Fifteen-year-old Dutch sailor, Laura Dekker, arrived in St. Maarten after a 2,200 nautical-mile voyage from the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa. She sailed from Gibraltar on August 21 and spent two months in the Canary Islands waiting for the hurricane … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
Sailors in the western hemisphere will see the first lunar eclipse to fall on the solstice in the last 456 years. According to NASA, the last time the two celestial events happened at the same time was in AD 1554. Solstice Lunar … Continue reading
Though often confused with flying fish, the Japanese flying squid, Todarodes pacificus, uses jet propulsion to leap out of the sea and fly up to 65ft to escape predators. Graham Ekins, 60, a retired deputy head teacher from Boreham, Essex, … Continue reading
Perhaps foreshadowing our own information age, World War II’s “Battle of the Atlantic” between German submarine wolf-packs and Allied convoys was largely won and nearly lost by the code breakers of Bletchley Park. In 1940, Alan Turing had begun to … Continue reading
The brigantine Soren Larsen was built in Denamrk in 1948 and traded extensively in Baltic, British and European ports until 1972. In the 1970s she starred in the popular BBC television drama series, The Onedin Line. She has also … Continue reading
What is AMVER? They are the most amazing world-wide maritime search and rescue network that you probably have never heard of. AMVER stands for the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System. It was founded over fifty years ago, in 1958, and currently over 19,000 ships … Continue reading
Bernard Cornwell‘s introduction to his review of Sam Willis’s book, “The Fighting Temeraire,” is as dramatic as it is sadly accurate. He writes: At Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, the battle-cruiser USS Olympia lies glorious and doomed. The oldest steel warship in … Continue reading
The second leg of the Velux Five Oceans singlehanded around the world race began today with the five competitors setting sail from Cape Town, South Africa bound for Wellington, NZ, a 7,000 mile voyage across the wild Southern Ocean. Brad Van Liew, … Continue reading
Earlier this week we posted about Cakewalk, a luxury yacht built at Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Conn. Here is quite different vessel now under construction at Derecktor. Statue Cruises, a subsidiary of Hornblower Cruises, has hired Derecktor to construct the world’s … Continue reading
Carnival Cruise Line posted the following today on their website: Carnival Cruise Lines has cancelled additional departures of the Carnival Splendor including the January 16, 23, 30 and February 6 and 13, 2011 voyages to allow for additional repair time … Continue reading
A horrific story from Australia’s Christmas Island where a boat carrying asylum-seekers believed to be from Iraq and Iran broke up in rough after striking rocks offshore. Forty two people were been rescued and twenty seven have been confirmed dead, though that … Continue reading
On December 11, 1710, the English ship Nottingham Galley came ashore on Boon Island, off Cape Neddick, Maine, stranding its 14 man crew, of whom four would subsequently die. It became one of the best known shipwrecks in New England … Continue reading
It sounds like like a joke, and indeed it has many elements of farce, but nevertheless when the TV reality-show pirates of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, the Sea Shepherds, meet the Japanese whalers this season in the Southern Ocean, matters could … Continue reading
The Onion is a satire magazine. In their “The People Who Mattered – 2010” they included their own take on 16 year old sailor Abby Sunderland’s attempted circumnavigation. Moderately amusing. To read our non-satirical posts about Abby click here. Abby Sunderland … Continue reading
The almost 30 year restoration of the James Craig is a wonderful story of volunteers rescuing an old windjammer, rusting away on a Tasmanian beach. The three masted iron barque, James Craig, originally named Clan Macleod, was built by Bartram, … Continue reading
Our belated congratulations to Inger Klein Olsen, who took command of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria at the beginning of December. She is the first woman to take command of a Cunard Line ship in the line’s 170 year history. History is Made … Continue reading
The tweet from gCaptain was “Deepwater Pathfinder runs aground” which was linked to a post on the gCaptain blog describing how the drill ship ran aground while pulling into Freeport, TX, shearing off a thruster. Perhaps I am just easily amused, but I … Continue reading
Master and Commander – Far Side of the World, loosely based on one or another novel by Patrick O’Brian, was a movie that I needed to see twice to enjoy. The first time I saw it, I was so annoyed by the … Continue reading
Another ship down. Speculation is that the Korean fishing vessel No.1 In Sung either struck an iceberg or was hit by a large wave off Antarctica. Twenty surviving crew members were rescued and taken aboard the fishing vessel No. 707 … Continue reading
Heavy rains, strong winds and high seas hit the eastern Mediterranean over the weekend with winds of 100 kilometres per hour and waves reaching heights of 10 metres, sinking the Moldavian bulk carrier, Adriatic, off the coast of Israel and battering the RCCL cruise ship, Brilliance of … Continue reading