The Swinging Cabin of SS Bessemer
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 9, 2024
English inventor Sir Henry Bessemer, renowned for his groundbreaking steel manufacturing process that still bears his name, once lamented, “...
Showing posts with the label Ship
Ernest Bazin: The Ship That Rolled on Wheels
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 23, 2024
Between 1892 and 1893, French inventor Ernest Bazin filed patent for an unusual ship design. Instead of gliding through water, which had hit...
MS Hans Hedtoft: Denmark’s Titanic
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 3, 2023
Nearly five decades after the sinking of the Titanic , another tragedy struck in the oceans. A Danish liner was on her maiden voyage off the...
Princess May’s Dramatic Grounding
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 23, 2023
In August 1910, a Canadian steamship named Princess May ran aground near Sentinel Island, off the coast of Alaska, in the most spectacular ...
Khian Sea: The Wandering Garbage Barge
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2022
Every year, millions of tons of garbage are shipped out by wealthy countries to poorer countries in Africa, Asia and South America to be rec...
Wilhelm Gustloff: The Deadliest Ship Disaster You Never Heard Of
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 22, 2022
The sinking of the British ocean liner Titanic in 1912, with over 1,500 fatalities, is probably the most famous shipwreck of all time, but n...
Belyana: Russia’s Giant Wooden Boats
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2021
The Belyana were some of the largest wooden ships ever built. Yet, they were only meant for a single journey. They were built to transport...
The World’s Largest Sailing Ship
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 12, 2021
On December 14, 1907, a large sailing ship wrecked off the coast of Annet, in the Isles of Scilly, killing all but two of her eighteen crew ...
HMS Diamond Rock: The Stone Frigate
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 11, 2021
South of Martinique, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, lies a small basalt island called Diamond Rock. With an imposing peak of 175 me...
Women And Children Last: The Infamous Sinking of La Bourgogne
Kaushik Patowary
May 3, 2021
The sinking of the French ocean liner SS La Bourgogne on the morning of 4 July 1898 was one of the most disgraceful of disasters in mariti...
Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 5, 2021
Unlike a submarine that can lurk beneath the waves, or an artillery tank that can camouflage itself among trees and the surrounding terrain,...
Flettner Rotor: Sailing Ships Without Sails
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 16, 2021
In 1926, a 2,000-ton steel-hulled schooner named Buckau made an extraordinary crossing across the Atlantic. Although the Buckau was techni...
SS Baychimo: The Unsinkable Ghost Ship
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 16, 2020
Ships aren’t meant to sink, but sometimes you have to wonder what miraculous forces kept a vessel afloat. The SS Baychimo was such a ship. ...
The Grain Race
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 9, 2020
By the end of the 19th century, steam-powered vessels had almost completely replaced sailing ships in the commercial shipping business. But ...
HMS Zubian: The Conjoined Ship
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2020
It is not unusual for navies to cannibalize ships decommissioned or rendered unserviceable by accidents for parts, but rarely an entire new ...
HMS Porcupine: The Warship That Became Two
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 8, 2020
In 1939, the British Royal Navy ordered Vickers-Armstrongs on the River Tyne to build a new P-class destroyer named HMS Porcupine . The ship...
Caligula’s Pleasure Ships of Lake Nemi
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 18, 2019
Two thousand years ago, the debauched Roman emperor Caligula ordered the construction of two large floating pleasure barges on the relativel...
Disposable Ships
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 12, 2019
Before the Industrial Revolution, the British shipbuilding industry was completely dependent on the countries around the Baltic Sea for timb...
Russia’s Circular Warships
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 28, 2019
In the latter half of the 19th century, ships began to transition from wood to iron and many engineers thought the time was ripe to experime...
Lake Titicaca’s 150-year Old Steamship That Runs on Dung
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 10, 2019
The BAP Puno. Photo credit: Peruvian Navy . Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America, is situated high up in the Andes on the bord...
