Remarkable footage of blue whales from MSNBC. Thanks to Thomas Armstrong for pointing it out on Facebook.
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A fast burning fire in the engine room of the Norwegian cruise ship, MS Nordlys, killed two crew members and injured nine others. The more than 200 passengers aboard the ship were safely evacuated to the town of Aalesund, 230 miles (375 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Oslo. Hurtigruten, the cruise line operating the MS Nordlys, has established a hotline for relatives of crew members here.
Two killed in fire on Norwegian cruise liner
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Thanks to Irwin Bryan for pointing out the story.
There have been a book, two movies and one pop song entitled, “Sink the Bismark.” That is what came to mind when I heard that the Torbay Council’s Harbour Committee is recommending that they sink the Ark Royal. The aircraft carrier, the ex-flagship of the Royal Navy, has been for sale since April. Rather than have her sold to a scrap yard, the Torbay council is recommending that the ship be sunk as an artificial reef and recreational dive site. Wreck the World, a group behind the proposal, believes that they are in competition with up to twenty other bidders.
The old days before Facebook or even the internet, the America’s Cup races were sailed on stately 12 meters in the light air of summer off Newport, Rhode Island. The most exciting thing I ever saw a twelve meter do was when several short-tacked through the anchorage at Breton Harbor, Newport, one evening . The 70′ boats sliced between the boats at anchor, delicately pirouetting to the sound of flying sheets and the flapping jibs, as those of us at anchor held our breaths when the beautiful, but large boats, cleared our respective sterns by inches. My, how things have certainly changed. The fact that crash helmets are standard equipment for the crew may say it all. Crash helmets? After watching the proceedings at the America’s Cup World Series in Plymouth, crash helmets are, definitely, a good idea. Those AC45 catamarans are truly wild boats.
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Thanks to Ulrich Rudofsky for pointing out the America’s Cup demolition derby.
If you are in the vicinity tomorrow evening be sure to stop by the historic buoy tender LILAC at the Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 at North Moore Street, Tribeca, Manhattan, where Carolina Salguero & Jessica DuLong will speak on the Mariners’ Response to 9/11 from 7:00-8:30pm. Carolina Salguero was a photojournalist on 9/11 and is now Director of PortSide NewYork. Jessica DuLong, is a journalist and author of My River Chronicles (see our review here.) She is also Chief Engineer on the historic fireboat John J. Harvey. Though retired from service, the John J. Harvey was the first fire boat on scene on 9/11, pumping river water around the clock to the firefighters at Ground Zero. Today, Huffington Post also published “The Untold Story of Ground Zero Evacuations by Boat” by Jessica DuLong.
The talks are part of a multi-media exhibit (photography, videos and oral history) and presentation about the extraordinary and little-known maritime role in 9/11, from evacuation to rubble removal, produced by PortSide NewYork, a waterfront-themed non-profit organization.
The folks at the Pint Jockeys blog have suggested a great way to support the repairs to the 1877 Barque Elissa, which is believed to have been a victim of stray current electrolytic corrosion resulting from underwater electrical cable damage after Hurricane Ike. The folks at Pint Jockeys recommend drinking beer, but not just any beer – Saint Arnold’s Elissa IPA. Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Texas oldest craft brewery, has named their Indian Pale Ale after the Elissa, the official tall ship of the state of Texas. They are also donating a portion of all Elissa IPA proceeds to Galveston Historic District for preservation of the ship.
And if Saint Arnold’s Elissa IPA is hard to find locally, you can still donate $10 to the Elissa by texting the word “ELISSA” to 50555. Contributions of any amount can be made on the Galveston Historical Foundation’s web site at www.galvestonhistory.org or by calling 409-765-7834. Thanks to Kurt Voss for pointing out the Pint Jockeys’ post.
Photo: The Telegraph
British tourists, David and Judith Tebbutt, arrived at Kiwayu Safari Village, an exclusive Kenyan resort, at 4PM, Saturday. Between midnight and 4AM, a gang of armed men arrived by speedboat and stormed their beachfront villa. David Tebbutt, 58, was killed and his wife Judith, 56, is believed to have been kidnapped by the gang, which fled north by boat in the direction of Somalia.
No group, thus far, has claimed responsibility for the attack. If the attack was made by Somali pirates it will be the first time that they have ventured ashore to kidnap their victims. It has also been suggested that the attackers were from the Islamist group, Harakat al-Shabab al Mujahideen. The government of Kenya has deployed helicopters, speed boats and a spotter plane to search for Judith Tebbutt but no sightings have been reported.
Pirates kill Brit David Tebbutt and kidnap wife
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Have you ever wanted to live in an aquarium? I have friends who have been flooded recently, who may feel that they do and I strongly suspect that they do not recommend it. Here is an alternative which looks a lot more pleasant – Air Swimmers.
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Ten years ago today, amidst the smoke, flames, and debris from the collapsed World Trade Center towers, an armada of tugs, ferries, launches and virtually every other craft available in New York harbor steamed toward the docks and seawalls of lower Manhattan to evacuate hundreds of thousands of commuters. The bridges and tunnels were closed. The only escape was by water.
No one was was in command. There was no single plan. (The New York City Emergency Response Center was buried in the rubble of the towers.) Nevertheless by nightfall almost half a million commuters had been evacuated by New York mariners who knew what they had to do and worked together to do it. It was one of the largest maritime evacuations in history. See our post from two years ago: Maritime Evacuation on 9/11 – An American Dunkirk
My wife was one of those commuters. After being trapped in her office building by the smoke, dust and debris for several hours, she heard that ferries were running on the East River from the foot of Wall Street. Wrapping a towel around her face, she walked with her colleagues down the block to find busy ferry terminal at Pier 11. Ferry employees directed the still stunned passengers to the appropriate ferries running to Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or New Jersey. No fares were collected. Everyone helped each other in boarding. Miraculously, my wife was home on the other bank of the Hudson by mid afternoon.
Here is an amazing video that captures the madness, wonder, determination and commonplace heroism of that Tuesday in September. Thanks to Wojtek Wacowski for pointing it out.
BOATLIFT, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience
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It is an all too common story, an overloaded and poorly maintained ferry in an impoverished nation capsizes, drowning many of its passengers. It happens so often it that it is often not reported beyond the local press. This morning at three AM local time, a ferry boat running between Zanzibar and Pemba, Tanzania sank after capsizing. Update #2: 606 of the passengers have been rescued and 192 bodies have been recovered. The ferry was reportedly loaded with twice the allowed weight of cargo. The ferry had an approved passenger capacity of 600 and was carrying close to 800 passengers. This is the third ferry to capsize with a loss of life in the vicinity in the last year.
Ferry disaster in Zanzibar, Tanzania kills hundreds including tourists
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If Malcom McLean was the father of containerization, then Keith Tantlinger, who died recently at the age of 92, was the father of the shipping container. Tantlinger’s container designs spurred the containerization revolution that forever changed both shipping and world trade.
The idea of “containerizing” cargo had been around for a long time but no one had made it work. Two innovations developed by Keith Tantlinger made containerization practical. He developed a container “corner casting” which is fitted on each of the four corners of the rectangular container. The corner casting has holes on the top and sides which allowes a twist lock, a mechanical fitting which locks into the corner casting, allowing containers to be stacked securely one on top of the other. The corner casting also provided a means for dockside gantry canes to lock onto containers to load or unload them from ships. Becausre the vertical loads were all transferred through the corning casting and corner pillars which support them, the container itself can be built light, allowing more cargo to be carried.
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What does it take to get a sailboat with an 80′ tall mast beneath a bridge with a 65′ vertical clearance? It takes balls. Boat balls, which is to say, two heavy bags each filled with a ton of water, suspended from the masthead. An amazing video:
For those of a non-piratical bent there is still a lot going on this weekend.
The Yonkers Riverfest 2011 will be held tomorrow just a bit up the river from New York City. The schooner A.J. Meerwald will be offering sails from Burlington NJ Sept this weekend. The Kalmar Nyckel will also be offering sails at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia.
The Portside NewYork – The Maritime Role in New York on 9/11 multimedia exhibit will be open for viewing on the historic buoy tender Liilac at Pier 25 from 1pm to 6pm this Saturday. I went to the opening last night and it is fantastic.
On Sunday, on the other coast, the the Santa Barbara Yacht Club is hosting a Charity Regatta to benefit the hospice program at Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care.
The good folks in Eastport, Maine have seen fit to once again hold their annual Eastport Pirate Festival this weekend, featuring lots of fun activities including a lobster boat race. (Who knew pirates had lobster boats?) The Treasure Coast Pirate Fest in historic downtown Stuart, Florida is also being held this weekend. No lobster boats, but lots of food, music and other activities. On the West Coast, the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival hosted by the Oceans Institute is being held this weekend at Dana Point. Not strictly a “pirate festival” the tickets are being sold as “Pirate Adventure Passes.” Children are invited to attend the “Friendly Pirate School! Watch as your child learns to talk like a pirate, walk like a pirate and sing like a pirate!”
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On this day in 1754, William Bligh was born. Following the famous mutiny on HMS Bounty, his name would become synonymous with harsh discipline bordering on tyranny. The mutiny on the Bounty would be only one of four mutinies that Bligh would live through before he retired as Vice Admiral. He was captain of ships that mutinied in the fleet-wide mutinies at both Spithead and the Noire in 1797. As the Governor of New South Wales, now Australia, he was arrested in the mutiny referred to as the “Rum Rebellion” in 1808. In courts marshall which followed the mutinies, Bligh was always exonerated.
If the Bounty had merely sunk instead of mutinied, Bligh would likely be remembered as one of the greatest navigators of the age. Following the mutiny, he sailed an overloaded 23′ open boat, with 18 loyal crew members, on a 47-day voyage across 3,618 nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean to Timor without charts or compass, equipped only with a quadrant and a pocket watch. A recent biography by maritime historian Rob Mundle, Bligh, Master Mariner, makes the case that there is a “lot more about Captain Bligh than the Bounty, mutiny and convicts.”
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USS William D Porter
The news that the battleship USS Iowa has found a new home brings to mind the story of the battleship and the destroyer USS William D Porter, nicknamed the “Willie D.” The USS Iowa served in World War II as the presidential shuttle in the Atlantic Fleet, moving President Roosevelt to and from the Tehran conference. In November 1943, while the president was aboard the USS Iowa, the battleship came under attack by a live tordepo, accidentally launched from the USS William D Porter. The Iowa was able to avoid the torpedo by taking evasive maneuvers. From that day until she was sunk in June 1945, whenever the Willie D entered port or joined other Naval ships, she was often greeted with “Don’t shoot, we’re Republicans!” (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was, of course, a Democrat.)
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The USS Iowa will soon have a new home. The Port of Los Angeles has won the bidding to support the battleship, beating out Vallejo which had also been actively bidding for the ship.
Photo: DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro
The Seaport Museum of New York, better known as the South Street Seaport Museum, will be taken over by the Museum of the City of New York with starting funds of $2 million in the form of a grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The Seaport Museum has been effectively shut down since last February due to a major shortfall of funds.
A 23 year old woman reportedly fell overboard into the North Sea just after 8.30pm on Monday night from the Princess Seaways DFDS ferry bound from from Newcastle to Ijmuiden. The woman was reportedly lighting a cigarette at the rail when she fell. The ferry reversed course and successfully rescued the woman using the ferry’s rescue boats. She was subsequently airlifted by helicopter to to Scarborough Hospital before being released. Yet another reason not to smoke. Congratulations to the officers and crew of the Princess Seaways for their speed and professionalism in executing a successful night rescue at sea, which is no easy task. Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the news along.
Last February we posted that Somali pirates had hijacked a Danish sailboat with four adults and three children aboard. Yesterday, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced seven Danish citizens, including a family with three children had been released. It has been reported that the pirates were paid a $3 million ransom on Tuesday.