HAZARD TO NAVIGATION

 2 August 2026: It is astounding how fast our summer is going. Seems like only last week we were celebrating Memorial Day here in the United States. Now we're looking at Labor day in just over 30 days - life will return to some semblance of "normalcy" as kids are back in school, summer vacations are done, and soon the trees will be shedding their flowers and green leaves.. But let's not dwell on such unhappy thoughts (for many of us); we will offer a bit of interesting (and good to us here at MM) news: Maritime Maunder has exceeded 500,000 readers worldwide! Hard to believe and we would never have imagined such a number 12 years ago when we started this blog. Interesting where some of our readers are hanging out: from our July 19 post, we have 4,080 in the United States, 2,410 in Brazil (!) 1,390 in India and the same number in Viet Nam. Other countries with less than 1,000 each include the Philippines, Pakistan, Argentina, Mexico and others..... We thank all of the folks around the world who read our posts and hope you continue to enjoy them. We will continue to bring you articles of interest going forward. Today's article comes from Slashgear, a source we have found useful in the past.

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World War II was fought all over the planet, and one of the most contested places was the sea. Naval battles raged across the world's waterways, resulting in more than 20,000 ships finding their way to Davey Jones' Locker. Shipwrecks are inherently dangerous, as they're located deep below the waves and can be unstable, making diving in and around them perilous. The most dangerous shipwreck of WWII isn't a massive deadly warship like a battleship, though — it's a Liberty Ship.

 

Liberty Ships were used by the Allies for supply and ordnance movement across the oceans, and the United States built 2,710 of them. The nation became so good at putting Liberty Ships together that it took as little as four days to go from laying a keel to setting sail. In many ways, Liberty Ships helped the Allies win World War II, so they were just as vital to the war effort as the larger combat vessels. 

 

 

The SS Richard Montgomery was like many Liberty Ships, but it met its ultimate fate not in combat, but off the coast of England Kent, England. As you can see from the above image, the water is so shallow there that the masts could be seen sticking out of the water. The reason why the SS Richard Montgomery is so dangerous is due to its cargo: over 1,400 tons of high explosives. The potential danger of an explosion has loomed over Kent's residents for more than 80 years, and the threat of such a detonation ensures that the SS Richard Montgomery is the deadliest shipwreck of WWII.

There was some talk recently of removing her masts, and the work began in 2026

After the SS Richard Montgomery sank, efforts to remove its cargo resulted in more than half of its 6,000 tons being safely taken to shore, but getting the rest proved too risky. As a result, high-explosive bombs, aerial munitions, and anti-tank devices remain, and they're not inert. The slightest provocation could set them off, and if one goes, it's likely the secondary explosions resulting from the first would cause widespread destruction.

 

A detonation of 1,400 tons of high explosives could be disastrous to Kent's residents. A similar wreck in the English Channel, which involved the SS Kielce, detonated its explosive hold, creating a massive crater while registering seismic activity of 4.5 on the Richter scale. That was further out to sea and considerably deeper. The SS Richard Montgomery rests about 50 feet below the water, and it's much closer to shore. For this reason, the wreck is constantly patrolled, and getting too close could land people in trouble.

 

A major concern arose due to the masts that stick up out of the water. Their degradation made it likely that they would crumble and fall onto the wreck below, posing a new risk of detonation. In 2026, work to remove the masts began at a cost of $12.7 million. The removal preserves the site for as long as possible, but the wreck remains in an exclusion zone and will likely continue to sit outside of Kent forever, as further efforts to remove the munitions are too risky despite how fascinating the shipwreck is.

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Of course, the trick is to remove the masts and make the wreck safe without detonating the explosives in the hold. Think Halifax 1917. 

Again, thank you to all of our friends who follow our posts, and while not all of the posts are of interest to everyone, apparently many of you often find something worth reading! We appreciate you!  

See you next time. Stay safe!

                                 Fair Winds,

                                      Old Salt 

 

 

 

SPECIAL TREES - OWNED BY THE U.S. NAVY

 19 July 2026: Second half of July starting and it seems like it should still be May! Summer is slipping by so quickly that before we know it, autumn will be on us and we'll be thinking about laying up our boats and .... let's not go there yet! We have lots of good weather still to come and lots of great days on the water. 

Our last post dealt the the U.S. celebration of the semi-quin centennial and while we didn't show any pictures of the celebration in Boston, that was where the tall ships went after they left New York - in fact, the four sister ships, Eagle (U.S.), Sagres (Portugal), Mircea (Romania), and Gorch Fock (Germany), raced from New York to Boston in what is called the Five Sisters Race. All but one of the ships were built in Germany in the pre-WW II environment as training ships and were given to the current national owners as war reparations. It's the first time since 1976 that they held the race. And for those of you wondering, Gorch Fock (Germany), won. [ed:she won in 1976 also!] When the ships arrived in Boston, they joined the parade of sail led by the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world, America's Ship of State, USS Constitution, into the harbor. And speaking of Constitution, here's a piece from MilitaryTimes about where her wood comes from.

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 The world’s oldest commissioned warship is still afloat — thanks to a forest in Indiana.

The USS Constitution, named by George Washington and built with copper bolts forged by Paul Revere, was launched in 1797. The three-masted heavy frigate earned is famous nickname — “Old Ironsides” — during the War of 1812 after an astonished American sailor reportedly watched British cannonballs bounce harmlessly off the ship’s exceptionally thick oak hull and shouted, “Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!” according to the National Park Service.

2017 refit of Constitution in Charlestown Navy Yard

 

 While the wooden ship remains a symbol of durability and strength, its longevity would not be possible without a special 40 acres of land set aside for the care and maintenance of the ship from Naval Support Activity Crane.

According to National Geographic, NSA Crane dates back to the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal-era, when the U.S. government, in the depths of the Great Depression, purchased unfarmable land across the U.S. and reforested them for the purpose of creating jobs. NSA Crane was among the plots of land purchased by the FDR administration, and its 40,000 acres of hills was soon swarming with workers planting a wide variety of oak, hickory, poplar, maple and ash trees across the acres of Crane.

The onset of the war in 1939 prompted the U.S. Navy — whose weapons and munitions at the time were housed in Delaware — to seek a location that a potential enemy could not strike by sea.

Central Indiana was the ticket and so the government purchased another 30,000 acres surrounding NSA Crane.

The first administrative buildings on the base, according to Nat Geo, were dedicated in December 1941 — just a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

But it wasn’t until the nation’s bicentennial in 1976 that NSA Crane reentered the Navy’s consciousness.

With attention returning to the storied, yet aging USS Constitution, NSA Crane’s concentration of high-quality white oak caught the Navy’s eye.

The oak forest is one of the few in the United States that contains centuries-old oak long and thick enough to provide the necessary lumber for the hull of the hulking Constitution. 

This year's Sail Boston parade leader

 Mature trees anywhere from 110 to 125 years old and 120 to 130 feet tall are needed for the ship that requires near constant maintenance. Its two most recent dry dock restorations — concluding in 2017 — required the felling of 114 white oaks.

 Today, 40 acres of the park have been dedicated to keeping the warship afloat, where much of the timber is harvested, and it remains the only forest in the U.S. that is owned and managed by the Navy to support its fleet of old wooden ships.

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Bet you didn't know about that forest in Indiana! As a matter of interest, there is also a source of Live Oak in South Carolina (grows in the swamps there), but we believe most of the Navy's needs are handled by the Crane forest.

Until next time, stay safe!

                                    Fair Winds,

                                         Old Salt 

250 YEARS FOR THE UNITED STATES

 5 July 2026: This is a bonus posting to bring you a few images of some of the international fleet of tall ships that showed up for the New York parade of sail celebration in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Independence of the United States yesterday (4th of July). While we did not join the craziness of New York Harbor for the actual parade, we did get out to the craziness of Sandy Hook Bay where the ships had anchored to await the start of the parade. And crazy it was; there was no Coast Guard/police exclusion zones nor any control of the spectator fleet that milled about willy nilly throughout the anchorage. To say that some folks had little idea of safe operation of a vessel would be understatement at least. Add to that that the water was quite choppy and it was just under 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Made getting some pictures a bit challenging,but we prevailed and herewith offer a few snaps of some of the big guys that we saw. We did not get all 40, but the ones we did, were very impressive.

First off, the U.S. Coast Guard host ship, Eagle: 

Among the others: 

The spectacular Amerigo Vespucci (Italy)

Gloria (Columbia)

Mircea (Romania)

Sagres (Portugal) (on the right)

some of the madness in the anchorage

Gorch Fock (Germany)

Obviously, there were many more, but these are a few of the best ones. Interestingly, that night about 8PM a squall with winds over 60kts blew through which caught the few remaining sight-seers unawares and tested the anchors of the Class A ships.... no damage reported however.

  

There you have a peek at some beautiful ships and a heart-felt "happy birthday" to America!

 Until next time, stay safe.

                                      Fair Winds.

                                          Old Salt 

BIG BANG!

 28 June 2016: End of June folks and the real part of Summer looms! Also looming is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America! And you can well imagine the celebrations going on up and down the country! The "biggie" of course is in New York Harbor on 4 July and while we will not be in attendance for the craziness, we will enjoy all the action broadcast live on the television. Hopefully, weather (and the Coast Guard) permitting we will get out to the mustering area in Sandy Hook Bay on the 3rd.. Pics if possible. And in a fit of irony, the story we bring you today from Popular Mechanics is about a huge bang - explosion in 1917 in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia. Not, however, a 4th of July or New Year's celebration!

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 On the morning of December 6, 1917, two ships—the Norwegian steamship Imo and the French steamship SS Mont-Blanc—were passing through a bottleneck known as the Narrows that led to the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The captains noticed each other and blasted their horns, each trying to make the other move out of the way. Because they were both hemmed in by the shore, neither wanted to break toward the shore, and eventually, Mont-Blanc turned away from it.

The French ship’s insistence on staying away from shore may have seemed strange to anyone watching the encounter, but to those on board, it was deadly serious. They—and only they—knew that Mont-Blanc carried 2,367 metric tons of explosives on its way to Europe in service of the World War I war effort. Risking a collision with the harbor was out of the question.

So, Mont-Blanc turned away from shore and Imo turned towards. In the maneuver, Imo appeared to narrowly miss Mont-Blanc, but suddenly—perhaps because that meant they were pointed toward shore instead—chose to reverse engines. The ship swung and collided with Mont-Blanc, burrowing nine feet into the munitions ship. In the ensuing chaos, Imo created sparks that set off Mont-Blanc’s payload.

Boom.

Norwegian ship Imo

 The resulting explosion was the largest that had ever been seen and remained so until the advent of the atomic bomb. Because the two ships were so close to shore, as Encyclopedia Britannica explains, the blast “flattened more than 1 square mile (2.5 square km) of the city of Halifax.” A 60-foot wave inundated three blocks into the city, carried Imo onto solid ground, destroyed 1,600 buildings, and left miles worth of debris. In the end, the blast killed 1,963 people and injured an estimated 9,000 more—the overwhelming majority of whom were on land in Halifax. Halifax’s 1911 census population was 80,257, meaning the Halifax Explosion cost the city more than 2% of its population in one horrifying accident.

aftermath

 

Shipwrecks with high death tolls end up enforcing very sad lessons that, typically, sailors and others who work in shipping have been trying to solve for decades or even longer. Part of the reason this explosion destroyed so much is that the waterway into the harbor at Halifax is so tight. After the explosion, Halifax made a new policy that only one ship at a time could pass through the Narrows. It’s also best practice that a vulnerable ship should stay out at sea until the conditions are navigable without this type of risk.

During wartime and carrying needed ammunition, however, it’s easy to see how a captain (or his superiors) might insist on pushing through a dangerous waterway at an inopportune time. That said, the disaster now serves as a reminder that these best practices are in place for a reason. “Although it was far from the front lines, this explosion left a lasting imprint on Halifax in a way that many regions experience environmental change as a result of war,” environmental scientist Jonathan Bridge wrote in 2023.

For the 100^th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion in 2017, local disaster scholar and family doctor Adam Rostis contributed a short chapter to a book on ocean governance. “In 1917 disasters were viewed as exceptional events beyond the daily societal background noise of tragedies and avoidable mortality,” he concludes. “However, disaster is now more and more enmeshed within political and economic systems, to the point where it becomes impossible to distinguish disaster from everyday existence.”

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As it happens, I was in Halifax (no, not in 1917) during a research/lecture tour in 2001 and there are still remnants and, of course, many memories of the disaster. But, lessons were learned and hopefully, a similar situation can be avoided in the future. [Note: another ammunition disaster occurred in Port Chicago, California on 17 July 1944 when a Liberty ship, E.A. Bryan, blew up at the Naval Magazine in Contra Country. 4600 tons of explosives killed 320 and injured another 390. 50 Black seamen (of 258) who were loading the ship were singled out for court martial (mutiny) and sentenced to 15 years in prison.] 

And as a further bit: follow up to the last post on Andrew Bedwell's attempt to cross the Atlantic in something the size of a bathtub. He didn't make it - 90 miles and 3 days out, he had an accident (unknown) and tried unsuccessfully to sail back. When that would not work he requested a tow which also failed and he abandoned the little vessel at sea. Sadly, not a big surprise there!

Until next time, stay safe - and to our American readers, Happy Independence Day!

                         Fair Winds,

                                  Old Salt