Is pod propulsion the best or worse thing to ever happen to cruise ships? Celebrity Cruise Line just cancelled the cruises for the rest of season in Alaska on the Celebrity Millennium due to failures in its pods. It had already cancelled two previous cruises due to the malfunctions.
The Rolls Royce “mermaid pods” installed on the Celebrity Millenium class ships are a rotating pod propulsion system which serves as rudders and thrusters as well as propulsion. In theory, they are highly efficient and provide the sort of maneuverability that large cruise ships operating mostly without tug support need to get in and out of port. The only problem is making them work.
Maine has been experiencing a lobster boom. After catching an average of 20 million pounds of lobster per year for decades, Maine’s 5,500 lobster-men landed a record 125 million pounds of lobsters last year. Will this boom, however, end in a bust? Some experts think so. The question is important because the other ground fisheries in the Gulf of Maine; cod, haddock, pollock and hake; have been effectively fished out. Lobster accounts for 80% of the total value of the Maine fisheries. If lobster yields drop dramatically, the economic impact on the coast could be dire.
The headline in 
A massive explosion, followed by a fire, has partially sunk
Joan Druett’s 