Life along the Detroit River

Today my wife and I were walking along the Detroit River and we saw a Great Lakes freighter roughly like the one above.

The obvious differences:

• The ship we saw was much, much bigger.  It had at least six (maybe seven) stories in the very large sterncastle. 
• It was moving very fast.
• It didn't have a forecastle.
• It was moving FAST

Another treat!

Old Ironsides!

OK, despite my critical view of the War of 1812, I remain a fan of the USS Constitution.  With luck, she  sails again tomorrow.

Seen on the Detroit River -- the Mississagi

Built in 1943 and still going strong.

Digging the lost harbor of Theodosius

This week the CBC TV show The Nature of Things had an episode on the discovery and archaeological rescue of one of the major harbors of Constantinople.  I missed it, but fortunately the whole episode is on the web.

The reason that this harbor was found was the construction of a train tunnel across the Bosphorus.  Both the construction of the tunnel and the archaeological rescue are technological wonders.  This is a technological nerd-fest.

And the photography of Istanbul is great, too.

Did I mention that they found 37 medieval ships?

Image:  rescue archaeology.

Marinus Green

Seen today on the Detroit River, a ship evidently named after a cousin of Sirius Black.

On the waterfront, Windsor

Seen: The Peter R. Cresswell out of St. Catharines, going upriver.

(on another occasion)

Africa circumnavigated!

If a Phoenician ship didn't do it in 600 BC, one has now!  Video from the BBC.

Ship report: Quebecois

Ships have been moving on the river for quite a while, but I'm seldom in the right place to see them, and sometimes I can't read their names. A few days ago, however, I caught this one -- Quebecois.

Ships in a wintry port

From the Vesseltracker blog.

Just seen on the Detroit River, moving downstream

The Federal Hunter.