Dolphins as Toolmakers — Spongers vs Non-Spongers

Posted on by June 15, 2014
Sponger photo: Hugh Pearson/Naturepl.com

Sponger photo: Hugh Pearson/Naturepl.com

While it was long thought that only humans made and used tools, we now know that a variety of apes and monkeys are toolmakers.  Elephants, crows, sea otters and octopus have also been observed making tools.  Now, we can add dolphins to the list.

Recently, scientists discovered Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay off the coast of Australia apparently use tools. They carry sponges on their snouts which may help protect their sensitive beaks from sharp rocks and other hazards as they probe the seafloor for food.  Scientists report that more than 60 percent of all female dolphins practice sponging, and up to half of all males born to “spongers” in one part of the bay grow up to become spongers themselves. The scientists also discovered that the sponger and non-sponger dolphins had dramatically different diets.  The sponging dolphins apparently have access to different foods than the non-spongers.

Dolphins Put Sponges on Snouts to Snag Elusive Snacks

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Looking Back at HMS Bounty, the First Time She Nearly Sank off the Carolinas

Posted on by June 14, 2014

bounty-004The Coast Guard has issued its final report on the sinking of HMS Bounty in October 2012.  You can read the report here.

In the report, there is one oblique reference to 1998 in which “the Seventh Coast Guard District closed the marine casualty case after having determined that BOUNTY was not a commercial vessel.”  The casualty referred to was when the Bounty had come perilously close to sinking, in almost the same waters where she sank in 2012, and for almost the same reasons.

Not quite 20 years ago, I sailed only once, and briefly, with Captain Robin Walbridge on HMS Bounty on a re-positioning leg from New York to Newport, Rhode Island. Continue reading →

North River Historic Ship Festival June 20 – June 24

Posted on by June 11, 2014
Photo : Milo Hess

Photo : Milo Hess

The North River Historic Ship Festival is returning for the sixth year to Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 in Lower Manhattan from Friday, June 20 to Tuesday June 24.  The festival will offer 500 free boat rides aboard historic vessels, hands-on tours of museum ships, a showboat circus, fishing on the pier, a party on a wooden barge, and more!  The festival will welcome thousands of people to Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 at N. Moore Street and the Hudson River to celebrate the Summer Solstice. The historic vessels and their salty captains will help tell the story of what was once a busy commercial riverfront. To learn more, click here.

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Jonathan Atkin’s Hero Project on Display on Historic Lighthouse Tender Lilac

Posted on by June 10, 2014

heroprojectThe historic lighthouse tender Lilac is celebrating the Summer season with a exhibition of Jonathan Atkin’s Hero Project.  Hero Project is a selection from Jonathan’s on-going work-in-progress collaboration with dance artists aboard historic ships.  His mission is to increase visibility of our maritime heritage by reaching new non-maritime audiences.  In the exhibition, dancers athletically grace the gritty vessels in oversize photographs mounted throughout Lilac, from the bridge to the engine room.  From the Hero Project website: This project is no fashion shoot. Nor a model shoot. It is not a ship shoot. It is a poem, a ballad, a celebration of historic ships through the energy of dance and dancer’s perceptions that may encourage the public to navigate through the fog of underappreciation for both historic ships and dancers. Both historic ships representing our neglected maritime heritage and dancers, are HEROES!  

The Hero Project will be on display aboard the Lilac through June 30. The Lilac is moored at Pier 25 in Manhattan on the Hudson River. Click here for directions and event hours.

Has a 19 Year Old Figured Out How to Clean the Pacific Garbage Patch?

Posted on by June 9, 2014

There is a story that has been floating around the web about a 19 year old Dutch engineering student, Boyan Slat,  who, if you believe the claims, has figured out how to clean almost half of the Great Pacific garbage patch in only ten years. At the risk of sounding cynical, the first thing that came to mind was the “super-skimmer” A-Whale, a converted Ore-Bulk-Oiler which was supposed to have revolutionized oil spill clean-up, if only it had worked, which it didn’t.  Likewise, the operative question for Boyan Slat’s concept, is, will it work?

The Great Pacific garbage patch is the name given to floating mass of plastic and other waste caught in the Northern Pacific gyre, a huge circular current in the Northern Pacific.  Slat’s idea is to use a series of floating barriers anchored to the ocean floor to use the force of the current to filter and concentrate the plastic waste.

Boyan Slat: Why would you move through the oceans if the oceans can move through you?

There is considerable skepticism about whether Slat’s anchored arrays would work. Continue reading →

The Whaleship Charles W. Morgan Under Sail for the First Time in Almost a Century

Posted on by June 8, 2014
Sean D. Elliot/The Day

Sean D. Elliot/The Day

Yesterday, the Charles W. Morgan set sail for the first time in almost a century.  The whaling ship built in 1841 has been extensively rebuilt at Mystic Seaport Museum and successfully completed its first day of sea trials in Long Island Sound off New London. Sea trials are continuing today and on June 11, and 12.   

Click here for more photos of the Morgan under sail at The Day.

The Return of Schooner Lettie G. Howard

Posted on by June 8, 2014
Photo: K. Lorentz

Photo: K. Lorentz

Yesterday, while maneuvering our 18′ catboat through the traffic in the Morris Canal on the West bank of the Hudson off Lower Manhattan, we had the pleasure of crossing paths with the schooner Lettie G. Howard. Lettie is an 1893 Fredonia-model fishing schooner owned and operated by the South Street Seaport Museum.  It is great to see her back in the harbor.

In early 2012, the schooner was docked to repair rot in her keelson. The rot turned out to be far more extensive than originally thought. Despite all the other challenges facing the institution, the museum successfully raised the $250,000 necessary to repair the Lettie and put her back into service.  Almost a month ago, the Lettie G. Howard was ceremonially re-launched at Manhattan’s Pier 25 on the Hudson River. She is operating as a sailing school vessel instructing students of the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School on Governors Island and New Jersey’s Marine Academy of Science and Technology at Sandy Hook.

Update: What Ate the Great White Shark?

Posted on by June 7, 2014

A recent news story and video spins a fascinating mystery. Scientists in Australia tagged a healthy 9-foot great white shark. Four months later they found the tracking device washed up on a beach. The data in the the tracking device was bizarre. It recorded a rapid temperature rise and a sudden 1,900-foot-deep plunge. The tracking device stayed there for many days, moving around and occasionally ascending to go down again until it finally reached the shore. It appears that the great white shark had been swallowed by an even larger and more fearsome predator. A video from the Smithsonian Channel:

Something Ate This Shark… But What?

So what did eat the great white?

Update: Apparently in this case, scientists have determined that a much larger great white shark, perhaps 16′ long or so, probably ate the 9′  Continue reading →

Remembering Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Higgins Boat on D-Day

Posted on by June 6, 2022

lilboatpicI am aware of only one man who was praised by both Eisenhower and Hitler.

General Dwight David Eisenhower said that “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”  Adolph Hitler referred to Andrew Higgins as the “new Noah,” though his admiration was more begrudging. On the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, better known as D-Day, is seems worthwhile to remember Andrew Higgins and the amazing Higgins boat.

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USS Constitution to Get Underway to Commemorate the D-Day & Midway

Posted on by June 5, 2014

The USS uss-constitution1Constitution is the oldest commissioned naval warship afloat. The wooden three masted “super-frigate” in launched in 1797, is due for a three year overhaul and dry-docking starting in early 2015.  Before the historic ship enters the shipyard, she will leave the dock for five short cruises in Boston harbor this summer. The first cruise, or as the Navy puts it, an “underway demonstration” is tomorrow, June 6, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the 72nd anniversary of the Battle of Midway.

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Will the Real Gallus Mag, or Meg, Stand Up? No Biting, Please

Posted on by June 4, 2014

earIn New York City, there is a story told about Gallus Mag, the bouncer at the ‘Hole in the Wall‘, a bar and brothel on Water Street on the East River waterfront in the mid-1800s. Standing well over 6’ tall, she was said to be known for biting off obstreperous sailor’s ears, which she kept in a pickle jar behind the bar.

In Wilmington, North Carolina,  there is a story told about Gallus Meg, the owner or bartender at the ‘Blue Post‘, a bar and brothel on Water Street on the Wilmington waterfront near Paradise Alley in the mid-1800s. Standing well over 6’ tall, she was said to be known for biting off obstreperous sailor’s ears, which she kept in a pickle jar behind the bar.

It appears that we have an echo in here. Will the real Gallus Mag or Meg, stand up? And please no biting.  Was the real ear-biting bouncer from New York or North Carolina? Did she exist at all or was she just part of the folklore of the period?

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Update: Theories in $10 Million Yacht Capsize

Posted on by June 3, 2014
Photo: Deane Hislop

Photo: Deane Hislop

A little over a week ago, we posted about a 90′ yacht, valued at around $10 million, which capsized and sank on her launching in Anacortes, Washington. Since then there has been no definitive determination as to what caused the boat to capsize as she hit the water, but there are two primary theories. The first is that are that the boat had inadequate stability because the center of gravity was too high, either due to inadequate ballast or the incomplete installation of machinery.  The second theory is that the boat was improperly blocked on the dolly or that the dolly partially slipped off the launching ramp. A problem with the dolly could have the effect of causing the ship to be help up by her bow and stern while not having enough of the midship of the boat in the water to support it hydro-statically.

The first presumption is supported by Aaron Pufal, a former yard project manager . As reported by Three Sheets Northwest:

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Plastic is the Problem. Are Shrimp Shells the Answer?

Posted on by June 2, 2014
Shrilk Plastic Photo: Harvard's Wyss Institute

Shrilk Plastic Photo: Harvard’s Wyss Institute

Discarded plastic is a major problem in today’s oceans. Plastics leach toxic chemicals into the seawater while otherwise not degrading.  Recently researchers at Harvard University have announced they have created a new bio-degrable plastic based on, of all things, shrimp shells.

We have posted for several years now about the vast floating collection of trash in the Pacific Ocean. It goes by a variety of names including the plastic vortex and the great Pacific garbage patch.  It is held together by the circular current, the North Pacific Gyre. Similar garbage patches have formed in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  The floating plastic is often deadly to sea birds, fish and whales which inject the trash.  Once tossed in the oceans, the plastic simply does not go away.

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Playing the East River Piano Under the Brooklyn Bridge

Posted on by June 1, 2014

A few years ago we posted about a grand piano which rather mysteriously showed up on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay near Miami.   A few days ago, a grand piano showed up on a sand beach beneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City’s East River.  No one is sure how it got there, but it has become a minor tourist attraction.  The piano doesn’t actually play anymore, which, of course, hasn’t stopped many from pretending to give impromptu concerts, sometimes on a rising tide.  For the last several years dozens of “pop-up pianos” have appeared around New York city available for anyone passing by to play. The “pop-up pianos,” which are more formally called the “Sing for Hope Pianos installation,” will not be around this summer. But, at least we now have one “float-up” piano.”

Mystery Piano Ends Up Under Brooklyn Bridge in East River

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Alaric Bond’s The Torrid Zone — A Review

Posted on by May 31, 2014

torridzoneIn The Torrid Zone, Alaric Bond’s latest novel in his Fighting Sail Series, HMS Scylla is due to return to England. Her crew is weary and the ship is in serious need of a refit.  Yet, as soon as the ship reaches home waters, she is dispatched to St. Helena, a tiny island in the distant South Atlantic, with a cargo of East India Company gold and the new island governor, his wife and servants as passengers. What should be a simple mission becomes very complicated and dangerous with the arrival of a French squadron, brutal weather, a reckless diplomat, an enraged widow, and a murderous seaman — all set against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful and remote islands
in the world.

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Gods Mortals and Protectors — Figureheads at Mystic Seaport

Posted on by May 30, 2014

figureheadcropThere is a magic to ship’s figureheads.  In Conrad’s Mirror of the Sea who wrote about the ships and figureheads that he saw on London’s docks:  

It was a noble gathering of the fairest and the swiftest, each bearing at the bow the carved emblem of her name, as in a gallery of plaster-casts, figures of women with mural crowns, women with flowing robes, with gold fillets on their hair or blue scarves round their waists, stretching out rounded arms as if to point the way; heads of men helmeted or bare; full lengths of warriors, of kings, of statesmen, of lords and princesses, all white from top to toe; with here and there a dusky turbaned figure, bedizened in many colours, of some Eastern sultan or hero, all inclined forward under the slant of mighty bowsprits as if eager to begin another run of 11,000 miles in their leaning attitudes. These were the fine figure-heads of the finest ships afloat. But why, unless for the love of the life those effigies shared with us in their wandering impassivity, should one try to reproduce in words an impression of whose fidelity there can be no critic and no judge, since such an exhibition of the art of shipbuilding and the art of figure-head carving as was seen from year’s end to year’s end in the open-air gallery of the New South Dock no man’s eye shall behold again?

We have previously posted about the figurehead of the white witch, Nannie Dee, on the clipper ship Cutty Sark, as well as the figurehead on Galveston’s tall ship, the 1887 barque Ellisa.    Here is a wonderful short video about wood carving and figureheads from the Mystic Seaport.

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Japanese Tanker Shoko Maru Explodes and Burns, One Missing, Seven Injured

Posted on by May 29, 2014
Photo:AFP

Photo:AFP

UPDATE: Between the effects of the explosion, fire, and water put aboard in firefighting the Shoko Maru subsequently sank.

The 2,242 DWT Japanese product tanker, Shoko Maru, exploded and caught fire Thursday morning, local time, while anchored about 5 kilometers off the port of Himeji in western Japan.  The ship had recently finished discharging a cargo of heating oil.  Seven of the eight ship’s crew escaped, although four were reported to be seriously burned. The rest were treated for lesser injuries.  One person, reported to be the ship’s 64-year-old captain, is still missing.

It may at first seem counter-intuitive, but an empty tanker is far more likely to explode than a loaded tanker.  While an empty tanker does not contain significant oil, the oil vapors left in the tanks when mixed with oxygen can form an explosive mixture which, if ignited by a spark, can go off like a bomb. There were unconfirmed reports that a sailor was using a grinder on deck just before the explosion. If this turns out to be accurate, a spark from the grinder may have set off the explosion.

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Friendly Floatees — What 29,000 Yellow Ducks, Red Beavers, Blue Turtles and Green Frogs Tell Us About Ocean Dumping

Posted on by May 29, 2014

rubber-ducks-seaYesterday, we posted about the Big Rubber Duck, which is scheduled to lead the Tall Ships Grand Parade of Sail at the Tall Ships Festival L.A., August 20, 2014. One commenter suggested that we needed more rubber ducks while another suggested that we needed a ship load. This brought to mind a sea story from more than 22 years ago.

On January 10, 1992, the container ship Ever Laurel, on a voyage from Hong Kong bound for Tacoma, Washington, lost twelve 40-foot containers over the side in a North Pacific storm near the 45th parallel and the International Date Line. One of the containers contained 28,800 bath toys, marketed as ‘Friendly Floatees’ by the company The First Years, Inc.  The ‘Friendly Floatees’ were yellow ducks, as well as red beavers, blue turtles, and green frogs.  The container carrying the bath toys broke open and an armada of ducks, beavers, turtles and frogs was cast loose upon the stormy Pacific. Unlike many bath toys, Friendly Floatees have no holes in them so they do not take on water.

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