On Monday night, the Shell Oil drilling rig, the Kulluk, broke free from its towlines during heavy weather and ran aground on the east coast of Sitkalidak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. Sitkalidak Island is an uninhabited island separated … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ships
While hundreds of thousands shiver waiting for the ball to drop in TImes Square, a few miles away at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, a small but likely warmer crowd gathers to hear Chief Engineer Conrad Mister blow his collection … Continue reading
The impact of the meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukishima Daiichi power plant, hit by the following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, is still unfolding. Last month it was revealed that fish caught near the crippled power plant were … Continue reading
For a handful of ships, the great age of sail has not yet ended. In 2013, the Russian Navy sail training ship Kruzenshtern will call in 20 seaports in 11 countries and will take part in several international regattas. The ship, originally built in … Continue reading
Update: The port strike has been averted for now with a 30 day contract extension. In early December we posted about the end of the eight day West Coast dock strike that shut down 10 of the port’s 14 container terminals in the … Continue reading
The MS Queen Elizabeth 2, which was purchased back in 2008 for conversion to a luxury hotel in Dubai, has reportedly been sold for scrap to Chinese interests for £20 million. The original conversion plans were scuttled by a credit crunch in Dubai shortly … Continue reading
Wonderful news. Forces of Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region are reported to have raided the MV Iceberg I on Sunday and to have rescued 22 officers and crew who had been held hostage by Somali pirates for 33 months. The Puntland forces had … Continue reading
The nuclear submarine HMS Vigilant will apparently be spending the holiday season in the USA after damaging a rudder when test-firing a Trident missile in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida on October 23. The sub is reported to … Continue reading
Yesterday morning, the tanker, Stena Primorsk, ran aground in the Hudson River about ten miles south of Albany, NY after suffering a steering gear failure. No oil was reported to have been spilled. There are a whole range of interesting aspects … Continue reading
Barista Uno on the Marine Cafe blog, posted this morning about a sad anniversary. Twenty five years ago today, the passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Philippines. With a likely death toll of over 4,000 people, the sinking of the Dona Paz was deadliest … Continue reading
The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. This Friday, December 21, they will be reopening and are offering a special buy one general admission and get the second free coupon, to celebrate their return. Click … Continue reading
The Soviet submarine S-6 which disappeared on patrol in September, 1941 was been identified on the floor of the Baltic by the Swedish military. The submarine was found southeast of the Baltic island of Oland, in what was, during the … Continue reading
The US news program 60 Minutes aired a feature on salvaging the Costa Concordia last night. The operation is the largest and most complex ship salvage in history. Well done and worth watching. Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck … Continue reading
There is still more steel to be welded, rigging to be run, and money to be raised, but the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, Rhode Island’s Tall ship, looks to be on schedule to be sailing in time for the 200th … Continue reading
Really great news about the tanker, Mary A. Whalen. (Negotiations are not finalized so perhaps we should say “potentially great news” so as not to jinx anything.) For the last six years, the historic tanker and PortSide New York, the non-profit educational organization based on the ship, have been … Continue reading
The John B. Caddell, 700 gross ton water tanker, that washed up on Front Street, in Staten Island, NY during Hurricane Sandy a month and a half ago, is back in the water. In a team effort lead by the … Continue reading
We recently posted about the SS Badger, a 410-foot long coal-fired passenger and vehicle ferry operating in Lake Michigan and the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. Her supporters call her a national treasure, while to her … Continue reading
Last week, we posted about the documentary “Shipbuilding in the Maritimes,” which aired on Sunday on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Land and Sea. For those of us who do not get the programming on television, the CBC is good enough … Continue reading
At around 1 AM on Friday morning, the Cape Apricot, a cape-sized bulk carrier, chartered to K Line, smashed through a coal conveyor serving the largest of two berths at Westshore Terminals in Vancouver, Canada. An undetermined amount of coal … Continue reading
It seems to me that history is all about connections. Lawrence Gooley, writing in the Adirondack Almanack, notes how many ships present at the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, were named in remembrance of those who fought … Continue reading