Meanwhile Somewhere

I observed all this from a public place which some of you will guess–since clues are all over this– but I won’t identify.

Security on the water caught my attention, as

did this large steel mammal swimming

along with the escort.

It was my lucky day.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Always Fleet Week

That’s true along the Elizabeth River in Virgina.  Naval Station Norfolk always has a formidable array, like

LPD-24 USS Arlington,

T-ARC-7 USNS Zeus,

T-AKE-13 USNS Medgar Evers,

T-ESB-3 USNS Lewis B. Puller,

lots of patrols and a fence,

T-AKR-5063 USNS SS Cape May,

and its complement of barges.  Here’s more of a description.

 

Then, there’s the R class.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who suggests taking a tour if you’re in the area.

 

Thresher, Scorpion, and Titanic

Like me, you probably feel you’re drowning in reminders these days of a certain large vessel that sank exactly a century ago at 41°27’34″N 50°8’22″W.  Am I the only one who has never seen the 1997 James Cameron movie?  Should I see it?  Otherwise, I like Cameron’s work and exploits.  The April 16, 2012 issue of The New Yorker has this especially good piece by Daniel Mendelsohn.  Click on the foto below to sample the article.

The New Yorker magazine credits the foto below (and above) to “National Museums Northern Ireland/Ulster Folk & Transportation Museum,” but not to its photographer.  Hmm.

Mendelsohn’s piece ends with a reference to Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella . . . Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.  That’s uncanny stuff.   1898.

I’m hoping you’re intrigued by the title of this post.  If you haven’t seen the video below (click on the image below to play it),  you’ll learn how Titanic, Thresher, and Scorpion are connected through Robert Ballard.  Sections of the first 10 minutes of the video are “gushy,” but you’ll be glad you stayed with it. An important strand in the second half of the video is Ballard v. RMS Titanic . . . a salvage company.  William J. Broad, science writer,  picks up on that dispute in a NYTimes article here, embedded online in this cover.  Writer me in on the side of Robert Ballard and James P. Delgado.

In searching for ephemera you might not know about this story, I came across Knorr, the Woods Hole vessel Ballard used for his 1985 search for the three vessels in the title.  Here’s another link for Knorr.    A search turns her up less than a hundred miles SE of Montauk, obviously surveying, below.

An automobile in the ill-fated  hold . . . might once have looked like this.   A search on e-ships turned up no vessel called Titanic at work today, but then there is this . . . a yacht named Titanic!  Click here for the wikipedia entry for the 1971 launched Titanic.

Yesterday’s NYTimes ran this Q & A on various historical connections between Titanic and New York.  A future connection lies with a vessel called Balmoral, over the wreck tonight and due in the sixth boro later next week . ..  maybe Thursday.

Two vessels forever connected to the tragedy are the one that responded poorly and the one that saved lives.  Within a decade, both were also on the seabed, victims of U-boat attacks.

For a comparison of Titanic with her two sisters, check out the inimitable bowsprite’s post here . . .  And for a sense of the “titanics in unlikely places,” check Rick’s Old Salt blog.

Postscript:  Thresher, like Squalus, left from here.