Farewell Old Friend — Saying Goodbye to A23a, Former World’s Largest and Still Oldest Iceberg

It feels a bit odd to have developed an emotional attachment to an iceberg. Then again, we have spent years following the epic and quixotic journey of the iceberg designated as A23a, an enormous mass of ice weighing roughly one … Continue reading

Women’s History Month — Celebrating Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper

As the current administration launches a frontal attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is a good time to remember Admiral Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a United States Navy Rear Admiral. Hopper received a … Continue reading

On International Women’s Day, Remembering Eleanor Creesy, Navigator of the Clipper Ship Flying Cloud

Today, March 8th, is celebrated as International Women’s Day (IWD), commemorating women’s fight for equality and liberation along with the women’s rights movement. International Women’s Day is intended to focus on issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence … Continue reading

Trump’s War on Iraq — Are There Lessons to Be Learned From Millennium Challenge 2002?

Millennium Challenge 2002 Just over two decades ago, the United States ran a major war game exercise called Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02). Millennium Challenge was a hybrid exercise that combined live troops, real ships, and aircraft. Massive computer simulations operated … Continue reading

Women’s History Month: Remembering Raye Montague, Barrier-Shattering Navy Ship Designer

In a time when the US Navy seems incapable of designing and building ships that are not significantly over budget and behind schedule, it is good to remember Raye Montague, a pioneering  American naval engineer who helped revolutionize the way … Continue reading

Ducks, Dynasties, and the Deep: The Remarkable Story of the Temasek Wreck

Around 650 years ago, off the eastern tip of Singapore, a trading vessel slipped beneath the waves and vanished from history. It carried bowls painted with ducks and lotus flowers — porcelain so exquisite that even the Chinese emperor sought … Continue reading

Black History Month — First Black Liberty Ship Captain, Hugh Mulzac, Says No To Jim Crow

Hugh Mulzak served as the first Black Liberty ship captain in World War II. When offered the command, he refused to sail with a segregated crew. An updated repost in honor of Black History Month. Born in 1886 on Union … Continue reading

In Honor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion During Black History Month — the Floating Freedom School

At a time when programs supporting the American values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are being banned in schools across the nation, it is incumbent on the rest of us to keep alive the history that some are now seeking … Continue reading

Trump’s Navy Secretary Phelan — Billionaire Donor, No Military Experience, Porn Collector With Epstein Links, of Course

Donald Trump bragged that his administration would recruit “only the best people.” Instead, his regime is the very definition of a kakistocracy, a system of government run by the least qualified, most unprincipled, or worst citizens. Trump’s unhinged Attorney General, … Continue reading

Winter Cold Enough to Sail Van Nostrand Challenge Cup, America’s Cup of Ice Yachting

Last Sunday, on a frigid day on the Navesink River in Red Bank, NJ, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (HRIYC) won back the Van Nostrand Challenge Cup from the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club (NSIBYC), which held … Continue reading

Pilot Falls Into Ocean Off Hawaii Attempting to Board Emerald Princess

Last Tuesday, the 3,080 passenger cruise ship, Emerald Princess, approached Nawiliwili Harbor, on Kauai’s southeast coast, in Hawaii. Nawiliwili was the ship’s first port of call after departing from Los Angeles on a 16-night Hawaiian Islands itinerary. The National Weather … Continue reading

Celebrating Frederick Douglass on Valentine’s Day — “I Will Take to the Water”

Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught or get clear, I’ll try it. I may as well die with ague as with fever. I have only one life to lose. I may as well be killed running as die standing. Only think of it: one hundred miles north, and I am free! Try it ? Yes ! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water…

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Online Poll Names Deep Sea Chiton — No Its Not Molly McMollusk-Face

A global internet poll has named a new species of deep-sea chiton – a type of marine mollusc – from the genus Ferreiraella. The chiton was discovered in 2024 in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench of the coast of Japan at a depth … Continue reading