“Superstorm” Sandy Sending Ships out to Sea and to Harbors of Refuge

Posted on by October 27, 2012

Position of HMS Bounty

Tropical Storm Sandy returned to hurricane strength on Saturday morning as it heads toward the U.S. northeast coast.   The US Navy as ordered 24 of the larger ships in southeastern Virginia bases, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, out to sea to avoid the storm. Those ships which cannot leave are taking extra precautions stay secure a their docks. Military installations along the Eastern Seaboard, including Andrews Air Force Base and Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut were also prepared to move ships and aircraft if needed.

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Update: Owners of Container Ship MV Rena Plead Guilty, Pay NZ$300K Fine

Posted on by October 27, 2012

Daina Shipping, owner of the container ship MV Rena, has been fined NZ $300,000 (US $246,000) for discharging harmful substances after the Liberian flagged ship, ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, New Zealand in early October of last year. The ship subsequently broke up on the reef, resulting in the most serious maritime environmental disaster in New Zealand’s history.

The ship’s captain and chief engineer were found guilty of a total of eleven charges related to poor seamanship and attempting to cover up their actions by altering the ship’s GPS log, its passage plan and its computer records. Each was sentenced to seven months in jail.

The $300,000 fine is largely symbolic.  After insurance, the cleanup from the Rena grounding cost New Zealand taxpayers an estimated $50 million.

Hurricane Sandy – the Perfect Frankenstorm Heading for US Northeast

Posted on by October 26, 2012

As Hurricane Sandy works its way north, it is possible that it will join with a nor’easter to form what meteorologists are referring to as a “Frankenstorm,” a superstorm that could slam into the US Northeast causing damage projected to be larger than that of last year’s Hurricane Irene, which totaled in the billions of dollars.  “We’re not trying to hype it,” National Weather Service meterologist Paul Kocin tells Bloomberg News. “What we’re seeing in some of our models is a storm at an intensity that we have not seen in this part of the country in the past century.” Hurricane Sandy has already killed 41 people as it passed across the Caribbean. Hurricane Sandy is expected to come ashore in the Northeast on Monday or Tuesday.

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Schooner Lynx, “America’s Privateer” in New York’s North Cove

Posted on by October 25, 2012

On an overcast Thursday morning, the 122-foot top-sail schooner Lynx arrived at North Cove in lower Manhattan on the Hudson River. See our recent post. She will be open to the public for dockside tours and sails on Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting.  Public sails scheduled for Monday are looking less likely with the approach of Hurricane Sandy.   For schedules and tickets click here.  A few photos, click on the thumbnails for larger images:

Tug Benjamin Bailey Rolls on Piscataqua River, Two Escape

Posted on by October 25, 2012

On Wednesday afternoon, the tug Benjamin Bailey rolled and suddenly capsized in the currents of the Piscataqua River. Fortunately the two crew men aboard managed to escape from the sudden capsize. The tug is owned by Ken Anderson of Riverside & Pickering Marine Contractors, based in Eliot, Maine and was working on the construction of the new Memorial Bridge connecting Portsmouth, N.H., to Kittery, Maine. There will be an attempt to raise the tug from the river on Friday. This is the second tugboat to sink this year in this section of the river. Both boats were working on the Memorial Bridge project.

Schooner Sultana – Downrigging Weekend before the Storm

Posted on by October 24, 2012

The annual Sultana Projects Downrigging Weekend, now in its twelfth year, is one of the largest annual tall ship and wooden boat festivals on the East Coast.  The Downrigging Weekend is described as “a celebration of maritime culture, wooden boats, and everything else that makes the Chesapeake Bay great.”  A fleet of tall ships is  participating in addition to the schooner Sultana including the schooner Pride of Baltimore, the historical replica Kalmar Nyckel, the schooner Lady Maryland, the skipjack Elsworth, the schooner A.J. Meerwald and the skipjack Sigsbee.

Adding a bit of spice to the weekend is Tropical Storm Sandy which is making its way north.  So far the forecasts suggest that the Downrigging Weekend will be fine, though no doubt everyone will be keeping an eye out to weather.

How Captain Longhair Saved the World

Posted on by October 20, 2012

The title may be a bit unfortunate, but it is an interesting documentary nevertheless, featuring the brigantine Tres Hombres. The documentary trailer is posted below. The entire documentary can be watched here.

Three weeks after the devastating earthquake on Haiti in 2010, eleven idealists depart from Holland with their self-build wooden sailing vessel Tres Hombres. Their mission is to help the people of Haiti. On board they bring a mix of aid supplies; pick axes, diapers, a scooter and even teddy bears. ‘The people in Haiti need our goods, that’s why we have to sail as fast as possible’ Captain Arjen van der Veen tells his crew. But in the never-ending waters, boredoms strikes and the good intentions of their heroic mission elaborate in heated discussions about the nearing end of the world. Does the Captain know what he is fighting for?

TRAILER How Captain Longhair saved the world from Maarten Kal on Vimeo.

The “Big E” Heading Home for the Last Time..

Posted on by October 23, 2012

After almost 51 years in service, twice its expected lifespan, the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is winding up its 25th deployment and will be heading back to Norfolk to be deactivated on December 1 and decommissioned once all reusable items are removed.  USS Enterprise was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and is the second oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy, after the wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate USS Constitution.

Enterprise winds down service in Mediterranean

Beluga Whale that Attempted to Mimic Human Speech

Posted on by October 23, 2012

http://youtu.be/HtIv8RIbDbk
Beluga whale ‘makes human-like sounds’

Sailors once called beluga whales the “canaries of the sea.”  Sailors could hear the “song” of the beluga, a range of chirps and whistles, through the wooden hulls of their ships.  There is a fascinating story in the news these days about a beluga whale named NOC which started making some very unusual and non-beluga-like noises.  NOC was captured in 1977 and became a part of the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program in San Diego.  Around 1984, NOC started making sounds which divers mistook for human speech.  NOC continued this behavior for around four years and then stopped. Now almost 25 years later, researcher Sam Ridgeway and his colleagues have published a paper on his vocalizations in the journal Current Biology.   Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.

There Once Was a White Whale Who Tried to Speak to Humans

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Fireboat John J. Harvey – 2012 Fall Benefit, Sunday October 28th, Pier 66 on the Hudson River

Posted on by October 22, 2012

This Sunday there will be a full day benefit for the historic Fireboat John J. Harvey on Pier 66 (26th and the Hudson River) in New York. It looks like lots of fun.

The festivities are divided into two parts. From 1-5pm the focus is Family Fun featuring face-painting, pumpkin painting, ‘tour-the-grant’ tours, short boat-rides on the fireboat as weather allows, celebrity readings of ‘Fireboat’, hot dogs, soda, hamburger sliders, cole slaw, potato salad, pasta salad and on-going silent auction or raffles. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children.

From 5 to 7pm, there will be a Gala Sunset Cocktail Party with Grammy Award Winner Rosanne Cash and Tony Award Winner Alan Cumming and hosted by The inimitable Florent Morellet.  Tickets start at $100.

Click here to learn more and buy tickets: John J Harvey Fundraiser

Salvaging the Costa Concordia

Posted on by October 22, 2012

While pre-trial hearings are underway in an Italian court, an Italian-American engineering consortium has begun salvage operations to remove the cruise ship, partially capsized off the island of Giglio.  It will be the first time a ship of this size has been salvalged in one piece. Already six months behind schedule, the engineering challenges of salvaging the Costa Concordia are huge.

Teams battle to remove Costa Concordia shipwreck from ocean

Major Roy Bates – First Prince of Sealand

Posted on by October 21, 2012

Prince Roy and Princess Joan

Patrick Roy Bates, better-known as Prince Roy of Sealand – the title he awarded himself  – died earlier this month at the age of 91 in Leigh-on-Sea,Essex, UK.   In 1967, Major Roy Bates, a veteran of WWII, occupied a derelict concrete offshore WW2 anti-aircraft gun platform off the east coast of England. He declared it the Principality of Sealand.  Being only about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool, Bates declared it to be “the world’s smallest independent state.” He also declared himself “His Royal Highness, Prince Roy of Sealand.”   His son was dubbed Prince Michael, and wife and daughters became Princesses Joan and Penny.  The new principality is in international waters about seven miles off the coast of the British container port of Felixstowe.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the news along.

Major Roy Bates: The self-proclaimed ‘Prince of Sealand’

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Bon Voyage to the Jubille Sailing Trust’s Barque Lord Nelson on Her Round the World Voyage

Posted on by October 21, 2012

Today, on the 207th anniversary of Lord Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar, the Jubilee Sailing Trust‘s 55-meter three masted barque, Lord Nelson, sets sail from Southhampton, UK on a 23-month 50,000 mile journey around the world.  The ship will visit more than 30 countries on all seven continents and cross the equator four times during the voyage.

The Lord Nelson is the Trust’s flagship and the first sailing ship specifically built to allow physically-disabled and able-bodied sailors to sail side-by-side.  The ship is equipped with wheelchair lifts, Braille instructions, joystick steering and a talking compass.  The ship’s professional crew is also specially trained in working with people of all physical and sensory abilities in engaging in watch keeping and ship handling.

JST – Sail the World

Schooner Lynx, “America’s Privateer” Arriving in NYC to Commemorate the Anniversary of the War of 1812

Posted on by October 20, 2012

To commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812, the schooner Lynx, “America’s Privateer,” will be visiting New York harbor from October 25th through October 31st.  The 122-foot top-sail schooner will sail into North Cove Marina on the Hudson River in Downtown Manhattan on Thursday, October 25th at 8 am. The schooner will be open for public tours and sails.   For schedules and tickets click here. All proceeds help benefit the educational programs taught aboard Lynx.

Lynx is an interpretation of an actual privateer named Lynx built by Thomas Kemp in 1812 in Fell’s Point, Maryland. She was among the first ships to defend American freedom by evading the British naval fleet then blockading American ports and serving in the important maritime efforts.  She is fitted with period ordnance and flies pennants and flags from the 1812 era.

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Video for a Saturday Morning – Launch of HMS Bounty – Boothbay Harbor Shipyard

Posted on by October 20, 2012

A relaxing video for a Saturday morning. HMS Bounty slides gracefully back into the water at Boothbay HArbor Shipyard last Thursday.  Thanks to Tom Russell on the Linked-in Traditional Sail Professionals group for pointing it out.  In other news, HMS Bounty will be returning to St. Petersburg for one weekend, November 10-11.  Thanks to Ann Brown for the heads up.

Launch of HMS Bounty – Boothbay Harbor Shipyard

Melville’s Moby Dick – Contemporary Reviews and Sales Figures

Posted on by October 19, 2012

Herman Melville

Yesterday we posted about the Google Doodle honoring Herman Melville‘s Moby Dick on the anniversary of its publication.  The reviews of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick when it was published in 1851 were decidedly mixed. There were indeed positive reviews to balance the negative. Like some of the reviewers, many readers expected another adventure tale like Melville’s Typee or Omoo and didn’t quite understand Melville’s brooding masterpiece, Moby Dick. Sales were disappointing.  While  Typee and Omoo sold 16,320 and 13,325, respectively, Moby Dick only sold 3,715.  It is only a modest exaggeration to say that Melville’s greatest work, Moby Dick, was also the book that ruined his career as a writer.

Here are excerpts of contemporary reviews collected at Melville.org – The Life and Works of Herman Melville.

The Good

To convey an adequate idea of a book of such various merits as that which the author of Typee and Omoo has here placed before the reading public, is impossible in the scope of a review. High philosophy, liberal feeling, abstruse metaphysics popularly phrased, soaring speculation, a style as many-coloured as the theme, yet always good, and often admirable; fertile fancy, ingenious construction, playful learning, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime, without overpassing that narrow boundary which plunges the ambitious penman into the ridiculous; all these are possessed by Herman Melville, and exemplified in these volumes. —London Morning Advertiser, October 24 1851

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Adrift in the Pacific – Coast Guard C130 Spots Fisherman Off Tarawa & Air Canada Flight Spots Yacht Off Australia

Posted on by October 19, 2012

It has been a good couple of days for air search and rescue in the Pacific.  U.S. Coast Guard C-130 airplane stationed at Air Station Barber’s Point on Oahu spotted three fishermen 70 nautical miles west of the Pacific atoll of Tarawa after they had been adrift at sea for five days.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, an Air Canada Boeing 777 became a most unusual search and rescue plane. A sailor who sailed from Sydney on his 36′ boat, bound for the port of Eden on the south coast of New South Wales, was caught in high seas. His boat was dismasted and he later ran out of fuel.  The sailor, Glenn Ey of Queensland, activated his EPIRB. The signal was picked up the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, who identified Air Canada Flight AC033, bound from Vancouver to Sydney, as the closest plane to the EPIRB signal.  The airliner dropped from 37,000 feet to 4,000 feet and the pilot asked everyone on the right side of the plane to look for the sailboat.   Soon several passengers and crew spotted the drifting sailboat.   A merchant ship was dispatched to assist Glenn Ey once his position was confirmed by the Air Canada sighting.

Air Canada flight finds stranded Australian yacht

Moby Dick – The Masterpiece that Ruined Herman Melville’s Career Honored By Google Doodle

Posted on by October 18, 2012

Today the Google Doodle honors Herman Melville‘s masterpiece, Moby Dick, on this the 161st anniversary of its publication.  Ironically, the book that has garnered Melville immortality also effectively ruined his career.   Known as a writer of semi-autobiographical stories, neither the critics nor the reader knew what to make of Moby Dick. Moby Dick and all of Melville’s other books as well would be out of print for thirty years by the time of his death in 1891.  Moby Dick would not become broadly popular until the “Melville Revival” of the 1920s.

Herman Melville Books: Moby Dick Google Doodle

Also check out the Moby Dick Big Read.  Various actors and writers have been reading a chapter a day and posting them on-line. Tilda Swinton reads Chapter 1 and so on. They are up to Chapter 33, though the previous chapters are all available on the site.

Class A Dominates Great Chesapeake Schooner Race – Woodwind Wins on Elapsed and Corrected Time

Posted on by October 20, 2012

Woodwind – Fastest Overall

In our previous post about the Great Chesapeake Schooner Race we focused on the Class AA schooners, the big boats over 50′. Big boats sail faster, right? Not necessarily.  (Thanks to Paul Caroll for pointing out our oversight.)

This year, the Class A schooners dominated the race. While the Summerwind did indeed take the Class AA honors, the Class A schooner Woodwind won the race both on elapsed and corrected time. Woodwind cross the line almost 2 hours ahead of the next fastest boat, Heron and over three hours ahead of the first Class AA boat, Summerwind. We offer our belated congratulations to the owners, captain and crew of the Woodwind. A remarkable showing.

This was indeed the year for the Class A schooners. The top three Class A schooners racing; Woodwind, Heron and Prom Queen; all beat the elapsed time of the Class AA schooner Summerwind and the rest of the Class AA fleet.  For detailed race results, click here.

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Teaches Kids Unplanned Lesson in Water Depth by Running Aground

Posted on by October 18, 2012

I have chaperoned my son’s class on a trip on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. They have a wonderful program for school groups – teaching kids history, ecology, and a bit of seamanship while also having great fun on a river cruise. On Monday afternoon, they added a new element to the curriculum while sailing near Yonkers and finding unexpectedly shallow waters near the Saw Mill River. The Clearwater ran aground, no doubt for neither the first nor the last time. There were no injuries nor damage to the sloop. As the executive director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Jeff Rumpf, said, “The school group got an extra experience to see how you handle a sailboat in that sitation.”

Clearwater runs aground on Hudson River, students safe

Here is a video from around four years ago of a class trip on the Clearwater.

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater