Suspected Niger River Delta Pirates Kidnap 13 Sailors From Two Ships

Posted on by November 5, 2019

Suspected Niger River Delta pirates operating in the Gulf of Guinea have kidnapped 13 sailors from two ships in the last several days.  The first abductions took place early Saturday morning at the port of Cotonou in Benin. Pirates kidnapped nine crew members, including the ship’s captain, from the 58,105 DWT, Norwegian flag, JJ Ugland owned bulker, Bonita.

Then on Monday, pirates attacked the Greek, 94,000 DWT product tanker, Elka Aristotle, off the coast of Togo abducting four of the 24-member crew. 

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Moving Closer to the Falls — the Century-Long Saga of the “Niagara Scow”

Posted on by November 4, 2019

For just over a century, an 80-foot long iron sand-dumping scow has been stuck on a rock in the raging currents of the Niagara River just upriver from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. After a powerful storm blew through on Halloween night, the scow began to shift and slip downriver toward the thundering falls. The scow has been stuck on a rock shelf in the rapids, roughly 600 meters from the edge, since 1918.  It is now 50 yards closer to the precipice.  

“It appears to have sort of flipped on its side and spun around,” Jim Hill, superintendent of heritage at the Niagara Parks Commission, described in a Facebook video. 

How did the scow, essentially, a sand barge, come to be stuck in the rapids for over a century? 

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“The Best Port in the World” — The Port of New York in the 1950s

Posted on by November 4, 2019

Here is a wonderful video from the 1950s focusing on the Port of New York, which the narrator proclaims is the “Best Port in the World.” It is wonderful to watch the old style cargo handling — hoisting bags, boxes, and barrels as the narration praises the modern technology and extreme efficiency. What I find intriguing is how little seemed to have changed by the early 1970s, when I first arrived in New York, right on the cusp of the great container revolution, which changed everything.

The film was written by Oeveste Granducci. The film was directed by Henwar Rodakiewicz and shot by David Quaid, with music by King Palmer.

1950s PORT OF NEW YORK PROMOTIONAL FILM 40274

Wreckage of USS Johnston, Hero of the Battle of Samar, Located at 20,400 Feet Deep

Posted on by November 2, 2019

The RV Petrel continues its amazing streak of underwater discoveries. Now, it has located the wreckage of what is believed to be the USS Johnston at a depth of 20,400 ft in the Philippine Sea. The wreck is believed to be the deepest wreck of a warship ever discovered. According to Guinness World Records, the deepest wreck before the discovery of the USS Johnston was a German vessel discovered at 18,904ft.

The destroyer was sunk in the Battle of Samar on October 25, 1944. We recently posted about the 75th anniversary of the battle in which, against all odds, a handful of US Navy destroyers and destroyer escorts drove off a Japanese fleet of 23 ships, including battleships and heavy cruisers, saving the landings at Leyte Gulf from likely destruction.  

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MS Roald Amundsen — First Hybrid Electric-Powered Expedition Cruise Ship

Posted on by November 1, 2019

Hurtigruten, a Norwegian ferry and expedition cruise operator, has put into service, MS Roald Amundsen, the world’s first hybrid electric-powered expedition cruise ship. The 530-passenger ship has twin battery banks that operate in conjunction with the ship’s four diesel generators and are expected to reduce overall fuel consumption by 20%. The MS Roald Amundsen is the first of three hybrid-powered cruise ships ordered by Hurtigruten. Forbes quotes the company as saying that it is investing more than $850 million in building the world’s greenest cruise line.

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On Halloween — a Look at the Ohio River Ghost Ship

Posted on by October 31, 2019

The so-called Ohio River ghost ship does not seem to be really haunted, except perhaps by a long and illustrious past. A vessel of many names, she has been known as Celt, Sachem, USS Phenakite, Sightseer, and Circle Line V. Built in 1902 as a rich man’s yacht, she served as a Navy anti-submarine patrol craft in both world wars, as a laboratory for Thomas Edison, as a luxury fishing boat, and New York City tour boat. She is said to have been visited by two presidents, appeared in several movies and served as a set for a Madonna music video. She is estimated to have carried around 3 million passengers in her long working life.

Rumor had it that she was scrapped in 1984, but she turned up again in a creek off the Ohio River, in Petersburg, Kentucky, about 25 miles downstream from Cincinnati. She has apparently been abandoned there since around 1987. Dubbed the “ghost ship,” she is a popular destination for kayakers.

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In Iceland, It’s No Longer Legal to Kill Basques On Sight

Posted on by October 30, 2019

Basque whaling ship

I recently came back from a voyage on a small ship along the west coast of Iceland. One of the highlights of the trip were stops in ports in the Westfjords, an isolated peninsula in the northwest of the island.

One of the nice things about Iceland is the very low violent crime rate. Yearly murders in the country of 360,000 typically range from zero to around five. The average is about 1.8. That is the total number of yearly murders, not the per capita figure. Against this backdrop, I was surprised to learn of a law on the books in the Westfjords, which was only repealed in 2015, that allowed the killing on sight of any Basque found in the region. The law dates back to 1615 and relates to the last documented massacre in Icelandic history.

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Replica Santa Maria (No, Not a Pirate Ship) Runs Aground in NY Harbor

Posted on by October 29, 2019

Why is it that virtually any ship with square sails and masts is referred to by the media as a “pirate ship?” Yesterday, a replica of the Nao Santa Maria, the ship that carried Columbus across the Atlantic on his first voyage, ran aground in New York harbor off Brooklyn.  A dozen or so news outlets all ran a variation of the same headline — “Replica Pirate Ship Runs Aground in NY Harbor.” 

To be fair the blame may lie primarily with the New York Special Ops which tweeted:  Ahoy! Low tide helps stop a pirate invasion. A replica pirate ship ran aground while navigating the New York Harbor this afternoon. #NYPD Harbor Charlie will be keeping a watchful eye on the uninjured pirates as they wait for the incoming tide to go on their way.  

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Testing SeaBubbles on the River Seine

Posted on by October 28, 2019

We recently posted about the proposed testing of an amphibious electric flying car on the Hudson River, which may or may not be a good idea. On the other side of the Atlantic on the River Seine, tests are ongoing of a technology that looks far more feasible — the SeaBubble, an all-electric hydrofoil taxi, that promises to operate with zero emissions, zero noise, and zero wake. 

The SeaBubbles are referred to in French as taxis volants, “flying taxis”. The egg-shaped pods will rise up on hydrofoils 20″ above the surface and will travel at an approved speed of 25 kilometers per hour. Each SeaBubble can carry four passengers, and once approved, will be able to be ordered on an app like land taxis, shared bikes or other forms of transport. This is the third round of testing and if all goes well, they hope to begin operations in the Spring of 2020.

SeaBubbles is a startup created by Alain Thébault and Anders Bringdal in 2016. They claim to offer the only zero-impact transportation ecosystem available today. Their goal is to be operating in 50 waterfront cities within five years.

New ‘Sea Bubbles’ tests on the Seine ahead of commercial use

Happy Birthday to Galveston’s Tall Ship Elissa

Posted on by October 28, 2019

One hundred and forty-two years ago today on October 27th, 1877, the three-masted iron-hulled merchant sailing ship Elissa was launched in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum. In honor of her birthday, here is a repost of a video by Mike Headley of the Elissa on her yearly sail.

SAILING ON THE ELISSA

Sea Level Rising in the Chesapeake Bay & Beyond — Fox Island & the US Naval Academy

Posted on by October 28, 2019

Climate change deniers can choose to ignore the overwhelming scientific consensus of man-made climate change all they want. How long they will continue to deny the evidence before their own eyes? Two immediate examples — Fox Island and the US Naval Academy.

For 40 years, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has run educational programs on Fox Island, an island between the Tangier and Pocomoke sounds. This is the last year, however. Rising sea levels have effectively washed the island away.

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Seventy Five Years Ago Today — Battle off Samar, a Victory Against All Odds

Posted on by April 3, 2021

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought seventy-five years ago this week between the US and Australian navies and the Imperial Japanese Navy.  It was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some standards the largest naval battle in history. Fought between October 23-26, 1944, it was actually a series of battles that spanned over more than 100,000 square miles of sea and involved more than 800 ships and 1,800 aircraft. The battle of Leyte Gulf was a major allied victory and effectively destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy as a fighting force.

The Battle off Samar, fought on October 25, 1942, seventy-five years ago today, saved the landings at Leyte Gulf from likely destruction. The powerful US Navy 3rd fleet had been lured north by a decoy Japanese force, leaving the Leyte landing beaches protected only by three small escort carrier task forces designated by their call signs, Taffy 1, 2 and 3.

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USS Gerald R. Ford Deployment and the SecNav’s Promise

Posted on by October 24, 2019

Back in January, Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, made a promise to President Trump that the advanced weapons elevators on the new carrier USS Gerald R. Ford would be operational by the end of the summer or the president should fire him. The new carrier, costing $13 billion dollars, the most expensive warship ever built, cannot operate in combat without the electromagnetically powered elevators that carry munitions from the ship’s magazine to the hangar.

Without functional elevators, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), a Navy veteran, recently described the new carrier as a “$13-billion nuclear-powered floating berthing barge.”

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Oyster Apocalypse –Louisiana Oyster Harvest Wiped Out by Flooding

Posted on by October 23, 2019

Acme Oyster House has been a New Orleans icon since 1910. My first memory of oysters on the half shell was slurping down a dozen at Acme more than a half-century ago. So, I was alarmed to read that Acme has, at least temporarily, stopped serving raw oysters because they cannot get enough local oysters.

“If we can’t get Louisiana oysters, we’re not going to serve raw oysters at all,” Acme CEO Paul Rotner said.

“Every oyster we get in, we’re directing them to the grill so we can at least keep that product available,” he said. “And I’m not sure how long we can even keep doing that.”

The Louisiana oyster crop has been devastated by this spring’s record flooding from the Mississippi River. Continue reading →

Researchers Locate Akagi — Second Japanese Carrier Sunk at Midway in WWII

Posted on by October 23, 2019

The RV Petrel has located the wreckage of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, sunk in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The ship is the second of two sunken Japanese carriers that the Petrel has located two days apart. They had previously located the carrier Kaga. The Akagi and the Kaga were two of four large carriers sunk in the battle, which was considered a turning point in the Pacific conflict in WWII.  Both carriers had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.   

The Akagi was found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, sitting upright in a debris field, in nearly 18,000 feet of water, or almost 3 nautical miles deep, more than 1,300 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor.

Researchers Discover Second Long-Lost Japanese Warship From World War II Battle Of Midway

Trafalgar Day Repost: Conrad on Nelson at Trafalgar — What if the Wind Had Shifted?

Posted on by October 21, 2019

Joseph Conrad

A repost from 2010 in honor of Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets on this day in 1805.  I have always been struck that of all the commentary I have read on the famous battle, Joseph Conrad is the only writer I am aware of to have asked one simple question — what if the wind had changed? How would a wind shift have altered the history which we all take for granted?

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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The Story of Bug Light — the Rise, Fall and Resurrection

Posted on by October 19, 2019

The Long Beach Bar Light was built in 1871 as a “screwpile” lighthouse on the North Fork of Eastern Long Island, off Orient, New York. Because a screwpile lighthouse is a lighthouse that stands on thin piles that are screwed into a sandy bottom, many thought the lighthouse looked like a water bug, earning it the nickname “Bug Light.” 

It wasn’t a screwpile lighthouse for long, however.  The winter ice threatened to rip out the piles and so a breakwater was built around the base of the lighthouse foundation which was later additionally reinforced with a concrete caisson.

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Lowell’s Boat Shop — Oldest Continuously Operated Boat Shop & Still Making Dories

Posted on by October 19, 2019

When Simeon Lowell moved his boat-building business to Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1793, I wonder whether he could have possibly imagined that the boat shop would still be producing boats, dories, and skiffs 226 years later. Lowell’s Boat Shop is the oldest continuously operating boat shop in the United States and is recognized as the birthplace of the legendary Banks fishing dory. Here is a short video that looks at the history and the legacy of Lowell and his dories.

Lowell’s Boat Shop – Dedicated to Craft

Paul Allen’s RV Petrel Locates Wreck of WWII Japanese Carrier Kaga

Posted on by October 18, 2019

Japanese Carrier Kaga

Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, died almost exactly a year ago.  Nevertheless, his passion for underwater archeology lives on in the operation of the Research Vessel Petrel, which is fully funded by Allen’s estate. The ship’s mission is to explore historically significant wrecks at challenging depths and conditions. A precondition set by Allen is for discovered wrecks to be respected as war graves and their locations kept secret but known only to national governments and museums.

Their latest find is the wreckage of the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga which was sunk in the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. Kaga was one of four large Japanese carriers sunk during the battle. Kaga had taken part in the Pearl Harbor raid of December 1941. 

The crew of the RV Petrel located the wreck sitting upright 5,400 meters (almost 3 nautical miles) below the surface.

Wreck of Imperial Japanese Navy Carrier Kaga

Update: USCGC Acushnet For Sale Again

Posted on by October 17, 2019

The strange saga of the USCGC Acushnet continues. Back in 2011, Acushnet, the oldest serving cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard was put up for sale. She was purchased by a con-man named Vernon Officer who bought the cutter using someone else’s money.  The cutter was subsequently abandoned and Mr. Officer was imprisoned for cheating an elderly widow out of her life savings. The cutter, however, has been cared for and is reportedly in reasonably good shape. She is currently for sale for $250,000.

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