Seventy Years Ago Today – Torpedoman Phelps and the Last Ranger Over the Side on the USS Bernadou

Posted on by November 8, 2012

USS Bernadou (DD-153), At sea during the North African invasion operation, November 1942. The ship’s mast had been removed to facilitate her role in the landings at Safi, Morocco on 8 November 1942

A guest post by Stephen Phelps:

Today is the 70th anniversary of the WW II invasion of North Africa, which began with the assault and landing in the port of Safi by USS Bernadou, a WW I-vintage destroyer that had been stripped down for stealth and draft. My father, Stephen E. Phelps, was a torpedoman aboard her that day; his station as the ship drove into the port was as a loader on that forward 4″ gun.

Captain Braddy grounded the ship in order to disembark his 200 Army Rangers. As the Rangers went over the side the ship continued to take small arms fire and the sailors were helping the soldiers over the bows and onto the landing nets with all their gear. As the last Ranger climbed over, with my father helping him, they looked into each other’s eyes. My father said, “Good luck, soldier,” and the Ranger said, “You, too, sailor.”

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Mitik’s Wild Ride and a Brooklyn Aquarium Under Siege by the Sea

Posted on by November 8, 2012

Mitik Photo: Alaska Sea Life Center

Mitik is the name given to a 234-pound 15-week-old orphaned walrus rescued from the open ocean off Alaska in early October. The walrus calf was transported aboard a FedEx cargo jet, accompanied by a veterinarian and a handler, and delivered to the New York Aquarium, part of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and one only a handful of aquariums in the United States to exhibit walruses.

Then less than a month after Mitik’s arrival, the aquarium, located in Brooklyn just off the Coney Island Boardwalk, was swamped by the storm surge from “superstorm” Sandy. The floodwaters knocked out the aquarium’s electrical transformers and damaged its electrical distribution system and mechanical equipment, rendering emergency generators useless. It also ruined the pumps and motors that operate critical life support systems for the entire collection of 12,000 fish and marine mammals, including oxygenation, filtration and heat.

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The “Superstorm”, the Nor’easter and Monster Roll

Posted on by November 7, 2012

Just over a week ago, we here in New York and New Jersey were hit by a “superstorm,”  the convergence of Hurricane Sandy and a Noreaster.  Now just as power is being restored to many areas and damage to washed out neighborhoods is being assessed, a second Nor’easter is bearing down on us with rain, snow and high winds.  Many are asking what’s next?  Plagues of locusts? Sea monsters?   In that vein, here is a “proof-of-concept” for a feature film about sushi chefs fighting sea monsters.  Because you never know.

Monster Roll

Charles W. Morgan Day at Mystic Seaport

Posted on by November 7, 2012


This Saturday November 10, 2012, from 10 a.m. – 7:30 p.m,, the Mystic Seaport Museum is celebrating the 71st anniversary of the arrival in Mystic of the whale ship Charles W. Morgan.  The Morgan was launched in 1841 and is the last wooden whaler and the world’s oldest surviving merchant vessel.  Admission to the museum will be free and a spectacular fireworks show is promised in the evening.

Charles W. Morgan Day

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Spade-toothed Beaked Whale, the Rarest of All Whales, Beached in New Zealand

Posted on by November 6, 2012

Photo: New Zealand Department of Conservation

Spade-toothed beaked whales (Mesoplodon traversii) are so rare that they had never been seen alive.  Until recently, the only evidence of their existence were portions of three skulls found in 1872 and in the 1950s in New Zealand  and in 1986 on an island off Chile. Then, on New Year’s Eve in 2010,  two spade-toothed beaked whales, a mother and a calf, were found stranded on Opape Beach on the North Island where they died.  Researchers took tissue samples but misidentified the whales as the more common Gray’s beaked whales. The researchers then buried the whales on the beach.  Subsequently, the tissue samples were analysed and found to be from rare spade-toothed beaked whales. The skeletons of the buried whales have now been dug up, though the skull of the mother whale, which was not buried as deeply as the calf, is believed to have been washed away.

NZ beaching proves rarest of whales exists

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HMS Bounty Survivors Interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America

Posted on by November 15, 2012

The crew of the HMS Bounty was interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America this morning. Note: the video of the ship sailing in high seas was shot when the Bounty sailed from Maine to Puerto Rico in 2010.

HMS Bounty Survivors: Crew of Ship Sunk During Hurricane Sandy Speak of Lost Shipmates

Falling Overboard, Robin Beth Schaer’s Love Letter and Farewell for the Bounty and Her Captain

Posted on by November 5, 2012

Robin Beth Schaer an American poet and sailor who served as a deckhand aboard the HMS Bounty has a written, Falling Overboard,  a beautifully evocative essay which she describes as “My love letter and my farewell for my ship Bounty and her captain, lost in the storm.”  It was published in the Paris Review Daily. The first paragraph:

At first, I couldn’t sleep on the ship. At night, bunked beneath the waterline, I put my hand against the wooden hull and imagined dark water on the other side pressing back. I lay awake holding my breath, picturing the route I would swim through a maze of cabins and hatches if the ship went down. In port, Bounty had looked tremendous: one hundred and eighty feet long, three masts stretching a hundred feet into the sky, and a thousand square yards of canvas sails. But underway, with ocean spreading toward horizon in every direction, she was small, and inside her I was even smaller.

Read Falling Overboard in the Paris Review. 

USCG Rescuers of the Crew of the HMS Bounty

Posted on by November 5, 2012

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd class David Weydert.

There are no real super-heroes, but as far am I am concerned the closest human beings that come to that designation are the search and rescue teams of the United States Coast Guard.  From the rescue swimmers, who dive into high seas and icy waters, to the helicopter pilots and winch operators, who create as stable a platform as possible while being buffeted by high winds, to the pilots and crew of the HC-130J Hercules aircraft who located the ship in distress and stands by during the rescue, they are an amazing group of professionals who perform close to super-human rescues.

Last Tuesday, we posted an amazing video of members of the crew of the HMS Bounty being rescued by a United States Coast Guard rescue helicopter.  The rescue is dramatically described in the Coast Guard Compass, the Official blog of the US Coast Guard – Shipmate of the Week – Rescuers of the HMS Bounty.

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New York/New Jersey & Super-storm Sandy – Disaster from the Sea & Relief from the Sea

Posted on by November 3, 2012

USS Wasp

The super-storm Sandy swept in from the Atlantic on Monday night, leaving millions without power, destroying thousands of homes, killing scores and dramatically rearranging the landscape of the Jersey shore. Many New York subways went underwater. Fuel supplies are extremely low as gas stations initially lacked power to pump fuel and now lack supplies. Two of the three local refineries are shut-down due to the storm.

While relief is being sent from all over the country, much is coming by sea.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that a flotilla of ships and barges began unloading gasoline in New York to help ease the shortages. The U.S. government also issued a Jones Act waiver on Friday allowing foreign tankers in the Gulf of Mexico to supply the Northeast with fuel after Hurricane Sandy.

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Farewell Nova Scotia – in Honor of the Barque Picton Castle

Posted on by November 3, 2012

In response to our post, Bon Voyage to the Barque Picton Castle – Bound for the South Pacific, Diego commented, “Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast,”  which is the first line of the chorus of the old sailor’s song, Farewell to Nova Scotia.   Since reading his comment I haven’t been able to get the song out of my head, so I figure I might was well share.   In honor of the barque Picton Castle sailing from Nova Scotia bound out for the South Pacific, here is Bonnie Dobson singing Farewell to Nova Scotia.

Farewell to Nova Scotia

Bon Voyage to the Barque Picton Castle – Bound for the South Pacific

Posted on by November 3, 2012

The sail training ship, the barque Piction Castle, sailed from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia this morning, bound for Grenada, then through the Panama Canal on a voyage to the South Pacific.  To follow the Picton Castle on her voyage click here.

The Picton Castle, captained by Daniel Moreland, is a 179′ long, three-masted steel barque, with a riveted steel hull, setting 12,500 square feet (1,160 m2) of sail. The ship has accommodations for 12 professional crew and 40 sail trainees.  The ship has circumnavigation the world five times.

HMS Bounty Crew Relief Funds Set up by Bounty Organization and Lynx Educational Foundation

Posted on by November 2, 2012

HMS Bounty and Lynx – Peanut Island, West Palm Beach 2010

Following the tragic sinking of HMS Bounty, both the HMS Bounty organization and the Lynx Educational Foundation have set up relief funds for the crews and families of those lost on the ship.

From the Bounty Facebook page:

A Relief fund has been set up by both HMS Bounty Organization AND a couple of our former beloved crew members. We are working with the former crew members as well as initiating another way of donating to help raise as much money as possible for our 14 surviving crew as well as the families of Claudene Christian AND Captain Robin Walbridge. Please find it in your hearts to help out. You can donate via paypal at HMSBounty2012@Yahoo.com or by going to our website and clicking on the online store where you will see a button to donate via paypal. We thank everyone for the support and prayers!

From the Lynx Educational Foundation:

In honor and in memory of the sailing crew of the HMS Bounty, the Lynx Educational Foundation and Privateer Lynx has established a crew assistance fund starting with $500.00 in hopes that the effort will help in a small way of the immediate relocation needs of our friends of the HMS Bounty. Please join us and contribute what you can to help these brave individuals. Make your donation today for the HMS Bounty Crew Relief Effort Fund

http://www.privateerlynx.com/donate.html

New York’s South Street Seaport Museum – the Good and Really, Really Bad News

Posted on by November 2, 2012

The area around the South Street Seaport on the East River in lower Manhattan was particularly hard hit by the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy.  The rising water reached the first floor eaves, devastating homes and businesses.

The only good news was that the seven historic vessels at the South Street Seaport Museum rode out the storm without damage.  “All vessels rode out the hurricane Sandy and the surge with very little difficulty,  thanks to days of preparation and a right on-the-money calculation about the amount of slack needed for the lines securing the Peking, the Wavertree, and the Ambrose to Pier 15 and Pier 16,” said Susan Henshaw Jones, Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York and President of the South Street Seaport Museum. (Thanks to Jeff Simmons for the heads-up.)

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Search for Captain Robin Walbridge, Washed off the Sinking HMS Bounty, Ends – Investigation into Sinking Begins

Posted on by November 2, 2012

Photo:Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim Kuklewski /U.S. Coast Guard

Sadly, the US Coast Guard has suspended the search for Captain Robin Walbridge, who was washed off the HMS Bounty as she sank in high seas on Monday off the coast of North Carolina.   Claudene Christian, 42, was also lost overboard. She was later found by the Coast Guard unconscious, but subsequently died.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Walbridge and Christian families,” said Capt. Doug Cameron, the chief of incident response for the Coast Guard 5th District. ”Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the hardest decisions we have to make.”

Coast Guard crews searched more than 90 hours, covering approximately 12,000 overlapping square nautical miles in the Atlantic Ocean since the Bounty’s crew abandoned ship Monday morning.

The Coast Guard began their investigation Thursday to determine the cause of the sinking of the Bounty.   Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to the post. 

Returning After Sandy – Destruction, Sadness and Recovery

Posted on by November 2, 2012

168-foot water tanker, the John B. Caddell, sits on the shore, Oct. 30, 2012, where it ran aground on Front Street in the Stapleton neighborhood of New York’s Staten Island as a result of superstorm Sandy. Photo: Sean Sweeney/AP Photo

Last Monday night, the lights went out for over 8 million people in the Northeast and Central United States as Superstorm Sandy sent high winds and a record storm surge ashore. It was the worst storm to hit New York harbor since the city was founded in 1624.  The more than 9 foot surge on top of a high tide on a full moon resulted in water level’s at New York’s Battery approaching 14 feet, far surpassing the record of 11.2′ water level recorded during the great hurricane of 1821.

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The World’s Only Nuclear Powered Container/LASH Vessel, Sevmorput, to be Scrapped

Posted on by October 29, 2012

Nuclear powered ships were the future that never quite arrived.  The Russian container ship/LASH carrier Sevmorput is the only remaining nuclear powered merchant ship and it is slated to be scrapped.

No future for nuclear-powered container ship

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A Year After His Death, Steve Job’s Yacht, Venus, Delivered

Posted on by October 29, 2012

More than six years ago, Steve Jobs commissioned a custom yacht from the Dutch shipbuilder Feadship.  Designed by French designer Philippe Starck, the 250-foot yacht, Venus, has been delivered, a year after Job’s death.  Jobs told biographer Walter Issacson, “I know that it’s possible that I will die and leave [wife] Laurene with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don’t it’s an admission that I’m about to die.”

Steve Jobs’ yacht Venus unveiled in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands

So Long Until the Lights Come Back On

Posted on by October 30, 2012

Here on the west bank of the Hudson, we were in the path of Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge and winds. Though we came very close to flooding we didn’t quite go under. (We were very lucky.) We are have food, water and shelter. All we lack is phone, electricity and internet. So untill the lights go on, I will be difficult to contact. I have posts cued up for the next few days and wish everyone a good week.