“Hero” Humpback Whales to the Rescue

Posted on by January 13, 2018

Recently, biologist Nan Hauser was snorkeling in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, when she was approached by a humpback whale. The whale nudged her forward with its closed mouth, tucked her under its pectoral fin, and even maneuvered her out of the water with its back. Hauser was initially frightened and confused by the humpback’s behavior. Only when she got out of the water did she see a large tiger shark on the far side of the whale. Hauser concluded that the whale was attempting to protect her from the shark.

While her conclusion might initially sound far-fetched, for at least the last sixty years, scientists have observed, without quite understanding what they were seeing, a series of strange and stunning events — humpback whales appearing to launch coordinated rescue missions to prevent seals and other whales from being attacked by orcas. Hauser’s experience may be just another form of this not well-understood humpback behavior.

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Royal Clipper — the Not Always Obvious Technology Behind a Modern Clipper Ship

Posted on by January 12, 2018

Here is a look at a modern sailing ship, Star Clipper’s Royal Clipper, a high-tech square-rigger whose technology is not always obvious.  Click here for a photo tour of the Royal Clipper recently featured in USA Today.

We recently posted about the high-tech three-masted square-rigger, Black Pearl, which features a next-generation Dynarig with automated sail trimming and furling. Flexible solar panels are also incorporated into the sails to help meet the electrical needs of the vessel. 

Compared to the Black Pearl, the five-masted fully-rigged sailing cruise ship Royal Clipper looks almost entirely traditional. This is no accident. The Royal Clipper is modeled after the famous Flying P Liner, the five-masted ship Preußen of 1902. 

According to the Guinness World Records, the 439′ Royal Clipper is the largest square-rigged ship in service, with 5,202 square meters of sail area (or almost twice that of the Black Pearl.)

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Restoring the Schooner Rhoda Mary

Posted on by January 11, 2018

A crowdfunding campaign is underway to rescue what is left of the Cornish schooner Rhoda Mary, lying in the banks of the Medway river, Kent, UK. The goal is to rescue the remains of the schooner and transport it back to its birthplace in Truro, where it will be restored.

The Rhoda Mary is a West Country topsail schooner built at Point in Devoran in 1868. She was renowned for her speed and beauty. After an over fifty-year career carrying cargo, she was decommissioned in 1925 and became a houseboat on the River Medway in Kent. In the mid-60s, the hull burned to the waterline while the underwater hull settled into the river bank. Paradoxically, the loss of the upper decks and sides may have helped protect the shape of the lower hull.

The plan is to salvage the remains of the schooner and move them by barge to Turo for restoration. In addition to saving the Rhoda Mary, the goal is to provide vocational training in the maritime trades to young people in Cornwall and across the UK through the reconstruction and operation of the legendary Cornish 19th-century schooner.

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Everett A. Pearson — Founding Father of Fiberglass

Posted on by January 10, 2018

A day before Christmas, Everett A. Pearson died at the age of 84. The co-founder of Pearson Yachts and Tillotson-Pearson Inc., Everett Pearson was a pioneer in the production of fiberglass boats and played a significant role in bringing affordable production boats to the middle class.

In 1955, Everett and his cousin Clinton Pearson began building fiberglass dinghies in their garage in Seekonk, MA. Fiberglass as a boat-building material was considered to be a new and unproven technology. They were approached to build an auxiliary sailboat which would sell for less than $10,000. Designed by Carl Alberg, the boat became the Triton 28. The boat was launched at the New York Boat Show of 1959 and was an immediate success.

Within a year Pearson Yachts had over 100 employees and expanded their line of yachts, many designed by Alberg. In 1961,  Grumman Industries purchased a majority interest in Pearson Yachts.  In 1969, Everett Pearson, who had left the firm following the Grumman acquisition, founded Tillotson-Pearson Inc. (TPI) with Neil Tillotson. Over the years TPI built many sail and powerboat brands including Freedom, J-Boats, Rampage and Alerion Express. TPI also building wind blades, all-composite bus bodies, SwimEx pools, marine pilings, and many Disney amusement rides and airport people movers. 

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Tanker Sanchi’s Condensate Cargo Still Burning — What is Condensate?

Posted on by January 9, 2018

An Iranian tanker, Sanchi, carrying 134,000 tonnes of cargo collided with the Chinese bulk, CF Crystal, on Saturday, in the East China Sea off Singapore. Sanchi’s crew of 32 were killed or are missing in the resulting fire. There has been considerable concern that the burning tanker might explode, spilling close to a million barrels of oil into the sea.

The reason for the concern is that the cargo carried aboard the tanker is not typical crude oil. The cargo is called condensate, which is a liquid, usually a byproduct of natural gas production, formed by a variety of gases which condense when extracted. Unlike crude oil, the liquid is often clear and odorless. Condensate is usually composed of propane, butane, pentane or hexane but can also contain carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, aromatics and naphthenes, known as impurities.

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Fire on Iranian Tanker Sanchi Risks Major Oil Spill

Posted on by January 8, 2018

Response teams are struggling to bring a fire aboard the Iranian Suezmax tanker Sanchi under control following a collision on Saturday night with the Chinese bulk carrier CF Crystal.  The body of one crew member from the tanker has been found while the remaining 31 are still missing. The collision took place about 160 nautical miles (296 km) off the coast of Shanghai. 

The longer the tanker fire burns the greater the concern that there may be an explosion or that the tanker will fail structurally and sink.  When the two ships collided, the tanker was loaded with approximately 130,000 tonnes of light crude oil. If the ship does sink close to one million barrels of oil could eve spilled into the East China Sea.

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Iranian Tanker & Chinese Bulk Carrier Collide in East China Sea, 32 Missing

Posted on by January 8, 2018

Thirty-two crew are reported to be missing from an Iranian Suezmax tanker which collided with a Chinese bulk carrier in the East China Sea on Saturday night. The 160,000 DWT tanker, Sanchi, collided with the bulk carrier CF Crystal, which was loaded with 64,000 tonnes of grain, about 160 nautical miles (296 km) off the coast of Shanghai. The Sanchi is afloat and on fire and leaking oil. 30 Iranian and two Bangladeshis crew from Sanchi are missing. The 21 crew aboard the CF Crystal have all been rescued. 

Eight Chinese ships have been sent for the search-and-rescue operation, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. South Korea has also sent a coastguard ship and a helicopter to aid the relief effort. Poor weather and huge plumes of smoke rising from the tanker are making rescue attempts difficult, Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation, told Iranian television.

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Ark in Urk Goes Berserk — Second Casualty in Two Years

Posted on by January 6, 2018

Ark in Urk Photo: EPA

A half-scale notional replica of Noah’s Ark went adrift in storm winds of 70 mph in the Dutch port of Urk last Wednesday, damaging several boats. People and animals aboard the “ark” were rescued, possibly two by two.

To be clear, the “ark” is a wooden structure sitting on a steel deck barge. It is one of two “arks” built by Dutch contractor and creationist Johan Huibers. Both craft are often referred to as “Johan’s Arks” and are maintained as Biblical attractions. The “ark” in Urk is 230 feet long, adapted to travel in the Dutch canal system, and was sold to Dutch artist Aad Peters in 2010. It has been moored in the Port of Urk in the Neverlands since January 2016.     

This is the second casualty resulting in two years from losing control of this “ark.” In June 2016, while in Oslo harbor, the “ark” collided with a Norwegian Coast Guard patrol boat, damaging both vessels. A two-story hole was knocked in the side of the “ark’s” wooden cladding.

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Quarterdeck Review of Evening Grey Morning Red by George Jepson

Posted on by January 6, 2018

A review of Evening Gray Morning Red by George Jepson in the Winter 2018 issue of Quarterdeck:

Cracking open Evening Gray Morning Red, Rick Spilman’s new novel, I was hooked by the first paragraph, which took me back four decades to – yes, wait for it – “a dark and stormy night” on Lake Michigan. Caught in a tempest aboard a 30-foot sloop, a stiff nor’wester drove us into towering seas. Flying only a headsail, we slid down one wave and up another under an inkblack sky, bound, we prayed, for a snug harbor.

Spilman’s description of a similar voyage, written by a man who has spent his life steeped in ships and the sea, promised a rousing yarn freshened by a salt breeze.

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Update: Looking Back at When New York Harbor Froze

Posted on by January 4, 2018

Strolling on the East River, 1867

Today, the East Coast is being pummeled by what meterologists are referring to as a “bomb cyclone,” a term which is equal parts concerning and confusing. A “bomb cyclone” is simply a rapidly intensifying low pressure front, which is now causing blizzard conditions across much of the East coast from Delaware to Maine.   

Even before the “bomb cyclone” the conditions have been brutally cold. As pointed out by an article in The Atlantic, recent temperatures in parts of the Northeast have been colder than temperatures on Mars. 

Yet, as frigid as the recent cold snap has been, it has been a lot worst in the past. Even the recent past. In 2015, ferry traffic was interrupted by heavy ice in New York’s East River and sections of the Hudson River partially froze over. And that is nothing compared to conditions in the late 18th and 19th centuries. An update on a post from January 2014: 

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HMS Ocean to be Sold to Brazil

Posted on by January 3, 2018

HMS Ocean, amphibious assault ship and flagship of the Royal Navy has reportedly been sold to Brazil for £84.3million. HMS Ocean is the last British warship capable of launching aircraft.  The Ocean carries 18 helicopters. Britain has lacked the capacity to launch and land fixed wing aircraft since 2016 when it scrapped its last aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious. The Royal Navy’s new flagship, the aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is not expected to be fully operational until 2020.  

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Russia Reported to be Supplying Oil to North Korea; More Ships Seized

Posted on by January 15, 2018

Sanctions do not mean much if they are not enforced. The UN has been imposing increasingly stricter limitations on the importation of crude and refined oil to North Korea. Still, oil has been getting through.  In the past few days, South Korea has seized two tankers; the Koti, an 8,000 dwt Panamanian-flagged product tanker, and the 16,500 dwt, Hong Kong-flagged, Lighthouse Winmore. Both tankers are believed to have been making at-sea transfers of oil to North Korean tankers, in violation of the UN embargo.

Who is behind the oil smuggling? Continue reading →

USS Shiloh — A Disturbed Sailor in Hiding on USS “Bread & Water”

Posted on by December 31, 2017

Back in June, we posted about a 50-hour, 5,500 square-mile man-overboard search across the Philippine Sea on the USS Shiloh.  The search effort also included Japanese Coast Guard and naval forces. The sailor who was thought to have fallen overboard showed up after hiding in one of the ship’s engine room access trunks for a week.  Recently, the Navy Times posted the result of an investigation into the incident, How Peter Mims spent a week hiding in a warship’s engine room. 

On first reading, the story appears to be that of a young possibly mentally disturbed young sailor who made a series of bizarre choices. Looking just slightly more in depth, it is also clear that much else was wrong aboard the Ticonderoga-class cruiser, which earned the nickname, USS “Bread and Water.” 

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Classic Yawl Dorade Finishes Second in Division in Sydney Hobart Race

Posted on by June 2, 2018

Four years ago, the yacht racing world was caught aback when Dorade, a yacht designed by Olin Stephens II  and delivered in 1930, won the 2013 Transpac Race. Dorade has previously won the Transpac 77 years before.  Now the 87-year old Dorade has placed a very respectable second in her division under both IRC and ORCi in the Sydney Hobart Race.

About Dorade from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2017 website: From the Famous American classic wooden boat Dorade is a revolutionary S&S, designed by a then 21 year-old Olin Stephens and built under younger brother Rod’s (20) supervision. Features a deep keel with external ballast, very narrow beam and a generous sail plan. The yawl took the yachting world by storm and made headlines around the world after scoring an upset victory in the 1931 Transatlantic Race from Newport, Rhode Island to Plymouth, competing against much larger boats. In the next 10 years, Dorade scored overall victories in the 1931 and 1933 Fastnet races and the 1936 TransPac Race. Adrienne Cahalan, the first woman to sail 25 Hobarts, is navigating. 

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The Hazards of Cold Shock — When It is Cold Enough to Freeze Sharks

Posted on by December 29, 2017

It is brutally cold on the Northeast coast of the US right now. Temperatures are hovering around the 20s F (in negative digits measured when in Celcius) from Virgina to the Canadian border. It is so cold there are reports of sharks freezing. Two thresher sharks were found dead on a Cape Cod beach, believed disabled by cold shock, which led to their stranding and death. 

Cold shock response is a physiological response to sudden cold, especially cold water. Newsweek reports that the program director of the Cape Cod-based Atlantic White Shark Conservancy [says] that it’s not uncommon for sea turtles to wash up on the beach after experiencing cold shock. However, sharks are water-breathing fish, so when they wash up on a beach, they can suffocate and die.

Cold shock is a leading cause of cold water deaths in humans, as well. Continue reading →

Record Breaking Sydney Hobart, LDV Comanche Winner After Protest

Posted on by December 28, 2017

This year’s Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race saw drama at both the start and the finish of the race. Indeed, the drama at the start determined who would be awarded the line honors at the finish. Let’s start with the finish line. Supermaxi yacht, Wild Oats XI, completed the 628 nautical mile race in a record-shattering time of one day, eight hours, 48 minutes and 50 seconds, besting the previous record set last year by Perpetual Loyal by almost five hours.  Directly behind Wild Oats, LDV Comanche also beat the previous record, crossing the finish line just 33 minutes after the leader. LDV Comanche was declared the line winner. Why? The answer was at the start of the race.

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Update: Rebuilding the Schooner Mary E. at Maine Maritime Museum

Posted on by December 27, 2017

Mary E sailing into Bath, Maine.

One year ago, we posted that the schooner Mary E., the oldest surviving fishing schooner built at Bath, Maine would be returning home to the Kennebeck River where she was built in 1906. The Maine Maritime Museum purchased the schooner from her previous owner Matt Culen of Pelham, N.Y., who has been operating the vessel in partnership with the Connecticut River Museum, in Essex, CT. 

On April 23, 2017, the Mary E. returned to the port of her birth and new home a the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.  Now the real work has begun. The museum has committed $2 million to restore the schooner and to allow her to carry passengers.  

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Five More Bodies Found on Batavia’s “Murder Island”

Posted on by December 26, 2017

Beacon Island, also known as Murder Island

The story of the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia is as grim and tragic as it is fascinating. The Batavia was wrecked on her maiden voyage in 1629 when she ran aground on Beacon Island off Western Australia. Of the original 341 passengers and crew, 282 survived the shipwreck. Around 115 people subsequently died, many murdered by mutineers. Only 68 made it to the ship’s namesake port of Batavia. Not surprisingly, Beacon Island has come to be known as “Batavia’s Graveyard” and “Murder Island.”

Recently, archaeologists have located five additional bodies on the island. Based on the care evident in the burial of the bodies, the scientists believe that these individuals died prior to the outbreak of the mutiny.  The bodies, interred neatly in a row, showed no signs of violence, likely died soon after the wreck.

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Christmas Night by C. Fox Smith, Adapted for Singing by Charlie Ipcar

Posted on by December 24, 2017

round_horn_dawson We hope that everyone is having a most merry Christmas. Here is a repost from 2014 of a poem by C. Fox Smith adapted for song by Charlie Ipcar.  Cecily Fox Smith was a Victorian poet best remembered for her poems about ships and sailors in the last days of the age of sail. She wrote more than 600 poems which were published in more than two dozen volumes. In recent years, her work has seen a revival as her poems have inspired musicians to write music to her verses.  Over 70 of her poems have been adapted as songs, including this one.

Christmas Night

By Cicely Fox Smith from Rhymes of the Red Ensign,  edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, © 1919, pp. 71-72. Adapted for singing by Charlie Ipcar, © 12/26/08 Tune inspired by Christmas Day in the Morning

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