HMS Surprise and Star of India

Krusenstern

The Krusenstern or Kruzenshtern is a Russian four masted barque and tall ship that was built in 1926 in Germany. She was given to the USSR in 1946 as war reparation and renamed after the early 19th century Baltic German explorer in Russian service, Adam Johann Krusenstern (1770-1846). The second largest training tall ship in the world at 375 ' has signed up to take part in the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009. The vessel will begin her 7,000 nautical mile ocean odyssey in Vigo, Spain, before racing to Tenerife and then Bermuda. After coming here, she will head to Charleston and Boston in the US and Halifax, Canada, before crossing the Atlantic to Belfast.

Skipjack CALEB W. JONES

The skipjack Caleb W. Jones is being restored at The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum by the staff and apprentices of the non-profit Coastal Heritage Alliance. Built in 1953, this remnant of the Chesapeake Bay's fading fleet of sail-powered oyster dredging boats is getting an extreme makeover at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. On dry ground for now, the Caleb's hull is being taken apart and put back together again, a timber and plank at a time.
Skipjacks were developed in the 1890s. They were relatively inexpensive to build, and their shallow draft enabled them to dredge oysters closer in to shore. Watermen often built the craft themselves in their backyards.
The Caleb's owner wants to use it to offer educational cruises for groups of youngsters, taking them from Charles County down the Potomac River and over to Smith Island. A few of the old skipjacks are in similar service, owned by museums or nonprofit groups such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. For the rest of the story CLICK HERE.

New Windjammer Slide Show

My New Windjammer Collection Slide Show

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Windjammer News January 2009

Maine Windjammer Association January 2009 Newsletter

Schooner Jennie R. Dubois

On February 11th, 1902, in West Mystic, Connecticut, the largest coasting schooner built outside of the Maine shipyards slid down the ways of the Holmes Shipbuilding Company. Nineteen months later the Jennie R. Dubois, sunk in a collision with the Steamship Schoenfels, was resting on the sandy bottom southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island. Once cleared as a menace to navigation, the Dubois was lost to history and her location remained unknown to local divers and historians.
You are cordially invited to attend a public presentation (by Mark Munro the diver who found the wreck) on the Jennie R. Dubois February 11th, 2009 Seven o’clock in the evening Mystic Yachting Center, Mystic Shipyard, West Mystic Connecticut. For the rest of the story CLICK HERE.

Tall Ship BALCLUTHA

BALCLUTHA, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship BALCLUTHA, is a steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is the only square rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area and is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber, salmon, and grain. She is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is currently preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. In 1954, the Pacific Queen was acquired by the San Francisco Maritime Museum, who restored her and renamed her back to BALCLUTHA. She is now one of the exhibits of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and is to be found moored at the park's Hyde Street Pier.

SOS Falls of Clyde

Friends of FALLS OF CLYDE

Falls of Clyde as built in 1878 as a four-masted full-rigged ship.

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Wake of the Wi...

By Maritime Photograp...

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Wake of the Windjammers

Cruising along the coast of New England are the last of a great fleet of windjammers, once numbering in the thousands. Many of them transported cargoes of raw materials and supplies along the eastern seaboard and around the world; some fished on the Grand Banks; while others ferried pilots to ocean going ships entering and leaving major American seaports. The last remaining vessels have been designated National Historic Landmarks. These restored vessels, along with re-creations of the past, now carry passengers and maritime students on week and summer-long cruises. Following in their wakes , I continue to document these historic icons as they sail , in harmony with the wind and sea.

ONRUST 1614 Replica

The Onrust Project began in 2006 and construction of the replica of the Dutch ship that charted waterways of New York and the Northeast before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock is in its final phase. The Onrust measures 50 feet long and will be 45 feet from keel to the top of the mast, which is not yet in place. It will be christened in the Mohawk River next summer 2009, in time for the statewide quadricentennial celebrations, marking the exploratory voyages of Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain and the bicentennial celebration of the city of Schenectady.

The original Onrust - which means restless in Dutch - was built in 1614 after explorer Adriaen Block and his crew were stranded on the tip of Manhattan when their ship, the Tyger, burned. Over the winter, they built the 42-foot, 16-ton Onrust, with help from the Lenape Indians, later renamed Delaware Indians by Europeans. The crew used the ship to explore the waterways around present-day New York and New England before returning to Europe. Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island was named for the captain.

For the rest of the story CLICK HERE.