Here is a lightly modified repost from two years ago that seems appropriate for July 4th. At around 6AM, Sep 13, 1814, the British Royal Navy began a fearsome bombardment of Fort McHenry at the mouth of Baltimore harbor. The … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
In Zadar, the oldest city in Croatia on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic, there is an sea organ which plays the timeless music of the waves. The sea itself is the composer and performer of the music. Waves force air … Continue reading
The Bluenose II is now several weeks into her summer sailing season. Setting sail from Lunenburg, NS, she carries a professional crew of six and 12 young people, recruited from around the province and across Canada. This summer, the replica fishing/racing schooner will sail … Continue reading
One hundred years ago today, Americans learned to be afraid of sharks. On the evening of July 1, 1916, Charles Vansant, 25, of Philadelphia was on vacation with his family at the beach-side resort town of Beach Haven on the New Jersey … Continue reading
Last January we posted about two US Navy Riverine Command Boats (RCBs) with a combined crew of ten sailors which were apprehended by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats in the Gulf. One or both of the RCBs had suffered a mechanical … Continue reading
The route for the 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race has been announced and it is the longest and toughest of the competition’s 43 year history. The race around the world will begin in Alicante, Spain in November of next year and end eight … Continue reading
On Monday, a 70-80 foot long blue whale entangled in crab or fish nets and lines was spotted off the coast of Dana Point in southern California. A marine mammal rescue team attempted cut the nets and lines to free the … Continue reading
History was made yesterday at the Panama Canal when the container ship COSCO Shipping Panama transited the newly expanded canal. The ship carried over 9,000 TEU and has a beam of 158′ and is 984′ long, longer and significantly wider than was … Continue reading
Singer/songwriter Tom Munch plays his original song about the last great historic wooden schooners of Maine in the early 20th century. The photos are historic shots of the Wyoming and other ships built at Percy and Small shipyard in Bath, Maine … Continue reading
June 25th is celebrated globally as the Day of the Seafarer, an official United Nations observance day. What does that really mean? Opinions vary. Click here to read Barista Uno’s slightly acerbic but largely on-target perspective on the official “observance … Continue reading
You never know what you will find in a landfill. Paleontologist Melissa Macias was looking for fossils in the Bowerman Landfill in Irvine, California, when she spotted teeth and bones as a construction crew moved soil to create a new waste disposal … Continue reading
Johann Wilhelm Kinau was one of the more than 8,000 sailors who died in the Battle of Jutland just over 100 years ago. Kinau was 36 when he was killed while serving as a lookout on the German light cruiser … Continue reading
Congratulations to the schooner Spirit of South Carolina and all who sail and support her! After languishing for years, the schooner has new owners, a new captain and officers and was recently re-certified to carry passengers by the US Coast … Continue reading
After being tied to the dock for several years, the ARA Libertad, the Argentine Navy’s training ship, is sailing again. For the last three years, the ship has been entangled in a more than decade long battle over Argentine debt related … Continue reading
Classic Harbor Line‘s schooner America 2.0 is a fascinating design. Designed and built by the Scarano brothers and delivered in 2011, the boat is, notionally, a replica of the schooner yacht America of 1851, after which the famous America’s Cup was … Continue reading
In May 2015, we posted that the State of Hawaii has put the Friends of Falls of Clyde, the organization responsible for rescuing the historic ship of the same name, on notice that the state planned to terminate the permit … Continue reading
Seventy-two years ago today, during the early days of the Allied invasion of Europe, the sea would prove to be as formidable an enemy as the Germans. A storm, the worst in 80 years, came close to wiping out the … Continue reading
Guirec Soudée, a 24 year old sailor, has spent the last two years sailing the globe with a female chicken named Monique. Soudée began the cruise in the Canary Islands in May 2014, sailing to St. Barts in the Caribbean and … Continue reading
Last week, Repsol, the last of a group oil companies which had invested billions of dollars in Arctic drilling rights in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, abandoned its leases and sailed away. The Spanish drilling company gave up 55 leases and plans … Continue reading
Defending New York Harbor: The City’s Waterfront Forts is an exhibit of photographs by Richard W. Golden which documents the fortifications that protectively ring New York Harbor. It is on view at the historic Cutter Lilac through July 31st during regular … Continue reading