Conrad on Nelson at Trafalgar

Posted on by October 21, 2010

Joseph Conrad

The final essay in Joseph Conrad’s wonderful, if somewhat odd book, The Mirror of the Sea,  is entitled “The Heroic Age.”  It starts out rather disappointingly as a paean to Nelson.  There is nothing wrong with praising Nelson, except that everyone does it, so another bit of hagiography doesn’t necessarily add  anything new.

Then, well into the essay,  Conrad does something rather remarkable.  He wonders what would have happened if the wind had shifted on that morning of the 21st of October.
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Horatio Nelson ‘was French football captain’, say children

Posted on by October 21, 2010

Horatio Nelson ‘was French football captain’, say children

Research carried out to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar shows many schoolchildren believe that Horatio Nelson was captain of the French national football team in the 1990s.

Almost one-in-four also said that ships evacuated British troops from Dover – not Dunkirk – during World War Two, Walter Raleigh invented the bicycle, Captain James Cook was the captain of the Starship Enterprise and Christopher Columbus discovered gravity.
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Eyewitness to Trafalgar 205 Years Ago Today

Posted on by October 21, 2010

A letter which only recently resurfaced gives an ordinary seaman’s view of the famous battle which was fought 205 years ago today.

‘They won’t send their fleets out again in a hurry’: Remarkable letter from hero who survived the Battle of Trafalgar
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An Ill-fated Cruise for the Costa Classica

Posted on by October 20, 2010

The Costa Classica‘s current cruise has not gone well.   First, on a stop at Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju, 44 Chinese tourists abandoned the tour group en masse.   South Korean police have located eleven of the group, but 33 remain unaccounted for.  Jeju has been a frequent stopover for illegal immigrants from China seeking employment in Korea.

44 Chinese Tourists Abandon Tour Group in Jeju

Then early yesterday, the ship collided with a cargo vessel at the mouth of the Yangtze River.  The collision left a gash over 60 feet long in the side of the ship.  Three passengers where taken to the hospital.  Other minor injuries were also reported.

Three people hospitalised after cruise ship collides with cargo vessel in Asia

Attempts to Preserve the Prehistoric Hasholme Boat Fail So Far

Posted on by October 20, 2010

The Hasholme boat, discovered in 1984 in a former inlet of the Humber estuary near Holme on Spalding Moor, dates from the late Iron Age ( 750-390 BC ). The boat was cut from a single oak tree and was originally roughly 42 feet long (12.87 m), with a beam of 4.6 feet (1.4 m) and a depth of 4.1 feet (1.25 m).   Now after attempts to preserve the boat by spraying it with chemical wax preservative have failed, archeologists are considering allowing the boat to air dry.

Experts forced into rethink after bid to preserve prehistoric Hasholme Boat fails
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Patton’s Schooner “When and If” to be Sold

Posted on by October 20, 2010

When and If

In 1939 then Colonel General George S. Patton had a 63’5″ John Alden designed schooner built for himself and his wife.  Another world war was looming on the horizon and Patton said that he planned to sail the schooner, “When the war is over, and if I survive.”  He named the schooner “When and If.“ Ironically, Patton survived the fighting but died in a traffic accident just as the war ended.
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New UK Aircraft Carrier Never to Carry Planes and to Sail to Lay-up?

Posted on by October 19, 2010

This morning we posted about the possibility of the immediate lay-up of the UK’s flagship, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. We now read that one of the two new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and may sail  into lay-up or be put up for sale, shortly after she is delivered.

Navy aircraft carrier will be sold after three years – and never carry jets
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HMS Ark Royal to be Scrapped Early?

Posted on by October 19, 2010

HMS Ark Royal

If  the recommendations of a UK defense review are implemented, Britain will have the same capacity to launch aircraft from ships as Nelson did, which is to say, none at all, prior to 2019 when new aircraft carriers come into service.

Defence review: HMS Ark Royal to be scrapped
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Slippery Ships That Float on Air?

Posted on by October 19, 2010

NYK Yamatai

Two years ago, an article appeared in Scientific American, Slippery Ships That Float on Air, describing the various attempts to reduce frictional resistance on ship’s hulls by injecting air bubbles or introducing pockets of air beneath the hull.  At the time, the research looked promising but had failed to develop a fully practical technique.

Now Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd may have gotten closer to getting it right.  Earlier this year they launched the NYK-Hinode Line heavy lift ship/module carrier Yamatai equipped with the the proprietary Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System (MALS) designed to reduce frictional resistance by injecting air bubbles beneath the hull.   The Yamatai is the the world’s first application of an air-blow type air lubrication system on an ocean-going vessel for permanent use.    Testing is now ongoing.
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Brooklyn Navy Yard Visitors Center to Open in 2011

Posted on by October 18, 2010

The Brooklyn Navy Yard, in New York on the East River in Wallabout Basin,  has always seemed to me to be equal parts working industrial park, living museum, and ghost town.   The land was purchased by the Federal government in 1801 and it became an active U.S. Navy shipyard by 1806.

An effort is being made not to lose the history of the shipyard.  A new exhibition and visitors center is now under construction in the old Building 92 and is slated to open in late 2011.   The 1857 Marine Commandant’s House is also under restoration and will feature a six-gallery exhibit.

Inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Over 100 ships were built at the yard. At its peak, during World War II, the yard employed 70,000 people.  The yard was sold to the City of New York in 1966 and space is currently leased to over 200 companies employing around 5,000 people.  The tenants include dry-docking and ship terminal services.

King’s Point Summerwind Wins Chesapeake Bay Great Schooner Race

Posted on by October 18, 2010

King's Point schooner Summerwind

The  Summerwind, a 1929 Alden schooner, donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point just last year by Mr. and Mrs. J. Don Williamson,  won the Class AA division of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race on corrected time.  The other top contenders in Class AA (rated length greater than 50 feet) were the Pride of Baltimore II and the Lynx, both sharp built privateer replicas.   Congratualtions to King’s Point.  A very impressive performance.

Cash-strapped Schooner Virginia appears dead in the water

Posted on by October 17, 2010

In 2007 the schooner Virginia won the great Chesapeake Bay Schooner race, establishing a record time which remains unbeaten.   This year, sadly, while the other schooners raced, she remained tied to a dock in  Norfolk, Virginia.

Cash-strapped Schooner Virginia appears dead in the water
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The Velux 5 Oceans Eco 60, an “affordable” ocean racer?

Posted on by October 17, 2010

American Brad Van Liew's Eco 60, Le Pingouin

Six sailors have crossed the starting line on the Velux 5 Oceans single-handed around the word race.  They are all sailing Eco 60 class sailboats.  As the race begins we thought it worthwhile to take a look at this “new” class of ocean racing sailboat, that looks somehow familiar.
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Man O’War Gunpowder Rum – Explosive Fire Water

Posted on by October 16, 2010

The story goes that the pirate, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, once mixed gunpowder in his rum, set the rum on fire and then drank the explosive mixture, sort of an early 18th century flaming jello shot, but with more incendiary and less jello.    It seems that a New Zealand bartender, Ben Simpson at Motel Bar in Wellington, was inspired by Blackbeard to develop his  Man O’War Gunpowder Rum, a tobacco, chilli, and gunpowder infused rum which may either put hair on your chest or just possibly set it on fire.
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Rogue Wave, 1905, and the Squarerigger British Isles

Posted on by October 16, 2010

British Isles

We recently have had several posts regarding rogue waves – a review of Susan Casey’s new book The Wave and the BBC Documentary  Freak Waves.   Oceanographers generally dismissed reports of rogue waves as wild exaggerations or “sea stories,” until a rogue wave was documented hitting the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway on January 1, 1995.   While rogue waves may not have been scientifically documented until 1995, ships’ captains have been reporting them for many decades.   Here is an account of a rogue wave from the deck of  three masted windjammer British Isles attempting to round Cape Horn in the winter of 1905.  The account sounds almost exactly like the descriptions given in the BBC documentary by two ship’s captains of cruise ships struck by rogue waves almost a hundred years later.

From Captain James P. Barker’s memoir, The Log of a Limejuicer:

At that moment the moon, which had been hidden behind a thick blanket of scurrying clouds, broke through a rift to reveal a scene which caused me to gasp with astonishment and awe. . . . There, stretching endlessly north and south, a mighty wall of water, towering high above its fellows and making them appear insignificant by comparison, was rolling towards the British Isles.
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Blog Action Day – Talking About the Tough Problems: Ocean Acidification

Posted on by October 15, 2010

Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers around the wold  are posting about a common theme – water.  Most, no doubt, will be blogging about the almost a billion people in the world who do not have access to clean drinking water.   This is an immediate problem which should be addressed.  I have decided to blog to about another problem, not quite so immediate and not as easy to understand but still a serious threat to all of us – ocean acidification.

Ocean acidification is one of those terms that could easily put you to sleep or at least cause your eyes to glaze over.  Nevertheless, if the scientists are correct, ocean acidification could result in the death of the worlds coral reefs by 2100.  Likewise, the real threat to whales in the Southern Oceans are not Japanese whalers, but the possible widespread death of krill that are the whales food supply, due again to ocean acidification.  Ocean acidification could cause a wholesale collapse of the ocean ecosystem.   The effects on those us on shore would be equally disastrous.

What is ocean acidification?   From the BBC:
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On the SA Agulhas, All Woman Crew Makes History

Posted on by October 15, 2010

The SA Agulhas is South Africa’s ice-strengthened polar research vessel.  The ship recently completed a five day voyage with an all woman crew and on her arrival in Port Elizabeth Harbor was guided into port by a woman harbor pilot.   As part of National Water Week, the SA Agulhas sailed from Cape Town to Durban with an all-female crew recruited from various shipping companies.

All-women SA crew sails into history books
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Blog Action Day 2010 – Water

Posted on by October 14, 2010

Tomorrow is International Blog Action Day, when bloggers around the world get together to blog about a common theme.  This year that theme is clean water.  Will a few thousand, or even hundreds of thousands, of the chattering class posting about clean water do any real magic? Somehow, I am skeptical.  Then again, can it do any harm? Probably not.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water

Model Mayflower Fashioned from Actual Ship’s Timber

Posted on by October 14, 2010

Attorney David Leslie-Hughes with model of the Mayflower

Today in the Bucks County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, a 20-inch-long and 22-inch-tall model of the Mayflower, the ship that carried English separatists, known as Pilgrims, to Massachusetts in 1620,  will go on public display for the first time in the United States.  The model is said to be built from a plank from the original ship.   The display is part of a local historian’s presentation on the lives of William Penn and his father.  What does the Mayflower have to do with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania?  Not a lot, but there is a tangential connection. William Penn died in Ruscombe, and was buried in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house, which happens to be a few hundred yards from the “Mayflower Barn.”  The barn is said to have been built from the planking and timbers of the Mayflower of 1620.  In the 1930s, members of the national Quaker society removed a piece of timber from the barn and commissioned a model maker to craft three replicas of the Mayflower, one of which is being displayed today in Buck’s  County.

Model Mayflower fashioned from actual ship’s timber

21st Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

Posted on by October 13, 2010

Around Fells Point and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor will be a glorious place for any schooner lover to be this evening.   There will be a parade of sail of the over forty schooners who are participating the 21st Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race starting at 1700.  Tomorrow the race from Baltimore to Portsmouth, Virgina starts at 1300.   This year, transponders installed on the racing schooners will allow spectators on the internet to follow the race down the bay on-line.  Click here to see more.

To celebrate the arrival of the schooners, Portsmouth Virginia is sponsoring its Schooner Days –  a celebration of the world’s largest gathering of schooners along the waterfront of Olde Towne Portsmouth.