Category: Maritime History

Leading the Way to Hybrid Diesel Electric Propulsion

9/23/2024 - By Paul Molyneaux. In 2021, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) initially received funding from the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnerships Project for modeling and analysis of alternative propulsion systems. Based on that work, the original plan—developed in conjunction with the National Research Energy Laboratory—was to put a Transfluid clutch, electric… SEE MORE

Image Credits: World History Encyclopedia.

Scandinavia’s Missing Bronze-Age Boatyards

8/26/2024 - By Richard Kemeny. Archaeologists argue that ancient Scandinavian boat-building infrastructure has been hiding in plain sight. Long before their Viking successors wielded naval prowess to conquer distant lands, boats were at the heart of life in Scandinavia. Tens of thousands of depictions of prehistoric ships have been discovered adorning rocks… SEE MORE

Pirate Jean Lafitte’s Grave

7/17/2024 - By Scarheel. Visit the secret grave of a legendary privateer who faked his own death. FROM 1810 TO 1823, JEAN Lafitte and his brother Pierre were among the most notorious and successful privateers in the Americas. Like many great pirates, Jean Lafitte’s exact origins are shrouded in mystery, but he is… SEE MORE

Ships during revolutionary war. Painting by William Elliott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating Marine History: Privateers in the American Revolution

7/1/2024 - By John Frayler for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. A Means to an End When the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, the infant nation was in no position to defy British rule of the seas. Britain’s navy in 1776 was the world’s most powerful. States individually… SEE MORE

American Revolution

A graphic showing newly discovered underwater paleochannels off of Wilmington, North Carolina shown at 4-meter resolution

Possible Ancient River System Discovered off Wilmington, North Carolina

4/15/2024 - By noaacoastsurvey. During the 2023 field season, NOAA Ship Ferdinand R. Hassler was tasked with surveying an area offshore of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the vicinity of Frying Pan Shoals—a dynamic area of dangerously shallow waters. While scientists and crew conducted mapping surveys of the seafloor, they discovered what is believed to… SEE MORE

Wreck of the schooner Galinipper, Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary's oldest known shipwreck. Image: Becky Schott / Liquid Productions

Shipwrecks: New Study Opens Window to Cultural Past in Great Lakes Sanctuary

3/4/2024 - By santuaries.noaa.gov. While shipwrecks are often the primary focus of maritime heritage preservation in America’s Great Lakes national marine sanctuaries, a recent two-part maritime cultural landscape study of the 962-square-mile Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary reveals that shipwrecks only tell part of the story of human connections to the natural environment… SEE MORE

Government Extends Outer Limits of U.S. Continental Shelf

1/16/2024 - By State.gov Today, the Department released the geographic coordinates defining the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast, known as the extended continental shelf (ECS). The continental shelf is the extension of a country’s land territory under the sea. Like other countries, the… SEE MORE

Tidal Power’s Fickle Future

Maritime History

5/19/2023 - By oceangrafixblog.wordpress.com Aided by remote “drone” divers and advances in sonar, more ancient shipwrecks are being discovered. Sometimes salvage operations recover whole vessels and their entire bounty. But until recently, scientists knew little about the actual passengers and crew. Now, a new method of DNA testing is making it possible… SEE MORE

Shipwreck

Summer in the Greenland coast circa the year 1000 by Carl Rasmussen (1875) by WikiCommons.

Did rising seas drive Vikings out of Greenland?

Maritime History

5/16/2023 - By news.harvard.edu. Vikings occupied Greenland from about 985 to 1450 A.D., farming and building communities before they abruptly abandoned their settlements. Why they disappeared has long been a puzzle, but a new paper from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences determines that one factor — rising sea level — likely played… SEE MORE

This Arctic Ichthyosaur Should Not Exist

Maritime History

4/2/2023 - By atlasobscura.com. A marine reptile fossil from Svalbard challenges ideas about evolution and Earth’s greatest mass extinction. Australian-born Benjamin Kear is a hunter of the High Arctic. With colleague and friend Jørn Hurum, he chose a quarry, and set off across the treeless expanse of Norway’s Spitsbergen, part of the… SEE MORE

marine reptile