The Texas City Disaster – the Explosions of the SS Grandcamp & the SS High Flyer

Posted on by April 19, 2013
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Ship Wilson B. Keene sunk by the explosion of the SS Grandcamp and SS High Flyer in Texas City 1947

On Wednesday night, a huge explosion ripped through West, Texas; a small central Texas town, south of Dallas. The fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded, leveling homes and buildings for a five blocks area, killing from 5 – 40 people and injuring more than 180 others. The scope of the damage and the number of dead and injured are still being tallied. The fertilizer company had over a half million pounds of ammonium nitrate stored at the facility. Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer and was also the chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

This recent explosion happened within a day of the 66th anniversary of a massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Texas City, Texas on April 16-17, 1947, when the ammonium nitrate cargoes of two ships, the French SS Grandcamp & the Lykes Lines SS High Flyer both caught fire and blew up. The explosions and fires killed close to 600 and injured more than 5,000 in the port of Texas City. The disaster is considered to be the worst industrial accident in the history of the United States.  Sixty six years after the Texas City disaster, we seem not to have learned much from history.

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Who are Jonathan & Mary? A Mystery from a 28 Year Old Letter in a Bottle

Posted on by April 18, 2013

ns-letter-320A 23 year old Croatian kite surfer, Matea Medak Rezic, found a letter in a broken bottle on a beach at the mouth of the Neretva River in the southern Adriatic. The letter was brief:

“Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985,” said the message. 

If the bottle was launched in Nova Scotia, it traveled on the winds and currents over 6,000 across the Atlantic into the Mediterranean to the Adriatic Sea. No last names or addresses were given, so the identity of Jonathan & Mary remains a mystery.  If anyone knows who these two may be, please drop us a line. E-mail is preferred. Messages in bottle can take a while.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the story along.

Clearly, Jonathon could have learned a thing or two from Harold Hackett on neighboring Prince Edward Island, who has launched 4,800 bottles into the sea since 1996 and has received 3,100 responses. Harold always put his full name and address in the bottles.  See our post from September 2011 – The Original Social Networking – Harold Hackett and His Messages in Bottles.

A Swan Adrift – Abandoned Sailing Yachts Drifting on the Deep Blue Sea

Posted on by January 24, 2015

In February, Wolfhound, a 48′ Nautor Swan sailing yacht, was abandoned in a storm just north of Bermuda by her Irish owner, Alan McGettigan, and a crew of three. The sailors were rescued by a passing freighter. The boat was reported to have sunk. Instead, Wolfhound was recently spotted very much afloat, drifting around 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.  From a photograph, taken by Martin Butler from a passing ship, the yacht appears to be floating on her lines and doesn’t look in bad shape. It appears that her forestay and backstay have parted, yet the carbon fiber mast is still standing. The current market price of a Nautor Swan 48 is around a half million dollars based on recent brokerage listings on Yachtworld.com. Thanks to Portside New York for pointing out the story on Facebook.

The reappearance of Wolfhound got us thinking about all the other sail boats abandoned when their crews were rescued.

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Chinese Boat Loaded with Illegal Cargo of Endangered Species Ran Aground on Protected Tubbataha Reef

Posted on by April 15, 2013

PhilippinesChinaReefBoatYou can’t make this stuff up. Only a week after the last wreckage of the minesweeper USS Guardian was removed from the reef in the Philippines’  Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, where it ran hard aground on January 17th, a Chinese fishing vessel, Min Long Yu, ran aground on the same reef.  Not only did the ship have no business being anywhere near the protected reef, but Philippine officials found 22,000 pounds of of pangolin meat, a protected species of scaly anteater, aboard the fishing vessel.

“It is bad enough that the Chinese have illegally entered our seas, navigated without boat papers and crashed recklessly into a national marine park and World Heritage Site,” said Word Wildlife Fund-Philippines chief executive officer Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan. “It is simply deplorable that they appear to be posing as fishermen to trade in illegal wildlife.” 

Chinese smugglers nabbed carrrying endangered anteaters in Phillipines

Updated: Carnival Agrees to Pay and Costa Gets a Slap on the Wrist

Posted on by April 16, 2013

costa_concordia9Update: Carnival Corp has has agreed to reimburse the U.S. government for costs related to the high-profile fires aboard the Carnival Triumph in February and Carnival Splendor in 2010. Read more here.

The juxtaposition is priceless. OK, priceless may be the wrong word as specific sums of money are involved. Last month, we posted about a letter written by Senator Senator Jay Rockefeller to Mickey Arison, the billionaire chairman of Carnival Corp, asking if Carnival intended to reimburse the $4.2 million dollars spent by the US Coast Guard and Navy in responding to the Carnival Splendor and Carnival Triumph casualties. Carnival, which pays little, or no, federal income taxes, responded to Senator Rockefeller, by saying “No, not our problem,” or at least words to that effect.

On Wednesday, Carnival’s subsidiary, Costa Lines, agreed to a plea bargain to pay a 1 million euro ($1.3 million) fine to avoid a possible criminal trial, on charges related to the grounding and sinking of the Costa Concordia off the Italian island of Giglio, last year, killing 32 people. While the captain and five other of the firm’s employees will face criminal charges including manslaughter, the cruise line will not face a criminal trial. The company is still exposed to civil lawsuits, however.

Costa Concordia firm fined $1.3 million for shipwreck off Italy

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Four Ballads of the USS Thresher

Posted on by April 15, 2013

thresehr2We recently posted an embedded video of Tom Paxton’s song, “The Thresher Disaster” sung my threelegsofman.  about the loss of the nuclear submarine USS Thresher in 1963.  Brian Frizell pointed out that Paxton’s song was not the only ballad about the Thresher.  The Kingston Trio also sang a “Ballad of the Thresher.”  The singer/songwriters Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger also had songs about the disaster, both titled simply “The Thresher.”  Why did the sinking of this one ship inspire at least four songs?

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New Study May Debunk Lead Poisoning Theory in Franklin Expedition

Posted on by April 12, 2013

hi-franklin-skulls-cp-9117292Exactly what happened to the ill-fated Franklin expedition remains a mystery.  in 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin, with a crew 129, attempted to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage and never returned.  Some of the bodies expedition crew have been found but the wrecks of the two ships, Erebus and Terror have never been located despite a century and a half of searching.  What is fascinating about the story is that parts of the mystery as to what happened to the expedition have appeared to have been solved several times, only to have new findings debunk the previous explanation.   A new study suggests that the current theory of the failed expedition may also be flawed.

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The Future of Commercial Sail & the Nord Integrity – an Unexpected Sailor

Posted on by April 11, 2013

Nord-Integrity-737511I would like to thank all those who came out last night to the Working Harbor Committee’s presentation of “Sailing Ships at Work – Past, Present and Future.”   It was a fun evening and gratifying that the presentation was so well received.  In my part of the presentation, I rashly suggested that there is at least the possibility that we could see a return of large cargo-carrying auxiliary sailing ships. Just as a hundred years of cheap energy killed off commercial sail, the economics of continued high fuel costs could support a return to modern sail, for certain types of ships, on specific trade routes.

This brings to mind the recent account of the 47,000 DWT product tanker Nord Integrity. The ship’s captain, Rohit Minocha, took slow steaming one step farther by simply turning off the main engine and let the ship be carried on the winds and currents, covering 280 nm over 3-4 days.  The ship arrived at the loading berth in Algeria on time and the enterprising captain saved Norden, the ship’s owner’s 27 tonnes of fuel oil worth over $17,000 in oil costs.

As reported in Norden’s News Magazine: “Head of NPP Operations, Jens Malund Jensen, gives Captain Rohit Minocha much praise for his initiative.

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Navy Fleet Weeks Across the Country Victim of Federal Budget Cuts?

Posted on by April 11, 2013

First it was the White House Easter Egg Hunt – cancelled due to the sequestration. Now it appears that Navy Fleet Weeks in ports around the country, traditionally held each spring, may fall victim to the automatic budget cuts as well. The New York Times is reporting that Fleet Week this year in New York harbor will be “significantly reduced if it occurs at all.” On Thursday, Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Navy spokesman, said that “no branch of the armed forces may participate in community relations or outreach events that come at additional cost to government or rely on anything other than local assets and personnel. We will follow that direction, to include participation in Fleet Weeks.”

There are also reports that no Navy ships will participate in Fleet Week in Portland, OR, from June 5 through June 9, though Coast Guard, Army and Canadian navy vessels may make an appearance. Likewise there will be no Navy ships at Seattle’s Fleet Week. The same appears to be the case in Fort Lauderdale and possibly San Francisco.  Budget cuts have also grounded the Navy’s precision air squad, the Blue Angels.

Here is a short video of the New York Fleet Week from two years ago:

Fleet Week New York 2011, Parade of Ships, 5/25/11

World’s Most Beautiful Shipwreck – Canadian Schooner Sweepstakes

Posted on by April 9, 2013

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In Big Tub Harbour, just off Canada’s Georgian Bay, near the entrance to Lake Huron, lies the wreck of the schooner Sweepstakes, which sank in 1885. She is 119′ long with a 23′ beam and a 10′ depth of hold. Just twenty feet below the surface, she is considered by many to be the world’s most beautiful shipwreck.  Whether or not that title can safely be bestowed on any particular wreck, she is a beauty, remarkably well preserved in the crystalline waters of the lake.  Big Tub Harbor and the wreck of the Sweepstakes are now part of the Canada’s Fathom Five National Marine Park  near the town of Tobermory, Ontario.

World’s most beautiful shipwreck: Haunting hull of Sweepstakes lies just TWENTY FEET below clear blue water of Ontario lake where it sank in 1885
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Repost: Searching for the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion with the Titanic as Cover

Posted on by April 9, 2013

On this the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the USS Thresher, we are reposting an article from three years regarding the link between the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic and the US Navy’s secret search for the lost submarines, USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion.  Originally posted June 14, 2010.

Searching for the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion with the Titanic as Cover

Late last month, the secret was revealed – when Bob Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1985,  he was actually on a  secret mission to find two sunken US submarines, the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, both of which had sunk in the Atlantic in the 1960s.   Only after his team located and surveyed the two missing subs was he allowed to search for the Titanic, leaving only a twelve day window to located the sunken passenger liner.

NGC Presents : Titanic: Ballard’s Secret Mission

Titanic search was cover for secret Cold War subs mission

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The Thresher Disaster – April 9, 1963

Posted on by April 9, 2013

Fifty years ago today, the nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep  diving tests in the Atlantic off Massachusetts with a loss of 129 officers, crewmen, and military and civilian technicians.  The sinking of the submarine is considered to be a watershed event in the implementation of the rigorous US Navy submarine safety program SUBSAFE.  The folk sinker Tom Paxton wrote a song about the tragedy, sung here on Youtube by threelegsoman.

A Satellite’s View of Ship Pollution

Posted on by April 8, 2013
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Click on the image for a larger image

Ships are the most energy efficient means of moving good across the surface of the earth.  Goods moved by ship have the lowest carbon foot-print of goods moved by any other means. At the same time, modern ships are significant polluters.  How can ships be so green and yet also so dirty.  The answer is the fuel burned on most ocean-going ships. It goes by various names – residual oil, bunker C, No. 6 oil.  Whatever you call it, it is dirty; high in sulfur, nitrogen dioxide and particulates.  The exhaust gases from ocean going ships has become so bad that it can be observed from space by satellite.  Thanks to Mai Armstrong of the Working Harbor Committee for pointing out the news.

A Satellite’s View of Ship Pollution

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The Vermont Sail Freight Project Building Sailing Barge to Carry Produce to NYC

Posted on by April 5, 2013

Next Wednesday, April 10th, from 6-9 the Working Harbor Committee is presenting Sailing Ships at Work – Past, Present and Future. If you are in the New York area be sure to stop by. (Click on the banner to the right to learn more.)  The future of working sail may come in all sizes, from large sailing bulk carriers to the sailing barges that only disappeared within the last fifty years in parts of the world.  Here is a very interesting working sail project by Vermont farmer, Erik Andrus.  He is building  a sailing barge to carry non-perishable produce down Lake Champlain to the Hudson River and onward to the market in New York.  They are attempting to raise $15,000 by April 25th on Kickstarter. The barge, to be named Ceres, is already under construction and will carry 24000 lbs of cargo and requires a working crew of two. She draws just 2 feet of water fully laden. Thanks to Bowsprite for passing the news along.

The Vermont Sail Freight Project

Vermont Farmer Building Sailboat To Transport Produce To NYC

Update: Is Vancouver “Whale Bone Porn” All Fake?

Posted on by April 4, 2013

Gauguin scrimshawLast week we posted, “Vancouver Maritime Museum, Stephen Colbert & Whale Bone Porn,” about a controversy over an exhibit at the  Vancouver Maritime Museum, Tattoos & Scrimshaw: the Art of the Sailor.  One Vancouver mother and schoolteacher was offended by the erotic depictions on nine whale teeth which she described as “whale bone porn.”  It appears that the exhibit may greater problems than merely erotic scrimshaw.   James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a former executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, says the teeth are not 19th-century scrimshaw.

‘It’s all fake’: Vancouver exhibit’s ‘whale bone porn’ is not 19th-century scrimshaw, former museum director says

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Carnival Triumph Adrift After Breaking Moorings in High Winds, One Man Missing

Posted on by April 4, 2013

Winds gusting to near hurricane strength broke the moorings on the already damaged cruise ship Carnival Triumph at her berth at BAE Shipyard in the Port of Mobile, Alabama at 1:45 p.m. CT on Wednesday. The cruise ship, which had recently been adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after a fire and an electrical failure, was adrift again, this time down the Mobile ship channel where it is reported to have collided with another ship. Two men were in a guard shack that was blown into the river. One man was recovered and the other is still missing.

The AP reports that new damage to the cruise ship included “a 20-foot gash about 2 to 3 feet wide … visible about halfway up the hull from the water … wrapped partway around the stern. Underneath the gashed area, two levels of railing were dangling and broken.”  The Carnival Triumph is reported to have drifted for several hours before tugs could secure the ship at the Mobile Cruise Terminal. Thanks to Brian Frissel for passing along the news.