Two groups on opposite coasts of the United States are frantically working to save the 1895 built, SS Olympia, Admiral Dewey’s flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay and the last, just barely, surviving war ship from the Spanish-American War. The Mare … Continue reading
Category Archives: History
A new video released by the Bermuda Department of Conservation Services explores the wreckage of the British mail steamship “Caraquet” which came to grief on the island’s reefs 90 years ago. Caraquet 1864 – Bermuda Shipwrecks from Conservation Services on … Continue reading
This September, a fleet of tall ships will reenact the 1813 Battle of Put-in-Bay, Ohio, also known as the Battle of Lake Erie. The reenactment is part of the Great Lakes Tall Ships Challenge which kicks off today in Cleveland, OH through the … Continue reading
My wife and I recently saw “The Boat Factory” a two actor play, starring Dan Gordon and Michael Condron, which celebrates the sprawling Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That’s right, a play about a shipyard. But not just any … Continue reading
We recently posted about the Michigan State Senate passing a resolution which officially recognized “International Talk Like a Pirate Day”. (It appears that they nothing better to do, in a state with a gaping budget deficit, collapsing cities and failing schools. … Continue reading
Researchers at Swansea University, working with a Swedish expert, have reconstructed the face of one of Henry VIII’s elite archers, who drowned aboard the warship Mary Rose in 1545. Face of 16th-century English archer revealed It reveals a man in his … Continue reading
In 1929, a portion of a world map was discovered in the archives at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The map showed Europe, parts of Africa and Columbus’ discoveries in the New World. It was drawn in 1513 only 21 years … Continue reading
The carrack Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s flagship. After thirty three years of service, it sank in the Solent on July 19, 1545. Out of 500 sailors, 35 survived. The wreck was located in 1971 and the ship was … Continue reading
In most cases, no one ever manages to find the carcass of a dead sea serpent or lake monster washed up on a beach. The one big, literal and figurative, exception are the”globsters,” massive carcasses which have been washing shore … Continue reading
Next to a 7-11 convenience store on 8th Avenue, about a half block from the beach, in the New Jersey shore community of Belmar, there is a tall sewer standpipe, a vertical vent designed to carry the noxious smells from … Continue reading
What is the plural of Atlantis? Atlanti? Atlantises? Recently two different underwater areas have been in the news, both of which are referred to as “Britain’s Atlantis.” One is called Doggerland, a huge undersea region swallowed by the sea … Continue reading
The Howell Automobile Torpedo of 1889 was the first self-propelled torpedo in United States Navy service. Only fifty were built and until recently, only one was known to have survived. Then in late April, Navy dolphins located a lost Howell … Continue reading
An interesting Kickstarter fundraiser to complete the documentary “Twice Forgotten: Heroes of the R12 Submarine,” about the WWII submarine USS R-12, which sank off the coast of Key West, Florida on June 12, 1943 with the loss of 40 American sailors and 2 Brazilian officers. … Continue reading
Two bottles of whisky salvaged from the wreck of the cargo ship SS Politician have been sold for £12,050 after an online auction. The wreck inspired the novel “Whisky Galore” and the movie of the same name. Whisky Galore bottles … Continue reading
We posted yesterday about the “shutter plank” being fastened to the whaleship Charles W. Morgan in Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The Morgan, built in 1841, is America’s last surviving wooden whaleship and has been undergoing a fiver year restoration. I came a across … Continue reading
Last week, the news broke that evidence of cannibalism had been found at the Jamestown colony in Virginia. Cut and sawing marks have been found on the skull and leg bones of a young woman, suggesting that her flesh was stripped and … Continue reading
On March 22, 1987, the tugboat Break of Dawn, towing the barge Mobro 4000, loaded with 3,168 tons of trash, set sail from Islip, New York, bound for Morehead City, North Carolina. The plan was to convert the trash to methane … Continue reading
In 2001, a joint French-English expedition was searching the bottom of Egypt’s Aboukir Bay for the wrecks of French warships sunk in the “Battle of the Nile” in 1798. Instead they re-discovered a lost city. Known as Thonis to the Egyptians and Heracleion to … Continue reading
There has been lots of interest in the restoration of surviving World War II PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats. The closest thing to a PT boat in service during the Vietnam War was the PCF, Patrol Craft Fast, better known as the Swift Boat. … Continue reading
On Wednesday night, a huge explosion ripped through West, Texas; a small central Texas town, south of Dallas. The fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded, leveling homes and buildings for a five blocks area, killing from 5 – 40 people and injuring … Continue reading