Broken pottery from Roman wreck Photo: Greek Culture Ministry

Two Roman-era shipwrecks have been found in water slightly less than a mile deep off the western Greek islands of Corfu and Paxoi. The two third-century wrecks were discovered earlier this month during a survey of an area where a… Read full post »

For only 105 million Norwegian krona (thats € 14 million or roughly US$17.5 million) you too can own an Arctic submarine base.  Norway’s Olavsvern Naval Base just outside the city of Tromsø, has been on the market since January 2011, but for the last several weeks has been listed… Read full post »

The crews sailing in the Clipper Round the World Race represent over 40 nationalities. You can get a sense of the international makeup of the fleet by the banners and flags that they fly now that they have arrived in port.  Here is a short video I shot yesterday of the ten boat… Read full post »

The ten boat fleet of the Clipper Round the World Race will officially and formally arrive in New York harbor on Sunday, June 3rd to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  As Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sails the Suhaili, the 32ft yacht on which he became the first person to sail… Read full post »

On Sunday, June 3rd, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend will culminate with a seven-mile flotilla of 1,000 ships and boats making up the biggest gathering on the Thames in 350 years. One of those vessels will be the sail training ship Pelican. The Pelican, a 148ft long three-masted barquentin… Read full post »

It is really all just one big ocean. Low levels of nuclear radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast, 6,000 miles from the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors.  Small amounts of cesium-137 and cesium-134 were detected in… Read full post »

Mystic Seaport has put together a wonderful short video where lovers of sea music speak of just it means to them, just in time for the Seaport’s upcoming 33rd Annual Sea Music Festival from June 7-10, 2012 in Mystic, Connecticut.  The three day festival features music from maritime cultures… Read full post »

This seems like a suitable post for a Monday morning. The tide was high, the bridge was low and the ship was light.   Captain Guo Lai, 48, was in command of the brand new luxury cruise liner, Pearl No 7, on her maiden voyage from the shipyard, when they passed under a/… Read full post »

The old cliche that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money applies far too well to tall ships. They are expensive to build or restore and chronically costly to maintain and keep running.  It should come as no surprise that most of the ships in the recent… Read full post »

Scientists have observed, in two different locations off the Hawaiian islands, humpback whales giving dolphins “rides” on their heads. A dolphin will swim up over the top of the humpback whale’s head. The humpback will then gently lift its head allowing the dolphin to slide down its… Read full post »

On October 5, 2011, the containership MV Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, resulting in one of the worst maritime environmental disasters in New Zealand history.  Yesterday, in a New Zealand court, the captain, Mauro Balomaga, and second officer, Leonil Relon, were found g… Read full post »

Not quite too sure what to make of this. Of all sports, beachcombing seems like one of the safest.  Apparently, a woman, beachcombing with her family on a San Clemente Beach in Southern California, pocketed a few rocks which may have contained naturally occurring white phosphorus.  Friction be… Read full post »

Cannon showing the mark of Sir Thomas Gresham

Shipwrecks tend to be pretty stationary. They are not prone to wandering about.  Now, however, an Elizabethan shipwreck dating from 1574, which was recovered from the River Thames in 2003, is on the move.  The remains of  the 16th-century “Gre… Read full post »

The US Navy’s newest strategic weapon may be a Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame.  If it works for HALO and gears of War, why not the Navy?  The project is a joint effort between the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Institute for the Future (IFT… Read full post »

Photo: Maksim Ivanov MarineTraffic.com

Simply trying to keep up with what is going on the battle against piracy is not as easy as it might appear.

For example, Maersk Texas, a US flag cargo ship came under attack by pirates in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday around noon local time, or at leas/… Read full post »

New York harbor is not the only port on the North-Eastern coast of the United States with a wealth of tall ships over Memorial Day Weekend.  Greenport, New York  is hosting the Greenport Tallships Challenge 2012.   Greenport, on the easterly tip of Long Island, is the second stop on the T… Read full post »

Photo:Elizabeth Dinan/www.seacoastonline.com

Crew responded to a fire on the nuclear submarine, USS Miami,  at around 5:40 PM last night at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  This morning, the Navy reports that the fire has been put put. Three shipyard firefighters, two civ/… Read full post »

The fleet began to appear from the harbor haze around 9 AM and headed north up the inner harbor and the Hudson River. They were a mix of full rigged ships, barques, barquentines, topsail schooners and schooners.  Most were naval vessels, but without guns or missiles. (The only gunfire was a salut… Read full post »

A portrait of a naval ensign, in a heavy gilt frame, hung in a lonely corridor in the labyrinth that is the Pentagon.   The plaque on the portrait read:

ENS CHUCK HORD, USNA,
CIRCA 1898, LOST AT SEA 1908

Fortunately for Ensign Hord, he was not lost at sea in 1908. He was, in fact,… Read full post »

Last night I went out to see some of the participating OpSail tall ships in New York’s Outer Harbor.  The trip was organized by the Working Harbor Committee with commentary provided by Richard Taylor and Captain Richard Dorfman.  Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.

Many visitors think of New York as the island of Manhattan.  The City of New York is in fact five boroughs, only one of which is connected to the mainland.  If Brooklyn, the largest borough, had remained an independent city, as it was until 1898, it would now be the 4th largest… Read full post »

USCG Barque Eagle Photo: Joyce Naltchayan/AFP/Getty Images

The visiting tall ships have started arriving in New York’s outer harbor.  Tomorrow morning at just after 8 in the morning, the “Parade of Sail” will form up at the Verazano Narrows Bridge and stand north into the… Read full post »

Enrica Lexie

Two Italian marines, Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone, are in an Indian jail awaiting trial for the alleged murder of two Indian fisherman. They are at the center of a legal & diplomatic fight over the use of armed guards on merchant ships to combat pirates. On Februa… Read full post »

A local boater first spotted the bales floating 15 miles offshore near Point Dana, California.  When law enforcement went out to investigate, they found between 160-180 bales of marijuana (depending on the news report), weighing close to four tons and worth around $4 million dollars, bobbing in… Read full post »

On Wednesday, Philadelphia’s tall ship, the 112+ year old barquentine Gazela, will be among the seventeen tall ships in the “Parade of Sail” on the Hudson River. Once again, however, the Gazela will bringing more than just history and grace to the harbor when she ties up alongsid… Read full post »