Update: Superyacht Scheherazade Impounded By Italian Authorities, Ties to Putin Suspected

Posted on by May 11, 2022

In early March we posted The Mystery of the Superyacht Scheherazade — Who is the Owner?. The 495′ long superyacht, valued at $700 million, was drydocked undergoing repairs in Marina di Carrara, a small Italian town on the Tuscan coast. Recently, as the yacht came off the dock and may have been making preparations to leave, it was impounded by Italian authorities.

The Washington Post reports that in announcing its action, Italy’s Finance Ministry said the yacht’s owner had “prominent” links with Russians already under European Union sanctions. The name of the owner was not specified, and Italy said only that its government had asked the E.U. to add the person to its sanctions list.

Continue reading →

Repost: Sailors’ Tattoos on Mother’s Day

Posted on by May 8, 2022

An updated repost appropriate for Mother’s Day.

Sailors choose their tattoos for various reasons. Among the most popular sailor tattoos are anchors, hearts, and swallows.  Not infrequently, “Mom” also made an appearance as a reminder of loved ones and home.  On Mother’s Day, it seems appropriate to look at sailors’ tattoos that reminded them of “Mom.”

Remy Melina, in the Live Science blog, writes about the popularity of “I Love Mom” tattoos:  The “I Love Mom” tattoo first became popular during World War II. As they traveled around the world, U.S. Navy sailors got tattoos to document their achievements and memories. Tattoo parlors began to pop up near military bases and patriotic tattoos came into vogue, according to John Gray’s book “I Love Mom: An Irreverent History of the Tattoo.” Continue reading →

The War in the Black Sea — Ukrainians Hit Russian Patrol Boats, Landing Craft, and Possibly a Frigate

Posted on by May 7, 2022

Admiral Makarov

As brutal combat continues in the eastern part of Ukraine, the war in the Black Sea continues to heat up.

Three weeks ago, Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit and subsequently sank the guided-missile cruiser and the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, Moskva.  Previously, Ukrainian missiles destroyed the Russian Alligator Class landing ship Orsk in the occupied Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk.

Last week, the Ukrainian military released video of the two Russian Raptor-class patrol boats operating near Snake Island, being blown up in attacks by Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drones.

Continue reading →

Dentist Visit Helps Locate Site of Punic War Naval Battle of 241 BC

Posted on by May 6, 2022

An intriguing account by the BBC of archeological serendipity that began with a trip to the dentist. 

The Battle of the Aegates was a naval battle fought on 10 March 241 BC between the fleets of Carthage and Rome during the First Punic War. The Roman fleet’s victory ended the 23-year-long war and established Rome’s dominance over the Mediterranean, which would last for almost 700 years.

While the battle took place near the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily, archaeologists had never located exactly where the battle took place. According to legend, the battle took place near Cala Rossa, a cove on the island of Favignana – the largest of the Aegadian Islands. Cala Rossa is so-called because of the intense color of the rocks, which were said to have been dyed by the blood of the Carthaginians who died in the battle. In reality, it is simply red algae that have colored the rocks. Researchers searching nearby found no trace of the battle.

In the early 2000s, the late archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa was visiting the home of a dental surgeon in the town of Trapani when he noticed a ram bow, the bronze beak of a Roman ship, known as a rostrum, on display. Continue reading →

Carnival Spirit Personnel Overwhelmed by COVID-19 Cases

Posted on by May 5, 2022

Is the cruise industry ready to get back to business in the “new normal” of the late pandemic or will cruise ships remain the floating Petri dishes that typified some ships in the early part of the COVID-19 outbreak? Unfortunately, a recent 16-day voyage from Miami to Seattle via the Panama Canal on the 3,000-passenger Carnival Spirit does not provide an encouraging answer to the question.

While Carnival would not comment on the number of cases, passengers on the Carnival Spirit that docked Tuesday in Seattle say more than 100 people aboard the ship tested positive for COVID-19, despite testing and a vaccination rate above 95%.  As alarming as the number of cases may be, passengers also recount that the ship was not prepared to manage the outbreak, that infected passengers were not properly isolated, and that the staff was overwhelmed.

Continue reading →

Texas Oysters Devastated by Floods, Droughts, and Hurricanes

Posted on by May 4, 2022

The cumulative impact of hurricanes, floods, drought, and oil spills has had a devastating impact on Texas oyster beds. Across the Gulf Coast region, an estimated 50-85% of the original oyster reefs have disappeared, according to a report by the Nature Conservancy. This has a major impact because the Gulf Coast region produces 45% of the nation’s $250 million oyster industry, according to NOAA fisheries. In Texas, the industry contributes an estimated $50 million to the state economy.

NPR reports that 25 of Texas’ 27 harvesting areas are already closed. The season normally runs from Nov. 1 through April 30, but many of the areas have been closed since mid-December – a move the state says is necessary for future sustainability.

Continue reading →

More Than 200 Sailors Moved Off Carrier USS George Washington Following Multiple Suicides

Posted on by May 3, 2022

CNN reports that more than 200 sailors have moved off the USS George Washington aircraft carrier after multiple deaths by suicide among the crew, including three in less than one week in April, according to the Navy.

The sailors are moving to a local Navy installation as the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier continues to go through a years-long refueling and overhaul process at the shipyard in Newport News in Virginia. Over the past 12 months, seven members of the crew have died, including four by suicide, prompting the Navy to open an investigation into the command climate and culture onboard the Nimitz-class carrier.

In addition to the four suicides in the past year, three more sailors assigned to the carrier died by suicide in 2019 and 2020. The carrier has been docked at Newport News Shipbuilding for a major overhaul since 2017.

Continue reading →

First New Polar Icebreaker Delivery Delayed Until 2025

Posted on by May 2, 2022

In 2019, we posted that US Coast Guard was finally getting an appropriation to build three new heavy polar icebreakers, followed by the construction of three new medium polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard currently has one heavy icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star, which is 46 years old and has suffered repeated breakdowns. It has been kept operating primarily by scavenging from a sister ship, Polar Sea which has not been in service since 2010. The Coast Guard also has one medium icebreaker, the ten-year-old USCGC Healy.

The first new icebreaker was due to be delivered in 2024. Last fall, however, the Coast Guard announced that delays due to the pandemic and design-related work will push the first new icebreaker to an expected 2025 delivery date, as reported by National Defense Magazine. 

Continue reading →

Russia Using Trained Dolphins to Patrol Protect Black Sea Naval Base

Posted on by May 1, 2022

Satellite photographs show Russia has deployed trained dolphins at the entrance to the key Black Sea port of Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet. The dolphins are likely to be trained to intercept Ukrainian divers attempting to sabotage Russian ships.

Both the Russian and the US navies have a long history of training marine mammals for military use. During the Cold War, Russia used trained dolphins to protect ships as part of the Soviet Navy’s marine mammal program. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dolphins were transferred to Ukraine but with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the unit came under Russian Navy control. 
 
Continue reading →

SV Kwai — Low Carbon Sea Transport Project in the Marshall Islands

Posted on by April 29, 2022

The sailing cargo ship SV Kwai has been owned by the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) since January 2021, as one element of the island archipelago’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This multi-faceted RMI effort is being supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (the German international development agency known as GIZ) as well as the German Ministry of the Environment. The Marshall Islands Shipping Corporation chartered SV Kwai for four months between September and December 2020 to test its capacity and seaworthiness in island waters.

The SV Kwai is 43 meters (140 ft), with a beam of 7 meters (23 ft), draws 3 meters (10 ft), has a tonnage of 179 RT and is ketch rigged. While equipped with a main engine and generator, the goal is to operate under sail 90% of the time.

Here is a short video about SV Kwai and the RMI 2050 Climate Strategy.

SV Kwai: GIZ Low Carbon Sea Transport Project in the Marshall Islands

Aussie Archeologists Claim To Locate Cook’s Endeavour in Newport Harbor, Local Experts Unconvinced

Posted on by April 28, 2022

Endeavour replica, Image: ANMM

The question is not so much whether the wreck of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour rests at the bottom of the harbor in Newport, RI, but rather which of several wrecks it may be.  The Endeavour, renamed Lord Sandwich and outfitted as a troop transport, was scuttled in Newport harbor with 12 other ships to attempt to blockade the French fleet in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, in 1778. 

For over twenty years, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) has been working to determine which pile of rotting timbers and ballast stones is indeed Endeavour.

In February, Australian National Maritime Museum’s (ANMM) CEO Kevin Sumption claimed  “conclusively” that one of the wrecks in Newport Harbour was, in fact, the British explorer’s Endeavour. Local archaeologists say “not so fast.”

Continue reading →

Climbing Up the Rigging on the Cutty Sark & Zip-Lining Down

Posted on by April 27, 2022

We recently posted a video about climbing the rig on the Götheborg of Sweden. Here is an interesting application of “high ropes course” techniques and technology to allow the public to safely climb to the maintop and out on a yard on the historic clipper ship Cutty Sark, in drydock in Greenwich, UK. And, as is often typical in ropes courses, participants come down by zip line. Click here to learn more.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.

A chance to climb the Cutty Sark rigging (UK)

Update: Attempt to Refloat Museum Ship USS The Sullivans Underway

Posted on by April 26, 2022

A week ago last Thursday, the museum ship, the USS The Sullivans in the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park began to take on water and partially sank at her berth. Naval Park Director of Museum Collections and Curator Shane Stephenson provided an update on the status of USS The Sullivans Sunday evening via YouTube. 

He reported that crews were “test pumping” areas on USS The Sullivans, preparing for the actual pumping to raise the ship. Stephenson said that will likely occur within the next two or three days.

Continue reading →

Remains of 4,000-Year-Old Mesopotamian Boat Discovered

Posted on by April 17, 2022

Photo: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut

When the burial ship at Sutton Hoo in the UK was uncovered in 1939, the ship itself was missing. The wooden planks and frames of the ship, dating from around 600 AD, had rotted away. Nevertheless, an almost intact impression of the hull was left in the hard-packed soil.

Now the remains of a Mesopotamian boat, estimated to date back 4,000 years, have been discovered. Like the Sutton Hoo ship, the organic material that made up the boat’s hull had rotted away, but the boat’s form was preserved by the waterproof coating of bitumen that had originally covered the hull.

The largely intact 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian boat was discovered in excavations of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk by a joint German-Iraqi team. The Deutsches Archäologisches Institut describes the boat as 23′ long and up to 4.5′ wide. It is not thicker than 3/8″ in many places. The organic remains are no longer preserved and are only visible as imprints in the bitumen. During the excavation, the boat was documented three-dimensionally by photogrammetry. The archaeological context shows that it sank at the bank of a river that has since silted up, probably about 4000 years ago, and was overlaid by sediments.

Continue reading →

Adolph Hitler’s Yachts — Part 2 : Ostwind and the Offshore Reef

Posted on by April 24, 2022

Nordwind, sister to Ostwind Image: ClassicSailboats.org

Yesterday we posted about the patrol ship, the Grille, described by some as “Hitler’s yacht.” Today we will look at a second vessel to bear the same title — the Ostwind.

In 1936, the German government had two racing sailboats built, the Ostwind and the Nordwind, reputedly because the German sailing team had performed poorly in the previous Olympics. The Ostwind was seized by the Americans in 1947, while the Nordwind was said to be taken by the British and renamed White Rose. The two sailboats were designed by Heinrich Gruber, a well-known naval architect of the day, and were 85′ overall. 

Was the Ostwind really Hitler’s yacht? It seems doubtful. There is allegedly a photograph of Hitler and his Mistress Eva Braun taken aboard the boat, but there is no real evidence that Hitler spent much time aboard. The legend of the Ostwind as Hitler’s yacht seem to spring up in the 1950s when the boat was in the United States and a group of investors attempted to raise money to restore the boat and make it a museum. Stories of romantic getaways on the yacht arose as did an account that Hitler had a special fondness for the boat and always referred to it as his “special lady.” These tales seemed to originate in the decades after the war, however.

Continue reading →

Adolph Hitler’s Yachts — Part 1: Aviso Grille & the New Jersey Repair Shop Toilet

Posted on by April 23, 2022

With the advent of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we have posted about superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs including several yachts that may or may not be owned by the dictator himself.  Here is a two-part post about yachts associated with another brutal despot — Adolph Hitler. 

Adolph Hitler does not seem to have been much of a yachtsman. He may have been too busy invading other countries and committing mass murder to spend much time aboard ships and boats. Nevertheless, at least one sailboat and one small ship have gone down in history labeled as “Hitler’s yachts.” Whether they deserved that designation is the subject of considerable disagreement. Both vessels are gone and yet remnants of each have stayed with us — in an artificial reef in the Atlantic off South Florida and, oddly enough, in the bathroom of an auto repair shop in South Jersey. 

Continue reading →

Repost: Swimming with Sea Lions in the Galapagos

Posted on by April 22, 2022

My wife and I took an incredible trip to the Galapagos in 2017. An updated repost.  We spent a week on Ecoventura‘s 83’ MY Eric and visited six of the more eastern islands of the archipelago. We saw many of the species of plants and animals that helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution as described in his “On the Origin of the Species” of 1859. One of our favorites were the nearly ubiquitous sea lions which we snorkeled with almost every day.

Shortly after we started snorkeling off the beach at Punta Pitt on San Cristobal, on our first full day in the Galapagos, several sea lion pups swam over to play.  We were barely in waist deep water before two pups began literally swimming circles around us. The short video we shot is below. 

Continue reading →

Repost: Swimming with Galápagos Green Sea Turtles

Posted on by April 12, 2022

An updated repost. Like so many other species, Galápagos green sea turtles are unique to the archipelago. Here is a short video of snorkeling with Galápagos green sea turtles off Punto Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos in early November, 2017. 

Galápagos Sea Green Turtles, Floreana Island, Galapagos

Nautical Coincidence & Lifeboat Morality – Richard Parker and the Mignonette

Posted on by April 12, 2022

Here is another old favorite, a companion repost to yesterday’s repost of “The Unsinkable Hugh Williams – Truth Behind the Legend?”

We recently posted in response to a video, “The Strangest Coincidence Ever Recorded?.”  It recounted how three men named Hugh Williams were each the only survivors of shipwrecks in the treacherousness Menai Straits off North Wales. More remarkably, two of the Hugh Williams escaped from shipwrecks on the same day,  December 5th separated by over a hundred years.  The video claimed that all three Hugh Williams’ ships sank on December 5th, but that was not the case.  And Hugh Williams is a very common name in North Wales, so while it is a remarkable coincidence, it doesn’t quite rank as the “strangest ever recorded.”

On the topic of nautical coincidences, Chris Quigley at the Quigley’s Cabinet blog, mentioned the Mignonette coincidence.  All that we can say is, Hugh Williams meet Richard Parker.  The case of Richard Parker and the Mignonette does indeed involve coincidence but the story remains compelling because it raises issues of morality that are very tricky to address, even to this day.

Continue reading →

Repost: The Unsinkable Hugh Williams – Truth Behind the Legend?

Posted on by April 19, 2022

I am traveling this week, so it seems like a good time to repost an old blog favorite, the remarkable story of the unsinkable Hugh Williams.

There is a video bouncing around the web these days called “The Strangest Coincidence Ever Recorded?”   (The video is embedded at the bottom of the post.) It tells the story of a ship that sank in the Menai Strait off the coast of Wales on December 5, 1664. All 81 passengers died, except one. His name was Hugh Williams. Then on December 5th, 1785 another ship with 60 aboard sank in the Menai Strait. The only survivor – a man named Hugh Williams. In 1820 on December 5th, a third vessel sank in the Menai Strait. All 25 aboard were drowned except, you guessed it, a man named Hugh Williams.

An amazing tale, but is it history or just an oft retold sea story?   It could easily be a bit of each.

Continue reading →