New Year’s Repost: Watching the Ball Drop — the Nautical Origins of a New Year’s Tradition

Posted on by December 31, 2023

The USNO Millennium Time Ball

Tonight, millions will watch in person, online, or on television, as a jeweled ball drops in Times Square in New York City at exactly midnight to mark the arrival of the New Year, 2024. After several years in which the crowd in Times Square has been limited due to the pandemic, expectations are for close to a million revelers to be crammed together in the square this evening.

Regardless of the turnout, the ball will drop at midnight. The six-ton Waterford crystal ball covered in 32,276 LED lights will not actually be “dropped” but lowered from a flag pole on the roof of One Times Square. In New York City, the tradition dates back to 1907. But where did the tradition of dropping a ball to mark the time originate?  

The practice dates back to 1829 and was related to helping sailors calculate their position at sea. Here is an updated repost.

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A Cat Makes History in the Sydney to Hobart Race

Posted on by December 27, 2023

The Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race is considered to be one of the premiere mixed-fleet yacht races in the world. Setting sail every year on Boxing Day, this year’s race attracted 103 yachts.

This year, for the first time in its 78-year history, the race also includes a cat. No, not a catamaran. The race does not allow multihulls. The cat in question is a feline named Oli sailing on Sylph VI, a 12m (40ft) yacht built in 1960, in the two-handed division. 

The BBC notes that there’s no record of any feline seafarers in the grueling regatta. Carrier pigeons – sure: they were once used to send messages back to shore and have graced many a deck during the ocean classic. But cats? No.

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Ukrainian Missiles Strike Russian Landing Ship Novocherkassk in Crimean Port

Posted on by December 26, 2023

Today, the Ukrainian Air Force said that it had destroyed the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, in the Crimean port of Feodosia overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry told the Tass state news agency that the ship had been damaged in an attack using “aircraft-guided missiles,” but did not say whether the vessel had been permanently disabled.

Unverified videos posted to social media reportedly show very large explosions seen at the Feodosia port after the attack. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, the vessel suffered secondary explosions and will be difficult to repair.

The BBC reports that one person was killed in the attack, according to the Russian-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov. Several others were reportedly hurt. Six buildings were damaged and a small number of people had to be taken to temporary accommodation centers, Mr. Aksyonov added.

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NASA’s NGC 2264 — Twinkling Christmas Tree Cluster 2,500 Light Years From Earth

Posted on by December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas! Here is a composite image and video of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” that shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights.

According to NASA:  NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars — with ages between about one and five million years old — in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth of the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses.

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Update Storm Pia Aftermath : MS Maud Reaches Bremerhaven Safely, Mayview Maersk Loses More than 40 Boxes Overboard

Posted on by December 24, 2023

MS Maud (16,151 GT, 668 passengers and crew) in Bremerhaven next to MS World Dream (150,695 GT, 3,690 passengers and crew) Photo: Facebook

We recently posted about the Hurtigruten cruise ship MS Maud that was disabled during the North Sea storm Pia on Thursday. The Maud arrived in Bremerhaven yesterday, under tow, after suffering damage by a rogue wave to the bridge deck resulting in the loss of navigational systems and a temporary loss of power. There are no reports of serious injuries to her passengers and crew.

Maud was not the only ship to be impacted by storm Pia. The 18,270 TEU ultra-large-container ship Mayview Maersk, which sailed from Bremerhaven around the time that the Maud was arriving, lost at least 46 containers off the North Jutland coast of Denmark in storm Pia. No injuries were reported among the crew. 

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Hurtigruten’s MS Maud Damaged by Rogue Wave in North Sea Storm — Under Tow to Germany

Posted on by December 22, 2023

The cruise ship MS Maud was returning to the UK from a 14 night Northern Lights cruise when it was caught in a severe storm in the North Sea. During the storm, the ship was struck by a rogue wave, shattering the windows on the bridge deck. The flooding of the bridge deck resulted in a temporary loss of power as well as damage to the ship’s navigation systems and radars. There were also reports of a loss of bridge steering control that was taken over by an engine room backup.

The 266 passengers and 131 crew members aboard the Maud are safe, according to the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. 

The ship, owned and operated by cruise company HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group. left Floroe in Norway on Thursday and was due to arrive in Tilbury in the UK on Friday.  The Maud is now being towed to Bremerhaven in Germany, Danish authorities said.

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Repost on the Winter Solstice — Shortest Day & Longest Shadows, or No Shadow At All

Posted on by December 21, 2023

Happy Winter Solstice to all! In the northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The sun is at its southernmost point of travel, over the imaginary circle on the globe we refer to as the Tropic of Capricorn. Today is also the day in which a person standing outside at noon in the northern hemisphere, outside of the tropics, would cast the longest shadow. If you are on the Tropic of Capricorn, however, at noon today, you would have no shadow at all. 

Reading an article in The Sailors’ Magazine and Seamen’s Friend, Volume 43, Issue 3, of  1871, got me thinking about shadows and the solstice. (I will admit that this is more than a touch odd.) It seems that at an 1871 gathering at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, a Rev. Mr. Miner, of Canada presented a paper called “The Snow Line” in which he observed, “Should a man start from the Tropic of Cancer at the winter solstice and walk 18 miles per day northward for six months, his shadow would remain nearly the same each day at noon.”  If instead of starting at the Tropic of Cancer one began at the Tropic of Capricorn, you might do away with your noon shadow altogether. 

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“Fat Leonard,” Center of US Navy Bribery Scandal, Extradited to US in Prisoner Swap with Venezuela

Posted on by December 20, 2023

The Washington Post reports that Leonard Glenn Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” the fugitive defense contractor who admitted to a $35 million bribery scheme in the largest corruption scandal in U.S. military history, has been arrested and returned by Venezuela to the United States as part of a major prisoner swap between the estranged countries, President Biden said Wednesday. 
 
Venezuela is also releasing 10 Americans detained by the government of Nicolás Maduro, Biden said.

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Jubilee Sailing Trust Shutting Down After Fundraising Efforts Fail

Posted on by December 19, 2023

After years of financial struggle, the Jubilee Sailing Trust has announced the closure of the company that owns and operates the tall ship SV Tenacious.

The charity Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST) was founded in 1978 and has taken over 55,000 people to sea. The future of a charity offering sailing experiences to disabled people is uncertain after its associated company went into administration.

The SV Tenacious is a modern British wooden sail training ship, specially designed in the 1990s. When completed in 2000, it was the largest wooden ship to be built in the UK for over 100 years. Along with the STS Lord Nelson, the two vessels are the only tall ships in the world that were built so that both disabled and non-disabled people can sail as crew, not passengers.  The Lord Nelson was put up for auction in June of 2023. 

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Operation Prosperity Guardian — Initiative to be Announced to Safeguard Shipping in the Red Sea

Posted on by December 17, 2023

HMS Diamond

During his visit to the Middle East next week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to announce the formation of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a new international effort to deal with Houthi threats, a U.S. military official told The War Zone. That information comes as U.S. and British warships shot down drones the Houthis launched in a wave from Yemen early Saturday morning local time, marking the latest escalation of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. A French destroyer also downed a Houthis drone last week.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney downed 14 drones on Saturday, a U.S. military official told The War Zone.

The Type-45 destroyer HMS Diamond downed one drone targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea with a Sea Viper missile, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement. It was the first time the Royal Navy shot down an aerial target in anger since the First Gulf War in 1991 when the Type 42 Destroyer HMS Gloucester destroyed an Iraqi Silkworm missile bound for a U.S. warship.

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Admiral Yi Sun-sin, Korea’s Greatest Military Hero

Posted on by December 16, 2023

Admiral Yi Sun-sin died 425 years ago today, in his final victory against the Japanese on behalf of the Joseon dynasty. He died of a gunshot wound at the Battle of Noryang on December 16, 1598, the closing battle of the Imjin War.

While the Japanese largely triumphed on shore in their twin invasions of Korea, Admiral Yi, in command of the Korean navy, cut Japanese supply lines and denied them access to the Yellow Sea. He wrote, “No invader from the sea can obtain final victory unless he can completely control the sea.” Despite winning nearly every land battle, the inability to supply their troops meant that the Japanese invasion was doomed to fail.

Admiral Yi fought in at least 23 recorded naval engagements against the Japanese. In most of these battles, he was outnumbered and lacked necessary supplies. He nonetheless won battle after battle. His most famous victory occurred at the Battle of Myeongnyang, where despite being outnumbered by 133 warships to 13, he managed to disable or destroy 31 Japanese warships without losing a single ship of his own. Indeed, Yi is credited with sinking over 780 Japanese ships during the war without losing a single ship under his command. In 14 of these 23 battles, not a single Japanese ship survived. Remarkably, when Yi took command of the Korean Navy, he had no formal naval training of any kind.

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Using Antibiotics & Probiotics to Save Diseased and Dying Coral Reefs

Posted on by December 13, 2023

When we went on a family scuba diving trip to the coral reefs of Roatan, Honduras, we took the antibiotic amoxicillin as a prophylaxis for malaria.  Scientists are now using the same antibiotic to combat stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) that has ravaged coral reefs in Florida and is rapidly spreading across reefs in the Caribbean. The disease destroys the soft tissue of at least 22 species of reef-building corals, killing them within weeks or months of becoming infected.

NOAA describes stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) as a highly lethal coral disease that was first reported off the coast of Florida in 2014…The disease affects over 20 coral species and is now present on reefs in 18 countries and territories. The large geographic scale of this outbreak, high lethality of the disease lesion, and broad susceptibility among coral species make SCTLD unprecedented in its ecological impact and likely make it the most deadly coral disease outbreak in history.

The good news is that researchers are now using an amoxicillin paste to combat SCTLD in stony corals. Florida Atlantic University reports that amoxicillin treatment had a 95 percent success rate at healing individual SCTLD lesions. The less-than-good news is that it did not necessarily prevent treated coral colonies from developing new lesions over time.

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Yemen’s Houthis Rebels Rain Missiles and Drones on Norwegian Tanker & French Frigate

Posted on by December 12, 2023

Last Saturday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced that the organization would target any ships heading to or from Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned all international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.

On Monday, the group attacked the MT Strinda, a Norwegian bio-diesel tanker passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait that connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. At least one missile struck the tanker, causing a fire. No casualties were reported in the attack.  

A Houthi spokesman said the MT Strinda was delivering oil to Israel, but the ship’s owners said it was headed to Italy with feedstock for biofuel.

French guided-missile frigate FS Languedoc shot down a drone while patrolling nearby, Naval News reported.

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Huge Skull of Sea Monster Pliosaur Discovered in Dorset Cliff on UK’s Jurassic Coast

Posted on by December 11, 2023

The BBC reports that the skull of a pliosaur, a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. The ferocious marine reptile terrorized the oceans about 150 million years ago. The 2m (6ft 5in)-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator. Researchers are analyzing the specimen to determine whether it could be a species new to science.

Originally spotted in spring 2022, the fossil, along with its complicated excavation and ongoing scientific investigation, are now detailed in the upcoming BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster,” presented by legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough, that will air February 14 on PBS.

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Thousands of Tons of Dead Fish Wash up on Japan’s Northern Coast

Posted on by December 9, 2023

The Associated Press reports that thousands of tons of dead fish were found on the northern coast of Japan and no one seems to know why.  The sardines and mackerels were found on an over half-mile stretch of beach in Hakodate, Hokkaido on the country’s northern main island.

Some residents started collecting and selling the fish, prompting local officials to post a warning advising against doing so. Officials said Friday they didn’t know the reason behind the die-off.

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Mile-High Seamount Discovered in Pacific Off Guatemala

Posted on by December 8, 2023

There is an old saying that we know more about the Moon than we do about the deep ocean. Critics say that the notion, first recorded in 1954, is out of date. While that may be the case, it is also clear that we still have much to learn about the deep ocean. 

Recently, scientists on the Falkor (too) research vessel have discovered a mile-high mountain in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Guatemala. The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 meters) formation is a seamount — a large, underwater geological feature typically formed from an extinct volcano. Scientists discovered the cone-shaped seamount 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute this summer, according to a statement shared with Live Science.

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Radio Broadcasts Reporting Attack on Pearl Harbor 82 Years Ago Today

Posted on by December 7, 2023

An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here is a compilation of news reports from Sunday, December 7th, 1941, eighty-two years ago today.

Pearl Harbor Attacks – As It Happened – Radio Broadcasts

Sally Snowman, the Last Lighthouse Keeper in the US, Set to Retire

Posted on by December 5, 2023

Photo: US Coast Guard

For the last twenty years, Sally Snowman has worked as the keeper of the Boston Light on Little Brewster Island. She was the first woman to serve as lighthouse keeper at the lighthouse in Boston Harbor, the oldest continually used and last staffed lighthouse in the country, dating back to before the Revolutionary War. 

Boston Light, located nearly 10 miles southeast of Boston, was originally built in 1716 and has a light that flashes 27 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

Now that she is retiring at the end of the month, she will also be the last keeper of the Boston Light and indeed the last lighthouse keeper in the United States.

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Filmmakers Discover 128 Year Old Wreck of Steamer Africa in Lake Huron

Posted on by December 10, 2023

Documentary filmmakers Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick were looking for invasive mussels on the bottom of Lake Huron in Canada when they came across the 150-foot-long shipwreck of the Africa.

On the morning of 4 October 1895, the Africa departed from Ashtabula, Ohio, carrying coal over Lake Huron to Owen Sound, Ontario. But it didn’t make it. The ship sank in during an early-season snowstorm. The steamer’s 11-person crew died.

Drebert and Melnick aren’t saying exactly where they’ve located the ship because it’s now considered a protected grave site, but she does say it’s off the west coast of the Bruce Peninsula in about 280 feet of water or 85 metres down.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

Film crew accidentally discovers 1800s shipwreck off Lake Huron in Ontario

Update: Researchers Claim to Positively Identify Wreck of Captain Cook’s HMB Endeavour

Posted on by November 30, 2023

Endeavour replica image: ANMM

For more than a decade, we have followed the work of researchers from Rhode Island and  Australia in their efforts to locate the wreck of  Captain James Cook’s famous barque, HMB Endeavour, that sailed from 1768-1771 on a voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand. 

Now, the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM)believes that its researchers have conclusively identified the wreck of the barque, in Newport, Rhode Island based on historical records and the characteristics of the much-degraded wooden hull.

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