A Swedish shipping company, Wallenius Marine, is developing a car transporter* ship, Oceanbird, with telescopic aerofoil sails. When launched, it will be the world’s largest sailing ship. The design is elegantly simple; take a pretty standard car transporter hull with the boxy shape and loading ramp at...
Havila Voyages, the new operator on the Norwegian ‘Hurtigruten’ Coastal Service route in Norway, is building four new ships with eco-friendly hybrid propulsion systems. The first two ships will go into service next year. There’s been something of a sea-change in Norwegian coastal waters. The legacy operator,...
Hunter’s Yard runs a rental fleet of traditional wooden sailboats on the Norfolk Broads in Eastern England with a loyal base of customers who share a common appreciation for the historic vessels and their way of life. Sailors on the Broads have traditionally used long poles called...
I came across this little ‘factoid’ in the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s in-house magazine, Scuttlebutt, which was a fascinating publication until they stopped publishing it! It’s one of those ‘unknown unknowns’ as Donald Rumsfeld would say. I didn’t know that I didn’t know it… until...
The museum ship SS John W. Brown, one of only two World War II ‘Liberty’ ships preserved and still operational*, is looking for a new home. The Liberty ships were the cargo-carrying workhorses of the Allied war effort. They were produced with conveyor belt efficiency in huge...
Aurora Expeditions, who specialise in expeditions to the polar regions, yesterday named their new ship, the Greg Mortimer, in a ceremony set against the snow-capped mountains of Ushuaia, Argentina. The new ship has a striking profile because she is the first passenger vessel in the world to...
Energy Observer will be the first hydrogen vessel to sail around the world when she completes her 6-year mission to test a range of eco-friendly, zero-emission, marine power technologies, and at the same time, inspire people in the 101 stopovers in 50 counties along the way. Energy...
P&O Ferries has signed a €260 million contract with Guangzhou Shipyard International for two new 230-metre super-ferries – the largest ever to sail between Dover and Calais. The new ferries will incorporate a number of technologies and features that will boost efficiency and reduce their environmental impact…...
The Biber (“Beaver”) midget submarine was not Germany’s most successful weapon in WW2. Designed hastily in Feb 1944 in a bid to compensate for the horrendous losses in the U-boat fleet, and in anticipation of an imminent Allied invasion, the Biber was a cheap, one-man submarine, capable...
The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam (Het Scheepvaartmuseum) will open two brand new semi-permanent displays of its collection in May: Republic at Sea and Maps & Marvels. The museum’s Main Gallery will host Republic at Sea, which will display paintings, ship models, instruments, and weapons illustrating how...
I finally paid a long overdue visit to Portsmouth last month and caught up on the key ‘attractions’ on both sides of the harbour. I’m going to address the main attractions – HMS Warrior, HMS Victory, HMS M33, The Mary Rose museum, The Royal Navy Submarine Museum...
The thing with ‘icons’ is that you know what to expect when you finally see them. Sometimes the scale is unexpected – eg. “Oh, the Mt Rushmore heads are smaller than I thought!” (they were) – but the detail is exactly as anticipated. I have seen HMS...
Canadian expedition cruise company, One Ocean Expeditions (OOE) in collaboration with The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) has helped to find the Nova Zembla, a Scottish whaling ship that was wrecked near Buchan Gulf off the coast of Baffin Island in 1902. Dr. Matthew Ayre and Dr....
Last week Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) took possession of their new 4,000-guest cruise ship during an on board signing ceremony at which ownership was transferred from the (astonishingly efficient) Meyer Werft shipyard (I’m a big fan) to NCL and their respective flags were changed. Norwegian Bliss is...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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