Disasters at Sea — New Series on the Smithsonian Channel

Posted on by January 8, 2019

I am very excited by a new series, “Disasters at Sea” that will be premiering on the Smithsonian Channel this Sunday, January 13th. The series is produced by Exploration Production Inc. in association with Smithsonian Networks and Discovery Channel (Canada). The series will be airing in Canada in early February. 

The premiere episode, “Trapped in Typhoon Alley “, looks at the mysterious sinking of MV Derbyshire, which disappeared in Typhoon Orchid off Japan with a load of 160,000 tonnes of iron ore in 1980. She remains the largest British ship ever to have been lost at sea.

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Save the Falls of Clyde International Postpones Ship Move

Posted on by January 7, 2019

The effort to save the Falls of Clyde has suffered at least a temporary setback. Last November, we posted about an announcement by the Save the Falls of Clyde — International, a group endeavoring to move the Falls of Clyde, the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, from Hawaii back to Scotland for restoration. The announcement read, in part: “After many months of negotiation, a deal has finally agreed between this group and Sevenstar Yacht Transfer, to collect the ‘Falls of Clyde’. She will be loaded onboard their flo/flo ship, ‘Yacht Express ‘ during the week 3rd February 2019.”

Recently, the group has announced that the move will be delayed pending finalization of sponsorship. They announced on January 4th: 

I regret to inform supporters that we have decided to cancel the planned lift operation scheduled for the 3rd February of the Falls of Clyde.  There are a variety of reasons for this decision but in the main, we are not ready. We have been engaging with major sponsors for the lift exercise, however, negotiations are taking longer than envisaged. Continue reading →

Bad Week for Containerships, Part 2 — Yantian Express on Fire, Crew Evacuated

Posted on by January 6, 2019

Yantian Express, ex Shanghai Express

On Thursday, a fire broke out in one cargo container on the Yantian Express, a 7,510 TEU container ship, about 1,500 kilometers southeast of Halifax. The fire spread to adjacent containers. The firefighting tug, Smit Nicobar, arrived Friday evening but weather conditions limited what the tug’s crew could do to fight the fire. 

Yantian Express has a complement of 8 officers and 15 seafarers. On Saturday, 11 of the crew moved aboard the Smit Nicobar. The remaining personnel are expected to shift aboard the tug on Sunday. With improved weather conditions, the tug is continuing to fight the container fire aboard the ship.

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Bad Week for Container Ships, Part 1 — 277 Boxes Lost on MSC Zoe

Posted on by January 5, 2019


MSC Zoe is one of the largest container ships in the world with a capacity of over 19,000 twenty foot containers. Nevertheless, when Storm Zeetje pounded northern Germany with gale force winds late on Tuesday night, 277 containers were washed off the huge ship in the Wadden Sea. Some of these containers or their contents were carried onto the beaches of five West Frisian Islands islands including Terschelling, Vlieland and Ameland. At least one lost container was loaded with toxic chemicals. The Netherlands deployed 100 troops to help in the clean up and to search for dangerous cargo.

The New York Times reports that the MSC Zoe was carrying three containers containing seven tons of peroxide powder each in small bags. One such bag was found on Thursday on a beach in Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island near the German border. It was not yet clear how many of the three containers went overboard.

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Remembering the HMY Iolaire Disaster, 100 Years Ago This Week

Posted on by January 4, 2019

On New Year’s Eve 1918, over 200 men crowded the dock at the port of Kyle of Lochalsh waiting to the board the HMY Iolaire, a 190′ long iron-hulled yacht requisitioned by the Admiralty. Most of the men were Royal Navy Reservists. The Great War was over and they were returning home to the Isle of Lewis on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. When they boarded the Iolaire, it was a tight fit, but after fighting the long and brutal war, no one seemed to mind a bit of crowding. 

At 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of the harbor, the Iolaire hit the infamous rocks “The Beasts of Holm” and sank. Unlike the many Hebrides islanders aboard, the officers on the bridge were unfamiliar with the local waters and made a fatal error in navigation.

Of the 283 aboard, at least 205 died. Because of the crowding aboard, the number could have been higher. Among the dead, were 181 islanders. There were only 83 survivors. The sinking of the Iolaire was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Great Britain since the Titanic.  Continue reading →

A Closer Look at Abby Sunderland’s Unsinkable ‘Wild Eyes’

Posted on by January 3, 2019

In 2010, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world, non-stop singlehanded. It didn’t go well. Sunderland’s boat, Wild Eyes, an Open 40 class racer, capsized and was dismasted in a remote region of the southern Indian Ocean. Abby Sunderland was rescued by a French fishing vessel but Wild Eyes was abandoned to the mercy of the sea.

Now over eight years later, Wild Eyes has reappeared off Australia’s Kangaroo Island, over 3,000 nautical miles from where it was abandoned. Wild Eyes was found adrift, bottom-up, without her keel.  Initial reports from 2010, suggested that the keel had been lost in the capsize as well as the rig. Later reports said that the keel was intact. If it was intact, at some point in the last eight years, the keel broke off.

How did Wild Eyes survive so long in some of the roughest seas on earth? 

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Car Carrier ‘Sincerity Ace’ on Fire — 16 Rescued, 1 Missing, 4 Feared Dead

Posted on by January 2, 2019

Around 1,800 nautical miles northwest of Oahu, the car carrier Sincerity Ace is adrift and on fire. Sixteen of her Philippine crew have been rescued, while four are feared dead and one remains missing. The fire broke on on Monday on the Panamanian flag car carrier operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, traveling from Japan bound for Hawaii. The cause of the fire is still unknown. 

The 665′ long car carrier was in a remote region of the Pacific when the ofre broke out, beyond the range of rescue helicopters.  A US Coast Guard vessel and five merchant vessels responded to the distress call. A US Navy vessel is also in transit to assist in the search for the missing crew member.

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A Virtual Visit to Null Island — “Like No Place on Earth”

Posted on by January 1, 2019

Weather buoy — Null Island

Yesterday, we posted about a ship which allegedly crossed the International Date Line and the equator at exactly the right time. Today, we will look at the other side of the globe, where the Prime Meridian crosses the equator, to the crowded, yet wholly fictional, or perhaps more accurately, entirely virtual, Null Island, at latitude and longitude 0,0.  An updated repost from several years ago.

Several years ago, a website for the Republic of Null Island appeared on the internet. It read, in part “Welcome to Null Island! The Republic of Null Island is one of the smallest and least-visited nations on Earth. Situated where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator, Null Island sits 1600 kilometres off the western coast of Africa.” The website goes on to describe the geography, the people and the history of this “least-visited nation.” Sadly, the website and apparently also the republic have now vanished.

In fact, Null Island, at a latitude and longitude of 0,0, does not exist. Or does it? Continue reading →

RMS Warrimoo — In Several Places and Times at Once

Posted on by December 31, 2018

Here is a wonderful sea story which appears to be more or less true. RMS Warrimoo was an Australian/New Zealand passenger ship, launched in 1892. The ship is best remembered for crossing the intersection of the international dateline and the equator at precisely the turn of the century from 1899 to 1900. Here is how the story is usually told:

The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was latitude 0 degrees x 31 minutes north and longitude 179 degrees x 30 minutes west.

The date was 30 December 1899. Know what this means? First Mate Payton broke in, we’re only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line.

Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check and double check the ship’s position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather and clear night worked in his favor. At midnight the Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line! Continue reading →

The Coast Guard, Drug Busts, and the Wall

Posted on by December 30, 2018

Sometimes the events of the day seem downright surreal. Yesterday, I read about the US Coast Guard cutter Campbell which returned to the Portsmouth Naval Base from a three month Pacific patrol in which it seized more than 11,000 pounds of cocaine, worth about $159 million. Nevertheless, the personnel aboard the Campbell are not currently being paid for their work due to the current partial Federal shutdown. Nationally, the 42,000 Coast Guardsmen and women are the only military personnel working without pay. Thousands of Coast Guard civilian personnel, who support the Coast Guard military personnel, have also been furloughed without pay.

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After 72 Years, Oil From Nuke Test Survivor Prinz Eugen Removed

Posted on by December 29, 2018

Recently, teams of Navy specialists have successfully removed 230,000 gallons of fuel, or close to 800 tons, still aboard the Prinz Eugen when it sank at Kwajalein, 72 years ago.

The bottom of the lagoon at the Kwajalein Atoll is littered with dozens of sunken ships. Most are from the Battle of Kwajalein in 1944, during World War II. One ship, the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, was a survivor of not one, but two nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946. 

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French Adventurer Drifting Across the Atlantic in a Barrel

Posted on by December 28, 2018

On Wednesday, 71-year-old  French adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin set off to cross the Atlantic in an unlikely craft — a barrel. He departed from El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, west of Morocco, in a barrel-shaped capsule with the intention of drifting, carried by the winds and currents, across the Atlantic Ocean. He hopes to arrive in the Caribbean in about three months. The barrel in which he is drifting is 10 feet long and 6 feet 8 inches wide, built of epoxy and plywood and ballasted with concrete.

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42,000 US Coast Guard Personnel Working Without Pay During Shutdown

Posted on by December 29, 2018

Approximately 42,000 active-duty military members of the Coast Guard remain on duty during the partial government shutdown that began Saturday, but they will work without pay until further notice, according to a statement from a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

“Unless legislation is passed by Friday, Dec. 28, our military workforce will not receive our regularly scheduled pay check for 31 Dec.,” Chief Warrant Officer Allyson Conroy said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday.

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The Continuing Legacy of the Christmas Tree Ship

Posted on by December 29, 2018

Rouse Simmons

A report from a few years ago. A story well worth retelling.

Today the Christmas Ship is Chicago’s largest all-volunteer charitable support program for inner-city youth and their families at Christmas time.  At the turn of the twentieth century, the “Christmas Tree Ship” was a family business. In the mid-1880s, August and his brother Herman Schuenemann moved to Chicago.  They were merchants and sailors who made two-thirds of their annual income transporting and selling Christmas trees.  August died in November 1898 when the two-masted schooner S. Thal sank in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. His younger brother Herman continued the family business.

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A Christmas Miracle — Cruise Ship Empress of the Seas Rescues Fishermen

Posted on by December 25, 2018

Call it a miracle, serendipity, or just good luck, but two stranded Costa Rican fishermen were rescued by the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Empress of the Seas after the ship was rerouted because of a storm. If the ship had continued on its planned course, it would have missed the stranded sailors.

The fishermen were near death after 20 days adrift. They had set out from Costa Rica on December 1, but had been run out of fuel after strong winds had separated them from their nets. They had a week’s supply of food and water aboard which they depleted almost two weeks before the rescue. One of the rescued fishermen was so weak that he could no longer walk and had to be carried from the Empress of the Seas‘ tender to the ship.   

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Riverboat Car Washes

Posted on by December 24, 2018

We recently visited St. Augustine, FL. Founded in 1567, it is the oldest continually occupied city in the United States and is replete with a fascinating history and a plethora of sites and museums worth visiting. This post, however, is not about one of those places, but rather about a non-historical landmark one might notice while driving into town — the riverboat car wash. 

Yes, while driving down Ponce de Leon Blvd, not long before turning down King Street to go to downtown St Augustine, there is what appears to be a full-sized riverboat alongside the road. It is in fact not a riverboat but Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash. Cars drive up a stern “gangway” to enter the automated car wash, which is surrounded by a “moat” for runoff. The clean cars drive out the bow.

Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash was built in 2005 and was inspired by a riverboat car wash in California. Yes, there are at least two riverboat car washes. 

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Tsunami Kills More Than 200 Following Anak Krakatau Eruption

Posted on by December 23, 2018

Anak Krakatau

On Saturday, a tsunami in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait killed at least 222 and injured 843. The huge wave hit without warning at night destroying hundreds of homes and buildings, sweeping away cars and uprooting trees. Officials say more than 160 people were killed in Pandeglang – a popular tourist district on Java known for its beaches and national park. The main road into Pandeglang is reported to be badly damaged, making it difficult for rescuers to reach the area. In South Lampung on Sumatra, 48 were reported dead. Deaths were reported in Serang district and Tanggamus, also on Sumatra. Officials fear the death toll could rise further.

The tsunami is thought have been caused by an underwater landslide following a recent eruption of the volcano Anak Krakatau, which has been active since June. 

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What is the World’s Most Densely Populated Island?

Posted on by December 22, 2018

Recently, the BBC posted a video about Santa Cruz del Islote, a tiny island on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, which it described as the “world’s most densely populated island.” With five hundred people living on an island the size of a soccer field, it is definitely crowded, but is it the world’s most densely populated island? 

Apparently, Santa Cruz del Islote does not have the highest population density of the world’s islands. At just over 40,000 people per kilometer, it appears to rank about 10th in the list. The most densely populated is Ilet a Brouee in Haiti, where 500 people occupy a sand spit with an area of only around 4,000 m², resulting in a staggering population density of 125,000 people per kilometer. 

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Gladys West — Pioneer of GPS Technology

Posted on by December 21, 2018

I will admit to being dependent on GPS. I rely on it for both maps and apps on my phone as well as the chartplotters on several tablets on my boat. Nevertheless, until recently I knew nothing of Gladys West, a black female mathematician for the Navy whose work made a major contribution to the development of the Global Positioning System.

This month, Dr. Gladys West was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Pentagon. The Pioneers Hall of Fame is one of Air Force’s Space Commands Highest Honors. 

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Plastic Collecting Boom Not Collecting Plastics

Posted on by December 20, 2018

Around six years ago, the media went slightly crazy when a fresh-faced 17-year-old Dutch engineering student, Boyan Slat, claimed to have designed a means for using currents to clean plastic from the oceans. He was covered in the major press outlets, was interviewed on television, and gave TED talks. Despite all the enthusiasm, the unanswered question was, would the design work? So far, the results are not promising.

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