Maritime Heritage and famous sailors
Nelson's fore topsail goes on display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth for a limited time this summer. Even as the admiral lay dying, deep below decks aboard HMS Victory, during the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, the fore topsail of his 104 gun flagship was taking a terrible [...]
A few of the names that describe the parts of a wooden boat, here in cross section. Note the timber is of less thickness than a frame - boats might have timbers between frames - but each side of the vessel would be symmetrical. The diagram also shows a plate floor and a bracket floor [...]
By Mike Smylie I met a person once who really did think Beer Luggers were able-bodied men who raced around with barrels of ale across their shoulders. Seemingly they’d watched too many worldly TV programmes about strong men. Believe me, these people do exist. To set the score right if that fellow is reading – [...]
With no wrecks found some debated whether the trireme of ancient Greece was more marine myth than fact, but in 1987 one was built using plans developed by the retired Chief Naval Architect of the UK's MoD John Coates together with the vision of historian John Morrison, who first proposed a method by which vertical [...]
Interesting and inspirational film from Alison Langley on restoring one of the thoroughbreds of the Herreshoff stable - the 1926 NY40 Marilee [/fusion_vimeo] There are just four NY40s left of the 14 built - Rugosa and Marilee Stateside and Rowdy and Chinook based in the Med. Having cleaned up with some good [...]
A wild night and a kicking gaff caused the loss of France's greatest sailor, on his way to the first Fife Regatta It's 20 years ago since France's greatest sailor Eric Tabarly was lost overboard from his beloved 57ft 1898 Fife cutter Pen Duick on his way to the first Fife festival in the Clyde, [...]
As a true pilot of the deep range Bernard Moitessier was a philosopher sailor who famously went round the world again in 1969 in the Sunday Time Golden Globe race when he could possibly have beaten Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sailing Suhaili. Moitessier's writings are full of insight and honesty about the life of a small [...]
By Mike Smylie Disaster struck the Isle of Man in 1787 when much of the fishing fleet was destroyed in a particularly nasty gale at Douglas. These were the older scoute type of vessel, an offshoot of the Viking influence of centuries before. They then briefly adopted the smack in desperation until they encountered the [...]
By Mike Smylie From the start here I must admit to being somewhat biased. Why? Because it’s my opinion that the Zulu – which is sometimes referred to as the Moray Firth fishing vessel – was the mightiest of all British sailing fishing craft. The King of the Seaboats, so to speak, comparable to the [...]
