Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
December 2, 2014
The bark HMS Endeavour was built in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke. A type known locally as a Whitby Cat, it had a broad, flat bow, a square stern, a long box-like body with a deep hold, and a flat bottom. Originally ship-rigged, it was…
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
July 15, 2014
The Cape Cod Canal is a seven-mile long sea level canal connecting Cape Cod Bay to the north with Buzzards Bay to the south. Maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), it has a minimum channel width of 480 feet and an authorized depth of 32 feet at mean low water.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
February 11, 2014
The world was recently witness to a multi-national effort to rescue the Russian excursion vessel Akademik Shokalskiy after it was beset in wind-driven ice off the coast of Antarctica. The French supply vessel L’Astrolabe turned back from its relief effort.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
December 3, 2013
Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1842. Joining the United States Navy as a medical officer, he served in the China Commercial Treaty mission of 1844, in the Africa Squadron…
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
June 21, 2013
The Barents Sea is named for the Dutch navigator, cartographer, and explorer Willem Barents, who mapped the area during expeditions in the late 1500’s. Historically, the Russians referred to it as the Sea of Murmans. It is located north of eastern Norway and western Russia.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
August 14, 2012
The albatross is the largest of all birds in terms of wingspan (up to 12 feet). It can be found soaring above all ocean waters of the Southern Hemisphere and above the North Pacific. It is largely absent from the North Atlantic, probably due to loss of habitat.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
May 25, 2012
The Xue Long (Snow Dragon) is the premier polar vessel of the People’s Republic of China. It was built in the Ukraine in 1993 and modified upon its acquisition by China in 1994. Its major function is to serve as a resupply vessel and scientific research platform in the Antarctic and the Arctic.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
March 23, 2012
When the Union Navy learned that the Confederate Navy was building an iron-clad warship to threaten the wooden-hulled blockade fleet, it launched a crash project to build its own iron-clad warships. Of the 17 proposals submitted, the Union Navy selected three for construction.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
December 21, 2010
Nikumaroro (previously known as Gardner Island) is a small coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean situated just south of the Equator and just west of the 180th meridian. It lies in the Phoenix Island Chain and is part of the Republic of Kiribati.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
November 5, 2010
The requirement for scanning of 100% of maritime shipping containers in overseas ports prior to loading on a ship bound for the United States was enacted into federal law (with various caveats) by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
April 20, 2010
The Turkish Straits consist of two narrow straits in northwestern Turkey, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmara that connects them. The Turkish Straits lie between the Black Sea to the east and the Aegean Sea, which is a region of the much larger Mediterranean Sea.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
April 6, 2010
The US Coast Guard adopted the concept of geographic districts when it absorbed the US Lighthouse Service in 1939. Previously, it had no formal segmentation of its chain of command based on geography. Rather, the chain of command was grouped around function.
Posted to Maritime Musings
(by
Dennis Bryant)
on
March 5, 2010
The trireme was utilized as a warship in the Mediterranean Sea from the 7th century BC until the fall of the Roman Republic at about the commencement of the Christian era. No other warship design has survived in service for a comparable period. It was truly the dominant battleship of its day.