Category: Maritime History

Western Flyer was used by author John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts for their expedition to the Sea of Cortez.

Steinbeck’s Historic Western Flyer Plans Spring Return to Pacific Northwest

2/15/2026 - By Norris Comer, best4boats.com. One of America's most storied vessels is plotting a course back to her home waters. The Western Flyer — the 1937 wooden fishing vessel immortalized in John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez — is now a fully restored floating classroom based in Monterey,… SEE MORE

When History Sets Sail: The $11.2M Journey to Keep Mayflower II Alive

10/15/2025 - By Arnie Hammerman, Published in best4boats.com. The extensive restoration of Mayflower II illustrates the complex technical and financial challenges involved in maintaining historic vessels as operational maritime assets. The project's multi-year timeline and collaborative funding model offer insights for harbor communities seeking to preserve their own historic waterfront vessels. In… SEE MORE

Advanced ROV Technology Drives Pacific Northwest Shipwreck Exploration

9/27/2025 - By Norris Comer, Published in best4boats.com. The SS Pacific salvage operation demonstrates how modern maritime technology enables complex Deepwater recovery missions previously impossible for independent operators. The integration of custom ROV systems with specialized detection equipment illustrates the evolving capabilities available to smaller-scale maritime exploration ventures. A key part of… SEE MORE

NOAA and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers prepare a new real-time weather buoy for deployment in Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: NOAA

Sentinels of the Lake: How Data Buoys Increase Safety and Support Communities of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan

5/23/2025 - By sancturies.noaa.gov. Just off the shores of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the Shipwreck Sentinel quietly bobs in the waves—one of many data buoys deployed across the Great Lakes. Sitting within the waters of Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, this data buoy provides valuable information used by fishers, boaters, and surfers alike.… SEE MORE

Navigation Aid, buoy, in the fog. Photo by Andrew Marek/Shutterstock

Navigation Markers Targeted for Removal by U.S. Coast Guard — Here’s How to Weigh In

5/7/2025 - Coast Guard proposing the removal of 350+ navigation aids (NY to Maine). Public comment deadline: June 13, 2025 By US Harbors The U.S. Coast Guard has proposed eliminating more than 350 navigational aids—buoys, daymarks, and lights—along the Northeast coast, from New York to Eastport, Maine. These changes are part of… SEE MORE

The Canoe in the Forest

1/28/2025 - By Joshua Hunt. An unfinished boat hidden on a remote island in Alaska illuminates a missing chapter in the history of traditional Haida and Tlingit canoe building. When I first see the canoe, in May, it takes a moment to distinguish the long, shapely slab of cedar from the patch… SEE MORE

Dragger Susan Rose Raised One Year After Sinking

12/16/2024 - By nationalfisherman.com. The Rhode Island steel trawler Susan Rose was raised from the sea floor this week a year after sinking off Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., removed as a hazard to navigation. After the 2023 grounding, the fishing boat’s crew of four safely got off onto the beach, dropping down from the… SEE MORE

Buyboat is a Labor of Love

12/8/2024 - By Larry Chowning. Several years ago, while attending the Sultana Downrigging Festival in Chestertown, Md., Jim Drake and his wife Brooke were introduced to Chesapeake Bay buyboats. Brooke fell in love with the boats and Jim set out to build her one. Since 2015 National Fisherman has followed Jim Drake’s efforts in… SEE MORE

Century-Old Halibut Schooners Restored in Port Townsend

10/22/2024 - By Michael Crowley. The boatyard many fishermen who ply the waters of the Pacific Northwest or Alaska in wooden boats choose for maintenance and repairs is Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op in Port Townsend, Wash. At the yard this September, several wooden halibut schooners had been hauled out awaiting work this fall. Among them… SEE MORE

Why Choose the Hard Life of Commercial Fishing?

9/26/2024 - By Carli Stewart. Why would anyone who has a choice want to fish for a living, given the cold, wet, uncertainty, danger, muck, dependence on weather for make or break, and general ass-busting hardship? For a skipper of any sized boat, add the government regulations, ruinous cost of fuel and… SEE MORE