Happy Thanksgiving for those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.) Here is a repost of a story I think is well worth retelling. Thanksgiving is one of the … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
One hundred and seven years ago today, the three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons, under the command of Captain Herman Schuenemann, sank with the loss of all hands in a winter storm in Lake Michigan. The schooner, known as the “Christmas Tree … Continue reading
On Monday, November 22, 1869, the composite clipper ship Cutty Sark, built for the Jock Willis Shipping, Line was launched from the Scott & Linton shipyard on the River Leven in Scotland. The Cutty Sark, one of the last tea … Continue reading
A year ago, we posted about the search for a berth for the Liberty ship John W. Brown. Now, the ship, the last surviving troopship from World War II, must find a new home by the end of the year … Continue reading
On November 14, 1910, one hundred and nine years ago today, pilot Eugene Burton Ely successfully took off in a biplane from the deck of the light cruiser USS Birmingham in the waters off Norfolk, Virginia, becoming the first pilot … Continue reading
The submarine USS Grayback, one of the most successful US Navy submarines in World War II, has been located in 1,400 feet of water off Okinawa. The submarine was sunk in February 1944, on her tenth war patrol after sinking … Continue reading
Last week, we posted a video promoting the Port of New York and New Jersey made in the 1950s. Here is a similar if very different video made by RKO focussing on the Manhattan waterfront around 1937, at the height … Continue reading
For just over a century, an 80-foot long iron sand-dumping scow has been stuck on a rock in the raging currents of the Niagara River just upriver from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. After a powerful storm blew through … Continue reading
Here is a wonderful video from the 1950s focusing on the Port of New York, which the narrator proclaims is the “Best Port in the World.” It is wonderful to watch the old style cargo handling — hoisting bags, boxes, … Continue reading
The RV Petrel continues its amazing streak of underwater discoveries. Now, it has located the wreckage of what is believed to be the USS Johnston at a depth of 20,400 ft in the Philippine Sea. The wreck is believed to … Continue reading
The so-called Ohio River ghost ship does not seem to be really haunted, except perhaps by a long and illustrious past. A vessel of many names, she has been known as Celt, Sachem, USS Phenakite, Sightseer, and Circle Line V. … Continue reading
I recently came back from a voyage on a small ship along the west coast of Iceland. One of the highlights of the trip were stops in ports in the Westfjords, an isolated peninsula in the northwest of the island. … Continue reading
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought seventy-five years ago this week between the US and Australian navies and the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some standards the largest naval … Continue reading
The RV Petrel has located the wreckage of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, sunk in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The ship is the second of two sunken Japanese carriers that the Petrel has located two days apart. … Continue reading
The Long Beach Bar Light was built in 1871 as a “screwpile” lighthouse on the North Fork of Eastern Long Island, off Orient, New York. Because a screwpile lighthouse is a lighthouse that stands on thin piles that are screwed … Continue reading
When Simeon Lowell moved his boat-building business to Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1793, I wonder whether he could have possibly imagined that the boat shop would still be producing boats, dories, and skiffs 226 years later. Lowell’s Boat Shop is the … Continue reading
Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, died almost exactly a year ago. Nevertheless, his passion for underwater archeology lives on in the operation of the Research Vessel Petrel, which is fully funded by Allen’s estate. The ship’s mission is to … Continue reading
One open question about the Bronze Age in the Middle East was where the tin was sourced. Bronze is an alloy of primarily copper and tin. Recently, scientists identified the surprising source of tin ingots found in three shipwrecks off … Continue reading
Civilian divers were on an archeological dive on the London, a Royal Navy ship built-in 1656 which exploded and sank in 1665 in the Thames Estuary. They were shocked to find a large World War II bomb in the wreck. … Continue reading
The recent activation by TRANSCOM of 28 cargo ships, makes it a good time to take a look back at eight iconic shps from the 1970s still in service today. When I was a young student of naval architecture at … Continue reading