Capt. James McNamara

Did you know there are ships named after college football teams?

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FreightWaves Classics is sponsored by Old Dominion Freight Line — Helping the World Keep Promises....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/maritime-history-notes-american-ships-colleges-and-football

Maritime History Notes: Daniel K. Ludwig — father of the supertanker

FreightWaves Classics is sponsored by Old Dominion Freight Line – Helping the World Keep Promises®. Learn more here.

While Malcom McLean, founder of Sea-Land, is regarded as the father of the container ship, Daniel Keith Ludwig is recognized as the father of the supertanker.

Ludwig was born on June 24, 1897, in South Haven, Michigan, to a family involved in Great Lakes shipping. He quit school in the eighth grade and split his time between Michigan and Port Arthur, Texas, living with his...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/maritime-history-notes-daniel-k-ludwig-father-of-the-supertanker

Maritime History Notes: The evolution of car carriers

Shipping evolved to transport cars.

The modern car carrier could not have evolved without the period of dual-purpose and converted ships.

Today, a car carrier is referred to as a pure car carrier (PCC) or a pure car and truck carrier (PCTC). Looking like a floating garage, the largest of these can carry up to 8,500 automobiles. The difference between the two is the size and strength of the ramps and the layout of the decks. On a PCC, the distance between the decks may only be 5 feet, thereby allowing a maximum number of cars to be...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-the-evolution-of-car-carriers

Maritime History Notes: ‘Jumboized’ T-2 tankers

Maritime History Notes

A total of 525 T-2 tankers were built in U.S. shipyards between 1942 and 1945. Of these, 481 were designated T2-SE-A1, 43 were classed as A2 and one was an A3. However, the entire fleet had the same dimensions: 523.5 feet long by 68 feet in beam and 39 feet in depth. The ships were turbo-electric drive steamers, but the A1s were 6,000 horsepower and the A2s and A3s operated at 10,000 horsepower.

During World War II, a dozen of these ships were lost, leaving more than 400 designated as surplus by...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-jumboized-t-2-tankers

Making waves on the Mississippi

American Patriot Holdings (APH) intends to make waves in the river transport industry with first-of-their-kind container-carrying vessels plying U.S. inland waterways.

The container-on-vessel (COV) service will carry more cargo than the age-old barges while reducing shippers’ costs and cutting time on the water in half, according to Sal Litrico, chief executive officer of American Patriot Container Transport LLC. 

“We’re creating a new transportation system and I really emphasize the word system...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/making-waves-on-the-mississippi

Maritime History Notes: Misdeclared cargo and the fabled Rock Island Line

Maritime History Notes

The National Cargo Bureau (NCB) recently issued a white paper as part of the Container Inspection Safety Initiative with eye-opening results about misdeclared cargo. 

During the initiative, the New York-based NCB inspected 500 containers — both imports and exports — from participating ocean carriers. They discovered that 55% of the containers failed to comply with basic loading standards and another 6.5% held misdeclared cargo.

Misdeclared cargo has long been a concern to the carrier industry,...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-misdeclared-cargo-and-the-fabled-rock-island-line

Maritime History Notes: Beirut blast echoes Texas City catastrophe

Maritime History Notes

On Aug. 4, Beirut experienced tremendous death and destruction when a notoriously dangerous cargo caught fire and exploded in the seaport. According to investigators, the cause of the devastation was 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a port warehouse.

The commodity arrived at the Port of Beirut in 2013 from the country of Georgia on board the bulk ship Rhosus. While it was destined for Mozambique for use as fertilizer, Lebanese authorities seized the financially troubled vessel and...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-beirut-blast-echoes-texas-city-catastrophe

Maritime History Notes: When US intercoastal lumber trade floated fleets

Maritime History Notes

For over 100 years, U.S.-flag ships carried lumber from the West Coast to the East and Gulf coasts. About 40 ships were regularly employed in this trade, making about 200 voyages annually. Additionally, more than 200 smaller ships — steam schooners affectionately called the Scandinavian Navy — transported lumber from the Pacific Northwest to San Francisco and Southern California. 

An interesting feature of this trade was that many of the ships were owned by lumber companies that sought to...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-when-us-intercoastal-lumber-trade-floated-fleets

Bay of Pigs invasion fleet was no match for Castro

Americans were quite surprised when they first heard the news reports on April 18,1961, that a fleet of ships arrived in Cuba’s Cochinos Bay to deliver an invasion force intent on removing communist leader Fidel Castro from power.

The invasion proved to be a disaster, with most of the anti-Castro forces either killed or captured in the first hours. In retrospect, the intelligence, planning, support, purpose, training and equipping of the invaders were woefully inadequate.

The site chosen for the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bay-of-pigs-invasion-fleet-was-no-match-for-castro

Maritime History Notes: Ships of concrete

The first concrete vessel was a rowboat built in 1848.

Frenchman J.L. Lambot at the time constructed a series of rowboats using a procedure he called “Fericement.” Fericement is a forerunner of what is known today as ferro-cement. This is because steel rods are used to form a wire mesh that creates a skeleton of the ship’s hull, over which concrete is poured to form the hull. 

It is important to note that concrete is made by mixing cement, sand and water. Thus, we cannot say a vessel is cement,...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/maritime-history-notes-ships-of-concrete

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