“The experience of LCS, it broke the Navy,” said Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. The Navy’s ambitious Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program promised low cost, highly flexible, reliable, multi-mission ships. So far they … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
The three masted barque Statsraad Lehmkuhl is many things. Based in Bergen, Norway, at 102 years old, she is Norway’s largest and oldest square-rigged sailing ship. She is also very beautiful and very fast. In this year’s Tall Ship Races, she … Continue reading
Here is some remarkable video footage of the two leaders of the Vendee Globe single-handed around the world race, shot from a French Navy helicopter from the frigate Nivôse. The helicopter videoed Armel le Cleac’h, sailing Banque Populaire VIII, and … Continue reading
The Justice Department has announced that Princess Cruise Lines will pay a record $40 million fine for “deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up” in what it called “the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel … Continue reading
For Throwback-Thursday, here is a video beginning with the construction of the schooner Virginia in 2005 through to the sailing of the Gloucester Schooner race of 2007, which the Virginia won. Start to the Finishline from Mike Goodwin on Vimeo. … Continue reading
Overfishing is a huge problem in the world’s oceans. Exacerbating the problem is fishing piracy. A year ago, we posted “Can Big Data Stop Overfishing? Will Google’s Global Fishing Watch Succeed?” The post described how Oceana, SkyTruth and Google were launching … Continue reading
Titanic had two sisters — the Olympic and the Britannic. While the Olympic had a productive 24 year operating life, the Britannic was only slightly more lucky than her ill-fated sister, Titanic. Just over 100 years ago, on November 21, … Continue reading
When the New York Times features your obituary on the front page, it probably means that you are dead. Sadly, that is the case of with historic ferryboat Binghamton. Yesterday, the New York Times featured an article “Final Departure for … Continue reading
The Tall Ship Lynx is reported to have found a winter home in St. Petersburg, FL. The ship visited St. Pete last winter and is now expected to make the Gulf Coast city its permanent winter home, according to a … Continue reading
A beautifully shot video of a beautiful ship, the three-masted top-sail schooner Oosterschelde. The schooner with a sparred length of 164′ is described as “the last remaining representative of the large fleet of schooners that sailed under the Dutch flag … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted about the renewal and reconstruction of the Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport Museum. Here is a short video of the ship in 1957 arriving in New York on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. I love the … Continue reading
I hope everyone who celebrates the American holiday is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. The holiday is associated with a group of English settlers now known as the Pilgrims who arrived on the Massachusetts coast around 1620 on the ship Mayflower. … Continue reading
More teething problems on USS Zumwalt, the US Navy’s newest, most advanced and most expensive destroyer. While transiting the Panama Canal, the ship lost propulsion on its port shaft. Two of the four bearings that connect the ship’s port and … Continue reading
Douglas Reeman needs our help. If you have ever read any of the thirty volumes of the nautical adventures of Richard Bolitho, you probably know the author by his pen name, Alexander Kent. In total, Reeman has written close to … Continue reading
Last week, a humpback whale swam into the Hudson River as far north as the George Washington Bridge. Humpbacks have been returning to the waters around New York in significant numbers in recent years, although a whale swimming in the … Continue reading
In 2002, amateur divers discovered the wrecks of three Dutch warships sunk off Indonesia in World War II. The three ships; the HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java and HNLMS Kortenaer; were found at 70 meters deep, 60 miles off the … Continue reading
We recently posted, “Which is the Oldest Operating Steamship?” We thought that “the oldest steamer may be the Norwegian PS Skibladner, which began service in August 1856 on Lake Mjøsa. We also asked, “So, which vessels have we missed? Any … Continue reading
Yesterday, we posted about the remarkable recovery of humpback whales after have been hunted to near extinction in the 1980s. Coincidentally, yesterday morning, a humpback whale was spotted swimming in the Hudson River in New York’s inner harbor near the … Continue reading
Humpback whales are back, or, at the very least, there seems to be a good case for cautious optimism. In 1986, at the beginning of the moratorium on commercial whaling, the global population of humpback whales had dropped by 90% … Continue reading
Everyone likes superlatives. The oldest, fastest, newest, largest and so on. Often superlatives need to be very specific to be made to apply. HMS Victory, for example, is the oldest naval ship still in commission, while USS Constitution is the oldest … Continue reading