First North American to Circumnavigate Solo, Non-stop, Using Only Celestial Navigation

Posted on by July 24, 2020

Canadian Bert terHart recently completed a 267-day solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the world via the five capes on his 43′ sailboat using only traditional celestial navigation. He is the first North American to circle the globe solo and non-stop using only a sextant, a chronometer, an almanac, pen, paper, and charts with which to navigate.

While not using global positioning satellites to navigate, he did bring along an email equipped satellite phone and posted to a blog and an Instagram account. In addition to maintaining contact with friends and family,  he was also followed online by about 2,000 children from Kenya to New Zealand to New York from their classrooms.

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Greyhound, Tom Hanks Fights the Battle of the Atlantic

Posted on by July 23, 2020

Greyhound, a movie that was written by and stars Tom Hanks, tells the story of a destroyer captain fighting a German U-boat wolf-pack that is attacking a convoy of Allied ships in the North Atlantic. The movie was inspired by C.S. Forester’s novel, The Good Shepherd.

This is not my review. I had planned on writing a review but so far I have been unable to see the movie, which is streaming only on Apple TV. Not for a lack of trying, I attempted to sign up for Apple TV so that I could stream it on a PC, but I gave up after about 20 minutes, which included getting several “page not found” messages when I attempted to access Apple’s online support. So rather than post my own review, I am posting two videos.

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UK Nuclear Submarine in Near Collision with Passenger Ferry

Posted on by July 21, 2020

In November 2018, a Royal Navy nuclear submarine came within 50-100m of a collision with the Stena Superfast VII ferry near the entrance to Belfast harbor, according to an inquiry by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

The Guardian reports: The report, released on Thursday, said the submarine’s control room team had underestimated the ferry’s speed and overestimated its range, which led to the near-miss. The ferry, which was traveling from Belfast to Cairnyan, in Scotland with 215 passengers and 67 crew on board when the lookout spotted the submarine’s periscope close ahead. The officer on watch had to immediately turn the ship to avoid a collision.

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Update: Mayflower II Moves From Mystic to New London For Sea Trials

Posted on by July 20, 2020

Today, Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth, MA, was towed to New London, CT for two weeks of sea trials and final outfitting before returning to its homeport in Plymouth.

In September of last year, we posted about the launching of the Mayflower II at the Mystic Seaport Museum‘s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The 64-year-old ship underwent a more than three-year $11 million restoration at the seaport shipyard.

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Update: Facing Hurricanes, Removal of Car Carrier Golden Ray Delayed by Coronavirus

Posted on by July 18, 2020

The removal of the capsized car carrier Golden Ray is being delayed by the coronavirus. We recently posted about the VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches,” the largest heavy-lift vessel ever built in the United States, that was getting ready to use chains to slice the Golden Ray into eight sections, to be placed on barges and towed away to be scrapped. The Golden Ray partially capsized as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles last September.

The initial goal was to have the ship cut up and removed before the onset of the hurricane season beginning June 1.  That date slipped to September 1, still hoping to avoid the worst of the storms.

Now, the project has been delayed further by the coronavirus. The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that nine people directly involved with the removal of the cargo ship Golden Ray have tested positive for COVID-19. Everyone who has had contact with the nine individuals is now being tested for the virus.  If all goes well the project should restart within a week or two. 

Pandemic Update: Most of Maine’s Windjammers Not Sailing in 2020

Posted on by July 17, 2020

Schooner Heritage in better times

At the end of June, we posted that the Maine windjammer passenger fleet faced an uncertain season due to the pandemic.  Shortly thereafter, the State of Maine, working with the Maine Windjammer Association and others, agreed on a set of rules and guidelines to allow overnight windjammer cruises to start in July. That would generally be good news, except that the rules were very tough. The toughest was probably the state’s requirement that all out-of-state visitors must have a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of travel.

So, while it may be possible to cruise this year, many, and indeed most, windjammers have decided to keep their sails folded and not sail in the 2020 sailing season.

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Will COVID-19 Destroy the Traditional Netherlands Sailing Fleet?

Posted on by July 16, 2020

The Netherlands has the largest, still operational, historical sailing fleet in the world, consisting of 400 traditional, authentic sailing vessels. There are real concerns that the historic fleet may be destroyed by the aftermath of COVID-19. With the fleet locked down in port, a significant component of the Netherlands’ maritime heritage is at risk. 

The Maritime Post reports: Due to the corona measures being taken in the Netherlands and worldwide the fleet is being threatened with becoming extinct. The owners are facing a revenue loss of up to 90% to 100% in 2020 and the outlook for 2021 is hardly any better. Without further financial support from the government, many businesses will face bankruptcy, which could result in the disappearance of these historical ships from the Dutch and international waters.

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Coast Guard Sexual Harassment — Pioneering Rescue Swimmer Sarah Faulkner Speaks Out

Posted on by July 15, 2020

We have posted in the past about the heroic and pioneering US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Sara Faulkner. She was the first of only a handful of women who have qualified and served as rescue swimmers. Faulkner joined the Coast Guard intent upon becoming a rescue swimmer, so she knew that she would be called upon to serve in the most extreme rescue situations. What she didn’t anticipate was almost two decades of sexual harassment and assault.

The Miami Herald reports that “once sent to do the job she loved, rescuing people from helicopter drops, Faulkner said she endured groping, licking, butt smacking, leering and crude sexual innuendos meant to humiliate her in front of colleagues.”

Now retired, Faulkner is speaking out against the abuse and being retaliated against for reporting the abuse. In the video below, Faulkner describes in her own words the harassment and abuse that she suffered.

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Dockside Ship Fires, From the Normandie to the USS Bonhomme Richard

Posted on by July 14, 2020

For a third day, the USS Bonhomme Richard continues to burn at the dock, despite the best efforts of hundreds of Navy and civilian firefighters to quench the inferno. The casualty raises the question, are dockside fires on ships worse than fires at sea? 

“As counter-intuitive as this sounds, I would much rather fight a fire at sea with a whole crew than fight it dockside,” said Bryan McGrath, a retired Navy commander told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The ability to act quickly with a massive response and inhibit the spread is aided when you have all your people.”

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Fire Rages on Amphibious Assault Ship USS Bonhomme Richard, Close to 60 Injured

Posted on by July 13, 2020

On Sunday at around 8 AM Pacific Time, an explosion and fire were reported aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard dockside at the Naval Base San Diego. More than 24 hours later, the fire is still raging. Fifty-seven sailors, firefighters, and contractors are reported to have been injured in fighting the fire. Most of those injured suffered from heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. Five are reported to be still hospitalized in stable condition. Of the approximately 1,000 crew, only around 160 were aboard the ship when the fire broke out.

The ship was undergoing maintenance when the fire broke out. All crew members have been accounted for. The cause of the fire is still unknown, although it is believed to have started in the lower cargo hold of the ship, known as the “Deep V,” according to a statement to reporters by Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3.

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New USCG Cutter to be Named for Elizebeth S. Friedman, Pioneering Code Breaker

Posted on by July 12, 2020

The US Coast Guard will name the eleventh ship in its new Legend-Class National Security Cutter (NSC) program in honor of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a pioneering code-breaker for the Coast Guard during the prohibition era and World War II.

Marine-Executive reports that Elizabeth Smith Friedman, known as “America’s first female cryptanalyst,”  is considered to the founder of the modern-day Coast Guard Intelligence Program. Her work with the Coast Guard began soon after the passage of the Volstead Act, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or trade of alcohol in the United States. Liquor smugglers frequently made use of radios to coordinate their activities and began to encode their messages. Friedman was detailed by the Department of Treasury to the Coast Guard and between 1927 and 1930, she is estimated to have solved over 12,000 smuggling messages in hundreds of different code systems. Her work led to 650 federal prosecutions and she testified in 33 cases. 

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Time-Lapse of Comet Neowise

Posted on by July 11, 2020

On March 27, astronomers discovered a new comet that they designated C/2020 F3. The comet was located using NASA’s space telescope, the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), the comet is being called Neowise. While not one of the brighter comets, like Hale-Bopp, the great comet of 1997,” nevertheless Neowise should be visible with the naked eye until early August. Let’s hope that the ancient lore of comets as harbingers of doom does not apply. We have had enough ill-fortune in 2020 already.  

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DNA Suggests Ancient Voyagers Sailed Between Polynesia and South America

Posted on by July 10, 2020

One possible route. Graphic: Jonathan Corum | Source: Nature

For decades scholars have argued over how the myriad islands of Polynesia came to be settled. Did the early settlers sail or drift on rafts from South America on the prevailing currents and then continue to sail westward? Or, did voyagers arrive from the east in double-hulled sailing canoes? If the settlers came from the east, did they ever reach South America in their epic voyages across the Pacific? Did Polynesians and Native Americans ever meet?

A study published in the July 8 issue of the journal Nature may have some of the answers to these questions. A team of researchers led by Alexander G. Ioannidis analyzed the DNA of 807 individuals from 17 Pacific island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. They found conclusive evidence of Polynesian and Native American contact around AD 1200, which was about the time of the settlement of remote Oceania. The Native American group was most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.

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Searching for Type D — A New Species of Killer Whale?

Posted on by July 9, 2020

How little we know about the ocean is staggering. What little we know and understand about orcas, killer whales, is just one example.

For years, there were thought to be two types of orcas — residents and transients. Residents stayed or returned to one area whereas transients were more wide-ranging. In 1988, scientists discovered a previously unknown type of offshore killer whale. Additionally, three types of Antarctic killers were identified, designated A, B, and C. A fourth type with very different body shape and markings was first seen in a mass stranding in New Zealand in 1955, but had not been seen alive by scientists until just recently.  Here is a video about the search for this new type, perhaps a new species, of killer whale, referred to as the Type D.   

Searching for Type D: A New Species of Killer Whale?

Matthew Fontaine Maury — From Hero, to Traitor, to “Lost Cause” Statue

Posted on by July 9, 2020

Matthew Fontaine Maury in US Navy uniform

Recently, four statues of Confederates were removed from city property in Richmond, Virginia. Three of the individuals represented by the statues were well know — Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, and the Confederate generals, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart. The fourth statue, of Confederate naval officer, Matthew Fontaine Maury is less well known.  

In the 1850s, as an oceanographer and a US naval officer, Maury developed a series of wind and tide charts, using data from thousands of ship’s logs, that significantly improved passage times for many sailing ships. He was something of a hero to many ship owners, captains, and sailors.

With the advent of the Civil War, Maury joined the Confederate Navy and went to England to help arrange the acquisition of ships for the Confederacy. He also developed mines to sink US Navy ships. In the 1860s, many considered him to be a traitor. Who was Matthew Fontaine Maury? Was he a hero, a traitor, or perhaps both?

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Row of Life — Celebrating the Remarkable Angela Madsen

Posted on by July 7, 2020

On April 24, Angela Madsen set off from Marina del Rey, California bound for Hawaii in the 20′ ocean rowing boat, Row of Life. A three-time Paralympian and a Marine veteran, her goal was to be the first paraplegic and at 60, the oldest woman to row the Pacific Ocean alone.

After 60 days alone at sea, rowing 1,114 nautical miles, roughly halfway to Hawaii, Angela Madsen died while attempting to repair a parachute anchor. When she didn’t report in on June 20, Angela’s wife, Debra Madsen and Soraya Simi, a friend who is making a documentary about Angela, contacted the Coast Guard. A Coast Guard plane spotted her in the water, lifeless, and tethered to her boat. Angela’s body was recovered by a German-flagged cargo ship that diverted to her location. 

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Versabar’s VB-10,000, Golden Arches, Readies to Lift Golden Ray

Posted on by March 18, 2021

In September 2019, the car carrier Golden Ray lost stability and partially capsized as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles. In October 2019, the Golden Ray was declared a total loss, and it was announced that the ship would be cut up in place and scrapped.

But how does one scrap a 660′ long car carrier with a 116′ beam, still loaded with over 4,000 vehicles? To scrap the Golden Ray calls for the “Golden Arches,” Versabar’s VB-10,000 heavy lift catamaran. The VB-10,000 is the largest heavy-lift vessel ever built in the United States, featuring two truss space frames spanning two barges.  The color and shape of the trusses on VB-10,000 have earned it the nickname, Golden Arches, after McDonald’s signature logo.

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Sandy Ground, Second New Staten Island Ferry Launched at Eastern Shipbuilding

Posted on by July 5, 2020

On Friday, June 26, 2020, Eastern Shipbuilding Group launched the Sandy Ground, the second of three new 4,500-passenger ferries for New York City’s Staten Island Ferry system. The Ollis Class ferries will be double-ended, with an overall length of 320 feet, beam of 70 feet, and draft of 13 feet at the design load at the waterline. The launch took place at Eastern’s Allanton facility in Panama City, Fla.

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