Toronto’s 161st Annual Top Hat Ceremony Celebrates the First Ship of Spring

Posted on by March 30, 2022

PortsToronto Assistant Manager of Harbour Operations Helen Oel “crowns” Captain Dorde Perovic of the MV Chestnut during the Port of Toronto’s 161st annual Top Hat Ceremony. (CNW Group/PortsToronto)

Some watch for the first robin to signify the arrival of Spring. In the Port of Toronto, Canada, the coming of spring has been marked by the arrival of the first ocean-going ship of the season; an arrival that has been celebrated for the last 161 years by the crowning of the ship’s captain with a top hat. This year, PortsToronto “crowned” Captain Dorde Perovic of the MV Chestnut with an antique top hat – first presented in the spring of 1861– at the annual Top Hat Ceremony.

As reported by Yahoo, appropriate precautions were taken to ensure that this longstanding tradition could safely take place given ongoing, albeit reduced, public health restrictions. Captain Dorde Perovic participated in the ceremony from the bridge of the MV Chestnut while PortsToronto Assistant Manager of Harbour Operations, Helen Oel, remained on the dock wall.

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China and Solomon Islands Draft Secret Security Pact, Raising Concerns in the Pacific

Posted on by March 26, 2022

The New York Times reports that a leaked document has revealed that China and the Solomon Islands are close to signing a security agreement that could open the door to Chinese troops and naval warships flowing into a Pacific Island nation that played a pivotal role in World War II.

The agreement, kept secret until now, was shared online Thursday night by opponents of the deal and verified as legitimate by the Australian government. Though it is marked as a draft and cites a need for “social order” as a justification for sending Chinese forces, it has set off alarms throughout the Pacific, where concerns about China’s intentions have been growing for years.

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Great Barrier Reef Suffers Unprecedented Sixth Mass Coral Bleaching Event

Posted on by March 26, 2022

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been hit with a sixth mass coral bleaching event, the marine park’s authority has confirmed, with aerial surveys showing almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat, as reported by the Guardian.

The confirmation from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) marks an alarming milestone for the ocean icon, with 2022 going down as the first time mass bleaching has happened in a cooler La Niña year which scientists had hoped would be a period of recovery for corals.

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Conger Ice Shelf in Eastern Antarctica Collapses in Extreme Heat Wave

Posted on by March 28, 2022

Reuters reports that an East Antarctica ice shelf almost the size of Los Angeles disintegrated this month following a period of extreme heat in the region, according to scientists. Satellite images show the 1,200 square-kilometer Conger Ice Shelf collapsed completely on or around March 15.

The March heat wave, with temperatures reaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) above normal in parts of East Antarctica, was tied to the atmospheric river phenomenon, said Peter Neff, a glaciologist at the University of Minnesota.

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Japanese Singlehander Kenichi Horie, Setting Sail to Cross the Pacific at 83

Posted on by March 29, 2022

Sixty years after his first singlehanded Pacific crossing from Japan to San Francisco, Kenichi Horie is ready to go again. If all goes well, famed Japanese singlehander Kenichi Horie, 83, will set sail today from San Francisco bound for Japan. Horie, known as “Japan’s most famous yachtsman”, became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962, at the age of 23.

In 1962, Horie set off from Osaka and arrived in San Francisco 94 days later in his 19-foot plywood boat Mermaid. Traveling without a passport or money and little knowledge of English, Horie was briefly arrested on his arrival in San Francisco. Fortunately, the mayor intervened, saw to his release, and presented Horie with a visa and the key to the city.

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The Dual Discovery of the Whaling Brig Industry and Her Crew’s Fate Link to US Racial History

Posted on by March 25, 2022

Tryworks from whaling brig Industry

The shipwreck in 6,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, had first been spotted in 2011, by a geological data company scanning an oil lease area. The wreck was logged in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management database and left alone. The wreck was later seen again by an autonomous vehicle in 2017.

In February of 2022, while testing new equipment, SEARCH Inc., a firm that manages archaeological sites and artifacts, partnering with NOAA, identified the wreck as probably that of the whaling brig Industry, built in 1815 in Westport, Massachusetts, and lost in the Gulf of Mexico in 1836.

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Russian Landing Ship Destroyed by Ukrainian Attack in Occupied Port of Berdyansk

Posted on by March 24, 2022

The Ukrainian military claims to have destroyed the Russian Alligator Class landing ship Orsk in the Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, which Russia captured in late February. 

“The destroyed ship in Berdyansk could carry up to 20 tanks, 45 armored personnel carriers, and 400 paratroopers,” the Ukrainian deputy defense minister, Anna Malyar, said in a statement on Thursday. “This is a huge target that was hit by our military.”

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Ever Given : The Inside Story of the Ship That Broke Global Trade

Posted on by March 23, 2022

One year ago today, the ultra-large container ship Ever Given ran aground, blocking the Suez Canal for six days. The grounding resulted in a traffic jam of roughly 400 ships and cost an estimated $10 billion per day in lost commerce. Here is a short documentary about how and why the accident happened and what was done to free the ship and reopen the canal.

The Inside Story of the Ship That Broke Global Trade

Rediscovered Fossil of 10 Armed Vampire Squid Named after President Biden

Posted on by March 22, 2022

The fossil of Syllipsimopodi is from the Invertebrate Paleontology collections of the Royal Ontario Museum. Photo: Christopher Whalen

NPR reports that researchers say they have found the oldest known relative of octopuses and vampire squids, in a fossil dug up decades ago in Montana.

The official name of the newly discovered species is Syllipsimopodi bideni, named after President Joe Biden, in a nod to what the researchers say is his embrace of science.

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Update: Submarine USS Clamagore to be Scrapped

Posted on by March 21, 2022

The Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in South Carolina has decided after years of debate to scrap USS Clamagore, a Cold War-era submarine, and save some of its artifacts for an exhibit. 

“Unfortunately, we cannot financially sustain the maintenance of three historic vessels,” Rorie Cartier, executive director at Patriots Point, said in a statement after the vote. “The USS Yorktown and USS Laffey also need repair, and we are fighting a never-ending battle against the corrosion that comes from being submerged in saltwater.”

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Janet MacPherson, Pioneering Female Surfer, Dies at 84

Posted on by March 20, 2022

When Janet MacPherson started surfing around 1955, she was a rarity in a sport dominated by men. In those days, male surfers would sometimes throw rocks at her because they didn’t want a woman on their waves. She overcame the initial resistance to become a surfing icon, known worldwide and revered in her native Malibu in Southern California. Remarkably, she continued surfing for more than 60 years, riding the waves through her 70s and into her 80s. She died on March 5th, at age 84, of cancer in her home on Carbon Beach in Malibu. 

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Aftermath of Norwegian Escape Grounding — ‘a Freaking Madhouse’

Posted on by March 20, 2022

A cruise on the Norwegian Escape that sailed from Port Canaveral, Florida last Monday didn’t go well, and for a change, had little to do with Covid 19. On the second day of the cruise, the ship ran aground in high winds at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, its first port-of-call. 

The good news is that the ship was refloated on Tuesday and there were no reported injuries among the more than 2,000 passengers or the 1,700 member crew. The bad news is that the passengers were stuck aboard the ship for the two days it took to arrange a damage survey and to determine that the hull damage was severe enough to cancel both the current cruise and the next cruise scheduled to begin March 19th.

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Mischarted Pacific Islands: Henderson & Pitcairn

Posted on by March 18, 2022

HMS Spey

The Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Spey was on a mission to check and update charts of waters around British Overseas Territories scattered around the globe. It recently observed that Henderson Island in the South Pacific is one mile south of the position marked on charts used by mariners the world over since 1937.

The notes on the chart say that it was produced in 1937 from aerial photography, which implies that the aircraft which took the photos was slightly off in its navigational calculations.

Now, one nautical mile is not very far off, particularly when determined by using a sextant. Only about 14 square miles in area, Henderson Island is also uninhabited and quite remote. It is one of four islands in the Pitcairn chain. Chile lies 3,600 miles to the east and New Zealand 3,200 miles to the southwest.

To put the navigational error in a historical context, it is notable that Henderson Island is one of four islands in the Pitcairn chain. Continue reading →

Tim Severin and the Voyage of St. Brendan

Posted on by March 17, 2022

On St. Patrick’s Day, a post about another Irish saint, St. Brendan the Navigator, and the adventurer who sought to replicate his epic voyage.

Who was the first European to sail to North America? According to Irish tradition, it was St. Brendan the Navigator in the 6th century, who is said to have set off with a small group of monks in a currach, an open boat built with a wooden frame covered with hides, on a 7-year voyage around the North Atlantic, that may have reached North America. If the story is true, St. Brendan reached the “New World” hundreds of years before the Norse and almost 900 years before Columbus.

There is no absolute evidence that St. Brendan ever reached North America, although many of the islands visited in the medieval accounts appear to be similar to features of the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. In the 1970s, inveterate explorer Tim Severin decided to mount an expedition to see whether St. Brendan’s voyage was possible.

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Update: Russian Superyacht, Nearly Sunk by Ukrainian Engineer, Seized by Spain Along With Two Others

Posted on by March 16, 2022

Lady Anastasia

Spain has recently seized three Russian superyachts believed to be subject to EU sanctions, including the 48-meter-long $7 million Lady Anastasia, which was partially sunk when sabotaged by its Ukrainian chief engineer. Taras Ostapchuk, 55, the engineer was said to have been furious that arms shipped by the yacht’s owner, the oligarch Alexander Mikheyev, were allegedly used to attack his country. Ostapchuk was arrested but later left Spain to fight for Ukraine.

Spanish authorities also seized the 135-meter Crescent, which is valued at $600 million, at the port in Tarragona, Catalonia, the transport ministry said on Wednesday. Spanish media speculated that the yacht could be owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin but police are still investigating who it belongs to.

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Container Ship Ever Forward Aground in Chesapeake Bay

Posted on by March 15, 2022

Almost one year ago, the container ship Ever Given ran aground, blocking the Suez Canal for six days. Now, another ship operated by the same shipping company, Evergreen Marine Corporation, has run hard aground. The Ever Forward, a 1,095-foot, 12,000 TEU, container ship, ran aground around 9PM on Sunday night after leaving Baltimore, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The ship grounded outside the shipping channel off Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay. The ship, reported to have a draft of 42′ feet, ran aground in approximately 25′ feet of water while traveling at over 13 knots. The ship apparently failed to make a turn in the channel. It is unclear whether human error or a mechanical failure caused the casualty. The Ever Forward had a pilot aboard at the time of the grounding.

The Coast Guard said the cargo ship is outside the main shipping channel and is not a hazard to navigation. Ships in the area have been instructed to slow down and use a one-way traffic pattern. There are no reports of damage, injuries, or pollution as a result of the incident.

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

Posted on by March 14, 2022

During Women’s History Month it is worthwhile 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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Italy Seizes Russian Billionaire Melnichenko’s Sailing Yacht A

Posted on by March 13, 2022

Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko’s superyacht Sailing Yacht A is nothing if not distinctive. It is one of the largest sail-assisted vessels afloat, with a singularly terrible name, and is arguably the ugliest large yacht in service. It is also the most recent superyacht to be seized as part of international sanctions resulting from Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters reports that Italian police have seized the superyacht, valued at $580 million, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday, a few days after Melnichenko was placed on an EU sanctions list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sailing Yacht A has been sequestered at the northern port of Trieste, the government said.

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Russian Warship Vasily Bykov (Go F*** Yourself) Reported Sunk by Ukrainian Missile

Posted on by March 12, 2022

On the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian naval vessel Vasily Bykov ordered the 13 Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender. The border guards replied, “go f*** yourself“. The warship shelled the island in response and the soldiers were reported to have been killed. Later reports suggested that the border guards may have survived and been taken prisoner. The border guards’ response has become an informal rallying cry of the Ukrainian military and militias in resisting Russian aggression. 

Now, the Ukrainian Navy reports that the patrol boat Vasily Bykov that ordered the surrender has been destroyed by Ukrainian missiles in the Black Sea near Odessa. Ukrainian small boats lured the patrol boat to a camouflaged firing position, where it was shelled. 

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Destroyer Can’t Deploy After Judge Blocks Removal of Unvaxed CO

Posted on by March 15, 2022

Military.com reports that a federal judge in Florida has ruled that the US Navy cannot do anything to remove a commander of a destroyer, despite testimony that he has flouted the service’s rules for COVID-19 mitigation while seeking a religious exemption from receiving the vaccine for the virus. Navy officers said they cannot deploy the Norfolk, Va.-based Arleigh Burke-class destroyer after the judge’s ruling.

The officer at the heart of this dispute is an unnamed commander who joined the Navy in 2004 according to the lawsuit. Other documents filed by the Navy show that the destroyer he commands belongs to Destroyer Squadron 26.

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