Happy Tuesday, everyone. This week, we're travelling back outside Canadian waters, but still sticking with the theme of close-to-shore wrecks. When I was looking for a topic this week, this one struck me not because the ship had a particularly enticing career, or because she was a mega-ship, but because she was so recent. With such interest in the wreck of the Costa Concordia just a couple of years ago, I was genuinely surprised that as recently as 2000 this particular ship had just been left to rust away in a secluded cove of the Solomon Islands. This week, we look at the wreck of the M/S World Discoverer.
Read MoreSome of my favourite shipwrecks are the ones that remain in the shallows - close enough that you can still see them, or in some cases, walk out and touch them. This week's shipwreck falls right into that category. A vessel of many owners and many names, and ended up aground in the cold Canadian North: the M/V Ithaca.
Read MoreContinuing with this theme of ships that are in the harbour for the winter, and following up with the icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent from last week, I decided to do a profile on the first Coast Guard ship I ever saw. When I still lived in Ontario, I remember watching the show "Mighty Ships" on Discovery Channel. They showcased one of our heavy icebreakers that also doubled as a supply vessel, heavy tug, and all around multi-purpose vessel. That ship was the CCGS Terry Fox, and she is our ship for this segment of "This Week".
Read MoreThe Northwest Passage has long been a route which many ships have tried to traverse, and a large number have failed while trying. This past summer, the HMS Erebus was discovered, a ship affiliated with the Franklin Expedition of the Northwest Passage. Another ship, lesser known unless you are from the area, is the Maud, a Norwegian oak-hulled exploration vessel that was claimed by the icy waters off the Nunavut coast in the 1920s. It is this wreck that we're looking at for this week's Over the Waves.
Read MoreHello everyone! I know I'm a couple of days late but this week has just been crazy! I'm happy finally be able to sit down and tell you about a well known Newfoundland ship. The first time I came across this wreck was a few years ago, when I was an intern living in St. John's for the summer. I was on a day-trip out to the community museum in Carbonear, and it was one of my first trips out of the city. It was also very early in the morning, and I was making a desperate effort not to doze off in the front seat of the car (which was being driven by my supervisor). As we drove along the highway, me clutching my coffee, I happened to look down into an inlet and caught glimpse of a ship done up in a traditional early-1900s paint job. With her yellow and black smokestack, black hull, and red keel, I had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't actually operational. I immediately woke up and asked my supervisor what ship I was looking at.
Read MoreHello all! Winter is just around the corner in St. John's. It's gotten much colder, though we haven't had any snow yet (only a matter of time if the rest of the province is anything to go by). As everyone knows, with winter comes ice, and without this weeks ship a lot of communities would be sealed off for most of this cold season. This week, I am profiling the heaviest icebreaker in the Canadian Coast Guard fleet, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.
Read MoreWhen you think of Saskatchewan, what comes to mind? Flat, fields of wheat, blue sky, prairie... Probably not shipwreck. Today I'm going to tell you the story of one of the few wrecks in Saskatchewan, right in the South Saskatchewan River - the wreck if the SS City of Medicine Hat.
Read MoreAs some of you may have heard, September was a very busy month for shipwrecks. The Canadian Government, working with Parks Canada and different agencies, finally located the HMS Erebus from the fabled Franklin expedition. Shortly after, a four-man team located the wreck of the Nisbet Grammer, a steel cargo ship that collided with another ship and sank to the bottom of Lake Ontario almost 90 years ago.
Read MoreThis week was Hallowe'en! In honour of what is, honestly, my favourite holiday, I decided to seek out a story that tied in marine history and an excellent ghost story. For help, I reached out to the ever-fantastic and helpful Dale Jarvis - folklorist, storyteller, and creator of the St. John's Haunted Hike. Dale sent me in the direction of the story of the SS Blue Jacket, a story that combines heroism, terror, and the a ghost story that has continued on from 1862 to present day.
Read MoreThis week, we are going to leave the East Coast and venture along the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Brockville narrows. Just offshore of Cockburn Island lies the wreck of a drilling scow that met a quick and violent end - the John B. King.
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