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WVEC brings us news of the world’s first commercial nuclear ship, N/S Savannah.

The Savannah, a historic landmark and the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo and passenger ship, is leaving Virginia waters after 14 years.

Its government caretaker, the U.S. Maritime Administration, announced a contract Tuesday worth at least $588,380 to relocate the famous dinosaur from Norfolk to Canton Marine Terminals in Baltimore.

The sleek, white, 596-foot-long vessel was to leave local waters Wednesday on its way up the Chesapeake Bay.

The full story including video can be found HERE.

Ernie’s Place brings us the world’s largest Non-Nuclear explosion:

Alaska along the coast of British Columbia, there is what is known as the inland passage to Alaska. The surge through the passage is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world. In the middle of this passage is a place called “Seymour Narrows” where the water swirls so strongly that it has been known to suck boats down into the abyss. Sailors dread the passage and even the largest ship has to wait for the right conditions to make a passage.

In the middle of those narrows was a rock called “Ripple Rock” That had two sharp peaks that stuck up to about nine feet below the surface. Just the right depth to gut even the mightiest ship. It sunk 119 ships and killed 114 people. On April 5th 1958 they blew the rock out of the water with the worlds largest non-nuclear explosion. Its’ worth the time to load and watch the clip. To make it full screen click on the Snowflake looking symble in the lower right corner. It will go back to normal when it ends. The End of Ripple Rock

Video at the end of this post.

(Thanks Larry)

CORRECTION:

Reader Jeremy corrcted our title. Here is information on the World’s Largest Non-Nuclear Explosion (Luck for us it’s still maritime related):

USMM.org tells us:

During World War II, one of the sources of ammunition for the Pacific Theater was the Naval Ammunition Depot at Port Chicago, California. Port Chicago is located on an arm of San Francisco Bay about 30 miles northeast of Oakland and San Francisco. The town of Port Chicago, population 1,500, was located about 1.5 miles from the pier. Not far away was Vallejo’s Mare Island, a major Naval Base which included ammunition depots.

On the evening of July 17, 1944 there were two ships being loaded at the pier. The Liberty ship SS E.A. Bryan, after 4 days of loading, had about 4,600 tons of ammunition and explosives on board; 98 black enlisted men continued work. On board the ship were 31 U.S. Merchant Marine crew and 13 Naval Armed Guard.

Docked at the pier since 6 PM that evening was the SS Quinault Victory being loaded by about 100 black men for its maiden voyage. On board were 36 crew and 17 Armed Guard. A Coast Guard fire barge was also moored at the pier. Besides 430 tons of bombs waiting to be loaded, the pier held a locomotive and 16 boxcars with its crew of three civilians, and a marine sentry.

At 10:18 an Army Air Force plane flying at 9,000 feet saw pieces of white hot metal, some as large as a house, fly straight up past them. According to the co-pilot, the “fireworks display” lasted about one minute. The explosion was heard 200 miles away.

More information can be found at USMM.org and HERE. Photos from the day can be found HERE.

 

 LArgest Non-nuclear Explosion: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Old Royal Naval College was designed by artist Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1696 and 1751. It started life as the Greenwich Hospital for Seamen, which provided a home for retired and injured sailors.

It became the Royal Naval College in 1873, until the departure of the Royal Navy in 1998, and the hall was regularly used as a dining room. Artist Sir James Thornhill was commissioned by the hospital to paint the hall in 1708, and he completed it in phases up to 1727. Lord Nelson was laid in State here in 1805.

Java Script 360 pic, here.

More information at the News Shopper, here.

Lots more info in Google, here.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

Apparently it’s scurvy awareness day. Limestrong, the “official” website of the event tells us a little about this once common affliction:

Scurvy is a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C
  (ascorbic acid) in the diet. Signs of scurvy include tiredness, muscle
  weakness, joint and muscle aches, a rash on the legs, and bleeding gums.
  In the past, scurvy was common among sailors and other people deprived
  of fresh fruits and vegetables for long periods of time.

 

Read the full story HERE.

The BBC Tells us:

A 500-year-old ship-wreck laden with treasure has been discovered off the coast of Namibia.

The country’s diamond company, Namdeb, says it found the wreck during operations on the sea bed.

The company said the find included three bronze cannons, thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, and several tonnes of elephant tusks.

There were also human remains and navigational instruments. Excavations in the area were halted immediately.

Archaeological experts have identified the cannons as coming from early 16 Century Spain.

Reuters news agency says company sources are speculating that the ship may be linked to Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who went missing in 1500 after becoming the first European seafarer to round the Cape of Good Hope. Continue Reading…

One my early introduction to the sea was Thor Heyerdahl’s account of Kon-Tiki.

Wired.com has revisited Kon-Tiki on her 60 th anniversary.  Here is a excerpt: [Continue Reading →]

Our recent post Was the titanic sunk by a small key? elicited some great response from our readers. Surprisingly, the best ones had little to do with the titanic itself and more to do with the cause of all maritime incidents… the error chain. First a recap from the original post:

While some point to the ship’s excessive speed, the vessel’s design or the positioning of the ship’s compass as the cause of the incident the facts clearly show the titanic sunk as a direct result of the accident chain>. In other words the titanic sunk, not due to one large error but a combination of small errors that linked together caused the tragic circumstances. Remove one small link in the chain and the incident is avoided.

It is interesting to note that a string of small errors caused by human error is the cause of most large maritime incidents. The lesson to be learned….. next time you make a mistake aboard ship listen for the voice in the back of your mind and quickly ask yourself; is this an isolated incident or indication of larger problems?

Shrivan states; “Now I understand how important keys can be in ships” to which Fred Fry replies; “Keys are important. Keys are power!”

This comment reminded Jim of a quote from his Captain: “Give a man key with a clipboard and you’ll find out what kind of person he is. Give them in the morning and you’ll know by lunch.”

Things start to get serious around comment number 20 where Bob Couttie writes:

In the past I’ve used ‘error chain’ and ‘domino effect when discussing accidents but, at the risk of getting too theoretical I think both are inadequate since they are basically descriptions of single-point failure (A chain fails when a single link fails, a domino falls over when its neighbour hits it).

The best physical description I think is the wooden tower game, “Jenga” or “Topple” in which players take turns removing blocks from a stack. The first few extractions don’t do much harm but as the process continues the stack becomes more and more unstable until one reaches a point where removing any block at all will cause the stack to fall over.

If you think of the tower as ’safety’ and the individual blocks as the elements, precautions, procedures that make up safety, you’ve got a fairly good visual model for how accidents happen.

Kennebec Captain replies in agreement and points us to this post on his blog:

A more helpful model is the Swiss Cheese Model first proposed by British psychologist James T. Reason (nice name!).

This site (Dukes.edu) has a nice graphic of the S.C. model.

The Swiss Cheese Model provide a positive method of reducing risk, rather then seeking to break some invisible chain, one simply adds layers, or increases the effectiveness of the existing layers (making the holes smaller). As an example, one could add a layer of crew training, or seek ways to improve the effectiveness of existing training, or use additional care during passage planning.

On a well run ship you can observe the Swiss Cheese Model in action Each near miss, representing a hole in one layer, is evaluated and if needed procedures are modified. Near misses, lessons learned, Bridge Resource Management, careful passage planning can all be seen as adding layers of cheese. Of course it may not be called that. Another name for the application of the Swiss Cheese model is - good seamanship.

So from the Titanic to Swiss Cheese I enjoyed the comments… thanks to all who participated!

Maunsell’s army sea forts were more specifically designed to repel smaller aircraft flying in to attack rather than to lay mines at site. Each fort consists of a cluster of smaller units arrayed in a group. Each group had one spotlight tower and the rest of the units had guns mounted all around to give maximum range. Each fort was connected by bridges to the others in the cluster but was also structurally autonomous - presumably in case one were to be successfully targeted and destroyed. Since being decommissioned, a number of these forts have been used for pirate radio broadcasting stations. [Continue Reading →]

BBC reports on a long standing maritime tradition:

Last year the Duchess of Cornwall failed to smash a bottle on the side of cruise liner Queen Victoria; later scores of passengers were taken ill with a contagious stomach bug.

To avoid this ill omen, the shipping industry has many tricks to ensure the bubbly breaks.

Champagne bottles are extremely tough, having been designed to withstand high pressure, but it only takes a tiny defect, such as a bubble in the glass, to compromise its strength, says Dr Mark Miodownik, a material scientist at King’s College London.

“Glass is a very hard material. If you want to make a defect in it, you’ll find it very difficult, but a diamond is stronger. My top tip would be to score the bottle with a diamond.”

Size matters

Dr Miodownik says that mathematical probability, rope type and bubble size all come into it. The bigger the bottle, the higher the mathematical probability of a natural defect, so he recommends using a jeroboam.

Forget about vintage, it’s bubble size that counts. “The bigger the bubbles, the higher the pressure inside the bottle, the more likely it is to break on impact. The best option is probably to go for a cheap bottle of cava with big bubbles.”

And increase this effect by giving the bottle a good shake.

A rope which has any elasticity in it will absorb the energy, so steer clear, says Dr Miodownik. Better than rope would be a length of wire.

While most ship bows are made of rigid steel, some parts will be even more solid than others - so x-ray the bow, locate the groins (main support structures) and take aim for these. Continue Reading…BBC website.<>p>

History

About.com give us the history:

The ceremony of christening new ships began in the distant past, and we know that Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians all held ceremonies to ask the gods to protect sailors.

By the 1800s the christenings of ships began to follow a familiar pattern. A “christening fluid” would be poured against the bow of the ship, though it was not necessarily wine or champagne. There are accounts in the US Navy records of 19th century warships being christened with water from significant American rivers.

The christening of ships became great public events, with large crowds assembled to witness the ceremony. And it became standard for champagne, as the most elite of wines, to be used for the christening. The tradition developed that a female would do the honors and be named the sponsor of the ship.

And maritime superstition held that a ship that wasn’t properly christened would be considered unlucky. Continue reading…

For a more detailed history of this tradition read: Naval Historical Center’s FAQ

Photo shows Birgit Smith, christened the US Navy’s LCS FREEDOM

Fellow maritime podcaster and friend Peter Mello points us to this interesting theory about the sinking of the world’s most famous ship. The NYTimes writes:

Researchers have discovered that the builder of the Titanic struggled for years to obtain enough good rivets and riveters and ultimately settled on faulty materials that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.

The builder’s own archives, two scientists say, harbor evidence of a deadly mix of low quality rivets and lofty ambition as the builder labored to construct the three biggest ships in the world at once — the Titanic and two sisters, the Olympic and the Britannic.

For a decade, the scientists have argued that the storied liner went down fast after hitting an iceberg because the ship’s builder used substandard rivets that popped their heads and let tons of icy seawater rush in. More than 1,500 people died.

When the safety of the rivets was first questioned 10 years ago, the builder ignored the accusation and said it did not have an archivist who could address the issue.

Now, historians say new evidence uncovered in the archive of the builder, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, settles the argument and finally solves the riddle of one of the most famous sinkings of all time. The company says the findings are deeply flawed. Continue Reading….