The rumors had been dire for some time and now they appear to be confirmed. Marlinspike Magazine is reporting that the Ocean Classroom Foundation‘s three vessels, the schooners Spirit of Massachusetts, Harvey Gamage, & Westward will be auctioned. As reported by Marlinspike: … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
Tall ship Gazela Primeiro, the official tall ship of Philadelphia, carried 30 dories when it fished the Grand Banks of the Atlantic Ocean. A dory is a small wooden boat used by a solo fisherman who tended a long line … Continue reading
Last April, we posted about the capsizing and sinking of the South Korean ro/ro ferry Sewol with the loss of over 300, dead and missing. Yoo Byung-eun, the effective owner and manager of Chonghaejin Marine Company, which operated the ferry, had been the … Continue reading
PortSide New York, the organization behind the historic tanker Mary A. Whalen, is having an amazing marine hardware fundraising sale. From their press release: If you think a full-sized bollard makes the perfect doorstop, or that a collection of shackles … Continue reading
Isabelle Autissier is a French sailor who has sailed around the world four times. In this TED talk, she shares some of what she has learned about life and living from the sailing the world’s oceans. She speaks of the … Continue reading
Two years ago we posted about how a team of scientists at the Texas A&M University Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation were using freeze-drying to preserve large sections of French explorer’s Robert LaSalle’s flagship, La Belle, which sank in Matagorda Bay in … Continue reading
A few days ago, a trailer was posted on the internet for a four part documentary television series called, “No Ordinary Women.” The voice over for the trailer begins, “‘No Ordinary Women’ is the story about eleven women ready … Continue reading
What a wonderful juxtaposition. The whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, built in 1841, and recently rebuilt by the Mystic Seaport Museum, sailing with humpback whales as they migrate across Stellwagen Bank off Massachusetts. No harpoons were in evidence and the whales did … Continue reading
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is hosting its seventh annual City of Water Day festival this Saturday, July 12th, at multiple locations in New York Harbor. Festivities will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year Hoboken is joining in the fun, hosting … Continue reading
I believe that this is the first straight-out restaurant review that we have done on the Old Salt Blog. Then again the Grand Banks Oyster Bar on the schooner Sherman Zwicker is not your typical restaurant. Sherman Zwicker is a … Continue reading
National Geographic has published breathtaking photographs and video of the Swedish warship Mars, which exploded and sank in the first battle of Öland in 1564. Because the ship sank in the dark, cold waters of the Baltic Sea, where the … Continue reading
HMS Pickle is for sale on Ebay, with a minimum opening bid of £69,500.00, no reserve and five days left in the auction. The topsail schooner is a replica of the first ship to bring the news of Nelson’s great … Continue reading
This weekend, Steven Robles, 40, was swimming off Manhattan Beach in Southern California on Saturday morning when he was attacked by a juvenile 7′ long great white shark. He suffered a single bite wound on the right side of his … Continue reading
In just over a week, salvors expect to start pumping air into sponson tanks welded along the hull of the Costa Concordia to refloat the ship. Prior to the refloating, Italian police have released footage showing the underwater interior of the wrecked … Continue reading
Today, Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II christened the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. As the ceremony was held in Rosyth, Scotland, the queen christened the ship with a bottle of whiskey from the Bowmore Distillery, rather than the … Continue reading
The composite clipper, City of Adelaide, built in 1864, is the world’s oldest surviving clipper ship. Between 1864 and 1887 the ship made 23 voyages from London and Plymouth to Adelaide, South Australia. Approximately a quarter of a million Australians … Continue reading
The owners of the product tanker Arsenal lost contact with the ship while she was underway in the South China Sea near the Anambas Archipelago, Indonesia. Fearing that the ship might have been hijacked by pirates, they contacted the Indonesian … Continue reading
We posted earlier today about the USS Slater’s dazzle camouflage paint. Dazzle, sometimes referred to as razzle dazzle, is a very different approach to camouflage. Where most camouflage attempts to hide an object or person, dazzle camouflage on ships uses … Continue reading
In April we posted about the drydocking of USS Slater, the last World War II destroyer escort still afloat in the United States, at Caddell Dry Dock in Staten Island. Yesterday, her repairs completed, newly cleaned, and painted, she returned to her … Continue reading
Well before the billionaire’s AC72 catamarans were rising up on foils to race in the America’s Cup, nimble Moth dinghies were flying on hydrofoils around the buoys. I will admit to being fascinated by the foiling Moths, although they appear … Continue reading