“Mind the Light , Kate” — Remembering New York’s Robbins Reef Lighthouse Keeper Kate Walker

Posted on by March 16, 2024

An updated repost in honor of Women’s History Month. In 1886, lighthouse keeper John Walker’s last words to his wife Kate as he died from pneumonia, were “Mind the light, Kate.” Kate, then 38 with two teenage children, took his final wish to heart. She minded the light — from that day on, every single day, for more than three decades.

Though standing only 4’10” tall and weighing around 100 pounds, Katherine Walker served as the keeper of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse for 35 years, following the death of her husband. In addition to the arduous task of keeping the light burning, she also rowed across the choppy waters of Upper New York harbor, a mile each way, to take her two children to school on Staten Island, weather permitting. 

An immigrant from Germany, Kate met and married John Walker, who in 1883 was appointed keeper of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse. Kate found herself living on a reef inhabited solely by harbor seals. (Robbins Reef comes from the early Dutch name, “Robyns Rift,” or Seal Rocks.) 

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Women’s History Month — Adm. Lisa Franchetti Sworn in as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations

Posted on by March 15, 2024

Adm. Lisa Franchetti was sworn in as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy, on Nov. 2, 2023.

Her confirmation made Franchetti not only the first woman to become the CNO and the first woman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but also the first CNO who was commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program.

Franchetti, a native of Rochester, New York, was commissioned in 1985 through the NROTC program at Northwestern University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. At the time, she had no idea she’d make history for the Navy.

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Pyxis Ocean, Sail-Assisted 80,000 DWT Bulk Carrier, Demonstrates Potential of Wind Power

Posted on by March 14, 2024

In August, we posted about the Pyxis Ocean, an 80,000 DWT bulk carrier, fitted with two WindWings®, a pioneering rigid wing technology, that had set sail on its maiden voyage from China to Brazil.

Now, six months later, Cargill announced the results of the test voyages of the Pyxis Ocean, underscoring the potential for wind-assisted propulsion technology in moving the shipping industry toward renewable energy use.

The MC Shipping Kamsarmax vessel retrofitted with two large solid wind sails developed by BAR Technologies – – achieved performance consistent with what was predicted, equivalent to an average of 3 tonnes of fuel per day.  The WindWings® were added to the six-year-old vessel with the aim of cutting fuel use by about 20% on the voyage, according to Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill Ocean Transportation, which chartered the Pyxis Ocean.

During optimal sailing conditions, the Pyxis Ocean achieved savings of more than 11t/day in fuel consumption, which translates to 41t/day less CO2e emitted well-to-wake, or a 37% emissions savings.

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Women’s History Month — Honoring Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper

Posted on by March 13, 2024

During Women’s History Month, it is good to remember and to honor Admiral Grace Hopper. Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a United States Navy Rear Admiral. Hopper received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. She was nicknamed “Amazing Grace” and is often referred to as the “mother of computing.” An updated repost.

In October of 2020, the U.S. Naval Academy officially opened Hopper Hall, the academy’s new center for cybersecurity studies, named in her honor.  The cybersecurity facility is the first building named after a woman at the three main service academies.

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With Drones and Missiles, Ukraine Wreaks Havoc on Russian Black Sea Fleet & Gets Navy Commander Fired

Posted on by March 12, 2024

Drone camera footage of the attack on the Russian missile corvette Ivanovets

Ukraine is a nation without a navy and yet has succeeded in wreaking havoc on the Russian Black Sea Fleet using high-tech sea drones and anti-ship missiles. The Ukrainians have continued to sink Russian warships, as recently as last week, resulting in the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy.  

As we noted in a post last August, when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, at least 100 Ukrainian Navy vessels, representing 75% of the Ukrainian naval fleet, were captured by Russian forces. In the Russian invasion of 2022, much of the remaining fleet was destroyed or scuttled to prevent capture.

Lacking ships, the Ukranians have developed drones, including high-tech sea drones, to counter the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with remarkable success.  Fighting back against the Russian fleet has limited the Russian’s ability to launch cruise missiles from the Black Sea against Ukrainian civilian and military targets. Challenging Russia’s naval superiority also has helped create more favorable conditions for Ukrainian grain exports and other shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports. 

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Congratulations to Cole Brauer, First American Woman to Race Solo Around the World

Posted on by March 11, 2024

Congratulations to Cole Brauer, who finished second in the Global Solo Challenge, becoming the first American woman to race solo nonstop around the world, traveling roughly 28,000 miles, in her 40′ sailboat First Light. 

Brauer, at 29 years old, was also the youngest and only woman in the fleet of 16 competitors that set sail in October from A Coruna, Spain.  She arrived back in A Coruna last Thursday after a 130-day circumnavigation, rounding the three great capes.

Standing at 5’2″ and weighing 100 pounds, she faced a grueling race in which more than half of the competitors have dropped out, so far. 

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Remembering Susan Ahn Cuddy, First Female Asian American Officer, Gunnery Instructor in US Navy

Posted on by March 8, 2024

As March is Women’s History Month, it seems appropriate to remember the life and accomplishments of Susan Ahn Cuddy, a Korean American who would serve as the first female Asian-American officer in the US Navy and would also become the first female Navy gunnery instructor.

After leaving the Navy at the end of World War II, Cuddy also worked as an intelligence analyst and section chief at the National Security Agency and ran a think tank during the Cold War. She worked on top-secret projects for the Defense Department and supervised more than 300 scholars and experts in Russian affairs.

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Missile & Drone Barrage Escalates as Three Killed in Houthi Missile Attack in Gulf of Aden

Posted on by March 8, 2024

A Houthi missile attack killed three seafarers on M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned, bulk carrier while transiting the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. The deaths are the first merchant mariner fatalities reported since the Iran-aligned Yemeni group began strikes against shipping in one of the world’s busiest trade lanes.

At least four other crew are reported to have been injured in the attack, which resulted in significant damage to the ship. The crew abandoned the ship and were assisted by coalition warships. 

CENTCOM reported that this was the fifth anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) fired by Houthis in a two-day period. Two of these ASBMs struck two shipping vessels – M/V MSC Sky II and M/V True Confidence – and one ASBM was shot down by USS Carney (DDG 64).  The Carney also shot down three suicide drones in the same attack.

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Women’s & Black History Months: Gladys West — Pioneer of GPS Technology

Posted on by March 7, 2024

In honor of both Women’s History Month and Black History Month, an updated repost about Gladys West.

From maps to apps to chartplotters, we all rely on GPS these days, sometimes whether we realize it or not. Ethan Siegel wrote in Forbes: Unbeknownst to most people, however, the science underlying this technology was primarily developed by two people: Albert Einstein, whose theories of special and general relativity both play an important role, and Gladys West, a still-living and largely unheralded Black woman whose scientific contributions enabled us to understand geodesy and the shape of the Earth well enough to make GPS technology possible.

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Battleship USS Texas Refloating in Drydock

Posted on by March 6, 2024

A drone video of the 110-year-old battleship USS Texas being refloated following repairs and refurbishment on the drydock at the Gulf Copper Shipyard in Galveston.  The Texas is the oldest remaining dreadnought battleship and only one of six surviving ships to have served in both World War I and World War II.

USS Texas Battleship Texas Refloating in Drydock

Women’s History Month — Remembering Winnie Breegle, WWII WAVE and Code Talker

Posted on by March 5, 2024

During Women’s History Month, it is a good time to honor Winnie Breegle who served in World War II as a WAVE (Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) cryptographer and a Navajo “Code Talker”, who didn’t happen to be a Navajo. Ms. Breegle passed away at the age of 100 on January 3, 2023. An updated repost.

In 1941, Winnie Breegle, a 21-year-old farm girl from Ohio taught Latin, Spanish, and English in high school, and women with such backgrounds were highly sought after for work as coders. When she enlisted in the Navy, she was trained as a cryptographer.

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When the Mail Arrives Late — Faroese Sweater Found in Parcel from 1807

Posted on by March 4, 2024

A red traditional Faroese knit sweater was recently found in a stash of 19th-century letters at the British National Archives in their Prize Papers collection. The sweater, or jumper in British parlance, handknitted in vibrantly colored fine wool, was intended for a woman in Denmark, but never reached its destination because the vessel on which it was shipped was seized by the British Navy during the Second Battle of Copenhagen.

On August 20, 1807, carpenter Niels C. Winther from Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands put a package aboard the ship Anne-Marie. The parcel was addressed to a Mr. P Ladsen in Copenhagen and included a letter, in Danish, that said, ‘my wife sends her regards, thank you for the pudding rice. She sends your fiancé this sweater and hopes that it is not displeasing to her.’ 

Mr. Ladsen’s fiancé never received the sweater. The Anne-Marie had sailed for Denmark with its captain Jurgen S Toxsvaerd unaware that war had broken out. She was targeted by HMS Defence off the coast of Norway on September 2, 1807, the day the British began bombarding Copenhagen. The British crew boarded the ship, imprisoned Toxsvaerd and his crew, and grabbed both the cargo and the ship’s mailbox.

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Solo Orca Attacks and Kills Great White Shark in Under Two Minutes Off South Africa

Posted on by March 3, 2024

Orcas attacking and killing sharks, even great white sharks, off the coast of South Africa is nothing new. A year ago, a pair of orcas killed 17 sharks in one day in South Africa’s Pearly Bay. More recently, scientists were stunned to observe video footage of a solitary orca hunting, killing, and eating the liver of a great white shark, in an “astonishing” attack that took place in less than two minutes. Scientists said it was “unprecedented” and showed the exceptional predatory skills of killer whales.

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Update: Bulker MV Rubymar Sinks After Being Struck by Houthi Missile Almost Two Weeks Ago

Posted on by March 2, 2024

On Sunday, February 18th, anti-ship ballistic missiles, launched by Houthi rebels from Yemen, struck the MV Rubymar, a  32,211 DWT, Belize-flagged, UK-owned, and Lebanese-operated bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The attack caused sufficient damage that the crew was forced to abandon the ship.

Today, Yemen’s internationally recognized government said that the ship had sunk in the Red Sea on Friday night. They warned that the ship’s cargo of fertilizer could pose an “environmental catastrophe” to the waterway.

The MV Rubymar is the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting commercial shipping in November, forcing shipping firms to divert vessels to the longer, more expensive route around southern Africa.

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Women’s History Month — Eleanor Creesy, Navigator of the Clipper Ship Flying Cloud

Posted on by March 1, 2024

On the first day of Women’s History Month, it is worth remembering Eleanor Creesy, the navigator of the clipper ship Flying Cloud, who with her husband, Captain Josiah Creesy, set world sailing records for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco. 

Eleanor Prentiss was born in 1814, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the daughter of a master mariner, who taught his daughter the art and science of navigation. Eleanor knew how to use a chronometer and a sextant and how to make a sight reduction. In 1841, Eleanor married Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy. The couple sailed together on the ship Oneida in the China trade. Josiah was captain of the ship but Eleanor was the navigator.

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Spanning Women’s & Black History Months: Remembering Raye Montague, Barrier-Shattering Navy Ship Designer

Posted on by February 29, 2024

Today, the 29th of February, is Leap Day, which seems to be a perfect opportunity to celebrate both February’s Black History Month and March’s Women’s History Month. As such, it is a good time to honor the memory of Raye Montague, a barrier-shattering naval engineer.

Recently, the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Carderock Division, also known as the David Taylor Model Basin, has renamed the Maritime Technical Information Center, a conference center used by Carderock employees and other government entities, as the Raye Montague Center for Maritime Technology. 

At the age of 7, Raye Montague was inspired to become an engineer after she toured a captured World War II German submarine with her grandmother.  As an African-American girl, however, she was told that becoming an engineer was simply not an option.

Thirty years later, Raye Montague became the first person to use a computer program to rapidly develop a preliminary ship design for the US Navy. The design process had previously taken the Navy two years. Montague completed the preliminary design of the Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate in less than 19 hours. Her accomplishment revolutionized the way the Navy designs ships and submarines. 

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Black History Month — Remembering the Golden Thirteen

Posted on by February 28, 2024

Twelve of the Golden Thirteen

As Black History Month winds to a close, here is a repost of a wonderful bit of history from the Naval History and Heritage Command — the story of the Golden Thirteen.

In January 1944, there were nearly 100,000 Black Sailors in the United States Navy, but none were officers. That would change when a group of sixteen Black enlisted men were assembled at Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, in Illinois for officer training that month.

The odds were initially stacked against them as there was still a strong sentiment within the Navy that African Americans could not succeed as officers. The normal officer training course was sixteen weeks, however, these men were expected to complete it in eight – a move that they believed was an attempt to set them up for failure.

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American Cruising Couple Feared Dead After Yacht Stolen in Grenada Prison Break

Posted on by February 27, 2024

Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, who have been married for 27 years, participated in a recent sailing club rally and were spending the winter in the Caribbean. Credit…via The Salty Dawg Sailing Association

Two liveaboard cruisers, Ralph Hendry, 66, and Kathy Brandel, 71, are missing and feared dead after their 48′ catamaran Simplicity was apparently stolen during a prison escape from Grenada by three men on February 19th.  On February 21, their boat was found at anchor in neighboring St Vincent and the Grenadines with no one aboard, but showing signs of foul play.

On Monday, the Royal Grenada Police Force confirmed that three prison escapees in Grenada made their getaway after they hijacked the catamaran with Mr Hendry and Ms Brandel aboard.

“Information suggests that, while traveling between Grenada and St. Vincent, they disposed of the occupants,” Commissioner Don McKenzie of the Royal Grenada Police Force said at a news conference on Monday. 

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Mechanics of Whale Song Revealed in New Study

Posted on by February 26, 2024

Artwork indicating the cartilages of the larynx in a humpback whale. Patricia Jaqueline Matic, Vienna

For centuries, sailors heard the sounds made by whales reverberating through the hulls of wooden ships. Arctic whalers dubbed beluga whales the “canaries of the seas” for their clicks, chirps, and whistles.  Nevertheless, it was long thought that whale noises were nothing more than expressive sounds or calls. That would change in 1967 when Roger Payne was on a research trip to Bermuda, along with a naval engineer who was documenting underwater sounds while listening out for sounds of Russian submarines.

He identified these sounds as humpback and other baleen whales singing to one another. Payne would produce the album “Songs of the Humpback Whale” in 1970. Exactly how they produce these complex, often haunting, songs has remained a mystery.

Now, more than fifty years later, researchers have established the biological mechanism by which baleen whales create their songs. In a paper, published recently in the journal Nature, scientists have identified a specialized “voice box” that has evolved in humpbacks and other baleen whales that enables them to sing underwater. Continue reading →

Black History Month: Absalom Boston, Whaling Ship Captain & Merchant

Posted on by February 25, 2024

Captain Absalom Boston

Over nearly three centuries of whaling, some 175,000 men went to sea in 2,700 ships. Of the 2,500 masters who captained these ships, at least 52 were men of color. In honor of Black History Month, here is an updated repost about Absalom Boston, captain of the whaleship Industry, which sailed in 1822 with an all-black crew. 

Absalom Boston was born in Nantucket in 1785 to Seneca Boston, an African-American ex-slave, and Thankful Micah, a Wampanoag Indian woman. Absalom Boston’s uncle was a slave named Prince Boston, who sailed on a whaling voyage in 1770. At the end of the voyage in 1773, Prince Boston’s white master, William Swain, a prominent Nantucket merchant, demanded that he turn over his earnings. Boston refused. He took Swain to court and with the support of prominent whaleship owner William Rotch, won his earnings and his freedom, becoming the first slave to be set free by a jury verdict.  The impact of the lawsuit effectively ended slavery on Nantucket.

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