International Salt, a major salt company, has just about run out of salt to supply the State of New Jersey. The salt is used to control ice on the roads, and to run out in the middle of a very … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
Maersk Lines is reporting that the 7,200 TEU container ship Svendborg Maersk lost a “significant number of containers over board” on Friday while crossing the Bay of Biscay. Lloyds List is reporting that 200-300 containers were lost in heavy weather while … Continue reading
In the United States, today is “Presidents’ Day,” a national holiday on the third Monday of February, falling between Lincoln’s (February 14th) and Washington’s (February 22) birthdays. Here is a repost of the tale of Lincoln’s camel that we ran back … Continue reading
Sadly, just before Christmas, the schooner Nathaniel Bowditch, owned by Owen and Cathie Dorr, was seized at its Rockland Harbor berth in Lermond Cove by U.S. Marshals and towed to Camden Harbor, Maine. The Nathaniel Bowditch is one of the … Continue reading
The Great Lakes between the United States and Canada were formed by the passage of ice at end of the last glacial period around 10,000 years ago. They are now being covered by near record ice once again (although, not … Continue reading
A unusually large wave killed an 85 year old man and injured a woman in her 70s on the cruise ship MS Marco Polo in the English Channel, as it headed for its home port of Tilbury, in Essex. Both were … Continue reading
Recently, the press has been abuzz with the lack of sightings of Loch Ness monster. There have been no sightings of the famous beastie in the last 18 months. The Daily Mail asks “Is Nessie DEAD?” The BBC notes: No Loch … Continue reading
The crew of the HMS Daring spelled out a message on the the flight deck to their loved ones at home. The Type 45 destroyer is on her way home to Portsmouth, Hampshire, after having spent nine months on deployment. … Continue reading
In the almost 6,000 miles of streets, roads and highways in the five boroughs of New York City, only about 15 miles are still paved with cobblestones. As noted by the New York Times: Starting in the 17th century, cobblestones … Continue reading
The first word that comes to mind when thinking of Albert Einstein is probably not “sailor.” Nevertheless, Einstein enjoyed sailing and appears to have done at least some of his most important work while on sailing vacations. A friend described … Continue reading
Sometime around the 60 CE, a Greek merchant, whose name is lost to history, wrote a guide, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Periplus is the Latinization of the Greek word περίπλους (periplous, contracted from periploos), literally “a sailing-around.” While Erythraean literally … Continue reading
The NTSB Report conclusion came as no real surprise. Captain Robin Walbridge; who was lost along with a crew member, Claudene Christian, in the sinking of the replica of the HMS Bounty; should never have taken the ship to sea with … Continue reading
Joseph Conrad, who claimed not to be a sentimentalist when came to the life at sea, waxed poetic when writing of the trade winds: In the middle belt of the earth the Trade Winds reign supreme, undisputed, like monarchs of … Continue reading
In World War II, the British government set up the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe. An unusual group, they were also known as “the Baker Street Irregulars,” (because their headquarters was on Baker Street in … Continue reading
José Salvador Alvarenga, the fisherman who apparently drifted for 13 months at sea in open boat, has been released from the hospital in the Marshall Islands. How is it possible that he could have survived for over a year, while … Continue reading
The Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s Michael Grandage production of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Billy Budd, opened last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music(BAM.) Herman Melville’s Billy Budd was his last work, which almost died with him in 1891. The unfinished manuscript was … Continue reading
The two stories were drastically different and yet fundamentally the same. Off Florida on Thursday, roughly 75 miles northeast of West Palm Beach, Zeeland, a Royal Netherlands Navy patrol craft bound for Key West, spotted and rescued seven on an overturned … Continue reading
We recently endured the media farce in which dozens of newspapers and websites reported that “a ghost ship filled with cannibal rats may be headed straight for Britain,” even though the ship has probably sunk and the bit about the rats … Continue reading
The USS Forrestal left Phildelphia yesterday, under tow on her way to a scrap yard in Beaumont, Texas. The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the first US “supercarrier” and the first American aircraft carrier to be built with an angled flight deck, steam … Continue reading
The MV Luno, a 4,600 DWT Spanish general cargo ship, lost power in rough seas and high winds and and was blown onto a breakwater south-west of French port city Bayonne. In winds gusting up to blowing up to 110 Km/hr … Continue reading