Reports are surfacing of Navy veterans contracting cancer after serving at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica when the station was powered by a problem-prone nuclear power plant.
Nuclear plant leak in Antarctica suspected of causing cancer
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I recently purchased Joe Follansbee’s The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History – 2,000+ Tall Ships, Lighthouses, Historic Ships, Maritime Museums, and More. Rather than purchasing a dead-tree version, I bought the guide as an e-book for Kindle. This is, therefore, a dual review – a review of the guide book itself and how it works as an e-book.
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Shabab Oman
Christopher Biggins, captain of the Omani national sail training ship Shabab Oman, for over two decades, died recently. An obituary by Frank Scott, author of A Square Rig Handbook, reposted with permission from the Marine History List:
Commander Christopher Biggins
Chris Biggins who recently died of cancer was Captain of the Omani national sail training ship Shabab Oman for over 20 years, and during that time he made her a major force in the international world of sail training.
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Photo: Donnie Reid
Six guns from the ships of privateer Admiral Sir Henry Morgan are believed to have been found in the Chagres River in Panama.
Henry Morgan’s cannons found in Panama, archaeologists say
Archaeologists have recovered six cannons from the ships of Welsh privateer Henry Morgan, the first artifacts found in Panama to be linked to the man who remains a legend there, the team said Monday.
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The US Coast Guard Cutter Midgett recently busted a midget sub loaded with cocaine while on a cruise of the Eastern Pacific. The 35′ long self-propelled semi-submersible was carrying 6,000 kilograms of cocaine from Columbia bound for the United States. This was only the second ever seizure of a self propelled semi-submersible by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. In addition to the catching the narco-sub, the Cutter Midget seized 11 tons of cocaine and marijuana on five trafficking vessels and detained 20 suspected narcotics traffickers. The cutter also performed three search and rescue missions while on patrol.
Coast Guard cutter returns from patrol, interdicts semi-submersible with cocaine
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Definitely not a containership
I saw the headline and immediately shook my head. There may indeed be an application for sails on bulk carriers, but containerships, well, not so much. With a five high (or higher) stack of boxes on deck, containerships have exactly the stability they need – no more, no less. Adding sails without removing cargo capacity could be a challenge. I clicked on the link and had to smile. The drawing was of a tanker with hybrid solar cell sails, and not a containership. Tankers generally have no shortage of stability. Even Sail-World should know the difference between containerships and tankers. I guess the moral of the story is that not all ships are containerships and you have to take what you read in the press with a proverbial grain of salt. The designs by Eco Marine Power look very interesting, nevertheless.
U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Acushnet, oldest commissioned Coast Guard cutter, and the officially designated “Queen of the Fleet” will be sold as surplus at an online auction scheduled to end on March 16th. Current bidding is $66,000. (Updated 4/04)
US NAVY DIVER CLASS VESSEL (Note the GSA auction site rather oddly does not allow direct linking to individual auctions. Click the arrow to the right on the GSA auction page to see the Acushnet auction.)
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Photo: Donnie Reid/Institute of Nautical Archeology
We have posted previously about the discovery of the Yukon Gold Rush iron sternwheeler A.J. Goddard which sank in a storm in Lake Labarge in October of 1901. Now with the discovery of a gramophone and three recordings, the music of the Gold Rush has literally risen from the depths of the lake. To listen to a recording of the Rendez Vous Waltz, recovered from the A.J. Goddard, click here.
Brad Van Liew arrived in Punta del Este, Uruguay yesterday, winning the third leg of the Velux Five Oceans Singlehanded Around the World Race. The remaining three racers, Zbigniew “Gutek” Gutkowski, Derek Hatfield and Chris Stanmore-Major are all within only 50 nautical miles of each other and are expected to arrive in port on Thursday.
Brad Van Liew Wins Third Leg of Velux 5 Oceans
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The Maritime Quarterly, a new maritime journal, was launched on the first of this month. Looks very interesting. Extracts are available on its website. About the journal:
The Marine Quarterly is a new kind of sea journal, reporting subjects of strong interest to everyone who goes on the sea. It will be full of big, authoritative articles on sailing, fisheries, adventuring, merchant shipping, conservation, natural history, heritage, trade, naval matters, and anything else connected with salt water.
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1918 Thorneycroft Seaplane Lighter - the World's Oldest Aircraft Carrier?
The headline is great – World’s oldest aircraft carrier discovered rusting by the River Thames. So is the first sentence: “The worlds’ oldest aircraft carrier which was a precursor to today’s giant Navy vessels has been discovered – rusting by a river bank.” Reading further, however, it turns out the vessel in question is not HMS Argus of 1918, for example, the forerunner of all modern aircraft carriers. Instead, the article refers to a 1918 Thorneycroft Seaplane Lighter, a 58′ lighter which literally carried an airplane, specifically a seaplane. The recently discovered lighter is being restored.
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In view of the failure of current efforts to combat piracy, BIMCO, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Shipping Federation (ISF), Intercargo, INTERTANKO and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have launched a campaign to Save Our Seafarers to encourage people around the world to pressure their national governments to crack down on piracy.
From the Save Our Seafarers website:
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Deepwater Horizon on Fire
Yesterday we reviewed John Konrad’s new book, Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster, which went on sale in bookstores today. Coincidentally, yesterday the Interior Department approved the first new deep water drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in April of last year. Noble Energy was granted permission to resume drilling an existing well site in 6,500 feet of water off the coast of Louisiana.
Oil Drilling to Resume in the Gulf’s Deep Waters
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CMA CGM CHRISTOPHE COLOMB
I have seen this item a couple of times and am finally convinced that it is not a spoof. Apparently CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container shipping group, is offering a “Cargo cruise” onboard their largest containerships.
Travel Aboard One of the Largest Containerships In the World
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Danish authorities are reporting that Somali pirates have hijacked a Danish sailboat with four adults and three children aboard.
Danish family’s sailboat hijacked in Indian Ocean
The Danish Foreign Ministry said the ship sent a distress signal on Thursday. On board was a Danish couple, their three children – aged 12-16 – and two adult crew members, also Danes.
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When the Deepwater Horizon suffered a blowout, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April, it was only forty miles off the coast of Louisiana. Yet, in many respects, the world aboard the ill-fated rig was as alien to most of us as if it had been dropped from outer space. Even within the shipping industry, deep-water offshore drilling is often poorly understood, a world wholly unto itself.
Nevertheless, the catastrophe on the Deepwater Horizon touched us all. The explosion and fire killed eleven, injured seventeen and resulted in the worst accidental marine oil spill in history. The impact, on both the environment of the Gulf of Mexico and on offshore oil policy, is likely to be far reaching. This is why John Konrad’s and Tom Schorder’s new book, Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster, is so timely and so welcome.
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We can only wish him the best of luck. The third time may be the charm.
NYC rower tries for third time to cross Atlantic
There is something about the sea that has caused Victor Mooney to lose all reason.
For years now, the 45-year-old New Yorker has believed that for all its vastness, the Atlantic Ocean is ripe for conquest; That a lone man pulling a pair of oars can shove off an African beach and slowly, steadily, row partway around the globe to New York harbor.
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Poppa Neutrino
David Pearlman, widely known as Papa Neutrino, died last month at 77 of congestive heart failure in New Orleans. His remarkable life was summarized in an obituary in the Telegraph:
“Poppa Neutrino, who died on January 23 aged 77, was an itinerant American whose singular life story featured episodes as a card sharp, a soldier, a prisoner and a pastor; he never lived in any permanent structure for more than a year, and owned almost nothing, but in 1998 he became the first man to sail across the Atlantic on a raft made of junk.”
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In the late 60s, the first VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier) were initially referred to as Malaccamax tankers, as they were the largest tankers that could navigate through the Straits of Malacca. Maersk Line has recently ordered ten Malaccamax container ships, each capable of carrying 18,000 containers. These ships will be the world’s largest by size, if not necessarily by deadweight. They are dubbed the “Triple E” Class, referring to “”Economies of scale, Energy efficiency and Environmentally improved.” The ships will be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding at a cost of around $1.9 billion and the first delivery is expected in 2014. Maersk also has the option of ordering ten more ships under the contract.
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Carnival Cruise Lines seems to be working the “Rendezvous Circuit” for all its worth with the three Queens of its subsidiary, Cunard Line. Last month we posted about the “Royal Rendezvous” in New York harbor – “Cunard Takes Manhattan – The Three Queens Rendezvous in the Harbor” when the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth, all sailed from New York harbor in unison. Then we posted about the “The Rendevous of the Last Two Ocean-going Royal Mail Ships” when the RMS Queen Mary briefly sailed in company with the RMS St Helena. Last week we posted about the rendezvous in Sydney harbor of the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth.
Now we hear about another rendezvous. The Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Victoria will meet in a “Historic Cunard Royal Rendezvous in Long Beach Harbor on 3 March“, where the Queen Mary 2 will sail by the original Queen Mary, now a resort hotel docked in Long beach.