USS George HW Bush – New $6 Billion Aircraft Carrier Without Working Toilets

Posted on by November 20, 2011

The USS George HW Bush, the tenth of the Nimitz class, is the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier.  It cost $6.2 billion to build and is powered by two nuclear reactors which can develop 260,000 shaft horsepower.  The carrier can carry 90 fixed winged aircracft and helicopters. The ship’s crew numbers 3,200 with an additional 2,400 serving in the air wing.  The one thing that the ship does not have, apparently, is working toilets.

Since it deployed in May, the new carrier has suffered from widespread plumbing failures, which, at times, rendered the entire ship without a single working head.   With remarkable understatement, the crew has complained that the lack of toilets has “affected their morale, health and job performance.”   The problem has been ongoing for six months. The Navy is blaming the sailors, who are blaming the design of the vacuum toilet system.

Carrier Bush suffers widespread toilet outages
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Star of India – Still Sailing

Posted on by November 15, 2011

The Maritime Museum of San Diego brags that the Star of India is the oldest active sailing ship in the world. This weekend they demonstrated how they can make that claim. The Star of India, built at Ramsey Shipyard in the Isle of Man in 1863, went sailing this weekend, along with HMS Surprise and the Californian.  At 148, the old lady is looking mighty fine.

Oldest Active Sailing Ship Sets Sail

Art on the Water – Umbrella Harvest Dome, Horseshoe Crab Reef and Burger King Crown

Posted on by November 15, 2011

There have been several interesting art projects on and/or soon to be under the water around New York harbor.  Late last month a Harvest Dome built of discarded umbrellas was unexpectedly shipwrecked on Riker’s Island in New York’s East River.  A day or two later, the folks at the fast food restaurant, Burger King, unveiled the world’s largest aluminum sculpture on a barge in honor of the 125th birthday of the Statue of Liberty.    Whether a crown celebrating fast food is an appropriate symbol to use to honor the anniversary of the Statue of Liberty or whether it even qualifies as art, I will leave to the reader to decide. It did however set a Guinness World record.  Finally, just a bit South of the harbor, a group known as Art as Reef is building a 50 by 23½-foot horseshoe crab sculpture to be sunk on the Axel Carlson Reef outside Manasquan Inlet. The sculpture will provide habitat for many marine species.
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A New Yacht to Rule the Waves? A Campaign for a New Royal Yacht

Posted on by November 14, 2011

Click for a larger image

A yacht to rule the waves! Two weeks ago the Mail launched a campaign for a new Royal Yacht. Here we unveil the truly majestic blueprint

Since 1660, Great Britain has had 83 royal yachts.  The last was the HMY Britannia, built at John Brown’s Clydebank Shipyard and delivered in 1954.  She was retired in 1997 and thus far there are no plans to build another.  Recently the British newspaper the Daily Mail announced a new campaign to build a 21st-century successor to the Britannia.  This weekend they posted an interesting, if slightly fanciful, artist’s representation of a proposed replacement yacht.  Interestingly enough, the proposed yacht is a four masted square-rigged barque, with solar cells incorporated into the sails, a heli-pad, a mini-sub and and an underwater laboratory.  In these days of austerity, the plan is to build the ship from private donations and have her pay her way by using the vessel for trade shows and training cadets. The drawing of the proposed ship is a bit of a cartoon but is fun to consider, neevrtheless. Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the article along.

Dream Symphony and the Fusion Schooners: Modern High-Tech Wooden Shipbuilding

Posted on by November 24, 2011

Yesterday, we looked at the Bugis phisini, a modern sailing ship built using traditional wood ship building methods that date back a thousand years or so. Today, a look at the other end of spectrum – wood sailing ships that use the most modern building technology.

Dream Symphony, with four masts and 462 feet (141M) long, will be the largest wooden sailing yacht ever built. It will also be among the longest wooden vessels ever built. In the early 20th century, wooden shipbuilders discovered that there was a limit how long one could build a wooden ship. Ships over 300 feet long tended to be too flexible to hold together in a seaway.
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Where the Age of Sail Never Ended – the Bugis Phinisi, an Appreciation

Posted on by November 12, 2011

For centuries, the Bugis people have sailed from South Sulawesi across the shallow seas of the Indonesian archipelago. They would sail east and west on the monsoons, regularly trading as far as Northern Australia in their two masted ships, known as phinisi (often also spelled pinisi.) The great age of sail, which ended in the West in the early twentieth century, never quite ended in Indonesia. The Bugis have continued to build their phinisi on the beaches of Sulawesi and continue to sail the islands to this day. In addition to serving as transport and traders, the phinisi are also increasingly used as tour, cruise and dive boats. Some are fitted out as yachts.

What brought this to mind was an article posted by Tom Russell in the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in group, about a large phinisi recently launched from the beach at Tanjung Bira, in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi.

Bulukumba shipyard launches another impressive Phinisi Schooner
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Cat and Dolphins Playing Together

Posted on by November 12, 2011

I am not one for cute pet videos.  And I am not a huge fan of cats. Nevertheless, for this video I have to make an exception.  The video was shot in at the Theater of the Sea, a marine animal park in Islamorada, Florida in 1997. The dolphins are Shiloh and Thunder and the cat is Arthur.  Thanks to Ann and Hal Brown for passing the video along.

Cat and Dolphins playing together

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News from the Bounty

Posted on by November 11, 2011

Photo by Robert Sawyer

“HMS” Bounty, the replica of the ship of the mutiny fame, built for the Marlon Brando movie of 1965, is on her way home from her European Summer cruise.  Doug Faunt, with whom I briefly sailed on the Rose, has been posting updates of their progress on their Facebook page.  I particularly liked yesterday’s update, where he detailed their “definite plans.”

News from the Bounty….definite plans
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Britain Set to Introduce Sailing Ships to Counter Emissions, or Maybe Not

Posted on by November 11, 2011

Proposed B9 3000dwt sailing cargo ship

I love the headline in the article in Sail-World – Britain set to introduce sailing ships to counter emissions.  The first paragraph reads:

It’s official. The days of sail may be just about to recommence. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has come out with a report that recommends ‘installing supplementary power systems to make use of solar or wind power’ on British ships.

Wouldn’t it be interesting, if it were true. It isn’t.
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Hoops on the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Carl Vincent

Posted on by November 11, 2011

Photo: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Happy Veterans Day. Sadly the “war to end all wars” that ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 did not not live up to its billing. Nevertheless, we celebrate the sacrifices made by veterans on this day in the faint but fervent hope that one day all wars will end.

Last May we posted about an unusual way to celebrate the upcoming Veteran’s Day – a basketball game on an aircraft carrier. Today, in San Diego, the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Carl Vincent‘s flight deck is being transformed into a basketball court and arena for the Veteran’s Day Carrier Classic basketball game between North Carolina and Michigan State.
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London 2012 Olympics Airbrushes out HMS Belfast

Posted on by November 10, 2011

The image on the right is a new poster for the London 2012 Olympics featuring a section of the River Thames. The image on the left is a photo of the roughly the same section of the river.  Notice a difference? (Click on the thumbnails for larger images.)   The graphic artists who designed the poster have apparently airbrushed out the Royal Navy light cruiser, HMS Belfast.  Not surprisingly, many are not happy about it.

Are Olympics chiefs ashamed of our proud military history? Just days before Remembrance Sunday, HMS Belfast is airbrushed from poster
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DNA Testing and the Mystery of the 18th Century Shipwrecked Bone-Setter

Posted on by November 10, 2011

A fascinating story from Wales. Sometime between 1743 and 1745, a smuggler from  Llanfairynghornwy on  the isle of Anglesey, rescued two boys, in stormy seas in the middle of the night – the only survivors of an apparent shipwreck. Both boys had a swarthy complexion and neither spoke Welsh or English. One boy died shorty after being taken to a local doctor. The other was given the name Evan Thomas by the doctor, who subsequently adopted him. The boy proved to have a distinct ability to set bones. As he grew, he also developed the use of splits and traction to align and immobilize broken bones to speed healing. He taught his skills to his children and grandchildren. Remarkably, eight generations of his family dominated the discipline of bone-setting for two and a half centuries. His great-grandson, Hugh Owen Thomas, the first of the family to be formally trained as a physician, would be hailed as the “father of modern orthopaedics.” Hugh’s nephew, (Evan Thomas’ great-great-grandson,) Sir Robert Jones, was the first physician to use X rays to align broken bones and is credited with reducing fracture deaths on the western front in World War I from 80% in 1916, to just 8% by the end of the war through the use of splints developed by his uncle.
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Brigadier General Dick Lord – Top Gun

Posted on by November 9, 2011

The American movie, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, won 8 Academy Awards and earned over $300 million at the box office. The movie was inaccurate in several ways, not the least of which was the addition of a sexy female flight instructor to provide a love interest for the male pilots. It also left out any mention of the British instructors from Fleet Air Arm who were instrumental in establishing the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as Top Gun. Brigadier General Richard Stanley Lord, who died in late October at the age of 75, was the foremost British instructor sent to train American pilots in 1968, who at the height of the Vietnam War were being shot down at an unacceptable rate by by North Vietnamese pilots.

Brigadier General Dick Lord
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NY Maritime Museum Revival – Return Of The South Street Seaport Museum & the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum Opens

Posted on by November 10, 2011

2200-pound anchor in main entranceway of the Navy Yard Museum. Photo: Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News

The two events are unrelated, but they are both highly welcome. The South Street Seaport Museum is on its way toward reopening, while a new museum celebrating over 200 years of shipbuilding and maritime history at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is openings its doors on Veteran’s Day, this Friday.

The South Street Seaport Museum, which has been shut down due to financial problems, has been taken over by the Museum of the City of New York. See our previous post –  Museum of the City of New York to Take Over Seaport Museum with $2M Grant.   Notwithstanding many details to be worked out and much work left to be done, it appears that the South Street Seaport Museum is firmly on its way back.

The Return Of The South Street Seaport Museum… A Meeting Recap

Across the East River, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum is opening this Friday, Veterans Day.
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A Whale of a Surprise, or Exactly How Close Should You Get When Whale Watching?

Posted on by November 7, 2011

Here is a wonderful video shot on Halloween a quarter-mile offshore from Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz, CA. A bikini clad surfer paddles over to a group of kayakers who are out watching the large number of humpbacks who are feeding close to shore. The photographer, Barb Roettger, is in another kayak with a friend, shooting the video. The surfer mentions, off camera, that she’s never been out this far and suggests to the kayakers that there is strength in numbers. On the video you can hear Roettger murmur, “Not necessarily.” Seconds later two humpback whales leap skyward, lunge feeding on krill, exactly between the two sets of kayakers.

Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale

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Underwater Volcano Shuts El Hierro Island Port in Canary Islands

Posted on by November 7, 2011

Last month we posted about Kick’em Jenny, an active underwater volcano off Grenada in the Caribbean, which was last active in 2001. Now the eruption of an active underwater volcano off El Hierro Island, in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, has caused Spanish officials to shut the port of La Restinga. Ships have been ordered away from waters around La Restinga and aircraft have been banned from flying over the island’s southern tip. The 600 residents of the port were evacuated Tuesday. The water temperature around the up-welling associated with the eruption has risen sharply and there have been reports of pyroclasts, airborne volcanic fragments, erupting from the area. For more photos click here. Thanks to Dirk Bal for pointing out the story on Facebook.

El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Red alert – Impressive Jacuzzi sea temperature graphic

Volvo Ocean Race Off to Rough Start – Two of Six Boats Damaged in First 24 Hours

Posted on by November 22, 2011

The six boats competing in the Volvo Ocean Race departed from Alicante, Spain yesterday and were immediately battered by rough seas and high winds while still in the Mediterranean.  The Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing‘s Azzam lost her mast only six hours and 85 nautical miles from the start of the race.  Team Sanya withdrew from the race after reporting hull damage in over 40 knot winds and over 30 foot waves.  The Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) is a yacht race around the world, held every three years.   The first leg is from Alicante, Spain to Capetown, South Africa.  Thanks to Ulrich Rudofsky for passing the story along.

Fleet battered by elements in brutal first 24 hours

Brutal wave smashes Abu Dhabi – Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12

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John Masefield and Sea Fever

Posted on by November 5, 2011

John Masefield 1913

I can’t decide whether I love or hate John Masefield‘s poem Sea Fever.  I lean strongly towards love, though the poem has been repeated so many times and in so many places, that it is hard not to groan every time it is recited anew. Clichés often become clichés because they represent a fundamental truth. So it is with Sea Fever. You know the poem.  The first lines are:

I must down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by…

I wonder what Masefield must have felt about Sea Fever.  Did he have a love/hate relationship with it as well?
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The Wave Glider of 2011 and Matthew Fontaine Maury of 1850

Posted on by July 8, 2020

Matthew Fontaine Maury

The New York Times recently featured an article, Catching a Wave, and Measuring It, about a project to send a “fleet of robots that move out in the ocean to measure everything from weather to oil slicks, sharply reducing many of the costs of ocean-related businesses.” The Wave Glider robots, developed by James Gosling’s Liquid Robotics, are a marvel of technology. “Using a wave-based propulsion system and two solar panels to fuel its computers, the robots travel slowly over the ocean, recording data. The sensor data is crunched onboard by low-power cellphone chips, and then shipped by satellite or cellphone to big onshore computers that do complex analysis.”

The first sentence of the New York Times article reads, “James Gosling wants to network the world’s oceans.”   The truth is that Matthew Fontaine Maury beat him to it and he did so in the 1850s.
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