Andy Hall
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maritimetexas.bsky.social
Andy Hall
@maritimetexas.bsky.social
2.5K followers 2.3K following 2.5K posts
Maritime, naval, and military history guy, occasional author. Texas Marine Archaeological Steward. Iconoclastic tendencies. Opinions mine, not my employer's.
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maritimetexas.bsky.social
Jeebus. He’s STILL insisting that he’s lowering drug prices by more than 100%. But somehow he’s supposed to be a financial genius, right?
Because I have invoked FAVORED NATIONS STATUS FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DRUG PRICES ARE FALLING AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, 500%, 600%, 700%, and more. No other President has been able to do this, BUT I HAVE! This is also the answer to much less expensive, and far better, HEALTHCARE! Republicans, remember, this was done by us, and nobody else. This is a revolution in medicine, the biggest and most important event, EVER. If this story is properly told, we should win the Midterm Elections in RECORD NUMBERS. I AM THE AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT. TALK LOUDLY AND PROUDLY! President DJT
November 29, 2025 at 11:35 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Tonight's historic Galveston photo is of an unidentified girl standing on the beach near the Pagoda Bathhouse (right), c. 1899. The structure in the background left is the Sea Breeze Saloon & Restaurant.

Rosenberg Library photo, SC285_100_2.

Full text in ALT. #TexasHistory
Tonight's historic Galveston photo is of an unidentified girl standing on the beach near the Pagoda Bathhouse (right), c. 1899. The structure in the background left is the Sea Breeze Saloon & Restaurant. Both those structures were wiped out in the 1900 Storm. The reference to "Wagner Buffet Sleepers" on the Pagoda is part of the advertising for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, colloquially known as "the Katy," that covered the structure. The Wagner Palace Car Company pioneered drop-down sleeper berths on rail cars, that were subsequently licensed to (and made famous by) the Pullman Car Company. Those berths weren't entirely comfortable, as I understand, but they were a vast improvement for long-distance rail travel over what had been the norm a generation before. The girl is standing directly in front of the site of the famous Beach Hotel, that had burned in 1898, between 23rd and 24th Streets. Rosenberg Library photo, SC285_100_2.
November 28, 2025 at 3:55 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
A quick follow-up to my post of the late 1840s chart of the entrance to Galveston Bay:

I tried overlaying the chart on that location today in Google Earth, and quickly realized the scale (upper right) is WAY off, about 1.3nm in length and not the 2nm stated.

Full Text in ALT

#MaritimeHistory
A quick follow-up to my post of the late 1840s chart of the entrance to Galveston Bay: I tried overlaying the chart on that location today in Google Earth, and quickly realized the scale (upper right) is WAY off -- it says it's 2 nm, when it's actually closer to 1.3nm in length. Aligning the historic chart with modern features would be imperfect in any case, but the difference in scale makes it much more difficult. So this is more of an estimate of an approximation, but the modern shoreline and major roads would line up something like this when overlaid on the 1840s chart. As you can see, the east end of Galveston Island is completely different from the way it appeared 180-odd years ago.
November 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Tonight's historical Galveston image is a nautical chart of the entrance to Galveston Bay, published as an inset to a larger chart showing the coastline of the northern Gulf of Mexico, published in about 1849.

Full text in ALT.

#MaritimeHistory
Tonight's historical Galveston image is a nautical chart of the entrance to Galveston Bay, published as an inset to a larger chart showing the coastline of the northern Gulf of Mexico, published in about 1849. (Different elements of the charts are given different dates; having the most up-to-date version of a chart was very important to mariners then and now.) The inset chart was prepared by the U.S. Coast Survey, that eventually became part of today's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency, or NOAA. It shows the entrance to Galveston around the time of Annexation in the mid-1840s. As you can see, the aides to navigation at the time were. . . rudimentary. From the Historical Chart and Map Collection, Office of Coast Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
November 27, 2025 at 3:01 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
November 26, 2025 at 3:26 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Accurate, and you can verify that on his wiki page.

Hegseth is simply, comically, egregiously wrong.
November 26, 2025 at 12:26 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
I KNEW it!
November 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Kelly’s medals are correct, and they are not shown in a mirror image. Both Hegseth AND the community notes are wrong.

Can verify them in his Wiki profile.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ke...
November 25, 2025 at 2:31 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
There’s already a long list of Republicans declared to run against Jon Ossoff next year. Crowded field.

Obviously, she has more name recognition than all of the others combined, but I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing in her case.
November 22, 2025 at 1:53 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Corrupt, obviously, but also comically on-brand for a guy who spells his name "K$H."
November 18, 2025 at 4:52 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 9:16 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Says the man who received his first Oscar nomination playing a (checks notes) a male prostitute in an X-rate film set in New York City.
November 16, 2025 at 9:58 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
My next big purchase:
Spoof product of "Briefcase Barbecue," a metal brief case that opens into a miniature barbecue grill.
November 16, 2025 at 6:14 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 2:50 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Excited to come home this evening to find authors’ copies of the new winter 2025 issue of The Civil War Monitor with my and Tom Oertling’s article, “Ericsson’s Other Folly,” about the obstruction-clearing rafts he designed for the April 1863 attack on Charleston.

#NavalHistory
#AmericanCivilWar
November 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
He would name his horse a Consul, but he famously doesn’t have pets.
November 13, 2025 at 2:20 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
They’ll be issued right after those $5,000 DOGE Dividend checks.
November 12, 2025 at 4:18 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Happy 250 Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps, the only military service founded in a bar (although I have my suspicions about Space Force).

"The First Recruits, December 1775," by Col. Charles R. Waterhouse, USMCR (Ret.).

#NavalHistory
#MarineCorps
November 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 11:42 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Tonight's historic Galveston photo is of an unidentified woman and her dog on the beach at Galveston in 1936. The automobile carries a 1935 Nebraska license plate and sister, that's a LONG drive!

Rosenberg Library G_51_FF001_002
Black and white images of a middle-aged woman in a hat and overcoat posing next to a large touring car on the beach at Galveston. The (fur-trimmed?) coat and gloves suggest cold weather. On the right front fender of the car is a small dog, similar to a Pekenese.
November 7, 2025 at 2:26 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
I guess he’s feeling better. Is he back to dressing like a rodeo clown?
November 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
“He got my vote when my in-laws threatened to leave the city if he won.”
“He got my vote when my in-laws threatened to leave the city if he won.”
November 3, 2025 at 11:43 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Free Public Presentation on the CITY OF WACO steamship disaster, 10:30 a.m. Saturday, November 8, 2025 in the McCollough Room ay Rosenberg Library in Galveston, Texas.

Full text in ALT.

#MaritimeHistory
On a stormy evening in November 1875, the new, top-line Mallory Line steamer CITY OF WACO caught fire in the anchorage off the bar at the entrance to Galveston Bay. Despite the efforts of ships’ crews nearby, everyone on board CITY OF WACO – more than fifty men, women, and children – died in the flames or were lost in the cold, dark water of the Gulf of Mexico. And it was only after the disaster that a scandal was exposed that made the tragedy almost entirely preventable. On the 150th anniversary of this horrific disaster, local historian and nautical archaeology steward Andy Hall will give a special presentation on the CITY OF WACO disaster, one of the most horrific on the Texas coast, but one that is also nearly forgotten today. This event is free and open to the public. Join us at 10:30 Saturday morning, November 8, in the McCullough Room on the main floor of Rosenberg Library in Galveston to learn more about this dramatic story.
November 2, 2025 at 3:58 PM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 3:32 AM
maritimetexas.bsky.social
Tonight's waxing gibbous Halloween moon, 31 October 2025. No edits.
November 1, 2025 at 1:00 AM