UK-based maritime welfare charity Sailors' Society has commemorated the 25th anniversary of the British Trent disaster by laying a wreath underneath the ship’s bell at All-Hallows-by-the-Tower in London. Nine seafarers lost their lives when the British Trent collided with another ship in foggy conditions 10-miles off Ostend on 3 June 1993. Upon impact, the British Trent’s … [Read more...]
Historic Shipyard Turns From Ships To Technology
by David M. Levitt (Bloomberg) -- America may never recover its glory as a manufacturing powerhouse, but the Brooklyn Navy Yard is doing what it can, transforming itself from a 20th-century ship builder to a 21st-century high-tech hub. Now it’s about to unveil a $2.5 billion building plan that would more than quadruple its current workforce. The navy yard’s … [Read more...]
500-Year-Old Astrolabe May be ‘Earliest Marine Navigation Tool’ Ever Discovered
Researchers at the University of Warwick have identified what is believed to be the earliest known marine navigation tool ever discovered. The artifact, now determined to be an astrolabe, was excavated in 2014 from the wreck of a Portuguese explorer ship which sank during a storm in the Indian Ocean in 1503. The ship was called the Esmeralda, part of a fleet led by … [Read more...]
How The Coast Guard Earned Its Orange And Blue Stripes
by Diana Honings - In the modern history of the United States Coast Guard, there has been a rapid shift from mistaken identity to a brand identity. The iconic orange and blue Racing Stripe - painted on the bow of every USCG vessel - provides a perfect example of an innovative solution to this identity problem. But where did the idea come from? In October 1956, … [Read more...]
Three Countries Unite To Solve Nautical Mystery
(TheGuardian) Indonesia has agreed to work with the Netherlands to investigate the mysterious disappearance of several second world war shipwrecks – considered war graves – from the bottom of the Java Sea, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has said. The recent discovery that at least six Dutch and British warships sunk in 1942 had vanished from the … [Read more...]