I’ve always been fascinated with legends like the Flying Dutchman or ghost ships covered with slime that would ensnare unwary sailors. At one time, a lot of derelict vessels, while not necessarily haunted by ghosts, could still kill unsuspecting mariners.At the end of the nineteenth…
Posts tagged as “Gregory Pettys”
One of my favorite movies is The Caine Mutiny starring Humprey Bogart as Captain Queeg. The movie is based on a true story that novelist Herman Wouk used to depict the dramatic events surrounding Admiral Halsey and typhoon Cobra. The novel’s central theme reflects the…
In the past getting out on the water was one of my primary forms of entertainment. Whether it was fishing with friends or sailing the waters of Long Island Sound I was out there almost every weekend. But it’s not that easy for me to…
It’s the 50th anniversary of the 1975 blockbuster movie Jaws. Not long after seeing the movie I went to the beach for a swim and the shark attack music kept playing in my head as I sheepishly looked around the ocean for a dorsal fin…
The great ocean liners carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America for nearly two centuries. These magnificent steam powered ships carried the rich and famous as well as immigrants seeking a new life. They competed against each other for the Blue Riband…
I can’t think of many more terrifying things than being marooned at night in a lighthouse during a raging hurricane-force storm, the structure shaking violently until it falls into the sea. That is what happened to two keepers in 1851. Many people believe their spirits…
In 1873, Captain Sidney Buddington of Groton, Connecticut, took part in America’s first attempt to reach the North Pole. The expedition was led by the explorer Charles Francis Hall. Captain Budington came highly recommended as he was the nephew of Captain James Monroe, who, years…
The Ward Line’s 480-foot-long luxury cruise ship, SS Morro Castle, made regular runs between New York City and Havana, Cuba, in the 1930s. On her maiden voyage in 1930, she made the 1,100-mile run in 59 hours. Even though the trips were during the Great…
The Ojibwe Tribe that once lived by the northern Great Lakes named Lake Superior, Gichi-Gami, which means great sea. Lake Superior is not an ocean, but it can be just as treacherous as one.People familiar with Lake Superior say it almost has a pulse and…
This is the famous photograph of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the world-renowned British engineer who revolutionized both the railroad and shipping industries. He achieved many firsts in engineering including the design of the SS Great Eastern, by far the largest steamship ever built at the time…