Halloween Ghost Ship Roundup

Posted on by October 29, 2010

On this eve of the eve of All Hallows Eve, it seems worthwhile to list a few of the “ghost” ships open to the public on Halloween.

Hornet Ship of Spirits – This evening , on the historic aircraft carrier USS Hornet in  Alameda CA, there will be a presentation the real stories of the ghosts on the USS Hornet, followed on Saturday by a USS Hornet Monster Bash.

The Haunted Ship at the USS Salem – Spooky tours and events through Sunday on the heavy cruiser USS Salem in Quincy, MA.

Captain Fishsticker’s Ship of Horrors – Revival Burlesque is performing “Captain Fishsticker’s Ship of Horrors” tonight through Sunday on the lovely Barkentine Gazela in Philadelphia, PA.
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Maine Maritime Museum Kids Pirates Party

Posted on by October 29, 2010

Maine Maritime Museum in Bath is having its 15th Annual Pirates Party this Saturday, October 30, 2010 from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM.  They have filmed a rather remarkable commercial promoting the party, starring Tomm Tomlinson, a.k.a. Crudbeard, Barbara Tomlinson, better known as Bloodthirsty Barbara, and Jim Nelson, known to authorities as Black Jim Spudcake. The location is aboard the schooner Sherman Zwicker at Maine Maritime Museum.    Jim Nelson, when not in his role as Jim Spudcake,  is an award-winning author  of maritime fiction and non-fiction.  His history, George Washington’s Secret Navy, was the recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature.

Maine Maritime Museum – Pirate Party Promo 2010

Military ammunition discovered under Seattle cruise ship terminal

Posted on by October 28, 2010

The new cruise ship terminal at Pier 91 in the Port of Seattle appears to have been built over an old munitions terminal. Live high explosive ammunition dating back to World War II, and possibly earlier, has been found beneath the terminal berths.

Thanks to Dave Shirlaw for pointing out the article on the Marine History list.

Elderly woman, daughter find incredible ocean treasure

Posted on by October 28, 2010

This is a great story.   Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing it along.  Congratulations to Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother Jo,  two highly successful salvage divers.

Elderly woman, daughter find incredible ocean treasure

After decades of hunting for treasure along Florida’s coasts, a woman and her elderly mother have made the find of a lifetime.

Bonnie Schubert and her 87-year old mother Jo were diving near Frederick Douglass Beach when they made the discovery: a 22-carat solid gold bird, a relic which they believe dates back to the lost Spanish Fleet of 1715.
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The Mystery of the Novorossiysk

Posted on by October 28, 2010

Fifty five years ago today, on October 29th 1955, the battleship Novorossiysk, flagship of the Soviet  Black Sea fleet, moored in Sevastopol Bay, was shattered by a powerful explosion which caused the ship to capsize and sink.  Over six hundred sailors lost their lives.  The cause of the explosion remains a mystery to this day.   The sinking itself remained classified until the late 1980s. Theories of what sank the ship include an explosion by a German limpet mine left over from WWII, a torpedo attack from an unknown submarine as well as sabotage by the Italians, the English or the KGB.   So far no explanation has yielded a fully plausible explanation for the sinking.   The ship was raised in 1957 and scrapped.

The mystery of the Novorossiysk
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Honor Frost – Pioneer of Underwater Archaeology

Posted on by October 27, 2010

Honor Frost had many talents – as artist, ballet designer, scholar, writer and publicist, to name a few – but her consuming passion was the world beneath the oceans. Honor, who has died aged 92, initiated underwater archaeology as a serious field for study, and pioneered its pursuit as a scientific discipline.
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Ooops, the Blocks Don’t Fit – Construction Glitch hits $8bn Aussie Navy Project

Posted on by October 27, 2010

HMS Hobart, artist's conception

In the good (or bad) old days, ships were built from the keel up, with the frames rising from the keel, and the plating or planking secured over the frames.   These days ships are built in modules, large blocks of  steel with piping, wiring and coatings  already in place.   The blocks are then welded together and a new ship emerges. It is all highly complicated but extremely efficient, at least until there is a mistake.  In the construction of the HMAS Hobart,  the shipyards building the modules  discovered that their blocks don’t fit together.

$8bn navy flagship founders after construction bungle
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Factory Fishing Ship Athena on Fire in the Atlantic

Posted on by October 27, 2010

The factory fishing ship Athena caught fire early today in the Atlantic, 230 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly. Eighty one non-essential personnel were evacuated to liferafts and subsequently rescued as the  remaining  30 aboard fought the fire, which is now reported to be under control but not extinguished.  The Athena was built in 1992, but was rebuilt in China this year due to damage from a previous fire.

Ship fire crew rescued from life-rafts in Atlantic
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Robert Bourne, Radioman in the Battle Between Navy Blimp and German sub

Posted on by October 26, 2010

Robert Bourne

Robert Bourne, who died on Oct. 13, at the age of 88, was the radioman on the Navy blimp, Airship K-74, on anti-submarine patrol off the southeast coast of Florida on the night of July 18, 1943.  The lookout spotted a German submarine heading for two merchant ships.  The blimp was intended to be observes and to generally avoid combat, but was equipped with 50 caliber machine guns and depth charges.  As the submarine was about to attack the two merchant ships, the blimps’ commander Lt. Nelson Grills decided to engage the submarine, U-134.  In the battle, the submarine was damaged but succeeded in the blimp down.  Radioman Bourne sent out several mayday warnings before all 10 crew members swam out of the flooded gondola. One sailor died after being attacked by a shark. The rest of the crew was rescued.   It was the only battle between a blimp and submarine in the Navy’s history. U-134 was sunk on August 24, 1943 near Vigo, Spain by six depth charges from a British Vickers Wellington aircraft.

Palm Harbor’s Robert Bourne survived historic battle between blimp, German sub

Ship Rams Mark the Site of Ancient Mediterranean Sea Battle

Posted on by October 26, 2010

All that remains to mark the site of the final sea battle of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, around 241 BC, are the great bronze rams left behind after the rest of the sunken ships have rotten away in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea.   The sea battle and the First Punic War, in general, were victories for Rome, marking its ascent, and Carthage’s decline as regional powers.    Three rams have now been found near the island of Levanzo, west of Sicily.

Ancient shipwreck points to site of major Roman battle
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MV Beluga Fortune Foils Pirates, MV York Not so Fortunate

Posted on by October 25, 2010

MV Beluga Fortune

Over the weekend, Somali pirates seized two ships in two days.  On Saturday, pirates seized the MV York, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker, off the coast of Kenya.   On Sunday, pirates seized the MV Beluga Fortune about 1,200 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya.  The crew of the MV Beluga Fortune locked themselves in a panic room, switched off the main engine, cut off the fuel supply, blocked the bridge and reported the Indian Ocean attack to military forces.  When the rescue team arrived today, the pirates had already abandoned the ship.

Forces free seized German cargo ship off Africa

Royal Caribbean Opens L’Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean in Haiti

Posted on by October 25, 2010

RCCL Cruise ship at Labadie, Haiti

The news from Haiti recently has been uniformly bad.  In addition to earthquake damage,  outbreaks of cholera are now sweeping the country. One bright spot is a new school, L’Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean.  Built by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, it is one of the first new schools to open after last January’s  earthquake.

Royal Caribbean announces opening of its new school in Haiti
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Could a rusty coin re-write Chinese-African history?

Posted on by October 25, 2010

In August we posted about a joint  Chinese-Kenyan expedition to locate the remains of a ship from the fleet of the legandary Chinese navigator, Zheng He.  The ship was said to have sunk off Kenya near Lamu.    Recently the team discovered Chinese pottery and an imperial coin in the Kenyan coastal village of Mambrui.

Could a rusty coin re-write Chinese-African history?
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Replacement Ferry for Princess Ashika and Another Ferry Tragedy in Indonesia

Posted on by October 24, 2010

Last week, the  MV Olovaha arrived in Nuku’alofa.  The MV Olovaha is a new interisland ferry built for Tonga to replace the Princess Ashika which sank last July with a loss of 74 passengers and crew.   The ferry was built in Japan with Japanese funds.

Ferry arrives to replace Princess Ashika

In seperate, though related news,  last week,  another ferry boat in Indonesia sank in bad weather.  Twelve people are still reported to be missing.

Indonesia ferry mishap caused by weather

New Russian Masts on HMS Belfast – The Last Convoy Escort

Posted on by October 24, 2010

New Masts for HMS Belfast

The HMS Belfast, a Royal Navy light cruiser, now a museum ship on the Thames, is the last surviving  escort ship from the Arctic convoy run to Russia during World War II.  Last week, in a ceremony attended by HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, and the Head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergey Naryshkin, new masts, fabricated in the “Severnaya Verf” shipyard in St. Petersburg, Russia, were unveiled.

Russian and British Veterans of the Arctic Convoys Celebrated the Unveiling of Russian Masts on HMS Belfast in London
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HMS Astute Update

Posted on by October 23, 2010

It had all the elements of bad farce.  The HMS Astute is Britain’s newest, stealthiest and no doubt most expensive submarine.  As described by the BBC, “Aside from attack capabilities, it is able to sit in waters off the coast undetected, delivering the UK’s special forces where needed or even listening to mobile phone conversations.”    After running hard aground on a shingle bank near the Skye Bridge on the Isle of Skye, becoming the subject of YouTube videos and the front page of the New York Times web site as well as hundreds of other news outlets, stealthy was not the first word that came to mind.  “Undetected,” she was definitely not.
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Model of HMS Victory carved from HMS Victory

Posted on by October 23, 2010

We previously posted about a model of the Mayflower crafted from timber believed to used on the original ship that carried the Pilgrims to America.   Alaric Bond passed along an article about a model of the HMS Victory by sculptor and woodcarver Ian G Brennan carved from original centuries old oak beams removed from HMS Victory’s lower gun deck during the restoration program in 1991.  Beautiful work.

HMS Victory sculpture

HMS Astute: British Nuclear Submarine Aground off Skye

Posted on by October 22, 2010

Embarrassing and rather bad timing.  Billed as the “world’s most advanced nuclear submarine,” the recently christened HMS Astute ran aground this morning off the Isle of Skye.

Nuclear submarine runs aground

HMS Astute: world’s most advanced nuclear submarine runs aground
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Trafalgar Day plus One – the Smallest Royal Navy Since Henry VIII

Posted on by October 22, 2010

Photo: AP

The announced British budget cuts will slash spending across the board but will hit the Royal Navy hardest of all of the military services.

Anchors away: Britain’s once-proud navy falls prey to budget cuts

In all the carnage, the worst damage, at least to the island’s national pride, is the torpedoing of the Navy. For a kingdom defined by its sea battles, heroes, and ships, Britain is witnessing a humiliating shrinkage of its once-world-conquering maritime force. In the next five years, it will lose four ships (bringing the total to 19), 5,000 personnel (down to 30,000), and perhaps, most ignominiously, will soon have two aircraft carriers with no aircraft to outfit them.

In a final appeal to the National Security Council, navy chiefs offered to make cuts that would reduce the senior service to its smallest since the time of Henry VIII.
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South China Braces for “Super-Typhoon” Megi

Posted on by October 22, 2010

After killing more than 20 people in the Philippines and lashing Taiwan, where dozens are reported missing, “super-typhoon” Megi is poised to make landfall in South China today or Saturday.  Typhoon Megi is the the strongest storm to hit the region in more than a decade.

Southern China awaits slow-moving super-typhoon
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