The last time that a commercial cargo was unloaded from a sailing vessels at the New York docks was 1939. That is, at least, until yesterday, when the 70′ schooner Black Seal arrived in Red Hook, Brooklyn and began unloading a cargo of 20 tons of cocoa beans for Brooklyn’s Mast Brothers Chocolate. See Will Van Dorp’s tugster blog for great photos of unloading the bagged cocoa. See also A Captain’s Lament: Cocoa Cargo on Rough Seas.
Another capsize in the news. Last Saturday, the container feeder ship Deneb capsized at the Maersk terminal in Algeciras, Spain. Cargo handling had been shut down due to stability concerns. A few hours later the ship rapidly listed to 50 degrees. Two crew members, including the captain were slightly injured. A Svitzer salvage vessel is now unloading the capsized container ship.
A few weeks ago, New Zealand sailing legend Russell Coutts predicted an exciting America’s Cup series, sailed in high-tech catamarans. The racing may be more exciting than Coutts originally intended. Yesterday the AC45 catamaran being sailed by Coutts pitchpoled (capsized end over end) in a practice sail. Fortunately, there were no reported serious injuries.
Coutts capsizes America’s Cup catamaran in practice
Coutts, the CEO of defending champion Oracle Racing, was racing skipper Jimmy Spithill as part of a media day to publicize the U.S. debut of the new boats. His boat was bearing away during the prestart manoeuvr when the bows buried in a wave and the cat lifted into the air and went over before coming to rest on its side.
[iframe: width=”480″ height=”303″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/x1MOsI1BfbM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>]
Lord Macaulay wrote “There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seaman.”
Twenty one year old Matthew Quinton, captain of the Happy Restoration, is from an old and respected family and is brother to an earl. He is very much a gentlemen. As his ship breaks apart on the rocks of Kinsale harbor, he is also painfully aware that he is no seaman. If he survives the loss of his first command, he is determined to learn the ways of the sea. So begins J.D. Davies’ excellent novel, Gentleman Captain.
Continue reading
Joe Follansbee has put together a really fun book trailer for his excellent guide book to historic ships, sites and museums. We reviewed the guide last March and liked it a lot. Read our review here.
Last week we posted that the Canadian submarine force’s four vessels were all out of service. Apparently the Canadians are not alone in this regard, as the Australian fleet of six submarines also is in no shape to put to sea, as reported by the the Australian.
Last December, we posted about the sinking of Dutch scientist, Dr. Wubbo Ockles’ high tech yacht Ecolution in Groningen. The yacht was believed to have been sunk by vandals. No arrests have been. This week, the repaired Ecolution successfully completed sea trials. The Ecolution is designed with advanced power power systems to generate energy from water, wind and the sun.
Earlier this week, Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan officiated at a gathering on board the MV AMET Majesty, India’s first cruise liner. The ship is also a training ship. The acronym AMET stands for “Academy of Maritime Education and Training.” AMET University is operating the ship as both a cruise ship for 1,150 passengers and a training ship for 90 nautical cadets and 120 engineering cadets. How this hybrid operation will function remains to be seen, but one has to admire the evident enthusiasm. The cruise marketing site promises “a total royal treat on a seven star category cruise liner.” I have never seen a crusie ship rating higher than five stars, so seven stars sounds very impressive.
Vasan flags off first Indian cruise ship
Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the article along.
The wreck of the pirate Blackbeard‘s Queen Anne’s Revenge, which sank in 1718, was believed to be discovered in 1996. After 15 years of excavation, the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina Maritime Museum announced today that they had confirmed that the ship wreck is absolutely Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
It’s official: Ship found off N.C. coast was Blackbeard’s
Continue reading
Last February we posted about Victor Mooney’s third attempt to row alone across the Atlantic. While Mooney, 45 of Forest Hills, New York, has attempted the voyage three times, he has not come close to succeeding thus far. His first attempt in 2006 lasted only three hours before the boat he was rowing sprang a leak and sank. His second attempt, in 2007, lasted fifteen days before his desalinator broke and he needed to be rescued. His third attempt ended when after one day at sea his boat cracked and sank. He drifted in a life raft for 14 days before being picked up by a passing ship. Now Mooney is planning a fourth attempt in December of 2011.
I am reminded of the fallacy of the old saying about the importance of getting right back up on a horse after you have fallen off. Sometimes when you fall off a horse, it is good to ask yourself if you ever had any business being on the horse in the first place.
If you are looking for something to do this weekend, there is no shortage of maritime festivals. In addition to Delaware ‘Bay Day,’ which we posted about earlier today, the following cities and ports are having festivals this weekend:
The Mackinaw Maritime Festival in Mackinaw City, Michigan
10th Annual Cape Cod Maritime Festival at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis MA
Lake Champlain Maritime Festival on the Lake Champlain Waterfront, Burlington, Vermont
1st Annual Taste of Juneau Food and Music Festival (not strictly maritime, but pretty close)
Riverdale RiverFest at the College of Mount St. Vincent in Riverdale, NY
Canada’s hunter killer submarine, HMCS Corner Brook, limped back to base last weekend after running aground during a training exercise in the waters of Nootka Sound off the central east coast of Vancouver Island. The accident leaves Canada without an operational submarine. Canada’s other three are also out of service. Oops.
Accident leaves Canada without operational submarines
Continue reading
The good folks at the Bayshore Discovery Project say that “Delaware ‘Bay Day’ is the largest FREE festival in the tri-state region.” I have no way of knowing whether that is literally true, but nevertheless it sounds like great fun. ‘Bay Day’ will commence tomorrow, Saturday June 11th, in the historic New Jersey fishing villages of Bivalve and Port Norris, beginning with a parade in Port Norris at 11 AM and finishing up with the NJ Championship Oyster Shucking Contest, at 6PM. In between there will be lots of music, food, games and activities for all ages.
Photo: Steve Haines for The Boston Globe
Rebuilding a historic ship has got to be part craftsmanship, part engineering, and part treasure hunt. In the case of the oldest surviving sailing whale ship, the Charles W. Morgan at Mystic, CT, one of the challenges has been finding good quality shipbuilding timber. In August of 2009, we posted about a literal windfall of live oak trees knocked down by Hurricane Ike in Galveston, TX which yielded over around 175 tons of timber for the rebuilding of the Morgan.
Now several years later, with supplies again running low, a new stock of shipbuilding timber has been discovered in the Charleston Navy Yard in Boston, MA. Construction crews working on a new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital facility discovered an underground supply of 140 live oak and white oak timbers in what had once been a timber basin for the Navy Yard. The timbers had been preserved by the mud for nearly a century. The timbers, set aside for future wooden ship construction or repair but long forgotten, will go to the rebuilding the Morgan, which the Seaport Museum hopes to launch in 2013.
Lucky find in Charlestown saves whaler’s restoration
Continue reading
The US Postal Service is issuing a set of four stamps honoring the US Merchant Marine throughout its history. The four stamps feature a clipper ship modeled after the Sovereign of the Seas, launched in 1852; an auxiliary steamship, based on the ships of the Collins Line; a World War II Liberty Ship; and a container ship, based on Matson Line’s R.J. Pfeiffer. Illustrator Dennis Lyall of Norwalk, Connecticut, created the stamps under the art direction of Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Virginia. These are not the first stamps honoring the U.S. merchant marine. See also Merchant Marine Stamp of 1946, Steamship Stamp of 1944, and First Day Covers.
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing the news along.
Photographer Scott Haefner and a few of his friends snuck aboard ships in the Suisan Bay Reserve Fleet near San Francisco, CA and photographed and documented the rusting fleet. Fascinating images. The Mail Online ran an article today about his work. For more images, see Haefner’s site: Inside the Ghost Ships of the Mothball Fleet
Continue reading
On a hazy summer’s morning I happened to see the topsail schooner Unicorn leave the gas dock at Liberty Landing marina on the Hudson River. The Unicorn is a particularly lovely topsail schooner converted from a North Sea fishing vessel. As I admired the well balanced and robust lines of the Unicorn, I noticed that everyone aboard appeared to be female. I didn’t know then that Dawn Santamaria, one of the owners of the Unicorn, had founded “Sisters Under Sail,” a program to introduce girls to tall ship sailing. Last Saturday, Dawn Santamaria, was honored with the 2011 Leadership In Women’s Sailing Award at the National Women’s Sailing Association Conference, in Marblehead, MA. Congratulations to Ms. Santamaria. See also our post from last August, “Sisters Under Sail” – Schooner Unicorn at Tall Ships Chicago .
The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Invincible was sold to Turkish scrappers last February. Now bids are open for the sale of HMS Ark Royal. While scrapping seems a likely outcome the tender allows that “alternatively the vessel may be purchased for re-use/refurbishment for non-warlike purposes.” Now Shiptalk has word that a Devon based diver is bidding to sink the ship as an artificial reef off Torbay to promote sea life and provide a dive site for recreational divers.
In addition to the bid to sink the ship, “plan[s] to use the Ark Royal as a floating commercial helipad in London. Other proposals include turning it into a school, a nightclub or a base for security personnel during the Olympics.”
All bids are due by 1000 BST on June 13th.
June 8th is officially World Ocean Day, “a global celebration of ocean conservation,” sponsored by the United Nations since 2008, and coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network. The theme for this year and next is : Youth – the Next Wave for Change. Most activities this years seem aimed at educating children about the oceans. Other than that it is hard to tell what is going on as both the World Ocean Day and The Ocean Project websites are down this morning, which is not terribly encouraging. Nor am I overly impressed with their nifty marketing idea of “Wear Blue – Tell Two.” The idea is to wear blue on World Ocean Day and tell two friends why you are wearing blue and/or two things they didn’t know about the orcean, or somethiong along those lines. Sadly, I doubt that that “wearing blue and telling two” will do much to address the very real problems of ocean conservation.
And speaking of “music of the sea”, an intriguing story from Australia. When Matt Waller, a tour operator in Neptune Bay, Australia, attached speakers to shark cages and played the heavy metal band AC/DC, he discovered that the great white sharks became less aggressive and more inquisitive, which is odd because AC/DC seems to have exactly the opposite effect on human teenagers.
Heavy Metal Under the Sea: Sharks Act Calmer When Listening to AC/DC
Continue reading