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A Tale of Two Gulf of Alaska Crossings: Yacht and Tugboat
By Norris Comer, best4boats. The Gulf of Alaska is one of those bodies of water that commands respect from anyone who’s crossed it — or plans to. In a vivid first-person account for Best4Boats, editorial director Norris Comer recounts two very different passages across the gulf: one aboard a 1965… SEE MORE
Steinbeck's Historic Western Flyer Plans Spring Return to Pacific Northwest
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
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
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2025 "Best Harbor" Contest Winners Announced
The People Have Spoken: Block Island Wins Again! Grand Winner, Best Harbor in the U.S. for 2025: Block Island, RI Last year’s Grand Winner for Best Harbor in the U.S., Block Island, RI, took home the prize again for 2025. This year saw a record number of votes cast for over… Learn More
Advanced ROV Technology Drives Pacific Northwest Shipwreck Exploration
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
Sentinels of the Lake: How Data Buoys Increase Safety and Support Communities of Wisconsin's Lake Michigan
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
The Canoe in the Forest
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
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
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
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?
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
Leading the Way to Hybrid Diesel Electric Propulsion
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
Scandinavia’s Missing Bronze-Age Boatyards
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
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
Celebrating Marine History: Privateers in the American Revolution
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
Possible Ancient River System Discovered off Wilmington, North Carolina
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
