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
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
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
While we may prefer prefer vessels with more sticks, cloth and string, we are overdue in acknowledging the construction of Cakewalk, a new $82 million 85 meter yacht, which was delivered from Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, CT yard in August. Cakewalk … Continue reading
In 1901, the Antiythera mechanism was pulled from a Roman shipwreck. It is believed to date from approximately 90 BC. For years no one knew what to make of the strange clock-like device until advanced digital radiographs revealed that it was … Continue reading
The clipper ship City of Adelaide (later HMS Carrick), the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the world, is being made ready for her long trip home to her namesake city in Australia, from her current berth in Irvine, Scotland. Carrick … Continue reading
This is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. The US Navy is testing an electromagnetic railgun capable of hitting a target 100 miles away. Navy Electromagnetic Railgun Annihilates Targets 100 Miles Away In Six Minutes In the near future, US Navy ships … Continue reading
Slightly over two years ago we posted about the hijacking of the Ukranian ro/ro Faina by Somali pirates. The pirates were surprised to discover that the ship was loaded with arms, including 33 Russian T-72 battle tanks. The pirates claimed … Continue reading
The closest thing to a nautical movie in the theaters this season, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, doesn’t sound like it is necessarily worth the price of a ticket. Manohla Dargis begins her review in … Continue reading
In only the third time in 96 years, the Panama Canal closed yesterday due to flooding. After being shut down for ten hours it reopened early this morning. Heavy rains around the Chagres River, caused the water in Lake Gatun, a significant part … Continue reading
What I found surprising about the headline in the Mail Online was not that women would be serving on Royal Navy submarines but that they were still being called Wrens. Demonstrating my own ignorance, I thought that designation had been phased out … Continue reading
As difficult as it is to keep ships afloat, sometimes they can be devilishly hard to sink as well. At least that has been the experience of a group trying to scuttle the decommissioned HMAS Adelaide as an artificial reef and recreational diving site off the central … Continue reading
While the circumstances were completely different from those on the Carnival Splendor, the problem encountered by the cruise ship Clelia II is apparently another example of a ship’s engines being impacted by damage to electrical control systems. The Clelia II‘s … Continue reading
Ships carrying metallic ores should be the most stable ships on the ocean. These cargoes are dense and carried in low the ship. If improperly loaded, ore cargoes can indeed break a ship in half, but stability should not be an issue. Nevertheless, three ships carrying nickel ore … Continue reading
Two interesting stories of shipwrecks in the press recently – the wreck of the Titanic is being consumed by newly identified steel-munching bacteria, while scientists are discovering large numbers of well preserved shipwrecks in the dark and cold Baltic where there are 1,500 confirmed wrecks … Continue reading
Update: The three masted schooner Raw Faith is reported to now have sunk after the crew of two was rescued by the Coast Guard. __________ Two men were rescued by the Coast Guard from Raw Faith, a home-built 118′ three … Continue reading