Ships at Sea...

When I was in the U.S. Navy last century (in the '70s), we just barely knew where our ship was.  We certainly didn't know where all the ships in the world were.  We frequently encountered other ships – especially private cargo shipping – by complete surprise. 

My, how things have changed. 

Now you can go to a web site and find the location of every ship in the world, along with a lot more information.  For free you can get the position of every ship as of 24 hours ago (in Google Earth!), along with basic information.  For a fee you can get much more detailed, realtime information.  The screenshot at right shows the ships near San Diego as of yesterday.

Amazing!