Maritime Musings Coast Blogs

Elephant seal

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on April 1, 2014

Elephant seals are large seals represented by two species, the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal. Both were hunted to near extinction through the end of the nineteenth century. The smaller northern elephant seal is found in the eastern portion of the North Pacific Ocean…

Excursion vessels in polar waters

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.

Upward Falling Payloads

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on September 24, 2013

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the people who brought you the Internet, is seeking a different method of addressing the worldwide demands of maritime domain awareness in times of crises. While the US Navy is large, its…

T-3

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on February 15, 2013

T-3, also known as Fletcher’s Ice Island, was a large iceberg in the Arctic Ocean used for many years as a scientific research facility by the United States Government. It was identified in 1947 by USAF Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher. Following the end of World War II…

United States Light House Service

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on November 11, 2011

One of the first pieces of legislation adopted by the First Congress of the United States in 1789 was a measure providing for the new federal government to assume responsibility for the lighthouses previously erected by the colonial governments.

USCG Districts

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.

Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838)

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on February 9, 2010

Born in Salem, Massachusetts on March 26, 1773, Nathaniel Bowditch had little formal education. He left school at age ten to work in his father’s cooperage. He was then indentured as a bookkeeping apprentice to a ship chandler. Through prodigious self-study…

Execution dock

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on December 18, 2009

During the era when Britain ruled the waves, the High Court of Admiralty was a force to be reckoned with. While the Admiralty Court served at the pleasure of the King, it was independent from the courts of the land. The major constraint on its…