Is salvaging sunken treasure a form of piracy or the preservation of history? Does commercial for-profit exploration of historical shipwrecks taint the historical legacy of these naval graveyards? Who owns the treasures lost for so many centuries? Marine archeology is testing its legal limits with one man's work. [previous]
posted by infini on Jun 5, 2009 - 25 comments

The aircraft carrier, a majestic and grand symbol of American naval might... susceptible to swarming small-boat assault and weak against ballistic missiles, nevermind an anti-ship ballistic missile. Is it time to reevaluate the role of the aircraft carrier in a modern naval strategy?
posted by Keter on May 27, 2009 - 58 comments

Today marks the first National Famine Memorial Day in Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Actually the first day in a week of activities (.pdf), Skibbereen was one of many areas in western Ireland hard-hit by the famine (or Great Hunger). [more inside]
posted by dbmcd on May 10, 2009 - 3 comments

The Meat Ship Ingredients: ~20 sausages ~48 rashers of bacon 1.2kg of sausage meat 1kg of pork mince 10 franks 1kg of pastry (not 100% meat this time) 1 onion 1 mushroom 2 packets of chipolata sausages various food colourings sage Sequel to the Meat House. Previously.
posted by daHIFI on May 8, 2009 - 40 comments

Project Genesis - "It's destined to be the world's largest cruise ship—when launched next year, Royal Caribbean's US$1.24 billion Project Genesis will be 1,180 feet long, and carry 5400 passengers (6,400 at a pinch). It's the most expensive ship in history, and it's longer, wider and taller than the largest ocean liner ever built, (Cunard's QE II), 43 per cent larger in size than the world's largest cruise ship, (Freedom of the Seas [previously]) and remarkably, bigger than any military ship ever built, aircraft carriers included. In a world where choice of amenities count, Project Genesis has yet another trump card—in the the center of the ship is a lush, tropical park which opens to the sky." cf. The Lilypad
posted by kliuless on Jun 24, 2008 - 81 comments

March 3rd, 1976 - June 19th, 2008. RIP GTS FinnJet. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Jun 19, 2008 - 11 comments

Remember the FAIL boat (also prev)? Now Mazda's in the midst of trying to efficiently dispose of approximately $100 million worth of factory-new automobiles.
posted by allkindsoftime on Apr 29, 2008 - 87 comments

The USNS Swift (HSV-2) looks like something a Bond villian would own, but it's actually one of the most advanced ships owned by the US Navy. Highly manueverable and having a top speed of 51mph, it's heavily automated, capable of handling helicopters, carrying cargo, and launching both manned and unmanned vehicles -- all with only 42 people. It's assisted with relief efforts in Indonesia, Lebanon, and after Hurricane Katrina. But the best thing about the ship? It can be remote controlled through a web browser.
posted by QuestionableSwami on Nov 29, 2007 - 28 comments

Hannu's Boatyard is a site by a Finnish guy who offers free plans for two dozen simple plywood boats you can build, along with photos illustrating the build process of each. He also describes basic woodbending technique and some of the design process, in a pleasing writing style that makes me want to get off the internet and make things. My favorites: Portuguese style dinghy; tiny stubby halfpea; round, Welsh-style coracle -- if you click on no other link today, click on the coracle link and scroll down at least to the black and white photo.
posted by LobsterMitten on Oct 12, 2007 - 31 comments

Nearly 500 passengers, including eight with broken bones, disembarked from the Grand Voyager cruise ship in Sardinia ... a day after it was battered by a storm in the Mediterranean Sea.
posted by The Light Fantastic on Mar 30, 2007 - 32 comments

Got a few hundred hours to kill? (pdf) A Ship in a Bottle is a type of impossible bottle. No, not this Ship in a Bottle. Have you ever wondered how it gets in there? Or thought about building one yourself? Here's some tips and tricks. If you are not mechanically inclined, how about making a PSP version? Or, heck, just go buy one.
posted by figment of my conation on Feb 20, 2007 - 10 comments

The La Contessa, the Spanish galleon that roamed Lake Lahontan, is gone.
posted by fandango_matt on Dec 11, 2006 - 19 comments

Two time-lapse journeys through the Panama Canal.(YouTube)
posted by fandango_matt on Dec 4, 2006 - 6 comments

Freedom of the seas World,s largest passenger liner, currently docked in Southampton UK, in prep for voyage to New York. Then a life of cruising the Carib. 15m wider than the QM2 Check out the flash tour.
posted by A189Nut on Apr 29, 2006 - 56 comments

Built to FLIP!
posted by riffola on Nov 7, 2005 - 23 comments

Liberty ship bow art of Sausalito.
posted by breezeway on Apr 6, 2005 - 6 comments

Ship shape? Welcome aboard the SS United States. Her maiden voyage was July 7, 1952, where she set a trans-Atlantic record which still stands. Her passenger list included such luminaries as Marlon Brando, Salvador Dali and Harry Truman. Several sites document the effort to save her from being sold for scrap or sunk. Far from her former glory, she now lies at anchor in the Delaware River in Philadelphia, a sad counterpart to her former self.
posted by fixedgear on Jan 14, 2005 - 25 comments

"Mayday, mayday, Estonia, please." 10 years ago tonight, 852 people lost their lives in the cold dark waters of the Baltic Sea. In the middle of the night the ferry M/S Estonia, headed from Tallinn to Stockholm, suddenly capsized and sank. Only 137 people survived Europe's worst maritime disaster since World War II. (more inside)
posted by mr.marx on Sep 27, 2004 - 8 comments

One hundred years ago today, 1,358 members of the Kleindeutschland, the German neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, boarded a chartered ferry named the General Slocum for a picnic excursion to Long Island. A fire broke out in the ship's hold while it cruised up the East River, the captain ran the vessel aground on the rocky shores of North Brother Island amid the swift currents of Hell Gate, and when it was all over 1,021 people (mainly women and children) had perished by drowning or from the fire, and it remained the worst single-day New York City disaster until 9/11.
posted by Vidiot on Jun 15, 2004 - 16 comments

Damn the torpedoes! The Australian Battle Group is a R/C model warship combat club, with emphasis on combat. Great care and devotion is given to design and historical accuracy, and then they shoot holes in each other with working cannon.
posted by steef on Feb 10, 2003 - 13 comments

Ship searched for nuclear material after it was diverted from New York harbor, reports MS-NBC. Apparently a Department of Energy Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) was involved. Initial report states that elevated gamma and neutron emissions were detected.

Aside from this report--which is unconfirmed--how likely is such an attack? How do we deal with thousands of container ships, each holding hundreds of anonymous containers? This kind of attack scares me much more than airplanes dropping out of the sky.
posted by mooncrow on Sep 12, 2002 - 17 comments

There's a situation arising right now, between Australian, Norwegian and Indonesian governments. The issue? A Norwegian freighter laden with 438 Afghan asylum seekers, stranded in the Indian Ocean. Today, Australia elite commandos seized control of the Norwegian-owned "Tampa" and its human cargo and ordered the ship to return to international waters. Norwegian authorities, on the other hand, are appealing to Australian authorities to help the refugees and the crew onboard "Tampa". What should be done here, if anything, and by whom? And what about the situation in Afghanistan, that is causing these people to escape from there in the first place? (More: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
posted by dagny on Aug 29, 2001 - 52 comments

The J.W. Westcott II delivers toilet paper, the occasional pizza, and, most importantly, mail to freighters making their way through the Great Lakes. And now it's the only boat in the U.S. to be assigned it's own zip code.
posted by Oriole Adams on Jun 30, 2001 - 6 comments

Dutch Abortion Ship Runs Aground in a figurative sense. It seems that there are issues with Dutch Law about providing their services off the Irish coast. At least the protests were minimal. Is there really a strong need for International Waters businesses? It makes me wonder what else would fly on a barge-based mall; Look out, Simons! It's the Mall of the Atlantic and we sell EVERYTHING!
posted by dwivian on Jun 15, 2001 - 2 comments

No child slaves on board. Of course not. Because if I'm the captain of that ship, or the customer, or the supplier, and every newspaper, TV station and website around the world has been headlining the report of my boat and its embarassing cargo for a week, while I'm still at sea, it's time for some creativity, isn't it? I could have them pick up by another vessel in mid sea. Or, like my forbears in the trade, I could chain them all to something heavy, and toss them overboard. The remaining passengers will know that silence is golden, now, and for years to come. Whatever my decision, I can't complain I didn't have time enough to consider, prepare or execute. The flipside of the information age?
posted by coyroy on Apr 17, 2001 - 1 comment

2,000 year old Roman "Titanic" found in the sands 10 yards from the Sicilian shore. The vessel - up to 150ft long and equipped with ancient luxuries including candelabras, a hot tub and religious shrine - is thought to have ferried the Roman super-rich along the Mediterranean coast to various ports en route.
posted by lagado on Dec 4, 2000 - 1 comment

Anchors away! Abortions at sea. Another example of people trying to evade the confines of national laws.
posted by Ezrael on Jun 22, 2000 - 0 comments