Oliver Hazard Perry‘s message to his superiors was brief: “We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.” Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, was one … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
The two headlines in the BBC are from the same day and posted only an hour apart. The first reads “World’s oldest clipper ship transported to Australia.” The second – “City of Adelaide clipper ship export ban sought.” Both … Continue reading
It is around 13 feet long, appears to have horns and stinks to high heaven. A carcass washed ashore on Luis Siret Beach in Villaricos, Spain which is being widely referred to a “sea monster.” Perhaps a bit small to … Continue reading
Is pod propulsion the best or worse thing to ever happen to cruise ships? Celebrity Cruise Line just cancelled the cruises for the rest of season in Alaska on the Celebrity Millennium due to failures in its pods. It had … Continue reading
A Russian military Zubr-type hovercraft made a surprise arrival at a crowded beach recently in what the Russian defense ministry described as a “tactical mission in a military owned area.” Navy hovercraft surprises sunbathers as it lands on Russian beach … Continue reading
In May, we posted about the discovery of a rare Howell torpedo by Navy dolphins in the Pacific off San Diego. The Howell torpedo was the first self-propelled torpedo in United States Navy service. Only fifty were built and, until the … Continue reading
In each of the first three races of the the Louis Vuitton finals to determine which challenger will compete for the America’s Cup, the race has been decided by mechanical failure. The series now stands with Emirates Team New Zealand, 2 … Continue reading
In the first two races of the Louis Vuitton finals to determine which challenger will compete against the Team Oracle for the America’s Cup, both races were determined by which boat didn’t break before crossing the finish line. In race one, Emirates Team … Continue reading
When the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition‘s three-masted barquentine, Endurance, was crushed in the Antarctic ice, expedition leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton, allowed each man to take off only two pounds of possessions, including their boots. The only exception Shackleton made was Leonard Hussey’s banjo, which weighed … Continue reading
The headline in Live Science sounds like the premise for a bad SyFi channel made-for-cable movie – Testicle-Biting Fish Invading Denmark. It turns out that a Danish fisherman caught, what is believed to be, a red-bellied pacu, an omnivorous South American freshwater … Continue reading
A massive explosion, followed by a fire, has partially sunk the Indian Navy’s diesel electric submarine INS Sindhurakshak early this morning at the Mumbai naval dockyard. Eighteen officers and sailors were reported to be aboard at the time of the explosion … Continue reading
A family of religious extremists was rescued from their damaged sailboat after becoming lost for many weeks in the Pacific and has been flown back to the United States. In May, Sean and Hannah Gastonguay, with Sean’s father, Mike, and … Continue reading
Until recently only China, France, the United States, Britain and Russia have built and operated nuclear submarines. With the 6,000-ton INS Arihant ready for sea trials, India has joined this elite club. The submarine will be the first Indian-built nuclear submarine to … Continue reading
It is now official. Watching the Discovery Channel makes you stupid, or at the very least, can leave you less informed than when you started watching. A poll shows that more than 70% of those who watched the Discovery Channel’s fake … Continue reading
An Austrian couple, identified only as Irene and Christian, made a distress call last week, on July 31, from their Jeanneau Sun Legende 41, Gobo, in the South Pacific. The three masted barque Picton Castle, sailing in the Cook Islands, charted a … Continue reading
In June, we posted about two fake documentaries about mermaids, aired by the Animal Planet, which is owned by the Discovery Channel. Despite being presented as fact, the mermaid documentaries were entirely fictional. There was a brief disclaimer in the … Continue reading
It is a strange world out there. We have previously posted about Sharknado, which recently caused quite a stir on Twitter and other social networking sites. A sequel is planned, apparently, this time set in New York. I am not … Continue reading
Every time I read about a major casualty on a container ship, I think about the containers lost over the side, many of which continue to float, hazards to navigation to any boat about their size. All the evidence suggests … Continue reading
Herman Melville was born on this day, August 1, in 1819, in a boarding house on the site of 6 Pearl Street, in the Financial District of lower Manhattan in New York City. I invite you to join me in … Continue reading
In June, the navigation system of the 213′ yacht White Rose was taken over by a team of University of Texas students. Using only a laptop, a small antenna, and a GPS “spoofing” device, the team fed a stronger signal … Continue reading