited — see note at the end of the post.] (The situation with orcas in captivity is not as clear.) But, something very strange has been happening recently off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Pods of orcas have been reported to be ramming sailboats and often grabbing their rudders. The encounters have been reported from Gibraltar to Galacia and have caused significant damage, most often to the boat’s steering. Scientists are at a loss to explain the behavior.

The Guardian reports that in the last two months, from southern to northern Spain, sailors have sent distress calls after worrying encounters. Two boats lost part of their rudders, at least one crew member suffered bruising from the impact of the ramming, and several boats sustained serious damage. Continue reading →

Lia Ditton Breaks Solo Ocean Rowing Record to Hawaii

Posted on by September 18, 2020

Congratulations to Lia Ditton, who has set a new women’s world record for rowing solo from San Francisco to Hawaii. The 40-year-old Briton made landfall on September 12, completing the passage in 86 days, 10 hours, 5 minutes, and 56 seconds, to break Roz Savage’s 2008 record of 100 days. In addition to adverse currents and winds, she survived two capsizes, encounters with sharks, and a shortage of food. Ditton described the 2,700NM voyage as the greatest psychological challenge of her life.

Nauticmag.com reports that her current row, which Lia calls the half marathon, is viewed by Lia as training. Her main target is to row 5,500 miles from Japan to San Francisco in spring 2021, bidding to succeed where 19 other attempts have failed. To maintain her mission to become the first solo rower to cross the North Pacific, Lia relies on the generosity of her supporters through her crowdfunding campaign. Anyone who would like to add any amount to contribute to the cause can visit www.patreon.com/RowLiaRow. The RowLiaRow ‘Family of Believers’ are entitled to exclusive blog content and updates.

William Main Dorflinger Virtual Shanty Sing — Sunday, September 20th

Posted on by September 17, 2020

Earlier this month, we posted about the virtual return of the San Francisco Maritime Association’s Hyde Street Pier Sea Chantey Sing series beginning this Saturday on September 19, 2020. Click here for details.

For even more maritime music, on Sunday, September 20, the Noble Maritime Collection at historic Sailor’s Snug Harbor is co-sponsoring another of its virtual William Main Doerflinger Sea Shanty Sessions. From their events page:

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Autonomous Mayflower, Technological Breakthrough or Hazard to Navigation?

Posted on by September 16, 2020

On September 16, 1620, four hundred years ago today, the merchant ship Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The mix of religious separatists and entrepreneurs referred to today as Pilgrims would establish the first permanent European settlement in New England.

Today, a high tech autonomous ship, also called the Mayflower, was unveiled. The craft was originally intended to set off to replicate the voyage of the original Mayflower on the anniversary of the original’s departure but was delayed by the pandemic. The plan is now to test the craft, referred to as the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS), over the next six months and to attempt the voyage in April, 2021.    

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Ice Apocalypse — Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers Collapse Accelerating

Posted on by September 15, 2020

Last February we posted “The Doomsday Glacier — the Thwaites Glacier Melting From Below,” about the flow of warmer water that is melting the massive West Antarctic glacier from below. Thwaites is referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier” because it’s collapse could eventually lead to the collapse of the entire West Antarctic ice sheet, which contains enough ice to raise the sea level by about 10 feet. Currently, sea levels are rising about 3.5 millimeters a year, and Thwaites alone contributes about 4% or 5% of the total.

The Washington Post reports that a study of the Thwaites and the adjacent Pine Island glacier, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that a naturally occurring buffer system that prevents the glaciers from flowing outward rapidly is breaking down, potentially unleashing far more ice into the sea in coming years. In other words, the collapse of the Doomsday Glacier is accelerating. The collapse may take centuries but could be unstoppable.

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CMA CGM Brazil, Largest Container Ship to Call on US East Coast

Posted on by September 14, 2020

Over the weekend, the container ship, CMA CGM Brazil, docked at the marine terminal in Port Elizabeth, NJ, part of the Port of New York and New Jersey on Newark Bay.  At 15,148 TEU, it is said to be the largest container ship ever to call on any port on the U.S. East Coast.  To make this possible, the Port Authority invested $1.6 billion dollars to dredge the channel and raise the roadway on the Bayonne Bridge to allow the new larger neo-Panamax ships to transit, as well as spending $40 million for new container cranes and equipment.

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Orca That Carried Dead Calf Gives Birth Again

Posted on by September 14, 2020

The new calf, J57, with its mother, J35. Credit: Katie Jones, via Center for Whale Research

In the summer of 2018, a female orca whale became of a symbol of the perilous state of the Southern Resident orca pods of the Pacific Northwest. The whale, designated J35 by researchers, had given birth to a calf that died. The mother orca carried the calf with her for 17 days in what appeared to be an act of mourning. Now two summers later, orca J35 has given birth again to what is described as a “robust and lively” new calf, in what may be a ray of hope for the endangered Southern Resident population. 

For the last five years, the Southern Resident orca population has been in trouble, suffering from a scarcity of fish, noise pollution from ships and boats, and toxic pollutants in their food chain. The Southern Resident population includes three pods that largely stay near Washington State and British Columbia. They numbered 88 when they were listed as endangered in 2005 and have since dwindled to 73, including the newborn calf.

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Oceanbird, Proposed Sailing Car Carrier, Cuts Emissions by 90%

Posted on by September 12, 2020

A Swedish consortium that includes Wallenius Marine has designed Oceanbird, a five-masted sailing car carrier, that could have a huge impact on the development of modern commercial sail.  The design is intended to be finished in 2021 with potential delivery by 2025.

Oceanbird is a revolutionary design. It is not a small vessel. Whereas another sailing ro/ro project is working toward building a ship with a capacity of fewer than 500 vehicles, the Oceanbird design is a full-sized car carrier, 200 meters long with a 40 meter beam, and a capacity to carry 7,000 vehicles. If built, Oceanbird will be the largest sailing cargo ship that the world has ever seen.

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All Available Boats — Remembering the Amazing Manhattan Boatlift of 9/11

Posted on by September 11, 2020

The events of 9/11 are still more clear in my memory than I would like. The dry, clear morning. The call from my wife from the mezzanine of the World Trade Center after the first plane hit the North Tower. The orange blossom of flame when I saw the second plane hit the South Tower. The maelstrom of dust, smoke, and fire after the towers collapsed.

There was a part of that day, however, that was not only worth remembering but worth celebrating — the amazing, virtually miraculous, spontaneous maritime evacuation of somewhere between 300,000 and one million people who were trapped in lower Manhattan on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. It truly was an American Dunkirk.

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Restored Windjammer Peking Returns to Hamburg

Posted on by September 10, 2020

In all her former glory, the restored Flying P Liner Peking has returned to her home port of Hamburg. Four years ago, we posted about the Peking‘s departure from New York’s South Street Seaport. During the summer of 2017, she was carried across the Atlantic on a heavy lift ship and underwent a three-year restoration at Peters Werft shipyard in Wewelsfleth, Germany.

This week, the Peking was towed back to Hamburg, greeted by a flotilla of supporters and throngs of wellwishers along the riverbanks. The ship will be the centerpiece of a new German Port Museum, part of Historic Museums Hamburg, scheduled to be completed by 2025. In the meantime, the Peking is alongside her provisional berth on the Bremen Quay.

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Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm — Remembering the Deadly 1900 Galveston Hurricane

Posted on by September 9, 2020

One hundred and twenty years ago yesterday, on September 8, 1900, the city of Galveston Texas was struck by what today would be classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge of 14 feet. Somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people died, making it the deadliest hurricane in US history.  An updated repost from several years ago.

The story of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 lives on in music. The song “Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm” was first recorded in 1934 by a preacher named “Sin-Killer” Griffin for the Library of Congress by folk song collector, John A. Lomax. The song has also been recorded by Tom Rush, Emmylou Harris and James Taylor, among others. A variation of the song, called “Wasn’t that a Mighty Day” was recorded by the Chad Mitchell trio and the Highwaymen. Sin-Killer Griffin sings below. Other versions after the page break.

Sin-Killer Griffin – Wasn’t That A Mighty Storm

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Crisis on Maersk Etienne Escalates — Three Migrants Jump Overboard

Posted on by September 8, 2020

Photo: Maersk Tankers

In early August, the Maltese government asked the tanker, Maersk Etienne, to help a nearby boat in distress. The crew of the tanker found an overcrowded, wooden fishing boat carrying 27 African migrants — including a pregnant woman and a child. They rescued the migrants and proceeded to Malta. After the Maltese authorities requested that the tanker rescue the migrants, the ship was refused permission to dock. Now, 36 days later, the Maersk Etienne sits at anchor off Malta with its 27 passengers, in increasingly dire conditions.

Over the weekend, three of the desperate migrants jumped overboard. They were recovered by the ship’s crew and are being cared for on the ship. 

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QAnon Conspiracy: Did J.P. Morgan Sink the Titanic?

Posted on by September 7, 2020

The QAnon conspiracy nuts seem to be growing in number, so it seems to be a good time to look at an older conspiracy picked up by the current QAnon crowd.  The conspiracy theory claims that J.P. Morgan sank the Titanic, or at least arranged to have it sunk. It doesn’t make any particular sense, but here is how the story goes.

J.P. Morgan was supposed to be aboard the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage but canceled at the last minute. Morgan’s rival millionaires Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus, and Benjamin Guggenheim had also booked passage on the ship. The conspiracy goes on to claim that Morgan somehow arranged for the ship to sink, killing 1,503 of its 2,224 passengers, in order to get rid of Astor, Straus, and Guggenheim. How Morgan arranged the rendevous with the iceberg and how he could have assured that his targets would be among the drowned and not the more than 700 survivors is not clear, but conspiracy theories are like that.

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Navy Captain Mike Desmond Sets Unofficial Record for Time at Sea

Posted on by September 6, 2020

Due to Covid-19, the Navy’s Captain Mike Desmond has inadvertently set an, as of yet, unofficial record for continuous-time deployed at sea. When the pandemic broke out, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group canceled port calls in Europe and remained at sea to avoid contact with the coronavirus.

The USS Eisenhower would ultimately remain at sea for 206 days, setting a new record, along with the cruiser USS San Jacinto. Captain Desmond served aboard the Eisenhower but late in the deployment was transferred to take command of the Ticonderoga class cruiser USS Vella Gulf. The Vella Gulf docked in its homeport of Norfolk one day after the Eisenhower, so Captain Desmond logged 207 days of continuous sea time.

The previous record is believed to be 160 days, a record set in 2002 by the carrier Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the Afghanistan War. 

Update: Second Survivor Rescued After Livestock Carrier Capsizes in Typhoon

Posted on by September 5, 2020

Eduardo Sareno, a survivor of capsized Gulf Livestock 1. A second survivor has now been rescued.

Two days after the capsize and sinking of the livestock carrier, Gulf Livestock 1, in Typhoon Maysak, the Japanese coast guard has rescued a second survivor. Jay-nel Rosales, 30, of the Philippines, was found floating alone in a life raft off the island of Kodakarajima in the East China Sea. Rosales was conscious and able to walk unaided. 

The only other survivor located thus far is Eduardo Sareno, the vessel’s 45-year-old chief officer, who found wearing a lifejacket after spending 24 hours in the water. The body of a deceased crew member has also been recovered. The remaining crew of 40 are missing and feared dead.  The ship’s cargo of over 5,800 cattle also perished.

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