Italy Rescues Abandoned Migrant Ship — Second in Three Days

Posted on by January 2, 2015
Ezadeen with 450 migrants on board, off the southern coast of Italy, Photo: Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ezadeen with 450 migrants on board, off the southern coast of Italy, Photo: Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Italian Coast Guard has taken control of Ezadeen, a 240′ long, 50 year old cattle carrier registered in Sierra Leone, with 450 migrants aboard off the southern coast of Italy, near Crotone. The crew of the ship abandoned it and its passengers. The ship had been put on a collision course with the Italian coast but had run out of fuel and was left drifting. Some reports say that the migrants aboard the ship had also run out of food and water.  In high winds and rough seas, the Italian Coast Guard dropped rescue personnel on board the ship by helicopter. The first vessel to reach the Ezadeen was an Icelandic Coast Guard patrol boat participating in joint exercises.  After several hours of effort in high seas, the Icelandic vessel was able to secure a tow line to the Ezadeen, and begin to tow the ship toward the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro.

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

Posted on by January 1, 2015
Time ball at US Naval Observatory, Washington D.C.

Time ball at US Naval Observatory, Washington D.C.

Last night in New York City, up to one million people watched a jeweled ball drop in Time Square at exactly midnight to mark the arrival of the New Year. Over a billion people are believed to have watched the festivities on television or on-line. The six ton Waterford crystal ball covered in 32,276 LED lights is not actually “dropped” but lowered from a flag pole on the roof of One Times Square.  In New York City, the tradition dates back to 1908.  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.

When out of sight of land, a navigator can determine latitude, his position north or south on the globe,  by measuring the altitude of the sun using only a sextant and a nautical almanac.  To determine longitude, his position east or west, however, a navigator must compare the time of the locally observed noon with the time on his chronometer, usually set to the time in Greenwich. UK.  The first chronometers rugged enough for use at sea were developed by John Harrison and others in the mid to late 18th century. By the 19th century, marine chronometers were adopted on naval ships and many merchant vessels.

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Blue Sky M — Abandoned Migrant Ship on Autopilot

Posted on by December 31, 2014

blueskymStraight from rescue operations on the ro/ro ferry Norman Atlantic, the Italian navy and coast guard rushed to intercept the Blue Sky M, a 3,500 DWT Moldavian freighter, which was reported to be carrying 700–1,000 migrants.  A distress call had been received from someone aboard the ship. There were unconfirmed reports of armed men aboard the ship. When the Italian coast guard arrived, they found that the crew had abandoned Blue Sky M but had left it on autopilot steering straight for the coast neared Santa Maria di Leuca, on the southernmost tip of Italy. The coast guard averted a potential disaster by taking control of the ship, which was later taken to the Italian port of Gallipoli. The migrants are believed to to be mostly Syrian. There are unconfirmed reports of four to five dead aboard the ship.

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Update: Ferry Norman Atlantic, Death Toll Rises, Manifest Confusion

Posted on by December 31, 2014

normanafireThe death toll among passengers and crew from the fire on the Norman Atlantic has risen to ten.  One man died when attempting to leave the ship and an additional nine bodies were found aboard.  The total death related to the fire rose to twelve, when two Albanian sailors died on a tug boat attempting to tow the stricken ship to port when a tow line snapped.

The authorities have been unable to reconcile the number of passengers with the ship’s manifest.  Given the discrepancy, the Italian transport minister Maurizio Lupi said “We cannot say how many people may be missing.”  The manifest lists 475 people aboard the ship while a total of 427 people were rescued, raising the possibility that 48 could still be missing. On the other hand, the figure on the manifest may represent reservations made to travel on the ferry rather than the number of passengers who boarded.

Update: Norman Atlantic Fire, 478 Rescued, At Least 7 Dead

Posted on by December 29, 2014

As of Monday evening, local time, 478 passengers and crew have been rescued from the burning ro/ro ferry Norman Atlantic, which caught fire Sunday morning around 6 AM in the Adriatic Sea.  At least 7 people have died.  Many of the passengers and crew were evacuated by helicopter.  The rescue was hampered by torrential rain and strong winds reaching 100 kilometers per hour.  As reported by CNN: It’s not known how the fire started, but it’s believed to have originated in the parking bay. A truck driver told the Greek news media that trucks filled with oil were “packed like sardines,” their cargo scraping the ceiling, which could have set off sparks in rough seas to start a fire, he surmised. Greek authorities said the vessel’s fire doors appeared to have failed, which allowed the flames to spread quickly.

Huge plumes of black smoke billow from burning Norman Atlantic ferry

Italian Ro/Ro Ferry Norman Atlantic On Fire in High Winds & Seas in Adriatic

Posted on by December 28, 2014

A fire broke out early Sunday on the Italian ro/ro ferry, Norman Atlantic, on route between the Greek port of Patras to Ancona, Italy with 478 passengers and crew aboard. The fire is believed to have broken out on the ro/ro deck. The ship is currently drifting west of the island of Corfu in the Adriatic Sea. Rescue efforts are underway but are being hampered by gale force winds, high seas and bitterly cold conditions. 150 people are reported to have escaped the burning ship.  The rest of the passengers and crew have sought refuge on the vessel’s bridge deck. There are no reported casualties. Attempts to airlift passengers off the burning ferry have begun but are being made difficult by high winds. Salvage tugs have been dispatcher from both Italy and Greece.

The Norman Atlantic is a 2009 built, Italian registry, 26,900-tonne, roll-on roll-off ferry chartered by Greek ferry company ANEK.  Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis is quoted as saying, “We are doing everything we can to save those on board and no one, no one will be left helpless in this tough situation. It is one of the most complicated rescue operations that we have ever done.”

ITALIAN FERRY BURNING in ADRIATIC (VIDEO) NORMAN ATLANTIC on FIRE

The Wilkes Exploring Expedition and the US Botanic Garden

Posted on by December 27, 2014
USS Porpoise made of bark, vines and twigs from the Botanic Garden

USS Porpoise made of bark, vines and twigs from the Botanic Garden

While visiting family in Washington DC, we visited the United States Botanic Garden. The Garden has a holiday exhibit that features model trains, specifically, Thomas the Tank Engine, which delighted my 2 year old grand nephew.  In addition to the trains and numerous models of buildings built from twigs, bark, branches and other material collected from the gardens themselves, there were also two ships from the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838 to 1842, lead by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The sloop of war USS Vincennes and the the brig USS Porpoise are also fancifully constructed from branches, wood, bark and vines collected from the gardens.  But what did Wilkes and his squadron have to do with the gardens? More than I realized before my visit.

The United States Botanic Garden was founded with plants brought back from the Wilkes Expedition.  It is the oldest continually operating botanic garden in the nation. As noted on the Botanic garden website:

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Alan Villiers, Mayflower II, Joseph Conrad and Mystic Seaport

Posted on by December 26, 2014
Alan Villiers

Alan Villiers

While not a particular believer in ghosts, if the ghost of Alan Villiers is about, I suspect that he must smiling.  The arrival of the Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport Museum is the reunion, of sorts, of two ships long associated with the sailing ship captain and pioneer in sail training.   In mid December, the Mayflower II was towed from Plymouth, MA to the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut where she will begin the first phase of a multi-year restoration.

The Mayflower II, a replica of the original ship which carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic in 1620, has been the one of the key exhibits at the Plimoth Plantation at the State Pier on Plymouth’s waterfront.  In 2013, the ship was found to be in need of a major refit.   As noted on the Mystic Seaport website:

Mayflower II

Mayflower II

“The restoration of the 57-year-old wooden ship will be carried out over several years with the ship spending winter and spring at Mystic Seaport and returning to Plymouth each summer and fall. The project is scheduled for completion prior to 2020–the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival.”

So what does this have to do with Alan Villiers? Continue reading →

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

Posted on by December 25, 2014

round_horn_dawsonWe hope that everyone is having a most merry Christmas. Here is a poem by C. Fox Smith adapted for song by Charlie Ipcar. As we posted last June, 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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Recovery of the Volvo Ocean Racer Vestas Wind

Posted on by December 24, 2014

vestaswindshipIn the end of November, the Team Vestas Wind, racing in the Volvo Ocean Race, ran aground on a reef in the remote Cargados Carajos archipelago about 430 km to the northeast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.  There were no injuries and the crew was rescued and taken to Mauritius. Before leaving, the crew and their support team promised to return to remove the Volvo 65 racing yacht from the reef.  Given the remoteness of the archipepelago, no doubt many thought that this might be a promise unkept. Nevertheless, 24 days after the grounding, the Vestas Wind team successfully re-floated the yacht and arranged for a gear Maersk container ship to come hoist the wreck aboard.  An impressive accomplishment to be sure.  Click on the link below for a video of the salvage.

A job well done 

SS City of Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco’s Deadliest Shipwreck Found Again

Posted on by December 23, 2014
SS City of Rio de Janeiro

SS City of Rio de Janeiro

Recently, History.com featured an article titled “Found: San Francisco’s Deadliest Shipwreck.” They reported that the wreck of the 345-foot Pacific Mail Line passenger steamer SS City of Rio de Janeiro had been found by NOAA researchers using high-definition sonar in 287 feet of water just off the Golden Gate. When the ship ran aground in heavy fog in 1901 on a voyage from Hong Kong to San Francisco, 135 of the 220 passengers and crew aboard drowned, making it the most deadly shipwreck in San Francisco history.  The ship reportedly sank in ten minutes after striking rocks on the the southern side of the Golden Gate near Fort Point. This is the first time that the shipwreck has been accurately mapped, although not necessarily the first time that it’s position has been identified.

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Is Solar Sail Cloth in our Future?

Posted on by December 22, 2014

3172Voile_Brevet1For roughly the last ten years, UK Sailmakers of Mandelieu, France has been developing Uni-Titanium sails, in which thin sheets of uni-directional carbon films are laminated into the sail. They are now partnering with the Solar Cloth Company of the UK to develop a main sail incorporating high efficiency flexible solar cells. The solar energy would be transported by an integrated flexible circuit through the sail’s luff and then to the foot of the mast . A small electronic controller would be installed inside the boat to control the battery charging.  The boat’s dodger or a flexible boom tent could provide power while at anchor.

The Solar Cloth Company is a UK venture which is developing thin, lightweight and flexible solar panels that can be deployed like cloth on non-load bearing roofs.  The firm is focusing on installing their “solar cloth” on the roofs of car parks, supermarkets and warehouses and has raised more than £771,850 in crowd-sourced funding to expand their operations.

At this point, carbon fiber photovoltaic sails are probably beyond the budget of most sailors.  Nevertheless, at the rate at which solar cells have been falling in price, they may be in our future.

Happy Solstice –Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice Sky

Posted on by December 21, 2014

wintersolstice_pivato_1280
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: Today the solstice occurs at 23:03 Universal Time, the Sun reaching its southernmost declination in planet Earth’s sky. Of course, the December solstice marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the south. When viewed from northern latitudes, and as shown in the above horizontally compressed image, the Sun will make its lowest arc through the sky along the southern horizon. So in the north, the solstice day has the shortest length of time between sunrise and sunset and fewest hours of daylight. This striking composite image follows the Sun’s path through the December solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa toward Fiumicino, Italy. The view covers about 115 degrees in 43 separate, well-planned exposures from sunrise to sunset.

Paula Novotná Kite Surfing – A Taste of Brazil

Posted on by October 18, 2014

On this the first day of Winter, as the darkness closes in around us, it seems appropriate to take a few minutes to escape, virtually at least, to shores where it is the first day of Summer.  Here is a short video of Paula Novotná kite surfing the Brazilian lagoons Barra Nova and Cauipe. Shot and edited by Andre Magarao.

The Taste of Brazil

72 Years Later, Captain Claudius Credited with Sinking U-Boat

Posted on by December 19, 2014
Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust

Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust

On July 30, 1942, Herbert Claudius in command of the patrol boat PC 566 was escorting passenger ship passenger ship Robert E. Lee in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The German U-boat U-166 attacked and sank the passenger ship. Claudius and PC 566 fought back with gun fire and depth charges. They saw oil and debris and thought that they had sunk the German submarine, but they Navy did not believe their report.

Now 72 years later, a National Geographic/NOVA expedition located the wreck of U-166 which indeed had been sunk by Captain Claudius and the PC 566. The Navy has admitted its error. As reported by National Geographic: “Seventy years later, we now know that [Claudius’s] report after the action was absolutely correct,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a small ceremony attended by members of Claudius’s family.

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Swedish Kayaker Catches Record-breaking Greenland Shark

Posted on by December 18, 2014
Photo: Joel Kayakangler Facebook page

Photo: Joel Kayakangler Facebook page

Joel Abrahamsson, from Gothenburg, Sweden, recently caught a 15′ long 1,247 pound Greenland shark while fishing from a kayak near the island of Andoria, in Norway.  The catch sets a new world record for a fish caught with a rod and reel from a kayak.

The Greenland shark is very rare, living in the deep and cold waters of the Arctic.  To catch the shark, Abrahamsson lowered 1,600 of line, baited with eight pounds of coalfish as bait, from his kayak.  When the shark bit, it took Abrahamsson an hour and a half to reel in the huge fish, which weighed as much as an adult polar bear and is believed to be up to 200 years old.

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‘Super-Bug’ Found in Rio’s Dirty Olympic Sailing Waters

Posted on by December 18, 2014

riobaytrashLast May, we posted about concerns over high concentrations of sewage and garbage in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, where 2016 Olympic sailing competitions are slated to be held.  Now scientists at a Rio de Janeiro research institute have found what they call a new antibiotic resistant “super-bacteria” in the same waters. As reported by The Telegraph:

The bacteria is similar to other known strains but is resistant to the usual drugs, said Ana Paula D’Alincourt Carvalho Assef, the coordinator of the study that was published on the Oswaldo Cruz’s website. Continue reading →

Potential Progress in Saving the SS United States

Posted on by December 16, 2014

The SS United States Conservancy issued a press release signed by Susan Gibbs on Monday announcing:

Exciting Redevelopment Milestone Achieved

We are very pleased to confirm that we have now entered into a preliminary agreement in support of the redevelopment of the SS United States. Negotiations have been underway for some time, and planning will continue with a variety of stakeholders. While further due diligence is conducted, the Conservancy will receive financial support to cover the vessel’s core carrying costs for at least an additional three months.

It is however not yet a done deal.

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Russia & the French Mistral Amphibious Assault Ships

Posted on by December 16, 2014

mistral classBack in 2010, we posted that some members of NATO were uncomfortable with a French contract to build two, with an option for two more, Mistral-class amphibious assault ships for Russia.  The first ship, the Vladivostok, was supposed to be delivered to Russia in October but following Russian actions in the Ukraine, President François Hollande said France would postpone the delivery “until further notice.”  The Russians are demanding that the French live up to the shipbuilding contract.  Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said, “Everything is specified in the contract, and we will act under that contract, just like all civilized people do.”

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