The first you notice about the Maritime Museum of San Diego are the ships. When I visited last week, the 1863 windjammer Star of India was hove to with two staysails and her spanker set and drawing, and with her main topsail backed, tied up on the seawall right alongside North Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego. Directly off the Star of India‘s stern is the HMS Surprise, the replica of the a 24 gun British frigate the HMS Rose. The Surprise is tied up alongside the steam ferry Berkeley. Down the dock the masts of the replica Revenue Cutter Californian are visible rising above the ferry. Taking a closer look, there are also two submarines, a steam yacht and a pilot boat in the collection. Overall, a very impressive collection of ships and boats, all well maintained and cared-for.
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Photo:Tribun Batam/Zabur Anjasfianto
Just in case you think you had a bad Monday, yesterday the USC container ship Al Rawdah ran aground on a reef in the waters of Pulau Sambu Stone Chain, Rear Padang, Batam, not long after leaving Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia. The ship was bound for China.
Apparently something called “wreck racing” is a new sport. The website Formula H2O – Underwater Scooter Racing explains it as follows:
The Wreck Racing League or WRL is the sanctioning body for scuba divers racing using underwater scooters or diver propulsion vehicles on natural wrecks of ships sunk to create artificial reefs.
A video demonstrating the “sport”:
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The University of Hawaii research vessel, Ka’imikai-o-Kanaloa, set sail earlier this month to studying the impact of radiation releases in the waters off Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Scientists on UH research ship study impact of radiation releases
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Yesterday we posted about the arrival of seven vaka, Polynesian voyaging canoes, in Hilo, Hawaii. This seems an appropriate time to remember Herb Kawainui Kāne, an Hawaiian artist, historian and one of the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, who died last March at the age of 82. Kāne was also one of the designers of the Hōkūleʻa, a double-hulled voyaging canoe, built by the the Polynesian Voyaging Society. In 1976, the Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti using only Polynesian navigation techniques without modern navigational instruments.
This month, Honolulu Magazine looked back on the life of Herb Kawainui Kāne, who they had only interviewed months before. They called Kāne “one of the principal figures of the Hawaiian Renaissance, that resurgence of Hawaiian culture that began in the 1970s and culminated in the rebirth of hula, the Hawaiian language, traditional Hawaiian music, Hawaiian voyaging canoes, and a growing sense of Hawaiian social and political identity.”
New York City's Fireboat 343
In a lawsuit a whistleblower is charging that New York City’s new $27 million Fireboat 343, named after the number of New York firefighters killed on 9/11, was damaged in a storm last winter when sideswiped by another fireboat, the Firefighter II, which apparently had lost control in the rough currents. The lawsuit filed by Frederick Domini – a city firefighter and licensed marine engineer – alleges that the Firefighter II had been taken out against the advice of the vessel’s pilot.
FDNY’s $27M fireboat, the 343, damaged in collision with sister ship: whisteblower’s lawsuit
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Seven vaka, Polynesian voyaging canoes, arrived in Hilo, Hawaii on Thursday. The project is called “Te Mana o Te Moana” meaning “The Spirit of the Sea.” Starting in New Zealand, the seven vaka have sailed north across the Pacific, by way of the Marquesas and Tahiti. The vaka are drawn from various islands including Faafaite from Tahiti, Te Matau a Maui from Aotearoa, Marumaru Atua from the Cook Islands, Uto Ni Yalo from Fiji and Gaualofa from Samoa. After their stop in Hawaii, they plan to sail east to the West coast of the United States before ultimately returning across the Pacific.
Fleet of seven canoes arrive in Hawaii
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Thanks to Linda Collison for passing the article along.
This will be busy weekend around the Hudson River and New York harbor. At Croton Point Park, on the east bank of the Hudson River, just north of New York City, the Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival – a Music and Environmental Festival will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 18th and 19th. The festival will be a virtual riverside Woodstock, featuring, by my count, over fifty different artists and bands, including Pete Seeger, Martin Sexton, the Indigo Girls, Arlo Guthrie, Josh Ritter, Suzanne Vega, Dar Williams, David Bromberg, Peter Yarrow, John Sebastian, Janis Ian, Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson, The Klezmatics, Tom Chapin and many many more. In addition to music there will be losts of activities, exhibits and sales on the Hudson River sloop, Clearwater.
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Who in their right mind would name a boat Titanic II in the first place? Fortunately there was no loss of life. Prophetically enough, there is already a movie, Titanic II. It sank at the box office over a year before the cabin cruiser.
Photo: Ainhoa Sanchez
Our slightly belated congratulations to Brad Van Liew, the American sailor who won the Velux 5 Oceans single-handed around the world race in his Le Pingouin ECO 60. Van Liew dominated the Velux 5 Oceans race, winning all five legs. Van Liew is the first American to finish three single-handled around the word races. He is also the first person worldwide to sweep all legs of the Velux 5 Oceans race for two complete events.
A very nicely done video showing the inspiring work being done the Jubilee Sailing Trust. The Jubilee Sailing Trust is a registered charity that owns and operates the tallships Lord Nelson and Tenacious, the only two tall ships in the world designed and built to enable people of all physical abilities to sail side-by-side as equals.
Jubilee Sailing Trust – Tall Ship Sailing Adventures for All
Schooners Stephen Taber and Lewis R. French race on Penobscot Bay. photo: Benjamin Mendlowitz
Both the schooners Lewis R. French and the Stephen Taber were built in 1871. To celebrate their 140th birthdays, these grand old ladies will be racing from Camden to Rockland this Friday June 17 in an “1871 Schooner Showdown.”
A race of two historic schooners set for June 17
Visitors can watch up close from the deck of the schooner Olad, which will serve as race committee boat.
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Liz Fry is the sort of person who makes the rest of us feel inadequate. She is from Westport, Connecticut, is 52 and reportedly suffers from asthma. Nevertheless, yesterday she swam the thirty five miles from Battery Park in Manhattan to Sandy Hook, N.J and back. The water was 65 degrees. It appears the she broke the record for the swim on both legs of the trip and also became the first person to swim it both ways in one day. Wow. Our heartiest congratulations. As noted in the Daily New of Open Water Swimming: Liz Fry – the dynamo from Connecticut – is now one of the women in the pantheon of New York City greats.
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.
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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.
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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.