“I thought, dear, that you would rather have a live ass than a dead lion.” Sir Ernest Shackleton in a letter to his wife Emily, after deciding to turn back 97 miles from the Pole. On January 9th 1909, after a last dash forward without the sledge or other equipment, the march ended. “We …
Read more “On this Day (January 9) – Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition”
Valkyrie III was beaten by Defender in the first race of the 1895 America’s Cup. Valkyrie III fouled the leeward Defender during the prestart to the second race, breaking her starboard shrouds, but the latter did not protest and the race took place nevertheless, with Valkyrie III finishing ahead of Defender on corrected time. In …
Read more “On this Day ( January 8) – America’s Cup Document Made Public”
January 1958 was characterized by major southward migration of upper-level westerlies into the subtropics (an index cycle) in the Western Hemisphere. Near mid- month an almost record-breaking blocking anticyclone consolidated in Davis Strait, causing a succession of “northeasters” to stagnate off New England. These conditions persistently deployed cold polar air into the southeastern United States. …
The Texas schooner Liberty was purchased by the Texas government in Galveston on January 5, 1836, for the sum of $3,500 and was christened the Liberty. She was thus the first ship of the Texas Navy. Liberty was one of the four schooners of the First Texas Navy (1836–1838). She served in the Texas Navy …
Read more “On this Day ( January 5th) – Texan Schooner Liberty”
Shearwater keel was laid down on January 4, 1929 – A news clip from the Boothbay Register reflects alongside a photograph “Tyler Hodgon at the old Tide Mill is getting out timbers for the schooner to be built at Rice’s. Vessel to be built of native white oak.” Traditionally built from hand-hewn native white oak, …
Read more “On this Day ( January 4th) – Schooner Shearwater”