In the beginning of February, we posted about Paul Cuffee, one of the first African-American ship captains and ship owners. In honor of Captain Cuffee, the New Bedford Whaling Museum will be breaking ground on the Captain Paul Cuffe Park, on March … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
On February 28th, Indonesian police seized the superyacht Equanimity, moored in Bali, at the request of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Equanimity is a 300′ luxury yacht owned by Malaysian financier Jho Low. The yacht, which is reported to have … Continue reading
Congratulations to Neil and Ariel Weisbrod. Their documentary, Secrets of a Frozen Ocean, won Best Documentary at the New York City International Film Festival. I was fortunate enough to see the world premiere of this fascinating documentary last Wednesday. The premiere, fittingly … Continue reading
The wreckage of the USS Lexington, sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea during World War II, has been located by the expedition crew of research vessel (R/V) Petrel, owned by billionaire-explorer Paul Allen. The ship was found roughly 500 … Continue reading
Norwegian Billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke has pledged to give away a substantial portion of his US$ 3.8 billion fortune to fund efforts to help save the world’s oceans. Last May, he announced the construction of a 596′ long state-of-the-art ice-strengthened oceanographic … Continue reading
As if the waters off North Carolina’s Outer Banks aren’t dangerous enough, this morning the US Coast Guard released an announcement that “70 stray cargo containers pose a threat to mariners off North Carolina.” The Maersk Shanghai lost approximately 70 to 73 cargo containers due … Continue reading
In a speech yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the United States with a new generation of nuclear weapons. Putin showed video animations of nuclear warheads raining down on Florida from a new design of an intercontinental cruise missile that he described … Continue reading
Alexander V. Ezhkov, the owner of the ill-fated Polina Star III, has a story to tell about his experience with the yacht builder Oyster Marine. Ezhkov has put up a website to detail what took place from when in 2012, he ordered … Continue reading
Next Wednesday, March 7th, at 6PM, Neil and Ariel Weisbrod‘s new documentary, “Secrets of a Frozen Ocean“, will have its world premiere at the New York City International Film Festival at the Producer’s Club 358 W 44th Street, NY, NY … Continue reading
2017 was a disastrous year for the North Atlantic right whale and 2018 looks no better. In fact, it could be worse. Last year 17 North Atlantic right whales, died which is more than died in the past five years … Continue reading
Last weekend, gold ingots and coins valued at $40 million salvaged from the wreck of the SS Central America went on display for the first time at the 2018 Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo. (The gold … Continue reading
For years, naturalists have found the shells of giant shipworms, but have not located the giant shipworm itself. Last spring, that changed. Giant shipworms were discovered buried in the mud in a Philippine mangrove swamp. Two important facts about the giant shipworm, whose scientific name … Continue reading
The timeline for when humans first took to the seas keeps getting moved back. A few years ago, stone tools were found on the island of Crete which were dated to 130,000 years ago. Likewise, stone implements on the island of Flores … Continue reading
A 30′ long stump of what is probably a hemlock tree has been floating vertically, bobbing up and down, in Crater Lake, in south-central Oregon in the western United States, for more than 120 years. How much longer it has been floating, … Continue reading
When the barque Picton Castle embarks on its seventh circumnavigation this April, it will have a special cargo of four barrels of rum from Lunenburg’s Ironworks Distillery stored in the hold. If all goes well when the ship returns to Lunenburg in … Continue reading
Joseph Conrad once wrote about a conversation with an old sailor who had just signed off a ship. The sailor said something to the effect that “the ship was alright. The problem was the people on it.” The comment seems to … Continue reading
In October of last year, we posted about the rescue of two sailors and their dogs from the yacht, Sea Nymph. The two women were picked up by the dock landing ship USS Ashland roughly 900 miles southeast of Japan. … Continue reading
For Valentine’s Day, here is a repost from a few years ago of a series of Valentine Islands, not all of which are tropical. Are they islands of love on the storm-tossed seas of life? Sadly, they probably are not, … Continue reading
I sometimes wonder if the world is going a bit mad. Take, for example, the case of icebreakers with cruise missiles and destroyers with guns but no ammunition. Despite the increased strategic importance of Arctic, the US has only one … Continue reading
In fabricating ships’ hulls and building seawalls and docks, the goal is to resist the power of the waves. Recently, however, engineers have been working on techniques to harness rather than resist the immense power of ocean waves. In the … Continue reading