We hope everyone has a great time at today’s 7th Annual Boothbay Boat Builders Festival. All should keep a a weather eye out as there are rumors of an attack by the Pirates of the Dark Rose, followed by a … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Last February we posted about a “junkraft” built by Dr. Marcus Eriksen and his team of 15,000 plastic bottles, 30 sailboat masts, an airplane fuselage which they sailed 2,600 miles from Los Angeles to Hawaii to make a point about the … Continue reading
A windfall, a sudden and unexpected occurrence of good fortune, literally refers to fruit or timber knocked down by the wind. Here is an intriguing story of a literal windfall from the Maritime Texas blog. … Continue reading
A beautifully shot and edited short video. Jon Kane’s comments: I did this film for my friend Buck McAllister who’s family owns McAllister Towing tug boat company. I shot the film with one camera, in real time, during the towing … Continue reading
A short video of sailing on the schooner A.J. Meerwald in New York harbor. The A. J. Meerwald is a Delaware Bay oyster schooner launched in 1928. Sailing on the Schooner A.J. Meerwald in New York Harbour … Continue reading
Louis Arthur Norton’s book Captains Contentious – The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine is an entertaining reminder that history is finally about individuals, dedicated to the causes in which they believe, as well as serving their own needs and obsessions. … Continue reading
In his Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O’Brian wrote of HMS Surprise, a small British frigate, originally captured from the French. Over several books, the Surprise became almost as beloved a character, in her own way, as Jack Aubrey and Doctor Maturin … Continue reading
I am not even quite sure what a “Ferrython” is, but this seemed like an appropriate image for a Friday afternoon. From the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Flickr photostream as spotted on the Sea Fever blog. … Continue reading
Falls of Clyde is the only surviving iron-hulled four-masted full rigged ship and the only surviving sail-driven oil tanker in the world. She was launched in 1878 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, for the Fall Line . The ship was towed to Hawaii … Continue reading
In a comment on a prior post, Fiddler’s Green, Redwing mentioned White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War, by Herman Melville. I had never read the novel. I am now doing so and enjoying it very much. (It can … Continue reading
This afternoon, at the 21st Annual Indie and Small Press Book Fair, I had the pleasure of meeting Thad Koza, a wonderful photographer of tall ships. I bought a copy of his Tall Ships 2009 Calendar and plan on buying his book, Tall … Continue reading
From Dione Chen writing in the Museum of Underwater Archeology site: “The Free China is a historic century-old Chinese sailing vessel on the verge of extinction. An authentic Fujian junk used during the first half of the 20th century to … Continue reading
Tattoos have become very popular of late. Tattoo Facts & Statistics notes that “thirty-six percent of those ages 18 to 25, and 40 percent of those ages 26 to 40, have at least one tattoo, according to a fall 2006 … Continue reading
There seems to be a significant number of tall ships for sale these days. Not sure whether that is good or bad news. One especially notable example is the Grand Turk, now offered for sale for £2,800,000. Thanks to Alaric for … Continue reading
For those wishing to learn just a bit about sailor’s knots, Animated Boating Knots by Grog is a lot of fun. Here is a rolling hitch, a marvelously useful knot that I invariably forget how to tie whenever a need one. If … Continue reading
Having sailed last week on the Hudson River sloop, Clearwater, a voyage by another Hudson River sloop came to mind. In 1785 the Hudson River sloop Experiment was only the second ship from the young American republic to sail to China. … Continue reading
An update on the MV Faina – still being held hostage by Somali pirates. Somali pirates hold whip hand in standoff And a comment by my 12 year old son, Ted. He suggested that he would like to learn some … Continue reading
There are two Maine “Windjammers” currently for sale. This may not be terribly useful information for those of us feeling more than usually penurious in the current economic downturn. Nevertheless there are moments when the idea of chucking it all and making … Continue reading
As this is a nautical blog, I do feel compelled to at least tip our hat to Andrew Sullivan’s recent article “Why I Blog“, in this month’s Atlantic Monthly . (I do recommend Sullivan’s political blog for the Atlantic – The Daily Dish.) I … Continue reading
I am every fond of the Irish sea song “Holy Ground”. The song is about a sailor bound for sea, leaving his lady love and hoping to return. “And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more..” … Continue reading