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
Category Archives: Current
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
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
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
The National Historic Landmark and ex-presidential yacht Sequoia has fallen on hard times. In a recent ruling, Delaware judge Sam Glasscock describes her current condition. “The Sequoia, an elderly and vulnerable wooden yacht, is sitting on an inadequate cradle on an … Continue reading
The media has been full of stories about tonight’s “supermoon,” which is the largest in 68 years. Supermoon is the popular term for what astronomers call a moon perigee–syzygy. This means that the moon is at its closest point to … Continue reading
The National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island is having a one-day model ship exhibit on Saturday, November 19th from 11:00 am to 4:00pm, featuring models and demonstrations by members of the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. From the NLM … Continue reading
On Veteran’s Day, a post about a veteran ship, USS Independence, a light aircraft carrier that served in key battles at the Pacific toward the end of World War II. After the war, she was used as a target in … Continue reading
Two years ago, we posted about MV Liemba — the World’s Oldest Passenger/Cargo Steamer at 100. Now 102 years old, MV Liemba continues her passenger and cargo ferry service along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. With luck and funding from … Continue reading
The destroyer USS Zumwalt was commissioned about three weeks ago. It is the latest and greatest, most high tech destroyer in the fleet. At a cost of around $4 billion dollars, it is also the most expensive destroyer ever built. … Continue reading
On a day distracted by a momentous national election, here is something wholly unrelated — the beautiful creatures called velella velella. As lovely as they are, these jellyfish, also known as “purple sailors” or “by-the-wind sailors,” can be an unwelcomed visitor. Last spring, … Continue reading
The mystery of the Acre (Akko) Tower shipwreck may be closer to being solved. The Jerusalem Post reports that 100 hundred brass nails may have given away the secret. Discovered in 1966, the wreck was long assumed to be a British naval … Continue reading
Today, 29 sailors set off from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France in the eighth Vendée Globe single-handed round-the-world yacht race. The 24,000 mile circumnavigation will be sailed non-stop and without assistance along the clipper route: down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape … Continue reading
A Canadian diver swimming off Pitt Island near the Haida Gwaii archipelago, on Canada’s west coast, was looking for sea cucumbers, but didn’t find any. Instead, the diver, Sean Smyrichinsky, found a dummy nuclear bomb lost in a plane crash in … Continue reading
Alain Thébault is known as designer and skipper of the record breaking ocean-going hydrofoil Hydroptère, which in 2009, was the first sailing boat to sail faster than 50 knots over a measured mile. Now, Thébault is working on a very different project. … Continue reading
The shipbreaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan is one of largest shipbreakers in the world and is literally where ships go to die. Tragically, workers too often die there as well. A series of explosions yesterday in a tanker being broken up at … Continue reading
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Montgomery suffered another hull crack, this time while transiting the Panama Canal on Sunday. “Under control of the local Panama Canal Pilot, the ship impacted the center lock wall and sustained an 18-inch-long crack … Continue reading
Last month, we posted about the tragic death of Jose Fernandez and two of his friends who died when their 32′ open boat in slammed into a rock breakwater at high speed off South Beach, Miami, FL at around 3AM on … Continue reading