Chief Mate Andre van Schoonhovenof the new cruise ship Eurodam gives us the history of classifying anchors. He writes;
Traditionally ships were anchored using large hemp hawsers called cables. In 1836 the use of iron chains had become so common in the English merchant service and their superiority so well recognized, that the underwriters ceased to charge a higher insurance rate for vessels using iron chain. In 1840 side welding of chain was introduced in England, and from that time English chains of 1-7/8 inches and larger have been side welded.
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping augmented its rules in 1846 so that thereafter all chains of classed vessels were tested and stamped on each end to indicate load capacity. In 1853 Lloyd’s rules made it mandatory that, before a vessel could be classed, the test of the chain cable had to be certified, and in 1858 Lloyd’s issued rules regarding the length and size of chain cable. Lloyd’s progressively stiffened their rules regarding methods of manufacture and testing, resulting in the Anchors and Chain Cables Act of 1899, which with only a few amendments is still the basis of present-day testing procedures.
He also provides a timeline of anchor chain developments. Here’s an excerpt; [Continue Reading →]
Today is National Maritime Day here in the states, an observance that “Honors the contributions of the American merchant marine, civilians who have defended the freedom of the United States since 1775, and who executed the largest sealift the world has ever known during World War II. The observance of National Maritime Day also honors the maritime industry and the benefits it brings Americans in terms of transportation, jobs, goods, and recreational opportunities.”
National Maritime Day was first declared so by Congress in 1933. The date was chosen as the anniversary of the day which the American steamship SS Savannah set sail on the world’s first transoceanic voyage under steam power.
The highlight of Maritime Day is the annual Proclamation set forth by the US President. Here are the words of President Barack Obama: [Continue Reading →]
A replica 16th century junk (Chinese sailing vessel) sank off Taiwan Sunday after a collision involving a Liberian freighter. The junk was the Princess TaiPing, a 35-tonne replica of a Ming dynasty warship, that was on the the final day of a record breaking 10 month, trans-pacific voyage to demonstrate that the Chinese admiral and explorer, Zheng He, had sailed to North America some 600 years ago. According the Princess Taiping’s website:
Our mission is to restore the craftsmanship and navigation techniques of ancient Chinese people, to honor the richness of Chinese maritime culture, and to applaud the glorious pieces in Chinese history. Nowadays, we can hardly find any ocean-going Chinese Junk. If these maritime culture relics can not be well preserved, we can boldly declare that they can be vanished within one decade. The foremost efforts of Princess TaiPing are to revive the Chinese traditional shipbuilding and sea navigation techniques and show the charm of Chinese Junk to the world as well. [Continue Reading →]
Peter A Mello of Seafever.org points us to 10 shipwrecks that capture our imaginations… well MSNBC’s imaginations anyway. As Peter put’s it, “not sure that these shipwrecks will capture your imagination, but they captured MSNBC’s, plus it’s been Dugg a bunch.” Here’s the list:
1. The Titanic
2. Ancient Greek oil ship
3. 16th Century Portuguese ship off Namibian coast
4. Santa Margarita
5. Captan Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant
6. Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge
7. HMS Victory
8. Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes
9. S.S. Cyprus
10. Graf Zeppelin
You can also see MSNBC’s slideshow with a little information about the each wreck HERE. If there are any you feel that are worth a mention and not listed, let us know in the comments.
PS: Sorry for the photo, but at least there’s no Celin Dion playing in the background;)
I recently subscribed to and have been enjoying one of the top blogs in the political arena, The Huffington Post. The reasons are two fold. First, I enjoy the articles but more important is the second… I admire their model of collaboration, where every subject expert is given his/her own section and only the best articles of the day are promoted to the homepage. It, in fact, serves as guide for the next iteration of this blog’s design.
By having a diverse set of columnists, each expert in a niche of our industry, we hope to broaden the perspective of this site and create an incubator for new ideas that solve the problems facing ocean transport today. There are, however, negatives to this model which become apparent after reading today’s front page article; “You Are Being Lied to About Pirates” by Johann Hari, Columnist for the London Independent. In the article Hari begins with a history lesson writing:
Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls “one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century.” They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed “quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy.” This is why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.
In correlating historical record with with the situation in Somalia he writes: [Continue Reading →]
We usually post more modern topics but these photos of 19th century clipper cards was too visually impressive of a collection to pass up. Flickr user pantufla tells us:
Actually these are 19thc Clipper Cards. I recently saw one at a rare book expo, and it was about as big as an ipod. I was surprised because of all the detail poured into these. They certainly would work as posters too, and maybe there were larger versions. Read more here:”Clipper ship trade cards are cards that were issued by dispatch lines to advertise specific voyages of clipper ships from one port (usually New York or Boston) to another (usually San Francisco). They were distributed primarily during the late 1850s and early 1860s.”
You can find the collection HERE and information on the history of the cards HERE
We just recorded episode 28 of Messing About In Ships, our weekly podcast about ships, and during the taping Peter Mello reminded me to follow up on our friend Todd Lappin’s latest internet endeavor as corespondent for BoingBoing TV. Here are the details;
We marvel (!) at the cool old retro-technology that kept this behemoth boat running to and from the beaches of Normandy, and we meet the volunteer caretakers — obsessive nerds just like us, only with white hair! — who keep her ship-shape today. Did you know that shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area once churned out Liberty Ships like this in 4 days or less, during the heat of the war? Watch and learn, li’l skippers.
If you are interested in having your ship featured on Telstar Logistics, Flickr and possibly BoingBoing please contact your company’s media relations department. Todd is looking to board a working commercial ship (500ft LOA+) for a period of of 4-14 days to experience the life of a Merchant Mariner. If you can arrange such a voyage let us know, gCaptain will help make the trip happen.
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.
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.
With a death toll six times greater than the Titanic, new light has been shed on MS Wilhelm Gustloff, as a result a TV series that aired on Germany’s ZDF Channel last night.
The Independent is reporting:
“There was this sea of adult heads floating all around me, but alongside them there were hundreds of children’s legs half sticking up in the air. Their heads were under water,” Mr Schön, now 82, said. “They all drowned. Nobody realized that a child’s head is heavier than its legs.”
An estimated 9,000 passengers and crew, fleeing East Prussia, perished (5,000 children) as a result of the the sinking of MS Wilhelm Gustloff back in January, 1945. Gustloff was carrying 10,000 refugees packed into every corner of the ship. Struck by three Soviet torpedoes, she took only 70 minutes to sink.
During her life, MS Wilhelm Gustloff saw many incarnations: Cruise ship, Hospital ship, Navy ship, and Rescue ship.
The sinking (from the Wilhelm Gustloff website) Sometime before 8PM , the first officer on the S-13 spots lights in the distance. Marinesko promptly makes his way to the conning tower. When the snow clears for a moment he spots in his words “the silhouette of an [enormous] ocean liner, even [with its] lights showing”. Over the next two hours, Marinesko shadows the Wilhelm Gustloff, fine tuning his plan of attack. His crew on board begin to sense that their luck is about to change.
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
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.
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 
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