For the next fortnight, I will be a passenger on a sailing ship crossing the briny blue of the Atlantic. This seems like a good time to make an updated repost on the color blue. Homer referred to the famously … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
On April Fool’s Day, a repost about not an April Fool’s Day prank but a hoax and a swindle. In October of 1897, at the height of the Alaskan Gold Rush, two men, Prescott Ford Jernegan, a Baptist minister, and … Continue reading
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, it seems a good time to remember Mary Ann Brown Patten, the first woman to command an American merchant ship. An updated repost. The year was 1856. The ship was the clipper … Continue reading
An updated repost in honor of Women’s History month. Since at least the 17th century, on the Korean island of Jeju, the haenyeo, Korean for “sea women” have worked free diving in the clear island waters. Using an ancient breathing … Continue reading
Remember the old tongue twister, “She sells seashells by the seashore?” (Try saying that three times fast.) The tongue twisting seashell seller was inspired by a real woman named Mary Anning, an English fossil collector, dealer, and paleontologist, who did indeed … Continue reading
At approximately 1:30 AM this morning, the Singapore-flagged, 10,000 TEU container ship, MV Dali struck the southern support pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, spanning the Patapsco River at the entrance to the Port of Baltimore, Maryland. The impact … Continue reading
Task & Purpose reports that three of the five Navy commanding officers who have been fired so far this year, including a Navy SEAL and two submarine captains, were relieved after being arrested off-base for driving under the influence. Navy … Continue reading
At the beginning of the month, we posted a drone video of the battleship USS Texas being refloated following repairs and refurbishment on the drydock at the Gulf Copper Shipyard in Galveston. Here is another drone video of a historic … Continue reading
Two crew members on a Holland America cruise ship died during an “incident” in the ship’s engineering space, the cruise line said. The unidentified crew members died Friday while the Florida-based Nieuw Amsterdam was at Half Moon Cay in the … Continue reading
Tragic news as reported by the BBC: Indonesian rescuers found 69 Rohingya people sunburnt and dehydrated on Thursday, floating on a rusty hull off the coast of Aceh. The country’s search and rescue agency says nine children, 18 women and … Continue reading
We recently posted about Kate Walker, the lighthouse keeper of the Robbins Reef Light in New York harbor for close to 35 years. Kate took over as keeper when her husband died of pneumonia in 1886. Oddly enough, in the … Continue reading
Why do the matriarchs of orca pods often live such long lives? The average lifespan for male killer whales is about 30 years, but they can live up to at least 60 years. Females typically live about 50 years, but … Continue reading
The Voice of America reports that the Indian navy freed the hijacked MV Ruen cargo ship in Somalia’s Puntland region Saturday after a 24-hour standoff and shootout, and it has detained 35 pirates, according to Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah. … Continue reading
Last week, the National Park Service announced that its archeologists have identified the remains of HMS Tyger, an 18th-century British warship, within the boundaries of Dry Tortugas National Park, off the south coast of Florida. Built in 1647, the fourth-rate, … Continue reading
On St. Patrick’s Day, a repost about another Irish saint, St. Brendan the Navigator, and the adventurer who sought to replicate his epic voyage. Who was the first European to sail to North America? According to Irish tradition, it was … Continue reading
An updated repost in honor of Women’s History Month. In 1886, lighthouse keeper John Walker’s last words to his wife Kate as he died from pneumonia, were “Mind the light, Kate.” Kate, then 38 with two teenage children, took his … Continue reading
Adm. Lisa Franchetti was sworn in as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy, on Nov. 2, 2023. Her confirmation made Franchetti not only the first woman to become the CNO and … Continue reading
In August, we posted about the Pyxis Ocean, an 80,000 DWT bulk carrier, fitted with two WindWings®, a pioneering rigid wing technology, that had set sail on its maiden voyage from China to Brazil. Now, six months later, Cargill announced the … Continue reading
During Women’s History Month, it is good to remember and to honor Admiral Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a United States Navy Rear Admiral. Hopper received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from … Continue reading
Ukraine is a nation without a navy and yet has succeeded in wreaking havoc on the Russian Black Sea Fleet using high-tech sea drones and anti-ship missiles. The Ukrainians have continued to sink Russian warships, as recently as last week, … Continue reading