Cruise Ships & Sewage — FOE Misses the Point

Here is yet another case of the media taking a wildly inaccurate sets of claims about ships at face value.  The news media has been touting a new study by the environmental group Friends of the Earth. The title of the … Continue reading

Vestas Wind, Andrea Doria, USS Guardian, Royal Majesty and GPS Assisted Grounding

At least Sir Cloudesley Shovell had an excuse, not that he really needed one. He drowned with the other 1,400 sailors in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707.  The navigators on the four warships that hit the Scilly’s Western Rocks lacked the tools … Continue reading

Cruising on Foils? Gunboat’s New G4 Flying Cruiser

Very interesting news. Gunboat, builder of high-end racing/cruising catamarans, has promised the G4, a new all carbon fiber 40 foot long catamaran, in early 2015.  The drawings and video have shown C-foil daggerboards and T-foil rudders. C-foils allow “foil-assisted” sailing. The C-foils … Continue reading

The Tjipetir Mystery — Gutta Percha Blocks & the Miyazaki Maru

For the last several years, and perhaps much longer, blocks of a rubber-like substance have been washing ashore on the beaches of Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The blocks are rectangular with rounded corners and … Continue reading

Team Vesta Wind Runs Aground on Mauritius Reef in Volvo Ocean Race

On Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Team Vesta Wind boat ran aground Saturday on a reef in the Cargados Carajos archipelago about 430 km to the northeast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are no reported injuries and the nine … Continue reading

The Board of Longitude Project — Digitizing 18th Century Science and Technology

The Board of Longitude Project, a partnership between Cambridge University Library and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in the UK, has digitized the complete papers of the Board of Longitude from its founding in 1714 until its abolition in 1828. … Continue reading

Update: US Navy Deploys Laser Weapon on USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf

Last February, we posted that the US Navy planned to deploy its first laser weapon on one of its oldest ships. The new laser weapon has now been deployed on the 43 year old USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, for field … Continue reading

Older Sailors and the Sea — Robin Knox-Johnston, Stanley Paris & Jeanne Socrates

An update on previous posts involving sailors of a certain age.  Sir Robin Knox Johnston, 75, sailing Grey Power, placed third in the highly competitive Class 40 fleet in the Route Du Rhum race between St. Malo in Brittany to Guadeloupe.  In … Continue reading

120 Year Old Schooner Ernestina to be Restored at Boothbay

Great news!  The Massachusetts of Department of Conservation and Recreation has signed a contract with Boothbay Harbor Shipyard for $6,048,025 for the restoration of the schooner Ernestina, ex-Effie M. Morrissey.   As we posted in July, private donors, Bob Hildreth and Gerry Lenfest, contributed $2.8 … Continue reading

Here Comes Lafayette’s Hermione — Voyage 2015

Twenty years ago, a small group of enthusiasts conceived a plan to build a replica of the French frigate, l’Hermione, the ship which carried the Marquis de Lafayette, to America in 1780 with the news of French support for the American revolution. … Continue reading