Inger Klein Olsen, First Female Cunard Captain

Posted on by December 14, 2010

Our belated congratulations to Inger Klein Olsen, who took command of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria at the beginning of December.  She is the first woman to take command of a Cunard Line ship in the line’s 170 year history.

History is Made As Cunard Appoints the Line’s First Female Captain

“While we are far from being the first shipping company to have a female captain, it is nonetheless noteworthy when such a long-established British institution as Cunard makes a break with its captaincy tradition,” said Peter Shanks, president of Cunard. “But as Mark Twain drily observed, ‘the folks at Cunard wouldn’t appoint Noah himself as captain until he had worked his way up through the ranks.’ Inge has certainly done that,” Shanks continued, “and we are delighted to welcome her as our first woman driver.”
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Deepwater Pathfinder runs aground, ironically enough

Posted on by December 13, 2010

Deepwater Pathfinder

The tweet from gCaptain was “Deepwater Pathfinder runs aground” which was linked to a post on the gCaptain blog describing how the drill ship ran aground while pulling into Freeport, TX, shearing off a thruster.   Perhaps I am just easily amused, but I was struck by the irony.  Clearly the harbor pilot, who was reported to be aboard, failed to find the pathway to deepwater when piloting the Deepwater Pathfinder.

Russell Crowe calls for Master and Commander sequel

Posted on by April 8, 2011

Master and Commander – Far Side of the World, loosely based on one or another novel by Patrick O’Brian,  was a movie that I needed to see twice to enjoy.  The first time I saw it, I was so annoyed by the wholly nonsensical plot,  that the French would build a “super-frigate” sized  privateer to prey on British whale ships in the Pacific, that I quietly grumbled to myself for most of the film .  (The plot violates both common sense and the economics of privateering, as any obsessive, overly picky, nautical history buff would no doubt insist on explaining to you at great length. )
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Five dead, 17 missing after Korean fishing vessel, No.1 In Sung, sinks in Southern Ocean

Posted on by December 13, 2010

Another ship down.  Speculation is that the Korean fishing vessel No.1 In Sung either struck an iceberg or was hit by a large wave off Antarctica.   Twenty surviving crew  members  were  rescued and taken aboard the fishing vessel No. 707 Hongjin. Five  are reported dead with seventeen still missing.

Five dead, 17 missing after sinking
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Violent weather in the Eastern Mediterranean – bulk carrier Adriatic sinks and Brilliance of the Seas battered

Posted on by December 13, 2010

Brilliance of the Seas

Heavy rains, strong winds and high seas hit the eastern Mediterranean over the weekend with winds of 100 kilometres per hour and waves reaching heights of 10 metres,  sinking the Moldavian bulk carrier, Adriatic, off the coast of Israel and  battering the RCCL cruise ship, Brilliance of the Seas.   The eleven crew of the Adraitic took to life rafts and  were rescued.  There were reported to be up to 30 passengers with minor injuries, as well as damage to the interior spaces of the Brilliance of the Seas.
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Cakewalk – Largest Yacht Built in US Since J.P. Morgan’s Corsair IV

Posted on by December 14, 2010

While we may prefer prefer vessels with more sticks, cloth and string, we are overdue in acknowledging the construction of  Cakewalk, a new  $82 million 85 meter yacht, which was delivered from Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, CT yard in August. Cakewalk is the largest yacht built in the US since Bath Iron Works built the Corsair IV for J.P. Morgan in 1930.

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Cakewalk | The Launch from vacilando on Vimeo.

2000 year-old Antikythera Mechanism made out of Legos?

Posted on by September 10, 2014

The Antikythera Mechanism

In 1901, the Antiythera mechanism was pulled from a Roman shipwreck. It is believed to date from approximately 90 BC. For years no one knew what to make of the strange clock-like device until advanced digital radiographs revealed that it was a complex astronomical computer capable of predicting  lunar and solar eclipses and the motion of the moon in the sky.  Now Andrew Carol, a software engineer at Apple, has created a model of this ancient computer using Legos.  While it lacks the compact beauty of the original. it does make the mechanism easier to understand.

Apple Engineer Recreates 2000-Year-Old Computer Using Legos

Lego Antikythera Mechanism

Clipper City of Adelaide being made ready for trip home

Posted on by December 11, 2010

The clipper ship City of Adelaide (later HMS Carrick), the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the world, is being made ready for her long trip home to her namesake city in Australia, from her current berth in Irvine, Scotland.

Carrick gets ship-shape for Oz voyage

The Carrick could soon be ship-shape for a move from Irvine to Oz – after phase one of preparation work on the 145-year-old vessel was completed this week.
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Navy Electromagnetic Railgun Annihilates Targets 100 Miles Away In Six Minutes

Posted on by December 11, 2010

This is fascinating and terrifying at the same time.  The US Navy is testing an electromagnetic railgun capable of hitting a target 100 miles away.

Navy Electromagnetic Railgun Annihilates Targets 100 Miles Away In Six Minutes

In the near future, US Navy ships will not use explosive cannons. They will destroy targets 100 miles away with the monster 33-megajoules railgun in the video. In the words of Rear Admiral Nevin P. Carr: This “really changes several games.”

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Wikileaks, Russian Tanks and the Ro/Ro Faina – the Pirates were Right

Posted on by December 10, 2010

Faina - Photo: Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Slightly over two years ago we posted about the hijacking of the Ukranian ro/ro Faina by Somali pirates.  The pirates were surprised to discover that the ship was loaded with arms, including 33 Russian T-72 battle tanks.   The pirates claimed that the arsenal was headed for the regional government in southern Sudan.  The governments of the Ukraine and Kenya vehemently denied that this was the case, claiming that the arms were intended to be delivered to the Kenyan military.   We now know from documents released by  Wikileaks  that the pirates were telling the truth and the Ukrainians and Kenyans were not.

Pirates’ Catch Exposed Route of Arms in Sudan
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2010: Moby Dick – Straight to DVD Must See ?

Posted on by December 10, 2010

The closest thing to a nautical movie in the theaters this season, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, doesn’t sound like it is necessarily worth the price of a ticket. Manohla Dargis begins her review in this morning’s NY Times as follows: “Not long before the children’s movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” sets sail, you might find yourself hoping for a nor’easter to come and blow this latest and perhaps last installment in the screen version of C.S. Lewis’s series, far, far away.”   Fortunately a straight to DVD remake of Moby Dick could just possibly be a new camp classic, at least if you believe the review by Monkey Fist.

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Panama Canal closes due to flooding

Posted on by December 9, 2010

In only the third time in 96 years, the Panama Canal closed yesterday due to flooding. After being shut down for ten hours it reopened early this morning.   Heavy rains around the Chagres River, caused the water in Lake Gatun, a significant part of the canal, to rise, forcing the shutdown.   The last time the canal closed was in 1989, after the United States invaded Panama to topple strongman Manuel Noriega.  Landslides forced the canal to close for several months from late 1915 to mid-1916, just months after it opened.

Panama Canal reopens after closure from heavy rain

Wrens set to serve on Royal Navy submarines

Posted on by December 9, 2010

What I found surprising about the headline in the Mail Online was not that women would be serving on Royal Navy submarines but that they were still being called Wrens.   Demonstrating my own ignorance, I thought that designation had been phased out sometime after World War II.  Indeed it was, but only seventeen years ago in 1993.   In the US in WWII, Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served only until the end of the war.

But returning to submarines, the women serving on Royal Navy submarines will  be provided with separate berthing and showering facilities.  The women will be hot bunking (or hot-bedding as the Brits would say) but only with other women aboard.   Does anyone know if smoking is still allowed on Royal Navy subs?  In the US Navy smoking on subs will be banned as of 2011.   By 2012 the first 19 women will be assigned to US Navy four ballistic missile submarines.

Diving belles! Wrens set to serve on Navy submarines… and they’ll get their own bunks to avoid ‘hot-bedding’ with the men

Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the article along.

The Unsinkable HMAS Adelaide: Costs Sink Scuttling?

Posted on by December 9, 2010

Photo: Kate Geraghty

As difficult as it is to keep ships afloat, sometimes they can be devilishly hard to sink as well.   At least that has been the experience of a group trying to scuttle the decommissioned HMAS Adelaide as an artificial reef and recreational diving site off the central coast of Australia.  After years of lawsuits, the project is over budget by several million dollars and is facing even further delays.

Cost bombshell sinks hopes of scuttling warship

Cruise ship Clelia II Limping Home After Encounter with Wave in Drake Passage

Posted on by December 8, 2010

While the circumstances were completely different from those on the Carnival Splendor, the problem encountered by the cruise ship Clelia II is apparently another example of a ship’s engines being impacted by damage to electrical control systems.  The Clelia II‘s bridge was reported to be damaged by a large wave which broke the bridge windows and damaged the ship’s controls, cutting power to one engine.

Cruise ship Clelia II Limping Home

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An Old Problem, Warnings Unheeded – 3 Ships Sunk, 44 Dead in 39 Days

Posted on by December 8, 2010

MV Black Rose

Ships carrying metallic ores should be the most stable ships on the ocean. These cargoes are dense and carried in low the ship. If improperly loaded, ore cargoes can indeed break a ship in half, but stability should not be an issue.  Nevertheless, three ships carrying nickel ore have capsized over a period of only 39 days with the loss of 44 officers and crew.
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Titantic eaten by bacteria while shipwrecked fleets in Baltic well preserved

Posted on by December 8, 2010

Rusticles on the Titanic

Two interesting stories of shipwrecks in the press recently – the wreck of the Titanic is being consumed by newly identified steel-munching bacteria, while scientists are discovering large numbers of well preserved shipwrecks in the dark and cold Baltic where there are 1,500 confirmed wrecks in Finnish waters, nearly half of which them are more than a century old.   Most experts believe the actual number is much higher.

Steel-munching bacteria are devouring the Titanic, say scientists
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Update: Raw Faith Sinks – Crew Rescued

Posted on by December 8, 2010

Raw Faith

Update: The three masted schooner Raw Faith is reported to now have sunk after the crew of two was rescued by the Coast Guard.

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Two men were rescued by the Coast Guard from Raw Faith, a home-built 118′ three masted schooner, one hundred miles south-east of  Nantucket today.    Reportedly the two had set sail from Salem, Massachusetts on December 4th bound for Bermuda.

Why anyone would set attempt to sail in December to Bermuda on a 118′ foot schooner with a crew of only two is unclear.  The rescue involved multiple aircraft and two Coast Guard cutters.
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Tall Ship Sailing on EBay – the Other Perfect Holiday Gift?

Posted on by December 7, 2010

A bit over a week ago we suggested an aircraft carrier as a holiday gift for the person who has everything.   OK, we admit that was not the most useful gift suggestion.  We now wish to suggest something far more practical and which also supports a great cause.  The American Sail Training Association (ASTA) in association with more than a dozen North American tall ships, including the USS Constellation, the Pride of Baltimore II , the A.J. Meerwald and the Lady Washington, are holding an eBay auction of tall ship sailing and sail training adventure this month as a holiday gift alternative.   Visit the ASTA E-Bay store for more information.