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Maritime Monday 184

Mike Schuler
Total Views: 31
October 19, 2009

Unfortnately, Fred Frey contacted us earlier this week saying he would not be able to put together this weeks edition of Maritime Monday due to his trip to Greece but don’t worry, the gCaptain team is covering in his absence.  Fred will be returning next week (and we’re already looking forward to that!).

So without further ado, welcome to this 184th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 183 here. (Published 11 October 2009)

You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. You are encouraged to participate using the comment link/form at the bottom of the post. And as always, if you have photos or stories to tell, do email Fred at [email protected].

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This week’s photos:

This week’s photos are brought to us via OneEighteen’s photostream on Flickr.  For those of you that don’t know, OneEighteen is a ship pilot in Houston whose photo collections primarily focus on marine and nautical themes.  These are just the latest to be posted to his Flickr page.

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Ship Portrait – “Sydney Express”
Taken on the Houston Ship Channel

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Fred Hartman Bridge and Ship
Taken on the Houston Ship Channel. For some reason it doesn’t look as dark in the large size.

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Galveston Bay and Searchlight
Taken on the Houston Ship Channel.

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Big Ol’ Dolphin

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Three Long, Two Wide
Inbound tow on the Houston Ship Channel. Taken at dawn. Looking at the tug’s wake you can see how he compensated for the suction of the passing ship; putting the rudder hard right then hard left to keep the head of the tow pointed straight down the channel.

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This week’s items:

EagleSpeak has “Somali Pirates: Breaking the 600 mile barrier“.  In the article, they overlaid the live piracy map over a map showing commercial sea lanes off east Africa and, although the overlay is slightly off, it still makes the point that sea lanes is where pirates do their work.

gCaptain has “Anchor Chain Construction” with photos from Baldt’s Chain Link factory in Penslyvania where the original Baldt Stocklass anchor was first produced in 1896.

gCaptain also has “What Jobs Are Done With Dynamic Positioning? – Pt. 4” from gCaptain’s all new Dynamic Positioning Thursday column.  If you haven’t already, make sure to look at Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 as well!

The gCaptain Forum has the “Maritime Job Leads Thread” now with over 725 responses and 50,000 views!

The U.S. Naval Institute Blog has an e-interview with the author of the book “Sailor From Oklahoma: One Man’s Two-Ocean War“.

Flags of Convenience has “Arctic Sea: More on the ‘Hijackers’

Deep Water Writing has “No Parking Zone“.  Now that the global economic crisis has caused container vessels and tankers to outnumber profitable cargoes, shipping companies have been left with few options for these empty hulks.

Marinebuzz has “Zodiac SOLAS Develops Marine Evacuation System – Medium Inflatable Slide (MES MIS)“.

UNOSAT has “Atlas of Tsunami Damages on Saval´i & Upolu Islands, Samoa“.  Download and view high resolution maps.

This atlas map product illustrates satellite-detected areas of likely building and vegetation damages caused by the magnitude 8.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami on 29 September 2009. A total of 9 separate focus maps are included, highlighting damage sites identified from post-disaster satellite imagery collected from 30 September to 4 October 2009.

UNOSAT_Tsunami_damage_Samoa_Islands

Breakbulk has “From Breakbulk Transpo 2009: Piracy boosts insurance costs“.

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has “Questionable Taste: Bottoms Up; Titanic Ice Cube Trays” which points us to the Conran Shop Online where you can purchase the Gin & Titonic Ice Cube Tray.

Ben Strong of The Amver Blog was reporting LIVE from the World Maritime Day Parallel Event held in NYC and hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard.  Ben reminded us that we could follow the event on Twitter using hashtag #wmdpe.  So how did you Celebrate World Maritime Day?

BarentsObserver has “Welcome to the new Arctic“.

This week BarentsObserver brought you three very different news stories from the Arctic. None of them makes world headlines alone. But seen together they provide you with a frightening glimpse of the future Arctic. In this Opinion, BarentsObserver underlines the need for a comprehensive search- and rescue cooperation between the nations in the north.B

BitterEnd Blog has “Grace Darling, UK Maritime Heroine

MadMariner has “New ACR AquaLink Personal Locator Beacon” and “War! Panbo vs. Navagear on AIS“.

Sea-Fever.org points us to the following video in the post Office with ocean view but the commute can be a bitch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJBVyNHkqZ0

Naval History and Heritage reminded us to celebrate the “234th birthday of the U.S. Navy“.

On 13 October, the Navy celebrates its 234th birthday. As the 13 American colonies edged closer to a declaration of war, the Continental Congress authorized the purchase of 2 sailing vessels to intercept transports bringing supplies to the British army in America. The Continental Navy and eventually the U.S. Navy evolved from this legislation.

Puget Sound Maritime has “Ports of Seattle and Tacoma planning for tougher competition

Professional Mariner has ‘Day on the Bay’ gives Cal Maritime cadets a real taste of onboard responsibility“.  We  also want to remind that the October/November issue of Professional Mariner is available online HERE.

59° 56′ N has “Engineers on the cheap – Shipping in a recession: Part 2“.  Be sure to check on Part 1 of shipping in a recession: “Ghost fleets, trade peril & China vs. Mexico“.

Old Salt Blog found this video titled “Archaeology Under the Waves“.

A fascinating interview with maritime archaeologist Jim Delgado, president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, discussing why we should care about the wrecks that lie along the seabed and what we gain by protecting them from treasure hunters.

The Master of Towing Vessels Assoc. Forum has “Old-School Plotting & Navigation Tools For The Discriminating Mariner – Part I”

This post begins a series that will periodically focus on older, or just plain old, practices, technologies and equipment that still have functionality and usefulness in the present-day work environment.

Information Dissemination has “LCS as a C2 Node? Yep

Marine Conservation News has video of “MCBI Board Member Sylvia Earle on the Colbert Report“.

CGBlog has “CGBLOG Find: A Delicious Aroma“. Now everyone can enjoy that “Coast Guard smell” with the Coast Guard Cologne, Riptide.

Dynamic Positioning News has “Vessel Spotlight – M/V Franklin“.

In case you missed it, October 15th was Blog Action Day 2009 and gCaptain celebrated with “Maritime Shipping and Climate Change

For those of you that try to keep up with events in the blogosphere, you may know that today is Blog Action Day 2009.  For those of you that don’t, Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that “unites the world’s blogger” by encouraging them to post about the same issue on the same day.  The website says that this years event will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web, currently with 8,886 registered blogs and 12,509,322 readers from 148 Countries.  So what is this years issue you ask? Climate Change.

The Journal of Commerce has:

Ship Captain Sentenced to Six Months: The captain of the M/V Theotokos was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison and four months community confinement after pleading guilty to one violation of environmental law and two violations of vessel safety laws in an October 2008 case.

Panageotis Lekkas also was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine in a case that included charges of illegal discharge of oily waste and operating the ship without informing the Coast Guard of a broken rudder.

Lekkas’ employer, Polembros Shipping Ltd., is expected to be fined $2.7 million on Dec. 9 in the Theotokos case. The court is adding the unusual stipulation that all vessels under the company’s management are barred from entering the United States or its territorial waters for three years.

The court also ordered Lekkas must leave the country upon release from confinement, and he will be barred from vessels entering U.S. waters for three years.

The ship’s chief officer and chief engineer also received prison sentences in the case.

And:

Somali Pirates Seize Container Ship: Pirates in the Indian Ocean hijacked a Singapore-flag container ship some 300 nautical miles north of the Seychelles, signaling a resurgence in attacks on ships using trade lanes near the coast of Somalia.

Reports from the region said the seized ship is the Kota Wajar, a 1,550-TEU vessel owned by Singapore interests.

It was traveling with 21 crewmembers from Singapore to Kenya, according to the BBC.

The ship is at least the fifth currently held by Somalia-based pirates. The hijacking comes after security officials in the United States and Europe warned that attacks could accelerate after a lull over the summer because of weather conditions in the region.

The hijacking this week is apparently the pirates’ first successful seizure of a container ship since the taking of the Maersk Alabama in February.

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Submissions for future editions:

Please submit articles for inclusion in next week’s edition using the following submit form at Blog Carnival. You are also welcome to email stories and photos to [email protected] for inclusion in future editions as well as suggest areas of coverage.

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Previous Editions: As linked below or click on the tag ‘Maritime Monday’ for all gCaptain editions.

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