The pinky schooner Ardelle was launched recently from the historic Burnham Boatbuilding yard in Essex, MA. They used the traditional “Essex side-launch” technique, which, to my uninitiated eye, looks very odd. Nevertheless, it obviously is effective.
Thanks to Tom Russell at the Traditional Sail Professionals for pointing out the launching.
At a time when many maritime museums in the United States are struggling to just maintain their ships and indeed several are attempting to get rid of them, the Maritime Museum of San Diego is building a new historic replica, the San Salvador, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo‘s flagship. In the 16th century, Cabrillo was the first European to navigate the coast of California. The replica San Salvador will be full-sized, fully functional, and historically accurate. The ship is being constructed at Spanish Landing in San Diego, California. Visitors are invited to watch the construction. Once finished the San Salvador will remain on exhibit as part of the Museum’s fleet of historic and replica ships and will travel along the California coast as an ambassador for San Diego.
San Salvador Replica Ship Under Construction on San Diego Bay
The Sail Power and Steam Museum of Rockland, Maine looks like a great little museum.
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Margaret Muir
I am a big fan of both Margaret Muir and Linda Collison. Both are marvelous writers – skilled story tellers whose writing about the Age of Sail has both an immediacy and an understated authenticity that draws the reader into their books. (Perhaps not surprisingly, both have sailed as crew on square rigged ships.) If you are not familiar with Muir or Collison check out our review of Muir’s Floating Gold and Collison’s Surgeon’s Mate and Star Crossed.
Linda Collison
Linda Collison recently talked with Margaret Muir about sailing, writing, Tasmania and goats. Reposted from Linda’s blog, Sea of Words, with permission.
A conversation with novelist and Tasmanian historian, Margaret Muir
Throughout our writing lives we’re inspired by other authors. I’ve recently had the pleasure of discovering Tasmanian novelist and historian, Margaret Muir.
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The American Sail Training Association is “rebranding.” They will now be known as Tall Ships America. Everything else will stay about the same. I have to admit, Tall Ships America does have a nice ring to it while ASTA sounded a bit too much like an insurance company.
TALL SHIPS AMERICA: The New Face of ASTA
We are proud to announce to our members, supporters and friends that we have adopted a new public identity: Tall Ships America. Our mission is unchanged, and just as we have done since 1973, Tall Ships America will encourage character building through sail training, promote sail training to the North American public and support education under sail.
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Tug Pegasus
The North River Historic Ship Society is hosting a four day Historic Ship Festival on July 28-31 to celebrate the the opening of the first historic ship pier in Hudson River Park in Tribeca, New York.
Festival at Pier 25 Features Free Ship Tours, River Trips, and more at Hudson River Park
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Congratulations are due to the Port of San Diego on several counts. Their video “Disabled Veterans Compete in VA Summer Sports Clinic on San Diego Bay” has won a Telly Award, competing against 11,000 other applicants. A second congratulation is order for the program the video documents. For the second year in a row the National Veterans Affairs Summer Sports Clinic has been hosted by the Port of San Diego. A truly inspiring event. The next National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic will also be held in San Diego from September 18th – 23rd.
Disabled Veterans Compete in VA Summer Sports Clinic on San Diego Bay
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Thanks to Urban M for pointing out the news on the Linked-In Traditional Sail Professionals group.
Last July, a barge pushed by the tug Caribbean Sea struck a disabled tourist “duck boat” at anchor in the Delaware River. Two tourists drowned in the collision. A report by the National Transportation Safety Board said the tug’s mate Matthew Devlin was on his mobile phone and laptop trying to deal with a serious family medical emergency a the time of the casualty. The mate has now agreed to plead guilty to a charge of “maritime manslaughter” and to the permanent revocation of his Coast Guard licence.
First mate’s mobile, laptop use results in ‘maritime manslaughter’ charge
Photo: Monika Graff for The New York Times
The timing could not have been worse. In the midst of a blistering heat wave in New York City, what has been described as a “catastrophic fire” at the North River Waste Water Treatment plant yesterday allowed millions of gallons of untreated sewage to be discharged from Manhattan into the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. Officials are warning New Yorkers and New Jersey residents on the harbor against swimming, fishing or launching boats in the Hudson and at four city beaches on Staten Island and in Brooklyn.
Photo: Neil Pederson, Lamont-Doherty, provided courtesy of LMDC
Last July, workers excavating at the new World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan uncovered the remains of an 18th century wooden merchant ship 20 feet below street level. See our previous posts – here and here. Now researchers have been able to identify where the ship was probably built, the trade she most likely served in, and how she met her end, all from careful examination of tree rings, ship worms and other artifacts found on the ship. A fascinating investigation.
Rings and Worms Tell the Tale of a Shipwreck Found at Ground Zero”
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Photo credit: www.guardian.co.uk
The United Kingdom consists of over six thousand islands, and one has just come on the market. Situated just off the coast of Wales near Cardiff, Sully Island is up for sale for £95,000 (roughly $150,000 USD). Once the haunt of pirates, the 14.5 acre island is set 400 metres from the coast, and only accesible for a few hours a day.
Photo: Maasmond Maritime
AllOnScale in Rotterdam builds around 1,000 ships a year. The ships are all rather small, however, ranging from around 20 cm to several meters. AllOnScale is a leading ship model maker specializing in the production of small series in scales from 1:300 to 1:2000. They also produce larger models and repair damaged models. Their approach to the ancient art of model making is relatively high tech, relying on 3D modeling and numerical controlled manufacturing techniques. Nevertheless, much of the work still is done by hand.
Photo : Bas de Blok
Some times all it takes is a photo to demonstrate how much things have changed and what has stayed the same.
I recall as a boy watching jack-up rigs being put into operation off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico in the earlier days of the offshore oil industry. Recently, I saw a photo of the jack-up rig GMS Endeavour on the North Sea installing the first wind turbine at the Sheringham Shoal windfarm. Jack-up rigs, once primarily used for shallow water oil drilling, are now installing and servicing wind turbines. The wind farm will generate enough power for approximately 220,000 average UK homes.
The energy source has changed but we still need energy from the sea.
What could possibly be a better venue for a sea chantey festival than the deck of a restored 1863-built iron windjammer? The Maritime Museum of San Diego is holding its “Sea Shanty Festival 2011” on the deck of the Star of India on July 24th. They have some great talent lined up and the Star of India will be a magnificent stage.
Twenty five years ago, the US Navy contracted to build two fleet oilers, the USNS Bejanmin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford. The Navy spent at least $300 million dollars on their construction. Due to shipyard defaults and various legal wranglings, the ships were never completed and never went into service. Now both ships are on their way to the scrap yards, having never spent a single day in operation.
These are not high-tech warships. They are simple oil tankers, specifically Henry J. Kaiser Class Fleet Replenishment Oilers, of which 16 had already been built. Militarily contracting is notoriously wasteful, but this may set a new low.
Two never-finished Navy ships head to scrap heap
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In July 1945, the Dutch submarine O-19 ran hard aground on Ladd Reef in the South China Sea deep in enemy waters. The Gato class submarine USS Cod was sent to rescue the Dutch sub. After two days of attempting to free the stricken sub, the Dutch crew of 56 was taken aboard the USS Cod and the the O-19 was destroyed with torpedoes and fire from the Cod‘s deck guns to prevent it from falling into Japanese hands.
Yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio, the USS Cod‘s deck guns were fired again to commemorate the anniversary of the only international submarine-to-submarine rescue in history.
This is an interesting and perhaps an unintentionally amusing clip of the Celebrity Silhouette leaving the Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The shipyard has just enough room to build the ship but not to turn her around, so she was towed down the River Ems backwards.
What struck me as unintentionally amusing were the repeated statements of how amazing, exciting and incredible moving the ship down the river was by the Celebrity executives. About the fourth or fifth time I heard their gushing enthusiasm, I found myself thinking, well, it wasn’t that impressive.
Photo: Ocean Recycling
Recently a very interesting shipwreck was discovered in the waters between the islands of Gotland and Öland off the east coast of Sweden. The article seems to claim that it is the “world’s intact oldest wreck” though most apparently think that the ship dates from between the 12th and the 14th centuries. Some however, enthusiastically hope that the wreck is the legendary ship that carried the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag home after his sacking of Visby on Gotland, in 1361 AD. Unfortunately, it apparently looks much more like a medieval cog.
World’s oldest’ wreck found in Swedish Baltic
Thanks to Phil Leon for passing the article along.
Sony and Intel have partnered to sponsor “Project Shiphunt.” The project sponsored a group of Michigan high school students to discover an historic sunken ship in The Great Lakes using Sony VAIO laptops. So far they have assisted in the discovery of two sunken ships, the schooner M.F. Merrick and the steel freighter Etruria. The video below describes finding the Merrick.
Project Shiphunt Young Explorers Discover Two Lake Huron Shipwrecks
Project Shiphunt: Discovering the M.F. Merrick
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for pointing out the story and Jack Tar magazine for pointing out the video.
The Pride of Baltimore II, the Brig Niagara, and the privateer Lynx will on hand for the 2011 Duluth Music and Maritime Festival starting on Friday July 15 and running through Monday, July 18. Music, food, and tall ships – it sounds like a great weekend. The festival will also coincide with the Sixth Annual Bayfront Reggae and World Music festival, the largest festival of it’s kind in Minnesota, to be held the same weekend at Bayfront Festival Park, July 16 – 17.