Nickel ore from Indonesia is loaded in remote ports like Obi Island (in yellow), far from the prying eyes of regulators. The trade is profitable, but is coming at an enormous human cost.

On February 17th of this year, the Harita Bauxite sank off Cape Balinao in the South China Sea. Of the twenty-four men aboard, only nine survived. The sea can be a dangerous place, of course, and things happen out there, but the Harita Bauxite’s sinking is troubling beyond the tragic loss of fifteen men. That’s because the loss wasn’t a huge surprise. Indeed, many in the maritime industry all but knew it would happen.

You see, the 192-meter bulk carrier was bound for China from Indonesia with 47,450 metric tons of nickel ore in her holds. That particular maritime activity – shipping nickel ore from Indonesia to China – has quickly become one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and the deadliest activity in modern shipping.

• On October 27th, 2010, the M/V Jian Fu Star sank while carrying nickel ore from Indonesia to China. (13 fatalities)
• Fourteen days later, on November 10th, the M/V Nasco Diamond sank while carrying nickel ore from Indonesia to China. (21 fatalities)
• Twenty-three days after that, on December 3rd, the M/V Hong Wei sank while carrying nickel ore from Indonesia to China. (10 fatalities)
• The next year, things went well until Christmas Day, when the M/V Vinalines Queen went missing. All twenty-three of her crew were thought to have been lost until six days later when the M/V London Courage happened upon Dau Ngoc Hung, a 31-year-old survivor, in a life raft. The Vinalines Queen had sunk while carrying nickel ore from Indonesia to China. (22 fatalities)

In just under fourteen months, sixty-six mariners died in the Indonesia to China nickel ore trade. By January of 2012, that trade – made up only .06% of bulk cargo shipments worldwide – accounted for 80% of the fatalities in bulk shipping.

An unreasonable hazard.

Put another way, if all bulk trade in the world was as hazardous as the nickel ore trade from Indonesia in those 14 months, there would have been over 100,000 fatalities during the same period. When the Harita Bauxite sank, those numbers worsened. There clearly was a problem and it wasn’t that nickel ore couldn’t be safely shipped, but that it wasn’t being safely shipped.

What is happening

In all four sinkings, from October 2010 to December of 2011, it was determined that the vessels had capsized due to liquefaction of their nickel ore cargo. Simply put, the cargo was too wet. When agitated by the motion of the ship, the otherwise sandy ore turned to a flowing mud that sloshed around in the beam-wide holds, causing the giant ships to list and then roll over.

Nickel ore, and other dry-bulk products prone to liquefaction, are moved safely around the world all the time. Shippers simply have to make sure the product is dry enough to ship. “Dry enough” is known as the TML – Transportable Moisture Limit. Making sure nickel ore is dry enough to ship is a simple matter of testing the moisture content prior to loading, and refusing the cargo if it is too wet. This hasn’t been happening consistently in Indonesia.

Download here.

That reality caused maritime insurers and the IMO to take note and issue warnings about the hazard. After the Vinalines Queen tragedy, Intercargo – The International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners – released its Guide for the Safe Loading of Nickel Ore – which warns shippers of the hazard, providing a sort of go/no go chart for the loading of nickel ore that aligned with the IMO’s latest guidance.

The IMO is working on updating the rules again for dry-bulk cargo that may liquefy, but they likely won’t be out until 2015. Even so, rules alone won’t solve the problem. Rules were being broken in late 2010 and new rules were broken and guidelines were ignored in February when the Harita Bauxite loaded her cargo. While regulations may provide more clarity and guidance for lawful bulk carriers, the only paper that can fix the problem in Indonesia is money.

Why it is happening

Nickel pig iron production in China took off in 2006 and so did the demand for nickel ore. The market for nickel ore from Indonesia and the Philippines went from almost zero in 2005 to nearly $5 billion in 2011 according to a report by the International Nickel Study Group. Given the sad state of the bulk cargo market and the sudden realization that dirt was worth money, the region was thrilled with the new demand. Mining operations sprung up and shippers went to work filling the orders. Some of those mines were legal, and others were, well – less than legal. Either way, business was good and money began flowing into places in the world where there wasn’t much before.

Again, this didn’t automatically make the shipping of nickel ore dangerous, but it may have motivated shippers to bend (or break) rules to ensure that the ore kept moving, and orders got filled. For rules to be enforced (like those for moisture limits), someone has to be enforcing them. In Indonesia, an archipelago of over 17,500 islands, the law doesn’t come around too often to ports where much of the ore is loaded. Given the money involved and the remoteness of the loading, it isn’t hard to imagine that looking the other way and hoping had replaced testing and regulation where the ore was concerned.

These cargoes are stored primarily outdoors and just because the IMO code states that loading is prohibited in the rain (or soon after), that doesn’t actually stop anyone from doing it. There are rumors of false test results, forged documents, and just plain old financial pressure to get vessel captains to accept wet cargo. Well-meaning crews under pressure to make delivery may end up relying on less-than-scientific “drop testing” alone to determine how wet suspect cargo may be, a possibly deadly mistake. While they could insist on an independent lab test (as suggested by Intercargo), in all of Indonesia there is only one lab that sufficiently tests for nickel ore moisture levels. One. In a country of 17,500+ islands covering 1.4 million square miles of ocean, one may not be enough.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An unnamed senior maritime insurance analyst told Singapore’s SeaTrade Asia Week last year that, “We have also heard of surveyors being assaulted or arrested by the police and there seems to be little support from the authorities.” That makes sense. If the rules were properly applied, the shipping of nickel ore from many operations in Indonesia would simply shut down for months due to moisture levels during the rainy season.

How it might end

Keenly aware of its new export value (perhaps because of the attention to the maritime tragedies it caused), the Indonesian government promulgated Regulation Number 7 of 2012 on the 6th of February. The rule made it illegal to ship unrefined ore from Indonesia, instead requiring it to be refined and purified first. This had less to do with the danger of shipping the ore and more to do with raising the value of the export, all part of Indonesia’s plans for growth. But the rule was deferred until 2014 and the export of the precious dirt continues.

Some worry that the delay of the rule will make things much worse – in fact, the Harita Bauxite may have been the first casualty of that delay. Now working to beat the new deadline for the unrefined ore trade, shippers and miners alike are moving all they can before the party is shut down, and another rainy season is fast approaching. The new rules won’t begin until after the rain stops, so if we lose yet another bulk ship and more lives this coming year, none of us are allowed to act surprised.

Image (c) Shutterstock/Aleksandar Mijatovic

By Nicholas-Andrew Iliopoulos, Special to Piracy Daily

The release earlier this month of an official Chinese government report showing that the threats that country faces come mostly from the sea serves to underscore the importance of safeguarding national security through effective maritime security—including state-of-the-art counter-piracy efforts.

As Xinhua noted, in “China’s Ocean Development Report (2013)” distributed by the China Institute for Marine Affairs under the State Oceanic Administration, the Asian giant’s determination to “strengthen its capability to handle international maritime affairs over the next 20 years” remains—according to the report—based on maritime security policies that have not changed fundamentally.

Which, in my opinion, is where counter-piracy operations come in as part of considerations regarding the second-largest global economy’s high-seas voyage into the future.

As an oil production boom in the United States causes exporters who provided for American markets to seek other clients—especially prized relations in an energy-thirsty China—the world oil tanker trade is itself expanding at its quickest rate in the past decade.

The oil being shipped requires tankers to trek significantly longer routes, while adding to the number and location of shipping choke points, as well as challenges such as growing vulnerabilities to piracy.

Meanwhile, Chinese naval efforts against piracy in the Gulf of Aden have won plaudits from officials representing such different interests as those of Iran and the United States. And, as the Pentagon told the U.S. Congress in its annual report two weeks ago, Chinese military modernization has “become increasingly focused on investments in military capabilities to conduct a wider range of missions … including counter-piracy …”

All of this is happening as we experience a historic change that, though in its infancy, is destined to transform the economics of our planet. With new work driver China at the wheel, the developing world is rapidly overcoming the developed one. Experts point out that the Chinese economy will be almost the same size as that of the United States by 2025. Twenty-five years after that, the first ten GDPs in the world are projected to be as follows: China, the U.S., India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, Japan, UK, and Germany.

In the maritime community, the emerging future seems like a hallowed reflection of a not-so- distant past, as Christopher Columbus would know first hand. China was the greatest maritime nation in the world for almost four and half centuries, from the consolidation of the Song Empire until the remarkable seafaring expeditions of the early Ming (1405-33) under Admiral Zheng He.

As China moves forward, it is confronted with a virtual army of senior foreign executives who, seeking to establish their businesses, are eager to penetrate the Chinese red-hot economy and together achieve growth and profitability. As can already be seen, not all of them succeed, with failure rates in China attributed, according to conventional wisdom, to a lack of cultural fit, familial issues, and inadequate support from the head office. Many executives are ill equipped to tackle China’s unique challenges. Leading in China—as in
other Asian shipping markets as well—requires a range of skills that goes beyond (and in some cases conflicts with) conventional standards of business teaching and practice. Thus, prevailing attitudes of management for accomplishment need to be reworked.

They demand cultural understanding and adaptability, market knowledge, the ability to perceive and respond to rapid change, and support from headquarters. Western roles ought to be retuned, when not recast, with the focus being:

• Strategic yet hands-on,
• Disciplined yet entrepreneurial,
• Process oriented yet sensitive to people,
• Authoritative yet nurturing,
• Firm yet flexible,
• and Action driven, yet circumspect.

There is a long list of books being put to use about Chinese business etiquette and ethics; however, what one learns in China is neither written nor taught in classrooms. The bottom line on how ready an executive is to lead in China should focus on (as we do at AdvanFort Company):

• Dealing with Government
• Managing Business Conduct
• Developing the Workforce
• Competing for Customers and Markets
• Coping with Complexity

Despite all the lip service paid to these goals, levels of practical understanding about China remains shockingly low. Therefore lessons learned from previous working experience in China remain the key to a positive experience, particularly the need to “shift the prism a little so you can see things differently.”

Is it too late to enter China?

Yes, it’s a tough market. And yes, your competitors may have gotten there first. But the biggest mistake would be choosing not to invest in China. Of the Fortune 500 companies, about 480 are already in there—and those who are successful know that they have to work for achievement. Around the world, executives trolling the market (including in the maritime world) usually consider the three Cs:Customers, Competitors, and the Company. Many, however, remain in danger of not grasping older cultural wisdom and, particularly when they focus on China, they ought to add one more consideration:

Context.

Commander Nicholas-Andrew Iliopoulos is the Senior Business Development Manager for AdvanFort Company.

USCGC Northland; Greenland, circa 1944

“Oh the sea, Oh the sea, the wide bounding sea!
Long may it roll between England and me!”

Irish Folk Song

EASTWIND (WAGB-279); Antarctic Operation Deep Freeze
(1955-56); PENGUIN DRILL TEAM

Player’s Cigarettes “Polar Exploration”; A series of 25 cards issued in 1914
#7 Ross & Parry’s Arctic Expedition, 1818     (1098 x 592)
Commander Ross at the North Magnetic Pole

#3 How Icebergs Are Formed
(1097 x 593)

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin

(1786 – 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer.  He disappeared on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The icebound ships were abandoned and the entire crew perished from starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning and scurvy.

Franklin’s father initially opposed his son’s interest in a career at sea. However, Franklin was determined and his father reluctantly allowed him to go on a trial voyage with a merchant ship. This hardened young Franklin’s resolve, so at the age of 14 his father secured him a Royal Navy appointment on HMS Polyphemus.

The Franklin Expedition set sail from Greenhithe, England, on 19 May 1845, with a crew of 24 officers and 110 men. After stopping in the Orkney Isles for supplies, the expedition was last seen by Europeans on 26 July 1845, when Captain Dannett of the whaler Prince of Wales encountered two of the convoy moored to an iceberg in Lancaster Sound.

abv rt: #12 Relics of Sir John Franklin’s Expedition of 1845  (611 x 1101)

#9 Peary’s Ship “Diana” in winter quarters, 1899
(1107 x 592)

Around the World on Cigarette Cards

HMS Assistance in the Ice by Thomas Sewell Robins, 1853
National Maritime Museum collections blog

HMS Assistance (1850) An Arctic discovery barque of the Royal Navy. She was built out of teak in 1835 at Howrah, Calcutta and launched as the merchant vessel Baboo.

In March 1850, the Royal Navy purchased her and had her re-fitted for Arctic service, after which she joined Horatio Thomas Austin’s 1850 attempt to find Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition.

She went on to participate in two Arctic expeditions before being abandoned in the ice in 1854.

more

Traditional Russian wooden boats and ships; XVI-XVII centuries

The Koch was a special type of small one or two mast wooden sailing ships designed and used in Russia for transpolar voyages in ice conditions of the Arctic seas, and was the unique ship of this class for several centuries.

This type of ship was in wide use during the heyday of Russian polar navigation in the 15th and 16th centuries.  In the 17th century kochs were widely used on Siberian rivers during the Russian exploration and conquest of Siberia and the Far East.

In the 19th century the anti-ice floe protective features of koch were adopted to the first modern icebreakers, and in fact koch may be regarded as the most ancient form of icebreaker, though wooden and relatively small.

Each iceboat had the cargo capacity of 1.5 to 2.0 metric tons (3,300 to 4,400 lb) and was equipped with long runners (5 to 7 m/16 to 23 ft) for portage on ice. If a koch became trapped in the ice, its rounded bodylines below the water-line would allow for the ship, squeezed by the ice-fields, to be pushed up out of the water and onto the ice with no damage to the body.

The largest koches were 60 feet long and 20 feet wide(sic), with a draft of 5 or 6 feet and a crew of 6 to 12.  more

The first ice breaking ships appeared in mid 1840’s in Hudson River in the US and in the Elbe River in Germany. First dedicated icebreakers appeared in 1860’s and 1870’s in the St. Petersburg and Hamburg harbors. Before the turn of the century several dedicated sea-going icebreakers were in service.

Historical Development of Ice Capable Ships (pdf)

image above rt:
Ice breakers in the Hudson, New Jersey, winter 1925

whaling ship in ice

Currier & Ives – Ship in Ice

Finnish icebreaker Murtaja in the Finnish Swedish-language magazine
“Land och Stad” (Nya Pressen) on 16 April 1890

Built in 1890 by Bergsunds Mekaniska Verkstads AB in Stockholm, Sweden, she was one of the first purpose-built icebreakers in the world. Murtaja remained in service for 68 years until she was decommissioned and broken up in 1958 .

The history of winter navigation in Finland dates back to the 17th century when mail was carried year-round between Turku, Finland and Grisslehamn, Sweden, over the Sea of Åland.

During the winter season, the postmen used ice boats, a rugged sleigh-boats that was pushed over the ice until it gave in under the weight. Once in the water, the men began rocking the boat back and forth until it slowly began to break the ice and proceed towards open water. This mail route was often called the most dangerous in Europe.

Finnish icebreaker Murtaja

Murtaja, the largest and most powerful European icebreaker at that time, was completed on 30 March, 1890. She left the shipyard on the following day and headed to Helsinki, where she was welcomed by a large cheering crowd on 2 April 1890. However, she lost a large number of cast iron propeller blades and while the replacement blades could be installed at sea by trimming the vessel so that the propeller shaft was near the water surface, the heavy task took several days.

She could break level ice up to 47 centimetres (19 in) thick in continuous motion as long as there was no snow, in which case even 25-centimetre (10 in) ice required backing and ramming.  In this method the ship was reversed two to four ship lengths before ordering full ahead, after which the ship could break new channel up to six ship lengths, almost 150 metres (492 ft).

read more

SS Baikal in the act of breaking ice on lake Baikal, Central Siberia ‎
(1,010 × 749 pixels)

SS Baikal was an ice-breaking train ferry that linked the eastern and western portions of the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Lake Baikal.

On 30 December 1895 a contract was signed with Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd  for the parts of an icebreaking ferry (without woodwork and in disassembled state). The following June, the icebreaker had been delivered for assembly, and after three years it was completed then launched on 29 June 1899.

Baikal carried two loads a day across the lake. Damaged by field artillery fire in August 1918, she burnt and sank at the Mysovaya pier. In 1920 the damaged hull was refloated and towed to Port Baikal where it was scrapped.

Great ice-breaker of a sad destiny
on English Russia

The icebreaking steamer ‘Baikal’  (1090 x 784)
on Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Flickr pages

Ice, Snow and More Ice (Set: 18)

Burton Holmes on the Trans-Siberian Railroad:
Chapter 10: Lake Baikal  in summer

Travelogues of Burton Holmes

Born in 1870, Mr. Burton Holmes was the greatest traveler of his time.
In 1883 he purchased his first camera.

Icebreaker Angara in winter

While Baikal was being transported in parts from Britain, the committee decided to order another smaller icebreaker, which would be named Angara, for transporting goods and passangers on the same route. The parts of this new icebreaker were shipped from Britain to Revel (now Tallinn), and then went by the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the shore of Baikal. It was assembled and first touched the water on July 25, 1900.

Angara continued to transport goods and passengers until 1962. Angara was refurbished in 1989 by the donations of private individuals and organizations. Now it is a floating museum.  +

Soviet postage stamp, 1976, commemorating Icebreaker Feodor Litke

Icebreaking steamship Fyodor Litke (1909) – built in 1909 as an icebreaking freight and passenger steamer in Barrow-in-Furness, England for the Saint Lawrence River service and initially named CGC Earl Grey.

Unlike conventional icebreakers that crush ice with their own weight from above, Litke belonged to an older generation of vessels, relying on ramming and cutting ice without any downward movement. For this reason, Litke was uniquely classified as an ice-cutter. The ship was known to roll excessively, even on relatively calm seas.

After four years in Canada it was sold to the Russian government and eventually renamed in honour of the Arctic explorer Fyodor Petrovich Litke.

Litke became famous for its Arctic operations in 1932—1935, survived World War II and was retired in 1958 after nearly 50 years of service.

more

SS Earl Grey (1910)

Mikhail Shankov; Commander Vitus Bering on Art and Faith

Prominent Russians:
Vitus Bering

(1681 – 1741) Vitus Jonassen Bering was one of the world’s most famous explorers, born in Horsens, Jutland (Denmark). rom the time Vitus was a small child he loved the sea. He went sailing as a young man and learned navigation on Dutch and Danish ships.

In late 1724 Tsar Peter I the Great appointed Bering to take command of the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725 -1730). It is traditionally believed that the purpose of this expedition was to explore far northeastern Siberia and determine whether Asia and the Americas were connected by a land bridge, but some discussion has arisen among historians as to the accuracy of this assumption.

Peter instructed Bering to travel to the east coast of Kamchatka and once there to: 1) build one or two ships; 2) go north and find out where the coast ends; 3) go to a European-controlled city, find out who it belongs to, make a map, and come back home…

keep reading

Vitus Bering
on wikipedia

USSR – postage stamp shows russian icebreaker Malygin

Icebreaker Malygin (1912) – (above)  built initially as the SS Bruce for the Newfoundland shipping company and sold to Russia in 1915, renamed Malygin in 1921.

In 1928, she took part in the search of the Umberto Nobile‘s dirigible expedition, and in 1922-1939, she performed hydrological research in the Arctic Ocean.

Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) in the Arctic, July 27, 1931

In July 1931, Professor V. Yu. Vize led an expedition aboard the Malygin to Franz Josef Land, where their mission was to locate a suitable place for a Soviet floatplane base. There, German airship Graf Zeppelin made a memorable rendezvous with ship at Bukhta Tikhaya in Hooker Island.

The Malygin sank in a storm near Kamchatka on 28 October 1940 with all 98 people on board while returning from a hydrographic expedition.

Stepan Gavrilovich Malygin
(died August 1, 1764) was a Russian Arctic explorer.

Second Kamchatka Expedition:  In 1736–1737, two boats Perviy  and Vtoroy under the command of Stepan Malygin undertook a voyage from the Dolgiy Island in the Barents Sea to the mouth of the Ob River. During this trip, Malygin described this part of the Russian Arctic coastline and made a map of the area. +

further reading: Academic Discovery of Siberia

Museum Ship Krasin (full size)
on sit down man, you’re a bloody tragedy

Krasin (1917) – The first icebreaker built for the Imperial Russian Navy has been fully restored to operating condition and is now a museum ship in Saint Petersburg.

Built by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne, launched as the Svyatogor on 3 August 1916 and completed in February 1917. Until the 1950s, she remained the most powerful icebreaker in the world.

During the allied intervention against the Bolsheviks in Northern Russia (1918-19) she was scuttled by the Royal Navy. They raised her for use in the White Sea and later brought her to Scapa Flow for minesweeping. Returned to the USSR in 1921 and renamed Krasin by the Soviets in 1927 to honor a recently deceased Bolshevik leader and Soviet diplomat Leonid Borisovich Krasin.

Most famous for her rescue of downed balloonist General Umberto Nobile (designer of the Norge ) close to the North Pole, after his failed Italian Polar expedition in 1928.

see also: The Red Tent (film), a film about the rescue effort.

Later that’s ame year, Krasin rescued the German passenger ship Monte Cervantes after it hit an iceberg and was severely damaged with 1835 passengers on board.

more

The Most Famous Russian Polar Icebreaker
on English Russia

Finnish icebreaker Voima (1924)

Voima (meaning “power” in Finnish) was a Finnish and later Soviet steam-powered icebreaker. After two decades of successful service Voima was handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparation in 1945 and renamed Malygin.

Laid down as Shtorm, the icebreaker was intended not only for escort operations on the Baltic Sea, but also naval tasks such as laying mines during the winter months and transporting troops and supplies to Russian warships and coastal forts. With a maximum output of 4,100 indicated horsepower (3,100 kW), making her the most powerful Finnish icebreaker at that time.

When the Moscow Armistice was signed on 19 September 1944, Finland was ordered to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union. One of the first payments included the newest and most powerful state-owned steam-powered icebreakers, and Voima was handed over along with the enormous Jääkarhu on 24 February 1945.

She remained in service until 1970 and was broken up in 1971. +

Sampo during sea trials on 23 October 1898

Sampo (1898) -  Finnish state-owned steam-powered icebreaker built in 1898 by Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne. Named after a magical artifact from the Finnish mythology, she was the first European icebreaker equipped with a bow propeller.

In the 1890s, the Senate of Finland sent two engineers to investigate a new icebreaker design that had been developed in the United States in the 1880s and access its capability. Unlike the European icebreakers, the 1888-built train ferry St Ignace had two propellers, one at (each) end of the ship.

Sold on the superiority of the new design, the Senate Winter Navigation committee recommended that the new icebreaker should be of the so-called “American type”.  While not the cheapest bid, Armstrong Whitworth had the shortest delivery time — only seven months.

From the first day, the new icebreaker, capable of breaking through ridges up to six metres thick by ramming, performed beyond expectations and was generally deemed the best icebreaker in Europe at that time.

Sampo survived the Great War without damage. On 6 January 1940 Sampo was assisting a convoy of three merchant ships towards Pori in difficult conditions — the temperature was nearly −30 °C (−22 °F) and fog reduced the visibility to zero. Proceeding in light ice conditions at 8 knots when she collided with an underwater obstacle and suddenly stopped…

Sampo (1898) on wikipedia

Defence of the Sampo by Gallen-Kallela
1200 × 1183

Eisbrecher Tarmo 14. Mai 2006

Tarmo (1907 icebreaker) -  Finnish steam-powered icebreaker built in 1907 by Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne.

She is the last Finnish steam-powered icebreaker to remain in service. Decommissioned in 1970, a decision was made to preserve the vessel as a museum ship. After a long wait in Helsinki, Tarmo was completely restored in the early 1990s.

Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard  was unable to compete for bids due to difficulties in acquiring and importing steel suitable for icebreakers.  Tarmo was stationed at the Gulf of Finland, where in addition to assisting ships she often had to rescue local fishermen trapped on drifting ice floes.

She suffered massive damage after a Soviet bombing run in WW2. The first bomb missed the icebreaker and exploded harmlessly on ice in front of the ship, but the second hit the foredeck and destroyed the anchors. The third penetrated the wooden weather deck in front of the bridge and detonated.

The blast immediately killed 38 crew members, wounded ten, and started a fire that quickly spread aft. The blaze, which had ignited the ammunition stores and destroyed nearly all wooden parts from amidships aft, was eventually brought under control.

The bow of the ship had been reduced to a pile of mangled pipes, twisted frames and torn plating, from which the twin barrels of the forward 120 mm guns were pointing to the sky. Her forward engine room was full of water that had frozen around the steam engine. After extensive repairs, she was eventually returned to service.

The retirement of Tarmo did not go as planned. The winter of 1970 turned out to be very harsh and the old icebreaker had to be recommissioned. It took nearly 20 years until Tarmo could be fully restored. She is now preserved in the Maritime Museum of Finland in Kotka.

more

Yermak (1898)  – Russian and later Soviet icebreaker and the first polar icebreaker in the world, having a strengthened hull shaped to ride over and crush pack ice. image source (above)

Built for the Imperial Russian Navy by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne and launched in 1898. She was named after the famous Russian explorer of Siberia Yermak Timofeyevich.

In 1899 she reached 81°21′N north of Spitsbergen.

During World War I, she assisted the Baltic Fleet during the Ice cruise when the fleet was evacuated from Helsinki to Kronstadt in February 1918.

During World War II she was mobilised again and took part in the evacuaton of Hanko naval base.

Yermak served with different branches of Russian and Soviet Navy and Merchant Marine up until 1964, becoming one of longest-serving icebreakers in the world. +

Finnish Icebreaker APU 1899
1600 × 1085

Apu was a Finnish state-owned steam-powered icebreaker, built by Howaldtswerke in Kiel, Germany, in 1899. The main task of Apu was to assist ships between Turku and Stockholm although scheduled year-round shipping service to the German city of Lübeck was launched during her first year in operation.

August 1914; Russia joined the First World War and the Finnish icebreakers were placed under the command of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. The vessel was confiscated and used to transport troops and supplies to coastal forts at the Gulf of Finland.

Apu remained in service through the Second World War until 1959, when she was replaced by the new diesel-electric Murtaja.

more

Jääkarhu arriving in Helsinki in April 1926

Finnish and later Soviet steam-powered icebreaker. Built in 1926 by P. Smit Jr. Shipbuilding and Machine Factory in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Although sometimes called the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world by the press in the 1920s, Jääkarhu was no match for the Soviet polar icebreakers Yermak and Svyatogor that had nearly twice the displacement and over twice the power of the Finnish vessel.

Jääkarhu was handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparation in 1945 and renamed Sibiryakov. She remained in service until the 1970s, then broken up in 1972.

more

Development of the Finnish Maritime Shipping Industry; The Icebreakers

Ice breaker rescuing a freighter, designed by Torsten Ekström

issued by Finland on March 2, 1977 to commemorate the centenary of the opening
of winter navigation between Finland and Sweden by the steamer Express

Big Bad ASS Russian nuclear icebreaker YAMAL

Laid down in Leningrad in 1986  but not launched until after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company, she never fulfilled her intended role of keeping shipping lanes open, but rather has always carried passengers on arctic excursions.

She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.

Yamal is one of the Russian “Arctic” family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise exclusively in cold water to cool their reactors, rendering them unable to pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.

From August to September 2009 the ice breaker took part in the scheduled evacuation of drifting ice stations. Each station houses 18 polar explorers, dogs, and more than 150 tons of cargo. The evacuation of station personnel and cargo from a drifting ice floe requires three days of continuous, round-the-clock work.

above right: on a 1994 joint expedition with the NSF
see also: icebreaker ROSSIYA under the aurora borealis

If You Can’t Get Enough:

Early Icebreakers (20th century)
on Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

McMurdo Sound, Dec. 1955 / full size

more Bird life

Adventures of the Blackgang on tumblr
(twitter) – (instagram)
Maritime Monday Archives »

ATLANTIC OCEAN (May 14, 2013) An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator flies over the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). George H.W. Bush is the first aircraft carrier to successfully catapult launch an unmanned aircraft from its flight deck. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki/Released)

While not many of us were noticing, the U.S. Navy was off the coast of Virginia on Tuesday, changing the game of naval aviation forever.  The X-47B is a demonstration platform that first flew on February 4th, 2011.  On Tuesday, the unmanned aircraft was successfully launched from the USS George W. Bush and landed at Patuxent River, Maryland after performing several aerial maneuvers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

X-47B Launch Photo Gallery:

Strong winds have pushed huge ice sheets ashore at Lake Mille Lacs, Minnesota.

The Department of Natural Resources says about 10 miles of shoreline are covered with the huge piles of ice, with some reaching up to 30 feet high.

ABC News coverage:

Via UnofficialNetworks.com

 Adventures Into The Unknown  (ACG, 1954)

Third in line to the British throne, Prince Harry of Wales, is visiting the former colonies this week. After laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery, he headed off to Colorado to kick off the Warrior Games, the U.S. military’s Paralympic-style competition which, for the first time this year, includes British vets.

The prince, a veteran combat helicopter pilot, mingled with the 35-member British team before taking up position on a gymnasium floor to engage in a round of sitting-volleyball.

A captain in Britain’s Army Air Corps, Harry has deployed to Afghanistan twice. His first deployment, as a forward air controller in 2007-2008, was cut short after 10 weeks when details of his whereabouts were disclosed in the media.

On his second deployment, he was a co-pilot and gunner on an Apache helicopter. He acknowledged to reporters he had targeted Taliban fighters, and when asked if he had killed anyone, said, “Yeah, so, lots of people have.” +

This week’s MM takes a look at another fine specimen of British manhood; John Bull.

Senior Service advertisement; Illustrated by John S. Smith
From John Bull magazine, week ending 24th September, 1955

Senior Service is a brand of filterless cigarette made by the Gallaher Group division of Japan Tobacco, named after the nickname of the Royal Navy; Tracing its origins to the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the “Senior Service”. +

The brand’s logo is that of a sailing ship. Originally launched in 1925 by J. A. Pattreiouex Ltd, a company that was acquired by Gallaher in 1937.

Senior Service cigarettes are produced in Cyprus, Germany, Greece and England. +

The original John Bull magazine was a Sunday newspaper established in London by Theodore Hook in 1820.

Similar in style to the iconic American magazine The Saturday Evening Post, the John Bull covers encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain’s finest illustrators, and often featured short stories by major British authors.

In 1964, its circulation was just over 700,000, but advertising revenue did not meet its costs, and it was closed.

The John Bull Archives

John Bull is an English national personification, akin to Uncle Sam.

Unlike Uncle Sam,  he is not a figure of authority but rather a yeoman who prefers his small beer and domestic peace, possessed of neither patriarchal power nor heroic defiance, and entirely of native country stock. He was a ubiquitous sight in British editorial cartoons of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Originally the creation of Dr John Arbuthnot in 1712, then popularised by British print makers, the figure of Bull was disseminated overseas by illustrators and writers such as American cartoonist Thomas Nast and Irish writer George Bernard Shaw.

He wears a low topper (shallow crown indicates its middle class identity, sometimes called a John Bull topper) on his head and is often accompanied by a bulldog. John Bull’s surname is also reminiscent of the alleged fondness of the English for beef, reflected in the French nickname for English people, les rosbifs (the “Roast Beefs”).

A joint project of the Library of Congress and The British Library, the John Bull and Uncle Sam exhibition brings together for the first time treasures from the two greatest libraries in the English-speaking world in an exploration of selected time periods and cultural movements that provide unique insights into the relationship of the United States and Great Britain.

go looky

see also: Broadsides: Caricature and the Navy 1775–1815

This was a period of intense naval activity which included the Seven Years War, the American War of Independence, and the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

A new and popular form of graphic satire also emerged, as caricature developed into a highly sophisticated art form. Contemporary political and naval events were dissected with biting humour and a journalistic concern for current affairs.

William Allan and J.B. Herbert; John Bull and Uncle Sam
Sheet music cover; Chicago: S. Brainard’s Sons, 1898
Music Division, Library of Congress

This song written by a member of the British Parliament celebrates the peaceful resolution of the Venezuela Boundary Dispute in 1898–the last time the United States and Britain came close to going to war.

Le débarquement du chevalier John Bull et de sa famille a Boulogne sur mer/
The Landing of Sir John Bull & his family, at Boulogne sur mer; 1792

The Grand Tour was the traditional excursion across Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means.

The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage, primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry.

The tradition was extended to include more of the middle class after rail and steamship travel made the journey less of a burden.

The primary value of the Grand Tour, it was believed, lay in the exposure both to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. In addition, it provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music.

This practice would fade from fashion for a while, though, as Britain and Revolutionary France were soon at war for the next two decades

see also: Le débarquement du chevalier John Bull (2)

more: The British Abroad:
The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century, by Jeremy Black

John Bull taking a Luncheon:
- or – British Cooks, cramming Old Grumble-Gizzard, with Bonne-Chere
by James Gillray; H. Humphrey, published 24 October 1798

The Little Boaster’s Final Determination: or John Bull rather angry

Political satire: John Bull sits smoking a pipe and drinking porter, angry that Napoleon, who is marching back into France from the coast, keeps him up all night with promises of an invasion that never materialises. 1803

Napoleon being defeated by John Bull at Dover

John Bull out of all Patience

John Bull, tired of waiting for an ever-threatened invasion, comes across the channel in army uniform to France on a lion, sending the French fleeing. 16 August 1803

cartoon depicting the flimsiness of the Napoleonic invasion fleet

John Bull shooting Flying

At one point, Napoleon considered using balloons to land troops although this idea was quickly dismissed. It did however cause the English some distress. (1803-1804)

The Bull and the Bantam; 1803

John Bull, a sailor, and with the head of a bull, capers triumphantly, hands on hips, singing, “Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves.”

On one horn is spiked a little Gallic cock with the head of Napoleon, in profile to the right, saying with an agonized expression, “O dear Mr Bull – take me off your horn,- and I’ll never crow – again, believe me.”

John Bull Drowning an Enemy

John Bull stands with his back to the viewer holding out his coat and asking pardon for the indelicacy, necessary in order to get rid of the troublesome fellow, pissing on a prostrate Napoleon; 1803.

John Bull United. Bona in two Parts

John Bull as half-sailor, half bull with the badge of the London Volunteers standing on a single piece of land, Ireland, England and Scotland, saying “Division”, and “Come on, it’s all a Puff”; Napoleon as half man, half demon, with a wing labelled Holland, Switzerland, Italy and Hanover, one foot in Corsica, the other in France, saying “Invasion & Plunder” and “No Quarter”. 20 November 1803

Portsmouth Point by Thomas Rowlandson; 1811
(print for sale at National Maritime Museum; Royal Museums Greenwich Art Prints)

At the start of the 19th century, relations between the United States and Britain were not good.

People in the United States weren’t happy when the Royal Navy forcibly seized American seamen against their will. Add to that situation boundary disputes, and other contentious issues, and soon the two countries were fighting again.

John Bull and Uncle Sam (like Columbia before him) have either been at odds or in cahoots. At the end of the U.S. Civil War, Britain sympathized with America over the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Queen Victoria even sent a personal letter to Mary Todd Lincoln, the President’s widow.

It was not until the First World War, when America fought by Britain’s side, that the two countries cemented their relationship. +

John Bull and Uncle Sam

image: Iohn Bull peeping into Brest

“The British Atlas, or John Bull supporting the Peace Establishment” (1816)

The image of Atlas had been a popular one before and during the French Revolution as a way of depicting the oppression of the ordinary people (the “Third Estate“) by the Church and the Aristocracy.

On Bull’s back is a three-tiered “castle” atop which sits the King and 2 layers of armed soldiers which are labelled “Standing Army of 150,000 Men, a numerous extravagant Military Staff”. The King’s throne sit on top of a pedestal which says “The Cause of the Bourbons” referring to Britain’s role in restoring the French Bourbon monarchy to power after the defeat of Napoleon.

To the right is a document which says “Expence of keeping Bonaparte in St. Helena 300,000 pounds. Military Guard …” To the far right is a book entitled “The Age of Wonders! or the Blessings of Peace, more destructive to the English than the horrors of War.”

more

John Bull – the pride of the world and the envy of surrounding nations; 1833

Brother Jonathan (Uncle Sam) takes a defiant attitude towards John Bull
–like Lincoln and much of the country

Jonathan on the Mason and Slidell Affair

Brother Jonathan, “Well, Johnny, if you want ‘em very bad, you can take ‘em—and tell yer what, if you feel like going into that kinder’ business, I can let you have just as many more as you like from a little establishment of mine called Sing Sing!”

The Trent Affair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War.

On November 8, 1861, the USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet RMS Trent and removed, as contraband of war, two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell. The envoys were bound for Great Britain and France to press the Confederacy’s case for diplomatic recognition in Europe…

keep reading

Original Boer War Political Cartoon by Charles K. Cook c. 1900
from soldiersofthequeen.com
A Virtual Museum of Antique Victorian-era British Military Photographs

John Bull, Liberty Magazine 1943
illustration by Arthur Szyk

John Bull is the personification of the British nation,
the epitome of tenacity and dogged determination.

Allied curious?

“Back to the Wall” by Illingworth (1902-1979)
Pencil & gouache on paper, c. 1940

A comic image of Churchill as the figure of John Bull, holding a bayonet, with his back to the wall, over which Commonwealth troops are clambering to his assistance.

By 1943, Advertiser’s Weekly had noted that British designers obviously viewed symbolism such as ‘John Bull’ outmoded, rarely using him as a figure. +

Gallant Nelson bringing home two uncommon
fierce French Crocodiles from the Nile as a present
from a Review of the National Maritime Museum show

The History of the Nineteenth Century in Caricature
PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED
by Arthur Bartlett Maurice Frederic Taber Cooper; 1904
a Project Gutenberg e-book

more images: The Caricature Sale on Bonhams

John Bull Bitter; a product of The Star Brewery in Romford, England

The brewery was founded in 1708 by Benjamin Wilson as an attachment to the Star Inn on the high street, then the main road to the City of London.

Romford railway station was opened to the south of the site in 1839 and was responsible for its considerable later expansion. By 1908, it had its own railway sidings and employed 450 workers; by 1970, it occupied 20 acres (81,000 m2) and had 1,000 workers.

The brewery was closed in 1993 and demolished. Redeveloped in 2001 as The Brewery shopping centre.

can image; The Beer Can Guide
see also: Brewers Bitter – John Bull Brewery

Jack Preparing for Sea by Thomas Rowlandson
early 19th century; National Maritime Museum
- embiggen -
(print for sale at National Maritime Museum; Royal Museums Greenwich Art Prints)

(dansles voor Engelse Matrozen 1925)

The Sailor’s Hornpipe

The dance imitates the life of a sailor and their duties aboard ship. Nautical duties (for example the hauling of ropes, rowing, climbing the rigging and saluting) provided the dance movements.

Due to the small space that the dance required, and no need for a partner, the dance was popular on-board ship.

Accompaniment may have been the music of a tin whistle or, from the 19th century, a squeezebox.

Samuel Pepys referred to it in his diary as “The Jig of the Ship” and Captain Cook, who took a piper on at least one voyage, is noted to have ordered his men to dance the hornpipe in order to keep them in good health

image above left Jolly Jack

John Philip Sousa included the number as part of his “Jack Tar March”.

Listen on The Library of Congress

Sailors’ Hornpipe in 1928

“There was the big sailor going through the steps of the sailor’s hornpipe.”
The Little Skipper, A Son of a Sailor
by George Manville Fenn; 1877

The tune was played in the animated Popeye cartoons beginning in the 1930s, usually as the first part of the opening credits theme (composed by Sammy Lerner, which then segued into an instrumental of “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man“.

Popeye the Sailor, created by E.C. Segar, first debuted in his King Features-distributed comic strip, Thimble Theatre. The character was growing in popularity by the 1930s and there was “hardly a newspaper reader of the Depression-era that did not know his name.”

The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and by 1934, a statistic was released noting that spinach sales had increased by one-third since the debut of the Popeye cartoons.

The huge child following Popeye received eventually prompted Segar’s boss, William Randolph Hearst, to order Segar to tone down the humor and violence. Segar was not ready to compromise, believing there would be “nothing funny about a sissy sailor.” +

Popeye the Sailor Man opening music
VIDEO: Popeye the Sailor Song (full lyrics)

Groucho Marx does the traditional dance to this number at one point,
as part of the opening number in the film, Duck Soup.

Video: Duck Soup;  The Laws of My Administration (1933)

In the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera HMS Pinafore, Sir Joseph Porter tells Ralph Rackstraw “All sailors should dance hornpipes. I will teach you one this evening”.

above: Scene from 1886 Savoy Theatre souvenir programme

National Dances For Children. No. 1. English:
The Sailor’s Hornpipe
(How To…)

John Bull’s incubus
The British Museum

Adventures of the Blackgang on tumblr
(twitter) – (instagram)
Maritime Monday Archives »

The official USCG and NTSB reports on the sinking of Bounty aren’t out yet. Even so, the lawyers for Claudene Christian’s mother (also named Claudene) felt they had more than enough to bring suit against owner Robert Hansen and the HMS Bounty Organization.  On April 6th, attorney Ralph Mellusi filed a lawsuit on behalf of Claudene Christian who is seeking a total of ninety million dollars for the wrongful death of her daughter.  Citing Hansen’s knowledge of the rotted frames, the general disrepair of Bounty, the relative inexperience of the crew he employed , his decision to allow Bounty to sail from New London at all along with Walbridge’s actions during the voyage, the complaint calls the trip into Hurricane Sandy “…the greatest mismatch between a vessel and a peril of the sea that would ever occur or could ever be imagined.”

The complaint alleges twenty-nine separate acts of “negligence, gross negligence, willful, callous and reckless conduct” by  Hansen and the HMS Bounty Organization that directly led to Claudene Christian’s death. These allegations range from the mismanagement of repairs and alterations to the reckless actions that occurred during Bounty’s last days.  There were the obvious ignored warnings about the approaching storm. There were warnings from shipyard personnel about the condition of the ship.  There were even warnings from members of the crew that were ignored. After leaving New London, Bounty suffered numerous mechanical and structural failures and actually began flooding on Saturday, yet Walbridge made no mention of any trouble to anyone until late Sunday night. When he finally did, he included the phrase, “We are not in danger tonight.” This statement allegedly led to confusion and delayed Coast Guard response.

Included in the complaint are several passages from emails sent from Walbridge to Hansen and Tracy Simonin.  Mellusi uses them to make the point that Walbridge – despite his years of experience aboard Bounty – “lacked a level of professional knowledge and experience which would even allow him to appreciate the imminent danger awaiting BOUNTY and her crew.”

October 26th, 12:54 PM:

“..Sandy looks like a mean one. Right now we are on a converging course. I am actually headed to the dangerous side of it. Hoping like a deer if I am at it, it won’t be there when I get there.”

(The phrase “actually headed to the dangerous side of it” is only slightly less absurd than, “Hoping like a deer…it won’t be there.”)

click for larger

The chart on the right – included as Exhibit 5 – shows that Walbridge’s hope was misplaced.

A full reading of the complaint contains surprises even for those who followed the public hearings back in February. There are charts derived from testimony that depict the sailing experience aboard Bounty at the time of her sinking.  With only sixteen persons aboard, Bounty was sailing short by any reasonable measure.  But if Hansen intends to argue that the crew was sufficient, the charts alone settle that argument before it begins:

• 10 of the 16 had been aboard Bounty less than six months
• 9 of the 16 had never sailed aboard any tall ship other than Bounty
• Only 5 of the 16 had more than a year aboard any other tall ship; of those, only 3 had more than 2 years, including Walbridge

It is doubtful, though, that Hansen will argue at all.  Hansen, owner of the multi-million dollar IslandAire, has a lot to lose and almost nothing to gain by taking this all the way to court.  He would have to explain why it was so important to get his ship to Florida by early November; he would have to defend why Bounty was in disrepair, or deny he knew it was; he would have to sit in front of a jury and try to make sense of the senseless.  That could only end badly. No, I don’t believe Robert Hansen is going to let this case go to court.

It would be the legal equivalent of sailing a leaking old ship into a hurricane.

Wilson’s 2nd crossing ends on his S/V Bowden. Waiting for rescue in 2002

In 2000, Trevor Wilson made an attempt at a lifelong dream. He set out on a solo sail across the Atlantic from the U.K.  A broken rudder ended that trip and he had to be rescued and lost his sailboat.  Undaunted, he tried again in 2002, but got caught in a hurricane.  He broke three ribs, was rescued, and lost his sailboat.  In 2005 he tried again, this time making it to Brazil – but then another storm, a lost mast, and finally a sinking off Guyana led to another rescue – and a third lost sailboat.  This morning, the 72 year old sailor and author of the book “Sailing Alone Across The Atlantic”  had to be rescued again, and he lost his sailboat.

This morning the USCG Reported:

“Wilson activated his 406 megahertz emergency position indicating radio beacon at approximately 6 a.m., which alerted the Coast Guard 5^th District watchstanders.  Watchstanders deployed an aircrew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., to search the EPRIB’s indicated location.  The helicopter crew located the sailboat Erma and made contact via VHF-FM radio. Wilson reported to the aircrew he had been unconscious for seven hours and believed that he had fallen and hit his head. The aircrew deployed a rescue swimmer who took Wilson off his sailboat and took him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.”

Update: The Coast Guard released video of the rescue this afternoon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Below is a video of Wilson and Erma leaving England in July of 2010. It’s unclear how that trip ended, but we know both Trevor and his boat, Erma, were sailing a short 90 or so miles from the US coast just yesterday.  Personally, I hope he was headed back home after a successful crossing to America.  If not, I’m almost certain he’ll be trying again soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image via Prefulla.net

These are a real pictures. So now that that’s out of the way… Today’s ship photos come to us via Hong Kong, where on May 2nd internationally renowned artist Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck project made its way into the harbor.

The duck measures 16.5 meters tall, easily dwarfing its escort tugs.

About the project from the Hofman’s website (because it makes more sense when he explains it):

The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

Image via Prefulla.net

Since 2007, the duck has been making its way around the world and has already been seen in St. Nazaire, Sao Paulo, Auckland, Hasselt ,Osaka and Hiroshima, Sydney, Nürnberg, and Amsterdam, among other places.

But Hofman’s art isn’t just limited to giant rubber ducks. He also has a Fat Monkey, Slow Slugs, and Mickey the Pig exhibits on display in cities throughout the world.

The Rubber Duck will be in Hong Kong until June 9th.

Have you seen the Duck?

Image via Florentijn Hofman

UPDATE!! (May 17): The Rubber Duck had to be deflated after some of its parts broke.

A deflated Rubber Duck by Dutch conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman, is lifted up for repair by a crane on a ship in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour May 15, 2013. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Not to worry, the duck is expected to return to service following repairs…

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Was a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatized the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Directed by Richard Fleischer and featuring an ensemble cast including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, Sō Yamamura, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore and Jason Robards.

Much of the TORA fx footage would reappear over the years in films such as MIDWAY (1976) and others, such was the quality of the footage. +

original poster above

the Movie title stills collection

Recognizing that a balanced and objective recounting of events was necessary, 20th Century Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck, developed an American-Japanese co-production, allowing for “a point of view from both nations.” +

It took three years to plan and prepare for the eight months of principal photography.

The  film was created in two separate productions, one based in the United States, directed by Richard Fleischer, and one based in Japan; initially to have been directed by Akira Kurosawa, (right) who had worked on script development and pre-production for two years.

After two weeks of shooting, he was replaced by Japanese director Toshio Masuda and screenwriter/filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku, who co-directed the Japanese sections.

Richard Fleischer said of renowned director Akira Kurosawa’s role in the project:

“…He (was used to having) complete autonomy, and nobody would dare make a suggestion to Kurosawa about the budget, or a shooting schedule, or anything like that…  He wasn’t used to that kind of pressure.”

advertising artwork
on filmposters.com

Fleischer, son of animator/producer Max Fleischer, was a good choice to head up the American aspect of Tora! Tora! Tora! since he had previously compiled a documentary of Japanese war footage for the 1948 Academy Award winning documentary, Design for Death (imdb). +

The film opens with a notice that…”Exhibition of confiscated Japanese film material authorized by permission of the Alien Property Custodian in the public interest under License No. LM 979…” and was assembled from hundreds of captured newsreels, historical dramas and propaganda films. +

Originally based on a shorter U.S. Army training film, Our Job in Japan, (companion to the more famous Your Job In Germany) produced in 1945-1946 as a training primer for soldiers occupying Japan after the surrender. Both films dealt with Japanese culture and the origins of the war.

In 1954, he was chosen by Walt Disney (his father’s former rival as a cartoon producer) to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre. It was a great success with both the critics and the public. +

image right

Instructiefilm voor Amerikaanse soldaten

Peter Rathvon, (an exec at RKO) who had seen Our Job in Japan during his own military service, decided to produce a commercial version of the film. He hired the original writer and editor to work on the new project. Theodor S. Geisel, who is better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, co-authored Design for Death with his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. +

At the time, the film was considered sympathetic to the Japanese, and its distribution was apparently suppressed by Douglas MacArthur in his capacity as the overall commander of the Allied Occupation Forces.

Our Job in Japan is now in the public domain.
The short film is available for free download at the Internet Archive.

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces where he wrote films , including the Private Snafu series of adult army training vehicles.

Dr. Suess Fun Facts
(more)

Dr. Seuss Takes on Hitler

Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts produced between 1943 and 1945.

The goal was to help enlisted men with weak literacy skills learn through animated cartoons (and also supplementary comic books). They featured simple language, racy illustrations, mild profanity, and subtle moralizing.

Private Snafu did everything wrong, so that his negative example taught basic lessons about secrecy, disease prevention, and proper military protocols. The depictions of Japanese and Germans are quite stereotypical by today’s standards, but were par for the course in wartime U.S.

The Snafu shorts are notable because they were produced during the Golden Age of Warner Bros. animation. Directors such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin worked on them, and their characteristic styles are in top form.

above rt: Private Snafu – Volume 1 & 2 Bosko Video

Private Snafu on Animation Blog

Voice characterizations were provided by the celebrated Mel Blanc (Private Snafu’s voice was similar to Blanc’s Bugs Bunny’s, and Bugs himself actually made cameos in the several Snafu episodes.

In 1946, a series of cartoons for the Navy featuring Private Snafu’s brother “Seaman Tarfu” (for “Things Are Really Fucked Up”) was planned, but the war came to a close and the project never materialized, save for a single cartoon entitled Private Snafu Presents Seaman Tarfu in the Navy.

After the war, the Snafu cartoons went largely forgotten. Prints eventually wound up in the hands of collectors.

keep reading

Private Snafu videos on You Tube

See also US Navy Pilot Dilbert

Dr. Suess Fun Facts

The lost script. Introductory voice-over by Dr Seuss:

Why all the despair and gloom-o,
Why! Oh Why! Adrmiral Nagumo?

Are the Yankees making quips
Inside their shiny battleships?

Are they calling us all all losers,
In their big fat battle cruisers?

Do they want to rule and run
O’er the empire of Rising Sun?

Show them, Show them,
Admiral Nagumo!
Show them who is really neat-o!!

Bomb them with your wooden planes!
Turn the sea to oil stains!

Lady Liberty – you abhor her.
Show her Tora! Tora! Tora!

image source

Japanese actor and film director Sô Yamamura (1910–2000) as
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet

Isoroku Yamamoto (1884 – 1943) was key in the development of Japanese naval aviation.

After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1904, Yamamoto served on the armored cruiser Nisshin during the Russo-Japanese War. He was wounded at the Battle of Tsushima, losing two fingers (index and middle) on his left hand. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1916.

Yamamoto opposed war against the United States partly because of his studies at Harvard University (1919–1921) and his two postings as a naval attaché in Washington, D.C., where he learned to speak fluent English.

Isoroku Yamamoto
on wikipedia

Japanese film actor Takahiro Tamura (1928 – 2006) (image)
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander, Air Group, aircraft carrier Akagi

Mitsuo Fuchida (1902 – 1976) Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, later a bomber aviator in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He is considered one of Japan’s most skillful aviators.

Specializing in horizontal bombing, Fuchida gained such prowess that he was made an instructor the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima, Hiroshima in 1921.

By the time he joined the aircraft carrier Akagi in 1939 as the commander of the air group, he was an experienced combat aviator with over 3,000 flying hours.

Fuchida was responsible for coordination of the entire aerial attack on Pearl; working under the fleet commander Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. Due to favorable atmospheric conditions, the transmission of the “Tora! Tora! Tora!” code words from the moderately powered onboard transmitter were heard by Admiral Yamamoto and his staff over the ship’s radio in Japan, where they had been sitting up all night waiting for word on the attack.

Signed book: From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha
First edition. San Jose: Sky Pilots Press, 1953
Signed in fountain pen on the front free end page,
“Mitsuo Fuchida, Luke 23:34”

Fuchida was wounded at the Battle of Midway. Unable to fly while recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy a few days before the battle, he was present on the ship’s bridge during the morning attacks.

After Akagi was hit by U.S. bombers, a chain reaction from burning fuel and live bombs destroyed the ship. While attempting to evacuate the burning bridge, an explosion blew him to the deck, breaking both his ankles.

After the Japanese surrender,  Fuchida became a Christian evangelist and traveled throughout the United States and Europe telling his story  as a member of the Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots. He settled permanently in the U.S. but never became a citizen.

30 May 1976 – Fuchida died near Osaka from complications caused by diabetes. He was 73.

Mitsuo Fuchida on wikipedia

Akagi underway 6 weeks before her destruction at Midway

The Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi; built 1920–27 by Kure Naval Arsenal, in service: 1927–42.  The second Japanese aircraft carrier to enter service, went on to become the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

rt:  stern view of Akagi off Osaka on 15 October 1934. On deck are Mitsubishi B1M and B2M bombers (2,151 × 2,451 pixels)

After participating in the attack on Pearl , she went on to the Battle of Midway in June 1942, and was severely damaged by dive bombers from USS Enterprise (CV-6).

When it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands.

The loss of Akagi and three other Japanese carriers at Midway was a crucial strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to the Allies’ ultimate victory in the Pacific.

carrier Akagi
on wikipedia

The entire miniature effects shooting schedule was around 40 days

In the movie’s opening scenes, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto meets his officers aboard a battleship. The ship was a full scale replica, complete from bow to stern, and had even a mock-up floatplane on a catapult.

It was built on a beach in Japan, next to the replica of the aircraft-carrier “Akagi.” The Akagi set consisted of about two-thirds of the deck and the island area.

Tora! Tora! Tora! trivia on IMDb

Artwork done for the movie’s release
by artist Robert McCall for Twentieth Century-Fox

This art was used for movie posters, theater lobbycards, and on the soundtrack album.

more examples on DavesWarBirds

Japanese actor Eijirō Tōno as Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo,
Commander-in-Chief, 1st Air Fleet (image)

Chūichi Nagumo (1887 – 1944)  admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy who committed suicide during the Battle of Saipan.

Graduated eighth in his class of 191 cadets from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1908.

After attending torpedo and naval artillery schools, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant. Promoted to lieutenant in 1914 and and was assigned to the battlecruiser Kirishima.

Graduated from the Naval War College, and  promoted to lieutenant commander in 1920, with a specialty in torpedo and destroyer tactics. Promoted to  commander in 1924.

From 1925-1926, Nagumo accompanied a Japanese mission to study naval warfare strategy, tactics, and equipment in Europe and the United States.

Served as an instructor at the Japanese Naval Academy from 1927-1929, then promoted to rear admiral on 1 November 1935. Commandant of the Torpedo School 1937-1938, promoted to vice admiral on 15 November 1939.

On 10 April 1941, Nagumo was appointed Commander in Chief of the First Air Fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy′s main aircraft carrier force. Many contemporaries and historians have doubted his suitability for this command, given his lack of familiarity with naval aviation.  image right

Nagumo oversaw the primary attack on Pearl Harbor, but was later criticized for his failure to launch a third wave, which might have destroyed the fuel oil storage and repair facilities, rendering useless the most important American naval base in the Pacific.

more

Martin Balsam as Admiral Husband E. Kimmel,
Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Husband Edward Kimmel (1882 – 1968) a four-star admiral in the United States Navy. He was removed from command after the attack on Pearl and reduced to the two-star rank of rear admiral, at which he retired.

Kimmel graduated in 1904 from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In January 1941 Kimmel began duties as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet with a brevet rank of admiral. In this role he earned a reputation for attention to detail, if sometimes at the expense of larger structural planning.

Combat Intelligence Officer Edwin T. Layton related that during the attack “Kimmel stood by the window of his office at the submarine base, his jaw set in stony anguish.”

As he watched the disaster across the harbor unfold, a spent .50 caliber machine gun bullet crashed through the glass. It brushed the admiral before it clanged to the floor. It cut his white jacket and raised a welt on his chest. “It would have been merciful had it killed me,” Kimmel murmured to his communications officer.

Husband Kimmel on wikipedia

Husband A. Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet

E. G. Marshall as Colonel Rufus S. Bratton,
Chief, Far Eastern Section, Military Intelligence

Colonel Rufus Sumter Bratton (1892 – 1958) -  Graduated West Point in 1914, posted to Oahu as a Lieutenant in the 1st Infantry Regiment, where he served until the regiment returned to the continental U.S. in 1917.

From 1922 to 1924 Bratton learned Japanese as a student officer in Japan, followed by an appointment to be an assistant military attaché in Tokyo. In 1931 he returned to Japan and attended the Japanese Imperial War College. The next year he became military attaché at the American Embassy.

In early 1937 he was appointed to the War Department as a member of the Army General Staff’s Military Intelligence Division with responsibility for the Far East and especially Japan.

As Chief of the Far Eastern Section, Colonel Bratton was one of the few men, military or civilian, privileged to be given access to the product of American cryptanalysis efforts against Japanese secret codes, known as Magic.

Bratton was one of the first officers to receive the intercepted final section of the Fourteen Part Message breaking off diplomatic relations early on the morning of December 7.

Believing an attack to be imminent, the Philippines and the Panama Canal Zone (believed to be most likely targets) received  warnings by radio, but poor atmospheric conditions  blocked radio communications with Hawaii and the warning was sent as a telegram. By the time the warning message was delivered at Pearl, the attack was already underway.

by artist Robert McCall for Twentieth Century-Fox
more examples on DavesWarBirds

Jason Robards as Lieutenant General Walter C. Short,
Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Hawaii

Walter Campbell Short (1880 – 1949)  Major general in the US Army and the military commander responsible for the defense of US military installations in Hawaii at the time of the attack on Pearl.

Unlike some of his predecessors in Hawaii, Short was more concerned with sabotage from Japanese-Americans on Oahu, and this led to Army planes parked in such a way as to make them more vulnerable to aerial attack.

On December 17, 1941, General Short was removed from command of the US Army’s Hawaiian Department, and ordered back to Washington, D.C. in disgrace.

The Roberts Commission, headed by US Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, was formed soon after the attack on the Hawaiian Islands.

General Short, along with Navy Commander in Chief, US Fleet and Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, was accused of being unprepared and charged with dereliction of duty.

On May 25, 1999, the United States Senate passed a non- binding resolution exonerating Kimmel and Short by a 52 to 47 vote.

more

James Whitmore as Vice Admiral William F. Halsey,
Commander, Aircraft Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (image)

Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr ( 1882 – 1959) aka  “Bull” Halsey, commander of the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan, later commander of the Third Fleet through the duration of hostilities.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, son of US Navy Captain William F. Halsey, Sr..

After waiting two years to receive an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, the young Halsey decided to study medicine at the University of Virginia and then join the Navy as a physician.

After his first year, Halsey received his appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and entered the Academy in the Fall of 1900.

Graduated 1904, sailed with the main battle fleet aboard the battleship Missouri as Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet circumnavigated the globe from 1907 to 1909.

Lieutenant Commander Halsey’s World War I service, including command of USS Shaw in 1918, was sufficiently distinguished to earn a Navy Cross.  Halsey earned his Naval Aviator’s Wings on May 15, 1935 at the advanced age of 52, the oldest person to do so in the history of the US Navy.

Halsey was a firm believer in the aircraft carrier as the primary naval offensive weapon system. When he testified at Admiral Kimmel’s hearing after the Pearl Harbor debacle, he stated that the Americans had to “get to the other fellow with everything you have as fast as you can and to dump it on him.”

Having been ordered to ferry aircraft to reinforce Wake Island (which they thought would be the target), Halsey was 150 miles out at sea when he got word of the attack on Pearl.

Halsey, aboard the USS Enterprise, slipped back into Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 8. Surveying the wreckage of the Pacific Fleet, he remarked, “Before we’re through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.”

more

Shogo Shimada as Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura,
Japanese Ambassador to the United States (image)

Kichisaburō Nomura (1877 – 1964; aged 86) Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and ambassador to the United States at the time of the attack.

rt: Ambassador Nomura presents his credentials to President Roosevelt at the White House. “Sorry, wrong folder…”

Graduated  Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1898, promoted to lieutenant on September 26, 1903, served as chief navigator on the cruiser Saien (1904), and cruiser Takachiho during the Russo-Japanese War.

Promoted to lieutenant commander on September 25, 1908, and became naval attaché to Germany in 1910.

During World War I, from 11 December 1914 until 1 June 1918, Nomura was naval attaché to the United States.

Participated in the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922. On June 1, 1922, promoted to rear admiral. Promoted to vice admiral on December 1, 1926. Promoted to full admiral on March 1, 1933.

From 1933-1937, he served as Naval Councilor on the Supreme War Council, and retired from active service in 1937.  Foreign Minister of Japan from 1939-1940, sent as ambassador to the United States November 27, 1940.

After the war, Nomura denied that he knew beforehand of the plans to attack Pearl Harbor.  In his memoirs, Secretary of State Cordell Hull credited Nomura with having been sincere in trying to prevent war between Japan and the USA.

Edward Andrews (an avid yachtsman) as Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations

Harold Rainsford Stark ( 1880 – 1972) officer in the United States Navy during World Wars I and II, Chief of Naval Operations, from August 1, 1939 to 26 March 1942.

Enrolled in the United States Naval Academy in 1899 and graduated with the class of 1903. Served on the battleship USS Minnesota before and during the Atlantic Fleet’s cruise around the world.

Served on the staff of Commander, US Naval Forces operating in Europe from November 1917 to January 1919.

In August 1939, Stark became Chief of Naval Operations with the rank of Admiral. Orchestrated the Navy’s change to adopting unrestricted submarine warfare in case of war with Japan; which he expressly ordered it at 17.52 Washington time on 7 December 1941, not quite four hours after the attack on Pearl.  It appears the decision was taken without the knowledge or prior consent of the government, violating the London Naval Treaty, to which the U.S. was signatory.

In March 1942, Stark was relieved as CNO and sent to England the next month to become Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe.  In October 1943, and he supervised USN participation in the landings at Normandy. Afterward, he faced a Court of Inquiry over his actions leading up to Pearl Harbor.

above rt: Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN

Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo be all gettin’ his Philosophy on an’ shit

Les images du film
see (1920 × 1200)

Filming battleships by artist Robert McCall

Visual effects for Tora! Tora! Tora! ran in excess of $1.25 million in 1970 dollars. The (ship) model shoot was staged and filmed in a 20th Century Fox’s 3-foot-deep tank and took about 40 days to complete.

Blue vegetable dye was added to the water to help hide all the underwater rigging and detergent was added to produce the white water in the storm sequence.

To create the wind and surface wave effects six massive converted aircraft fans along with four large truck mounted fans and 15 wind machine fans were strategically placed around the tank.

The torpedoes were simulated by a cable that pulled a compressed air nozzle and hose along under water leaving a trail of bubbles. The water spouts caused by the torpedo detonations was created by small charges, just below the surface, blowing gypsum powder into the air to simulate fine water spray.

80 foot camera crane achieves POV down view of Battleship Row
miniature set as seen by attacking Zero’s.

some footage never made it into the final cut +

Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi

This 1/2″ to the foot scale model was nearly thirty feet long. (full size)

Battleship Row conflagration aerial view

The Fox tank at Malibu
(more on theminiaturespage.com)

The miniature effects budget alone was $1,250,000

“You want confirmation?  There’s your confirmation!”

All action set pieces were multi-camera affairs,
and often “one take is all we’ve got” deals.  +

Engineman 1st Class Ronnie Choate adjusts a model of OS2U Kingfisher seaplane aboard a large-scale model of the battleship Nevada (BB-36). The model was originally used in the filming of the 1970 motion picture “Tora! Tora! Tora!” see full size on NavSource

Tora! Tora! Tora!
(20th Century Fox, 1970). One Sheet (27″ X 41″)
for sale on Heritage Auction

- above, full size -

Sources and Further Reading:

The Ships of TORA! TORA! TORA!

Tora Tora Tora 1970
on modelshipsinthecinema.com

TORA, TORA, TORA:
Oscar winning expertise recreates day of infamy at Pearl Harbour
on Matte Shot – a tribute to Golden Era Special FX

The Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack

Rise of Imperial Japan: COMICS! Leading to Pearl Harbor

Attack on PEARL HARBOR: COMICS: Part 1

Attack on Pearl Harbor: COMICS: Part 2

Attack on Pearl Harbor:IN COMICS! Part 3

comic insets from Countdown to Infamy

A glaringly patriotic spread from the wartime comic,
Remember Pearl Harbor

(1024 x 751)

Adventures of the Blackgang on tumblr
(twitter) – (instagram)
Maritime Monday Archives »