Thaddeus Lowe was interested in "getting high," even in the early years of his youth. Born in 1832 Lowe had little formal education, but styled himself an "aeronaut," or balloon pilot. His theories on air currents and balloon travel led him to believe he could navigate a balloon to any geographical point by choosing the appropriate altitude where the wind would blow in the direction he desired to travel. After a number of successful ascents in a balloon of his own construction, he undertook a voyage from Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 20, 1861, to test his theories. As with most…

A passion for recycling and a love of steel has prompted a Maine sailor to combine his interests by building, in his back yard, a 113-foot schooner entirely of recycled and scrap material. Harold Arndt has worked in the industrial waste and surplus industry for many years and has seen a lot of material go into the scrap pile that could be perfectly useful somewhere else. As a result, Arndt likes to say that the word "waste" is a misnomer. "Waste is a resource in the wrong place at the wrong time," Arndt said, while pointing to the many piles…

Now you'll know when to throttle back your Atomic Four to avoid a ticket. Whistler Corporation, based in Chelmsford, Mass., has just announced the release of its 1490 Marine Radar and Laser Detector. The new product offers 360° of detection of all radar and laser guns. To simplify detector use, it is equipped with visibility displays which provide text messages when signals are detected. Karen McVeigh, Whistler marketing manager, commented on the product: "With the expanding use of radar guns by water authorities, we've received an increasing amount of requests from powerboat owners to create a product specifically geared to…

The familiar voices of local forecasters who announcecoastal weather conditions over VHF frequencies will soon be giving way to the droning synthesized voice normally associated with the Coast Guard's HF SSB high-seas forecastssometimes known as "Iron Mike." The monotone and often hard-to-follow voice, which can sound both male and female but lacks the natural timbre and cadence of a human voice, is being introduced as a cost-saving measure by the federal government. It is expected to free forecasters from the tedious job of speaking into a microphone several times a day, according to John Jensenius, spokesman and warning coordination meteorologist…

IT DOESN'T HAPPEN VERY OFTEN, but, in this case, we agree with the Clinton administration: There is no compelling reason to ask U.S. taxpayers to continue paying the tuition of students at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. In preparing consecutive issues of this magazine and of our sister publication Professional Mariner, we routinely interact with graduates and students of all merchant marine academies in the U.S. It would be nice to say that USMMA grads seem to be brighter, better trained, more professional, or, in the words of one U.S. senator, "better prepared to interact with the military;" but that…

Sailors with an environmental conscience would be well served to subscribe to a free newsletter that is intended to raise awareness about the growing threat to the ocean and its living resources. The Ocean Update is published by SeaWeb, which was founded by the Pew Charitable Trust in 1996 as a means to protect the world's oceans. The Update is a direct link to many universities and research developments around the world since it publishes academic studies in all areas of marine environmental issues. For example, a recent issue contained an article that described the ninth annual Coral Reef Symposium…

In 1914, the German cruiser SMS Emden and Kapitanleutnant Helmuth Karl von Mucke found themselves in the South Pacific upholding the Imperial interests of Kaiser William. On Nov. 9, Emden disembarked 50 men, including von Mucke, at Direction Island in the Keeling group, to wreck its vital cable and radio station. The landing party quickly vandalized the facility, and the British operators were made "prisoners," although no one was actually constrained or locked up. In fact, the interaction of the two groups was so cordial that von Mucke agreed to a British request that the station's radio tower be felled…

From Ocean Navigator #99 July/August 1999 Sailors interested in contacting merchant vessels via Inmarsat-C can now look up telex and email addresses by visiting a web site. The site, www.inmarsat.org/ships, provides addresses free of charge for all merchant ships with Inmarsat-C service. Imagine the possibilities: "Mind if we pop over for lunch?" "Could you spare your engineer for the afternoon? My generator is down and we haven't had ice for a week." "Could you spare 50 gallons of fuel from your 10-million-gallon supply?" or the civilized Mayday message, "Pardon me, but we are in a sinking condition and would be…