For Royal Navy sailors and British soldiers in the West Indies during the 18th century, rum was a refuge for the discomforts of the duties of the day. The rum also may have been killing them. It wasn’t the alcohol, but the way it was distilled that proved deadly.
A group of scientists from Lakeland University, Ontario have examined 31 bodies found in the Royal Naval Hospital cemetery in English Harbor, Antigua. As reported by the Daily Mail:
‘Excessive drinking and lead poisoning have been suggested as being serious health issues for the navy of the period,’ Professor Varney told MailOnline.
Yesterday, we posted about signing aboard as trainee crew on the square rigged barque Picton Castle, to sail all or part of the way around the world. But what if you want to sail in a globe girdling ocean race instead of on a beautiful square-rigger? To participate in an around the world ocean race usually requires millions and often tens of millions of dollars, but there is an alternative — the 
Let’s say that you want to circumnavigate the world by sail and yet you don’t necessarily have enough experience or even, for that matter, a boat. All the same, you really want to make a-once-in-a-lifetime voyage where you are more than just a passenger, where you stand your trick at the helm, set and furl sails and watch the sun rise and set on a rolling sea. The good news is that you can do just that, and you even have several options. In the next two posts, we will look at two very different, and yet, in many respects, interestingly similar, ways to take make that epic voyage around all, or part, of the world under sail. 
In an interview with 
In September, we posted about an 
The oil fields beneath the North Sea are running out of oil. As there is less oil to pump, costs rise per tonne of oil delivered from the now aging offshore platforms. A decline in oil prices only makes the economics of these rigs worse and yet they cannot be simply shut down and abandoned. Under a 15-nation protocol called the “Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic,” known simply as 
For one Scottish ship’s engineer doing the right thing paid off. In 2013, Christopher Keays risked his entire career when he turned whistleblower shortly after taking a job as a junior engineer on board the cruise ship, Caribbean Princess. At the end of last month, he was awarded by US courts $1 million for his role in exposing Princess Cruise Line’s illegal polluting. 
Researchers have published the results of their analysis of DNA from 24 individuals who died on the ill-fated 
For affluent surfers, the ultimate escape is to take a luxury charter boat to surf perfect waves on distant islands. The 
A surfer, who had been swept out to sea while surfing off the Argyll coast of Scotland, was rescued by the Belfast Coast Guard after 32 hours at sea. Matthew Bryce, 22, was reported missing by his family when he failed to return from a surfing trip on Sunday afternoon.
Next weekend, the Viking Ship Draken Harald Hårfagre is seeking volunteers to help maintain the ship before it sets sails again this summer. Or as they put it, “Spring is here, and the Viking Ship Draken Harald Hårfagre needs some extra love before summer!” The Draken, the largest replica Viking ship ever built, spent last winter laid up at the 
In the past year and a half, I have spent far more time in a boatyard in Deltaville, VA on the Rappahannock River than I would have imagined or intended. While I have not necessarily had great luck with repairs in the boatyard along the Rappahannock, I will say that I do love