Mermaid on the Danube Before the Collision
The New York Times is reporting that well before Hungary’s worst boating accident in at least six decades, Hungarian officials had been warned that traffic on the Danube had soared to dangerous levels around Budapest, but the government did not curb the number of vessels plying the river.
On the night of May 29, in a driving rain, an international cruise ship, the Viking Sigyn struck and sank a smaller sightseeing boat, the Mermaid, killing 28 people. The cause is still under investigation, but the accident has raised concerns that at the municipal and national levels, where tourism has become a major source of revenue, political calculations and the drive for profit outweighed safety concerns.
In related news, the captain of the Viking Sigyn, identified only as C. Yuriy, 64, of Odessa, was previously involved in another Viking collision in the Netherlands in April. He is reported to have served as the first officer of the Viking Idun which collided with the tanker, Chemical Marketer, in the Netherlands’ Western Scheldt, near Antwerp, on April 1. Five people reported minor injuries as a result of the collision.
Yesterday we 
On Saturday, the restored pilot schooner 
On May 18th, 
In April, we posted, 
I am aware of only one man who was praised by both Eisenhower and Hitler. A 
The 
At about 8:30 AM on Sunday, the cruise ship 
For several years, we have followed the attempts to control, if not eradicate, the invasive lionfish from the waters around Florida and the Caribbean. Recently, divers participating in Destin, Florida’s 
Coast Guard crews rescued a man and woman from a capsized sailboat in rough seas about 65 miles east of Atlantic City, NJ, late Wednesday night. Heidi Snyder and Peter Bailey, who have been sailing around the world for two years, were traveling from South Carolina to New York City when a microburst capsized their 55-foot wooden-hull sailboat, Bertie. 
Sadly, the sinking of overloaded ferry boats in the developing world is not new news. It happens with a great enough frequency that it is easy to overlook. Which may be why these tragedies are worth noting. Last weekend, an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The majority of those on board were teachers going to collect their salaries, a local mayor told the 
How is our week going so far? Probably better than 
For several years, 
In January 2018, the news broke that a
If you are near New York City over the Memorial Day Weekend, be sure to stop by the Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 to help celebrate the 86th birthday of the