The wreckage of the MV Noongah, dubbed “one of the nation’s worst post-war maritime disasters” has been discovered off the coast of Australia’s New South Wales 55 years after it sank in heavy weather with the loss of 21 of … The post Australia Finds Shipwreck of MV Noongah, 55 Years After Tragic Loss appeared first on Old Salt Blog ..read more

A humpback whale that appeared to be lunge feeding breached the water and landed on a recreational boat near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, capsizing the vessel and tossing two occupants into the water, the United States Coast Guard said. The New York Times reports that the Northern New England sector of the Coast Guard received a mayday call for a 23-foot boat that had capsized when a whale shot up from underneath the boat and flopped onto it, about half a mile east of Odiorne Point State Park. The dramatic flip was caught on video by Colin Yager, 16, who was out fishing on ..read more

Graphic: D Ross Robertson Have you heard of cocaine bear? Well, meet cocaine sharks. Sharks living off the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine, according to new research, the first time that the drug has been detected in free-ranging sharks. Scientists tested 13 Brazilian sharpnose sharks in the waters off the city of Rio de Janeiro and found cocaine present in both the liver and muscle tissue of all 13 specimens, according to a paper by researchers at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil sent to CNN on Tuesday. The species was chosen due to its small size and the fact tha ..read more

RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research. She was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. The aptly named Discovery is now a museum ship in Dundee, Scotland, the port where she was built in 1901. After a storied and arduous career spanning 123 years, it is remarkable that the ship has survived. Now, t ..read more

Photo: NOAA/Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island Just over a year after the ill-fated Titan expedition to the Titanic killed five people, another expedition down to one of the most famous shipwrecks in the world is underway. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), a team of imaging experts, scientists, and historians plans to get updated images of the Titanic that will be used to make a 3D model of the ship. RMS Titanic Inc. – the only firm with salvage rights to the wreck – will carry out the mission. This is RMS Titanic, Inc.’s first expedition to the wreck site since 2010 ..read more

Yemeni Houthi rebels have released a video of an attack they claim to have been carried out by a sea drone on an oil tanker in the Red Sea. The footage shows a small vessel approaching, then colliding with the ship’s port side, resulting in a large explosion.  BBC has confirmed that the tanker seen in the video is the Chios Lion. The attack occurred on July 15, 100 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port of Hodeidah. The attack is reported to have inflicted minor damage to the Chios Lion. The tanker’s crew was not injured in the attack. Satellite images revealed that an oil slick between ..read more

Last week, a 10-foot inflatable boat with two bodies on board was discovered washed ashore on Sable Island, Nova Scotia. The remains are believed to be of Brett Clibbery, 70, and Sarah Packwood, 60, from British Columbia, who were reported missing on June 18.  Nova Scotia’s medical examiner service continues to work to positively identify the bodies,  police said, but next of kin have been notified. The CBC reports that the inflatable boat found on Sable Island, about 290 kilometers southeast of Halifax, is believed to have been from a GibSea 42 ft sailboat named Theros. Royal Canadi ..read more

Yesterday, we posted about the tragic stranding on a beach in the Orkneys that resulted in the deaths of 77 long-finned pilot whales.  Here is a much more cheerful story involving a pod of pilot whales and a solo transatlantic rower. Tom Waddington set off on an attempt to break the world record for rowing solo across the Atlantic, while also raising money for the mental health charity Mind. Last Sunday, some 100 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, he had an unexpected visit by what he estimates was a pod of at least a thousand long-finned pilot whales that playfully swam around ..read more

On 11 July 2024 at about 10:45am, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) received a report of a mass stranding of long-finned pilot whales on the isle of Sanday in Orkney, Scotland.  They found 77 animals high up the beach, having evidently been stranded for several hours already.  65 of the whales were already dead and the 12 remaining whales were in a poor state. “Sadly the remaining 12 pilot whales have been euthanized due to their condition deteriorating from the many hours they have spent stranded on the beach,” the BDMLR said in a statement late Thursday. “Pilot whales ..read more

A few days before one of the world’s largest maritime gatherings, the crew of the Russian sailing ship Shtandart learned that it would not be able to participate in the Brest festivities due to the extension of European sanctions due to the war in Ukraine. Le Parisien reports that the Shtandart, a replica of Tsar Peter the Great’s frigate, will not be able to participate in the Brest Maritime Festival, due to a decree from the Finistère prefecture. The ship, whose Russian flag has been controversial for months, had to change it in the spring to that of the Cook Islands, at the request of the F ..read more