Voyaging

The Boston Globe -- (AP) NEWPORT, R.I. - This oceanside city of luxurious Gilded Age mansions has long been an epicenter of yachting, its waters plied by sleek luxury vessels and sailors in the America’s Cup races. But a large jet-black hull berthed in a wharf here breaks from the leisure boat culture. The Oliver Hazard Perry — named for a Rhode Island-born commodore who routed a British fleet during the War of 1812 — is conceived as a "tall ship," a loosely defined term generally applied to majestic-looking vessels with soaring masts that conjure an earlier era of sailing. READ MORE

www.bbcnews.com -- A teenage student attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world has admitted he is "a little crazy" to do it at his age. Michael Perham, 16, from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire is the youngest person to have sailed across the Atlantic alone. He set out on his latest voyage from Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, on his Open 50 Racing Yacht on Saturday morning. READ MORE

 

Houston Chronicle -- (Houston, TX)  A Texas A&M University-led team of archaeologists and oceanographers found a cannon, cannon shot and a chest of weapons in the recovery of a two-century old shipwreck 4,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. "It's a fairly large arsenal," said Ben Ford, a nautical archaeologist at Texas A&M. "They were either out for mischief, or they were concerned about coming to some harm."  The 50-foot "Mardi Gras Wreck" was discovered in 2002 by employees of Okeanos Gas Gathering Co. as they surveyed the sea floor 35 miles off the Louisiana coast. The unidentified ship was named "Mardi Gras Wreck" after a nearby pipeline. READ MORE 

Motor Boats Monthly -- A Chinese man is hoping to promote peaceful exchanges between China and Taiwan by paddling to a Taiwanese-controlled island in a homemade paper boat. Zhu Yalin will use two ping pong bats to paddle the 6ft vessel to the contested island of Kinmen, 3.7 miles off the coast of mainland China, on 31 October. Whether he'll be welcomed is not known, considering the island has been the focus of hostilities between the countries ever since Nationalist forces fled the mainland following defeat by the Communists in 1949. READ MORE

www.keyetv.com -- While most families place a candle or light bulb in their carved-out pumpkins, J.R. Hildebrandt can fit a chair and small heater in his. The Wisconsin resident has carved a canoe out of a pumpkin and is taking the 760-pound gourd to the water where he plans to paddle 150 miles for charity. Hildebrandt will row his orange veggie down the Wisconsin River to raise money for Tri City Children’s Dream Foundation, a group that gives special-needs children memorable trips. READ MORE

www.telegraph.co.uk -- Pirates have launched at least 50 attacks this year in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, targeting cargo ships and chemical tankers as well as fishing boats, yachts and vessels bringing humanitarian aid to Somalia.

Ministers from the 27 European nations ordered a coordination unit to be set up protection and surveillance operations in order to combat the attacks which has caused mayhem to maritime traffic. In a statement ministers "deplored the upsurge in acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coasts of Somalia" and had given the green light to "a possible EU military naval operation".

European governments have become frustrated with the lawlessness in the Gulf of Aden, which lies off Somalia's northern coast and is an important sea route for European commerce flowing to and from the Suez Canal.

Insurance premiums for cargo ships intending to pass through the Gulf of Aden have soared tenfold over the past year.

One European shipping company said last week that it had paid a $1m (£550,000) ransom for the release of a cargo vessel and its crew, a practice that supporters of a harder line say has encouraged piracy.

www.orangebeach.ws -- September 15, 2008- Fort Morgan, AL-- The last time this mystery ship was visible was after Hurricane Ivan hit the Alabama Gulf Coast on September 16, 2004. At that time a much smaller portion of the ship was visible above the sand. Soon after Ivan revealed this historic treasure, the shifting sand covered the relic again.

Hurricane Ike's waves, this past week, pounded the beaches of the northern Gulf Coast and once again the mystery ship was revealed. This time however, much more of the ship was uncovered. This is the most visible the ship has ever been.

The roughly 150 foot long, 30 foot wide wooden ship appears to have been powered by steam. One of the artifacts within the perimeter of the ship's hull appears to be an old water pump. A long pipe runs down the center of the ship, with smaller pipes found near by.

While no one knows for sure what ship this is, historians speculate that the ship was a blockade-runner from the civil war.

The Wall Street Journal -- South African explorer Mike Horn, who once climbed to the North Pole on foot, will soon embark on his most difficult mission yet: navigating the world with a boatload of teenagers. Interested in nurturing a new generation of eco-warriors, Mr. Horn (with a mixed-background jury and an on-line voting system) has selected 144 “global ambassadors,” aged 13 to 20, to traverse the world — 12 at a time — in the Pangaea, his environmental-friendly and gadget-heavy vessel. Designed and built in Sao Paulo by workers from a nearby favela, the boat is made of aluminum and can be recycled after its four-year journey. The Pangaea also uses renewable energy solar panels and wind generators, and will have its own on-site recycling center that can crush plastic — caught from the seas with expansive nets — into cubes (Disney’s WALL-E would be proud).

“The boat is designed to be the 4-wheel drive of the ocean,” says Mr. Horn, who relies on sponsors like Mercedes-Benz and watch-makers Officine Panerai, for funding. “We built a vessel that can go anywhere in the world and is both 100% motorboat and 100% sailboat.”

www.coastguardnews.com -- The Coast Guard is extending High Endurance cutter operations from the Bering Sea into the Chukchi Sea, the Beaufort Sea, and the Arctic Ocean. This operation supports the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to extend maritime safety and security to the Arctic region in the face of retreating polar sea ice. The Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton will be the lead cutter in the United States’ push to extend security to U.S. Arctic waters. As part of this historic operation, the Hamilton is providing daily journal entries.

 

Crew Journal:

Written by MK1 Keith Madle

The New York Times--A growing array of military leaders, Arctic experts and lawmakers say the United States is losing its ability to patrol and safeguard Arctic waters even as climate change and high energy prices have triggered a burst of shipping and oil and gas exploration in the thawing region.

The National Academy of Sciences, the Coast Guard and others have warned over the past several years that the United States’ two 30-year-old heavy icebreakers, the Polar Sea and Polar Star, and one smaller ice-breaking ship devoted mainly to science, the Healy, are grossly inadequate. Also, the Polar Star is out of service.

And this spring, the leaders of the Pentagon’s Pacific Command, Northern Command and Transportation Command strongly recommended in a letter that the Joint Chiefs of Staff endorse a push by the Coast Guard to increase the country’s ability to gain access to and control its Arctic waters.

In the meantime, a resurgent Russia has been busy expanding its fleet of large oceangoing icebreakers to around 14, launching a large conventional icebreaker in May and, last year, the world’s largest icebreaker, named 50 Years of Victory, the newest of its seven nuclear-powered, pole-hardy ships.