Videorays – the Submarine Drones of New York Harbor

Posted on by December 9, 2011

New York harbor was the sight of the first use of a submersible in combat.  On September 6, 1776, Eza Lee in command of the Turtle, a one man submersible designed by David Bushnell, attempted and failed to sink Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle.   Today, modern submersibles are watching out for new underwater threats in the harbor.

The New York Police Department Harbor Unit now has at least six unmanned submersible drones, remote-operated vehicles, or R.O.Vs, to search the harborside and hulls of ships for explosives, weapons or narcotics.   The mission of the Harbor Unit has increasingly shifted to counter-terrorism and the drones have provided a new set of eyes to search for threats below the tide line.

Underwater Drones Giving More Eyes to Police Harbor Unit as Searches Grow
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Maxi Banque Populaire V Screaming Past Cape Leeuwin in Quest for Jules Verne Trophy

Posted on by December 10, 2011

Last February the crew of  the  130′ long by 120′ wide maxi-trimaran Banque Populaire V was forced to give up their attempt to the win the Jules Verne trophy for the fastest circumnavigation by sail when the trimaran struck an “unidentified floating object” while traveling at 37 knots, severely damaging a dagger board. On November 22,  2011, the Banque Populaire V set out again and has had much better fortune.   After only 18 days, the big tri has sailed past Spain, down the South Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean and now has cross the longitude of Cape Leeuwin, Australia.  They are currently almost four days and 2000 miles ahead of the position of the current record holder, the French trimaran Groupama 3,

Maxi-Trimaran Banque Populaire V
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HMS OCEAN – All I Want For Christmas

Posted on by December 9, 2011

HMS Ocean, a  Royal Navy amphibious assault ship, had planned for a seven week deployment but was diverted to Libya and  ended up being away for 225 days with 176 at sea. When they received word that they would be back in time for Christmas, they made this video of a Mariah Carey song.

All I Want For Christmas – HMS OCEAN


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Of Waves and Whales – Whaling and the Tsunami

Posted on by December 9, 2011

Within hours of the tsunami that struck northern Japan last March, the internet was abuzz with the somewhat bizarre suggestion that the earthquake and wave which followed might be some sort of cosmic retribution for Japanese whaling.  Regardless of what one thinks of that suggestion, the Japanese whaling industry was hard hit by the tsunami.  Several  villages, for which whaling had traditionally been their major industry, were virtually wiped out.  Japanese Town Mulls Future Without Whaling Industry

Nevertheless, the Japanese intend to continue what they refer to as “research whaling.”  This year, they plan on harvesting up to 900 whales, primarily minkes, which are not endangered.  The announcement that the government of Japan is providing the whalers with 2.28 billion yen ($37.6 million) from funds set aside for tsunami recovery has led to protests, within Japan and internationally.   Japan uses disaster funds for whaling
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Commander Etta Jones Found Guilty of Cruelty and Other Charges

Posted on by December 8, 2011

Last April, Commander Etta Jones was relieved of duty as captain of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Ponce. The Ponce‘s executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Kurt Boenisch, was also relieved. A Navy report examining allegations made against Commander Jones substantiated the charges. She was found to be verbally abusive, to have given preferential treatment to female officers, and to have allowed hazing aboard ship, among other charges.  The full report can be found here.
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Land and Sea – Nova Scotia Schooners On-Line Now

Posted on by December 8, 2011


Last Sunday we posted about the CBC program,Land and Sea, which was broadcasting a half hour documentary on traditional schooners in Nova Scotia. It is now available to watch on-line. The documentary tells the story of four different schooner owners and reveals how each of them is keeping the spirit of these majestic sailing vessels alive. If you are schooner fan, definitely worth a look. Click here to watch Schooners.

Volunteers Allowed Back to Work at the South Street Seaport Museum

Posted on by December 8, 2011

Several years ago I took a sail on the AJ Meerwald in New York harbor. While on the sail I saw the schooner Pioneer, owned and operated by the South Street Seaport Museum, also sailing in the harbor. Despite having lived in and around New York harbor for decades, I knew nothing about the Pioneer. I asked the mate on the Meerwald what she knew of the schooner. She said something to the effect that they had a fantastic group of volunteers but that the museum management did a lousy job of promoting the schooner.

Unfortunately that never changed. The South Street Seaport Museum continued to have a loyal and hardworking group of volunteers, while the museum management continued to do a lousy job. This continued until last February when the museum collapsed financially, staff was laid off and the volunteers were turned away.

An interesting thing happened. A group of volunteers formed Save Our Seaport and  turned their energies toward  saving the museum – holding public meetings circulating petitions and doing all they could to save an institution so badly served by past managers. The good news is that the museum has been taken over by the Museum of New York and last weekend, the volunteers were allowed back in.  Forty five people assembled on Pier 16 and got to work moving spars and cleaning up debris.. There could be no clearer sign that the South Street Seaport Museum is on its way back.

Seaport Museum volunteers go back to work
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Pearl Harbor, 70 Years Ago Today – Isoroku Yamamoto, An Insufficiently Reluctant Enemy

Posted on by December 7, 2011

We seem to need to put a face to our enemies. On the cover of Time Magazine of December 22, 1941, the face of the enemy was Admiral Yamamoto, labeled as “Japan’s Aggressor.” The image of the admiral is a scowling caricature in yellow, looking off to one side, personifying an image of Oriental duplicity and betrayal. In the decades following the war, historians have been far more charitable to Isoroku Yamamoto, casting him as a reluctant warrior who understood and predicted Japan’s defeat even while personally planning the attack on Pear Harbor. Ian Toll’s A Reluctant Enemy in today’s New York Times makes this case. I wonder whether this assessment of Yamamoto is not, at times, almost as a much a caricature as the Time magazine cover of 1941.
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Pearl Harbor, 70 Years Ago Today – Disbanding the Survivors Association

Posted on by December 7, 2011

It was inevitable. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association will observe the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on this day in 1941.  It will be the  Association’s last observance. The group has too few remaining members to carry on and will disband on Dec. 31.  The organization was founded in 1958 with 28,000 members, all of whom were were at or in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941.  The association now has fewer than 10% of it original numbers and the continuing death toll due to age continues to reduce the number of survivors.  Twenty years ago at the 50th anniversary, 7,000 survivors attended the memorial ceremonies. This year roughly 125 are expected to be able to attend.

Pearl Harbor Still a Day for the Ages, but a Memory Almost Gone

Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge – “The World’s Roughest Rowing Race”

Posted on by December 6, 2011

Seventeen teams from around the world have set off rowing from Spain’s San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in what is billed as the “World’s Roughest Rowing Race.” The teams will follow the ‘Columbus Route’ westbound across the mid-Atlantic to Port St Charles in Barbados, rowing an estimated 3,000 miles over roughly 50 days. There are two solo rowers and fifteen two, four or six person crews.

[iframe: src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/33213622?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0″ width=”400″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen]

RACE LAUNCH from Talisker Whisky on Vimeo.

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Laura Dekker & the Volvo Ocean Racers

Posted on by December 6, 2011

PUMA's Mar Mostro traveling by ship to Cape Town after dismasting. Photo: Amory Ross/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race

I was struck by the juxtaposition.  Laura Dekker, the Dutch 16 year old who is sailing around the world alone, arrived in Cape Town at roughly the same times as the mega-racers of the Volvo Ocean Race.  Well, she arrived at the same time as the three boats that held together long enough to make it Cape Town.  The other half of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet traveled by ship to South Africa after rigging or hull failure temporarily put them out of the race.
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US Navy Training Mine Washes Up on Miami Beach

Posted on by December 5, 2011

Perhaps Miami Beach is feeling a certain solidarity with Koblentz, Germany.  Today an M57 US Navy training mine washed up on Miami Beach.  Fortunately the mine was inert and did not contain explosive.  Yesterday, bomb disposal experts successfully defused two World War II vintage bombs which had become exposed on the Rhine riverbanks at Koblentz, when water levels dropped due to an ongoing drought.

Navy Training Mine Washes Up On Miami Beach 

Update: Bombs on the Rhine – Koblentz Bombs Successfully Defused, Residents Return

Posted on by December 4, 2011

We have previously posted about how the European drought has lowered the Rhine River so that World War II munitions long buried in the riverbank have become exposed.  Over the weekend, forty five thousand people, roughly half of the population of the city of Koblentz, Germany, at the junction of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, were evacuated in order to defuse bombs exposed by falling river levels. Initially, it was reported that one British 4,000 pound bomb would be defused. Now, it appears that that bomb, as well as a smaller American high explosive bomb were both defused.   A third non-explosive device was also destroyed, according to the Koblenz fire department.

WWII bombs defused allowing 45,000 evacuated residents to return

Christmas Tree Ship Arrives at Navy Dock in Chicago

Posted on by December 4, 2011

On Friday, the “Christmas Tree Ship” arrived again on the Chicago docks, bringing Christmas trees to needy families. The arrival of the ship has become a Chicago holiday tradition, honoring of the memory of Capt Herman Schuenemann and his three masted schooner, the Rouse Simmons, known to many as the “Christmas Tree ship,” which delivered Christmas trees to the Chicago Docks for over 30 years around the turn of the 20th century. Starting in 2000, the maritime community of Chicago has revived the tradition. This year, the US Coast Guard Cutter Alder arrived at the dock, her decks loaded with trees, which are being distributed to local families over the weekend.

Christmas tree ship arrives at Navy Pier

The First Christmas Tree Ship – Captain Herman Schuenemann & the Schooner Rouse Simmons

Posted on by December 24, 2018

Schooner Rouse Simmons

Today the Christmas Ship is Chicago’s largest all volunteer charitable support program for inner city youth and their families at Christmas time.  At the turn of the twentieth century, the “Christmas Tree Ship” was a family business. In  the mid 1880s, August and his brother Herman Schuenemann moved to Chicago.  They were merchants and sailors who made two-thirds of their annual income transporting and selling Christmas trees.  August died in in November 1898 when the  two-masted schooner S. Thal sank in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. His younger brother Herman continued the family business.
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Land and Sea – Nova Scotia Schooners

Posted on by December 4, 2011

In the United States, we have seen an explosion of so-called “reality TV,” which is usually more akin to unscripted soap opera than reality, fortunately.   In Canada, however, the CBC has some wonderful programming which is reality television in the very best sense.  On fine example is “Land and Sea,”  a program which for thirty years has been focussed on  stories from people who live off the land and the sea on the Canadian Atlantic.  Today, at noon, it will feature, “Schooners,” a look at the schooners of Nova Scotia.   For those of us who not live in Canada, the program will be available on-line here.    Here also are comments from the director of the documentary.

Nova Scotia Schooners Trailer

Thanks to Tom Russell fro pointing out the Director’s Cut on the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in List.

Remembering Dr. James Guthrie, the Real Dr. Stephen Maturin ?

Posted on by December 3, 2011

HMS Speedy - Dr. James Guthrie, commander and crew, albeit briefly

On Facebook this morning, Maritime Great Britain linked to a post on THE DEAR SURPRISE blog, discussing a post by Marion Elizabeth Diamond on the Historians are Past Caring blog, which raised the question, “Was this the real Stephen Maturin?”   Ms. Diamond answers her own question with the suggestion that Patrick O’Brian may have based his character of ships’ surgeon/spy, Stephen Maturin, on the doctor and scientist, Augustus Bozzi Granville, who did indeed serve in the medical service of the Royal Navy.

Bozzi Geneville may indeed have served as an inspiration to O’Brian.  I have always thought that O’Brian borrowed from the life of Joseph Banks for both his characters, Maturin and Joseph Blaine.  Bozzi Geneville looks like a reasonable candidate, as well.   Nevertheless, we should not forget Dr. James Guthrie, who provided the very literal inspiration for O’Brian’s Dr. Maturin.
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The Long Strange Voyage of Valeska Paris on the Scientology “Cruise Ship” Freewinds

Posted on by December 3, 2011

Valeska Paris recently appeared on the Australian television program “Lateline”  where she charged that she was held for twelve years against her will on the cruise ship MV Freewinds, a ship operated by the Church of Scientology. The ship, the ex- MS Bohème for Wallenius Lines, is used as a training and recreational center by the church.  The church denies all charges.  Scientology is a religion created by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, in the early 1950s.

ABC Lateline – Scientology Imprisonment on the Freewinds (2011-11-28)


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The Sinking of the Kowloon Bridge, 25 Years Ago Today – the World’s Largest Wreck

Posted on by December 3, 2011

Twenty five years ago today, the ore-bulk-oil carrier MV Kowloon Bridge sank off the coast of West Cork with a cargo of 165,000 tons of iron ore and 2,000 tons of bunker oil, becoming the world’s largest shipwreck by tonnage.

The Kowloon Bridge was bound from Quebec, Canada to the River Clyde,in Scotland when she started to develop structural cracking on the main deck during a storm. She diverted to Bantry Bay, Ireland.  She subsequently suffered  steering gear failre and on Monday, November 24th, 1986, ran around off ‘The Stags,’ near Baltimore, West Cork in the Republic of Ireland.  Attempts at salvage failed and on December 3, the ship broke in half and sank. The almost 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil which leaked from the wreck did significant damage to local beaches, fisheries and wildlife.  The Kowloon Bridge was a sistership to the MV Derbyshire which sank with all hands during Typhoon Orchid in 1980. See our post, Douglas Faulkner and the MV Derbyshire.

25th anniversary of Europe’s biggest wreck – ‘Kowloon Bridge’

The wreck of the Kowloon Bridge is now a popular site for experienced divers, in20 to 118 feet of water off the Stag Rocks.

Scuba Diving in Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland, Europe

Video for a Friday – My Jorts Smell Like Biomass

Posted on by December 9, 2011

After an lovely warm November, winter is beginning to settle in here on the banks of the Hudson River, so it feels like a good time to feature a video of warm water, blue sky and white sails. Here is a video shot by Jimmy C on-board the 134-foot steel brigantine Robert C. Seamans on a thirty eight day voyage from San Diego to Honolulu with S.E.A. Semester class S237.  The video was shot with a Go Pro Helmet cam.

Sea Education Association (SEA) is a private, nonprofit educational organization which offers a hands-on experience to college and high school students in sailing at sea. They operate the Robert C. Seamans, generally in the Pacific, and the Corwith Cramer in the Atlantic.