In 1954, my great-grandfather, Hendrik Fokko van Hemmen, was Chief Engineer on the M/V Prins Frederik Hendrik of the Oranje Lijn, and my grandfather, Henk van Hemmen, was deck engineer on the Dutch flagship, the SS Nieuw Amsterdam. On November 1, my grandfather was asked to make a repair to the steam whistle valve which… Read more »
Our office has a real dungeon where we keep our unused art, our extra gear, our historical records and our completed files. Inevitably we need to clean out the dungeon when we no longer have space for the completed files and that means we literally get rid of dumpster loads of reports, depositions, shipping documents,… Read more »
M&O took a picture of the N.S. Savannah while at an adjacent pier in Canton Marine Terminal, Baltimore on a recent survey: N.S. Savannah is the first nuclear-powered merchant ship ever built (the Soviet ice-breaker N.S. Lenin was the first nuclear-powered civil ship). She was launched in 1959, and was built at a total cost… Read more »
Congratulations to Yank Marine and NY Waterway on the rolling out of the hull of the passenger vessel P.V. Molly Pitcher on August 25, 2014. M&O provides construction supervision and attended on behalf of Owners. We caught the roll out on video too:
A photo of the damaged SS Florida as a result of its collision with the SS Republic in 1909 hangs in our office. On the back is an article from an unknown source (I’m betting that one of our consultants decided to look up the story one day). The story reads as follows: “Due to… Read more »
Today’s Throwback Thursday is one of the most famous shipboard fires, and is especially well-known in our area because the vessel was beached for several months in Asbury Park, New Jersey, not far from our current headquarters. While the SS Morro Castle disaster of 1934 tragically killed 137 passengers, it directly resulted in numerous shipboard fire… Read more »
Since 1764, Lloyd’s Register has published annually what is basically the definitive list of ocean-going vessels in the world. Our office – and many other maritime offices worldwide – use these “registers” regularly, since they contain valuable, authoritative information on ship size, carrying capacity, age, builder, and equipment, to name a few. We keep our old… Read more »
At Martin & Ottaway occasionaly we see all aspects of our culture come together in a single project. This photo pays witness to such an event. Consider: The Engineering Attitude: We can do this, we have the tools, and we sure don’t need to use the written instructions. Frugality: Why pay for chair assembly if… Read more »
It may have become evident that I am of the opinion that the maritime community is a tower of strength for the spirit of cooperation, jointness and just getting the job done. I will provide yet another example of this, but first let me set the stage. This year is the 350th anniversary of the… Read more »
Anthony Torchia and Niall Tantrum man the Martin & Ottaway model display at the school science fair on January 28, 2014. The models were all constructed by the Martin & Ottaway model making subsidiary.
The year is not quite over, but, since I wrote a 2012 top 10 Maritime Things blog, I now feel somewhat driven to think about a 2013 top 10. Like last year, the subjects I am picking may not be entirely 2013 subjects, but they certainly came to the fore to me in this year…. Read more »
110 years after the first powered flight, I revisited Kitty Hawk with my college roommate John Mitchell and our wives. In the 31 years since my last visit, the surrounding area had become much more urbanized, but the park itself still tasted like that modest test facility that the Wright brothers had put together in… Read more »
On the way to a paddle wheeler passenger vessel project at Cape Girardeau, I passed Vicksburg and decided to stay the night. The next morning I took a quick drive through the Vicksburg battle field and came upon the USS Cairo, the remains of a Civil War era ironclad river gunboat that is now beautifully… Read more »
This year’s theme for Day of the Seafarer is Faces of the Sea. It is a natural evolution from last yearʼs successful theme of ʻIt came by sea and I canʼt live without itʼ. Fundamentally it moves the theme to bringing the campaign back to the unsung heroes of shipping – the seafarers themselves and… Read more »
On Thursday May 23, 2013, the firm and I lost a close friend, and the maritime community lost a distinguished professional with the passing of George Chandler. George Chandler was an admiralty attorney with Hill Rivkins in New York and Houston, but George’s connection with Martin & Ottaway and its people go back to 1976,… Read more »
At the end of 2012 we can look back and see it has been another interesting year in our industry. Here are ten things, in no particular order of importance, that stand out for me: 1. Planet Solar There is no doubt that we can get around the world by sail, but what if we were to… Read more »
This rather ominous picture was taken two hours before high tide on October 29, 2012 at the Monmouth Boat Club in our headquarters town of Red Bank, New Jersey. The center of Sandy is still about 10 hours away. The river is the Navesink River and it is an estuary that enters New York Harbor at… Read more »
The title of this story has a purpose. On an ironic level, web search engines may regard it as a rare combination of terms (Wall Street and Efficiency). But, actually, it is a story about the maritime industry’s efforts to fight for real efficiencies. Seastreak is the ferry service between our part of New Jersey and New… Read more »
A recent bit in the news announced that the “Exxon Valdez” in its present incarnation as the “Oriental Nicety” is bound for the scrap yard. It is easy to think of the “Exxon Valdez” as some villainous symbol in the drama of the oil spill in Alaska, but, as Paul Harvey used to say, then… Read more »
Next month Martin & Ottaway will be honored by the Society of Marine Port Engineers at their annual dinner dance. In preparation for an article chronicling the history of the firm, which will appear in the dinner program journal, some interesting historical documents and photographs were discovered while examining our old records. A few of… Read more »
Nobody has ever made a list of all the company’s addresses in its 137 year history, but since the middle 1920’s the firm has only had four addresses: 25 Broadway, NYC, the classic Cunard building in downtown Manhattan, where we were reportedly the first tenants after the main tenant, Cunard. 65 Broadway, NYC, which at… Read more »
On February 22nd, we lost a dear friend, colleague and sage counselor when Chris Hanges died peacefully in his sleep. Chris’ Greek heritage and New York area childhood drew him to a maritime career as a young man. After graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering from New York University and upon his completion of… Read more »
The Normandie is by far my favorite passenger vessel from a design point of view (on a pure love/looks basis, the pre-war Nieuw Amsterdam II beats her by a small margin). Years ago I came across a set of drawings in our office with a last correction date of February 9, 1942 that show the… Read more »
The Martin & Ottaway foursome consisting of Carl, Joe, Padriag and David were successful in their attempt to win the Russ Magna 2011 Annual Golf Outing held at Apple Ridge Country Club, Mahwah, NJ, on September 12, 2011. The winning putter is shown below:
On July 13, I was lucky enough to find myself aboard the 28 foot sport fishing boat “Makowish” out of Montauk, Long Island during a family camping vacation. I had fished from various vessels in the Montauk party boat fleet for fluke and never quite “fluked” the good fish while those all around me ensured their… Read more »
National Maritime Day is observed on the day the American steamship Savannah set sail from Savannah, GA on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power, May 22, 1819. The ship “put to sea with both steam and sails” and reached Liverpool in 29 days and four hours, becoming the first steamship to cross the… Read more »
Robert Fulton is a rather elusive figure who was a prolific inventor and technical promoter and a pretty good painter too. While he is well known for the Clermont or Claremont (neither of which are the actual name of his steamboat) my favorite Fulton design is the Demologos. This steam gunnery ship only predates the… Read more »