When the sun was out the Vikings could navigate with “sun compass,” a sort of modified sundial. According to legend, when the sky was overcast the Vikings used a “sunstone.” A new study suggests that the sunstone might not have been legend.
Did Vikings navigate with ‘sunstone’?
Vikings could have navigated the oceans in inclement weather with the aid of a crystal that pinpointed the sun’s location behind banks of clouds and fog, a new study suggests.
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In June of last year, we posted about the Quest for the South Magnetic Pole. Recently the Independent featured an article describing how the magnetic north pole is moving faster than at any time in human history, apparently shifting from Canada to Russia.
Adjust your compass now: the north pole is migrating to Russia
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On Thursday Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., the head of Fleet Forces Command, announced the results of the investigation of the aircraft carrier Enterprise videos and recommended punishment for 40 officers and senior enlisted sailors.
Lewd Navy Videos Sink More Than The Captain Who Made Them
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Commander Nigel Matthews, who has died aged 89, survived being run over by an aircraft carrier and flew again the same day.
Nigel Matthews died on December 19. His first wife died in 1977; he married, secondly, Annette Pask (née Pinhey) in 1979 and she predeceased him in 2008. He is survived by four children of his first marriage and a stepdaughter.
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I was recently sent The eNotated Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Enotation is electronic annotation, where instead of footnotes or endnotes, there are embedded links in the text of an e-book. A book like Slocum’s which contains a fair amount of sailing jargon and many geographical references is a perfect candidate for eNotation.
Before discussing this edition, however, a few words on Sailing Alone Around the World are in order. In 1895, Joshua Slocum was as ship’s captain at loose ends in the last days of sail. He rebuilt a 37′ gaff rigged oyster sloop named Spray, and proceeded to sail it around the world alone, the first person ever to do so. His book about the voyage, Sailing Alone Around the World, is a nautical classic. I would argue that it is a literary classic, period. Slocum’s direct, deceptively simple yet vivid language reminds me of Mark Twain. If you haven’t read Slocum, you should. Soon. This edition might not be bad place to start.
Star of India at Maritime Museum of Sand Diego
News from both the Seaport Museum in New York and the Maritime Museum of San Diego. The Seaport Museum, until recently the South Street Seaport Museum, is shutting down its exhibits and shops. The ships will still be open for tours. We have posted recently about the latest financial crisis at the beleaguered museum.
Struggling Seaport Museum closing exhibit, ships open
In contrast, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, has two major projects underway – the construction of a replica of Cabrillo’s galleon, San Salvador, and a new exhibition of art and artifacts from three Westerners — the explorer Capt. James Cook, writer Herman Melville and artist Paul Gauguin — adrift in Polynesia.
Maritime Museum sails into uncharted waters
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Robert Prescott, a marine archeologist, believes that he has located the final resting place HMS Beagle.
The Fate of HMS Beagle After Darwin´s Voyage to the Galapagos Islands
HMS Beagle was the ship that sailed around the world with the young naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin onboard. The ship was sold for scrap in 1870 but until now it´s final fate has remained one of the world´s great naval mysteries.
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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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Commander Nigel Matthews