Scientists from Australia have just returned from a voyage of un-discovery. They have proven that Sandy Island, which appears on many nautical charts and on Google Earth and Google Maps, does no exist. The island which is depicted on Google Earth as a dark oval, … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Australia
Last January we posted that the composite clipper ship City of Adelaide would begin her voyage by barge and then ship to her namesake city in Australia by March, “if all goes well.” As is not unusual is this sort of project, … Continue reading
In 1606, the Duyfken, commanded by Willem Janszoon, became the first European vessel to sail to the continent of Australia. In 1999, in an act of “experimental archaeology,” a replica of of the Dutch ship was built in Freemantle, Australia. The … Continue reading
A boat loaded with asylum seekers has capsized in Indonesian waters about 107 nautical miles north of Australia’s Christmas Island. The boat is reported to have had 150 passengers and crew aboard. CNN is reporting that 136 have been rescued by two merchants ships. … Continue reading
With a sad familiarity, another overloaded boat, filled with desperate asylum seekers trying to reach Australia’s Christmas Island, has capsized in Indonesian waters. Up to 200 people are believed to have been aboard the vessel when it capsized. Indonesia’s search and rescue authority … Continue reading
Seventy yeas ago, the Japanese and navies of the United States and Australia fought the Battle of the Coral Sea in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea in a series of naval battles from May … Continue reading
The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency received a distress call Sunday night from the captain of a wooden ship bound for Australia. The ship was taking on water and carrying 120 Afghan refugees. The Afghans were picked up and taken by tanker … Continue reading
Just as preparations for moving the world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, to her namesake city in Australia, are getting underway, Peter Maddison, a former councillor from Sunderland, where the ship was built, has occupied the old clipper, … Continue reading
Last February the crew of the 130′ long by 120′ wide maxi-trimaran Banque Populaire V was forced to give up their attempt to the win the Jules Verne trophy for the fastest circumnavigation by sail when the trimaran struck an “unidentified floating object” while … Continue reading
About 14,000 humpback whales migrated between Australia and Antarctica each year. Among them is a white humpback, nicknamed Migaloo. Migaloo, or “white fella” in an Aboriginal language, was first spotted in 1991 and may be the most popular humpback whale in the world, being … Continue reading
And speaking of “music of the sea”, an intriguing story from Australia. When Matt Waller, a tour operator in Neptune Bay, Australia, attached speakers to shark cages and played the heavy metal band AC/DC, he discovered that the great white sharks became … Continue reading
Shell is on its way to building the largest floating offshore facility in the world for its Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Project in Australia. The FLNG facility will be 488 meters long and will weigh around 600,000 tonnes – … Continue reading
Earth Hour is “a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights … Continue reading
Today is the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the passenger ship SS Yongala in a cyclone off Australia with the loss of 122 lives. Yongala Centenary Expedition CAIRNS tourism pioneer Charles Woodward is today heading for the shipwreck … Continue reading
In response to our post, Sail this summer on the Picton Castle, Greg Winter commented, “Or try the same in the beautiful South Pacific, on the brigantine Soren Larsen. Sails out of Auckland New Zealand to the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, … Continue reading
A horrific story from Australia’s Christmas Island where a boat carrying asylum-seekers believed to be from Iraq and Iran broke up in rough after striking rocks offshore. Forty two people were been rescued and twenty seven have been confirmed dead, though that … Continue reading
The clipper ship City of Adelaide (later HMS Carrick), the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the world, is being made ready for her long trip home to her namesake city in Australia, from her current berth in Irvine, Scotland. Carrick … Continue reading
As difficult as it is to keep ships afloat, sometimes they can be devilishly hard to sink as well. At least that has been the experience of a group trying to scuttle the decommissioned HMAS Adelaide as an artificial reef and recreational diving site off the central … Continue reading
Great news! The oldest just barely surviving composite clipper ship in the world, the City of Adelaide appears likely to be moved to Australia to its namesake city, Adelaide. The ship, which is currently at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, Scotland, has … Continue reading
Julian Stockwin made a comment on Twitter this morning (what is the past tense of “to tweet?” by the way) regarding women on submarines. He noted that Norway has had women serving on submarines for decades. Indeed, the US … Continue reading