Welcome to this 119th edition of Maritime Monday.
You can find Maritime Monday 69 here. (Published 30 July 2007)
You can find last week’s edition here.
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. If you have photos or stories to tell, do email me at fred@gcaptain.com.
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This Week’s Photos:
This week’s photos come from the website of GPS Marine:
The General Port Services group (GPS) was founded in 1964 and has now developed into a diverse organisation covering all aspects of the marine industry.
The company’s commercial activities include a variety of floating plant, dredgers, tugs, barges and heavy lift equipment, all of which is available for employment throughout Europe and the UK. Our own fleet of tugs can be employed in coastal or international towage and are available to deliver marine plant to projects and assist on site in connection with your specific requirements.
In 2005 GPS founded a new company in Sliedrecht, The Netherlands to expand it’s business on the Continent.
Three floating sheerlegs and tugs are available to carry out heavy lift projects, salvage, wreck removal, marine demolition and diving activities.
An experienced team is available 24 hours per day to meet your expectations. - Link
Sheerleg GPS Atlas photographed installing the deckhouse onto the brand new cutter dredger TSHD ABUL at the Yard of IHC Sliedrecht. Photo’s © 2007: Hans de Jong Maritime Pictures
GPS Marine Services also lifted on july 6 a brandnew yacht from the shore at Krimpen aan den IJssel with 3 sheerlegs. Photo: GPS Marine Services.
GPS Marine shifted 2 cranes at the ports of Nantes and Saint Nazaire on request of Port Autonome Nantes-St. Nazaire. The request followed after the successful salvage of the MAN ship’s engine at Saint Nazaire. Photo: GPS Marine Services
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Inland Barge “Guan” lifted above the water (5) Photo’s: © 2006 Hans de Jong - Series of photos here
Their homepage can be found here.
More great photos can be found here and here.
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This Week’s Items:
EagleSpeak has “Somalia: Ransom paid, ship and crew released” covering the ship LEHMANN TIMBER and “If it weren’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all…” as the ship then runs aground and is awaiting assistance.
Also check out EagleSpeak’s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: Aiming the Ship’s Guns (IV): Analog Computers“.
gCaptain has a really bad move by NOAA in “NOAA To Make Surface Chart Cutback” as they plan to cut back the area covered on one of their charts to exclude most of the offshore area.
gCaptain also has the very dramatic and detailed “The Secrets Behind Cruise Ship Cutaway Illustrations“. In short, they are building the ship in the computer from scratch. Really interesting.
The Journal of Commerce has “Searching for solutions - NOL’s Widdows says additional capacity for exports must await renewed growth of imports“.
“The problem isn’t boxes,” he said. “If I suddenly got 10 times more equipment in North America, exporters might get boxes, but they’re not going to get more space on ships. The problem is vessel capacity, and the capacity is what it is because the inbound market has turned negative in terms of growth.”
He said carrier capacity in the Pacific is driven by the more lucrative import market, and that export volume alone can’t justify investment in new services.
What’s needed is a ship that can carry containers in one direction and containers and bulk in another, since a good part of the demand for export is for grain, hay, waste paper and other low-value bulk cargo that does not need to go into a container.
Lloyd’s List notes a shift from containers in “US container shortage forces chicken reefer switch“.
Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog has “Takeover trial” noting Germany’s all of a sudden problem with takeovers now that one of their own lines, Hapag-Lloyd, has become the target instead of the buyer.
Marine Link has “Last Liberty Ship Departs James River Reserve Fleet“. The ship is the ARTHUR M. HUDDELL which will ultimately end up in Greece.
Tims Times gets a fresh fish dinner courtesy of some of the crew taking advantage of a little time at anchor.
Mr. Boat Blog has “The Frisian Solar Challenge for boats.“.
Information Dissemination has a rumor that a shipbuilding program is going to be cut short in “DDG-1000 Hits an Iceberg, Taking on Water“. The rumor mentions bringing back construction of new DDG-51 class Destroyers….
Kennebec Captain has a detailed post on how he handles “Planning Fuel Requirements“.
Robin Storm - In Search of Severe Weather has “New Wind Measurement Technology May Help Olympic Sailing, Aviation and Weather Forecasting“.
SAILORS, MARINERS & WARRIORS LEAGUE has the bizarre “Ship’s Cat Thrown Into River“. The ship is the UK’s HMS BELFAST. They are looking for two girls and a boy (teenagers) and if they manage to find them, I think a fitting punishment would be to toss them into the Thames as well.
Bloomberg has “Newcastle Port Coal Ship Loading Halted by Protesters“. Apparently, this is the new tactic that the global warming alarmists are going to take, disrupting the supply of energy. Or at least attempting to.
AP has “13,000 Japanese protest US nuclear carrier“. The carrier is the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON which will be home-ported at the Port of Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo.
AFP has “Polish shipyard workers protest EU ultimatum“.
MarineBuzz has interesting notes in “High Time for Philippine Coast Guard to Take Corrective Actions“.
MarineBuzz also has “Kenichi Horie and Wave Powered Suntory Mermaid II Set Record in Pacific Ocean“. Rowing all of a sudden seems pointless, at least as long as the seas are not flat.
blue water: news of my escape posts photos from his tug the KATHLEEN TURECAMO.
EU Referendum has “A chilling tale from North” covering the news that the Arctic ice cap has failed to melt as quickly as expected.
idredge has “First video of world’s biggest dredger “Cristobal Colón”” as it is launched.
syracuse.com has a photo and story of “Turbines approach CNY on Erie Canal” with one of the largest shipments to use the canal in recent years.
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BarentsObserver has “Russia’s biggest sub ready for scrapping“. It’s a TK-13 Typhoon-class nuclear submarine and we (the US) are helping pay to dismantle it.
Lloyd’s List has “Hong Kong’s new cruise terminal hits delays“.
Cargonews Asia has “It’s bargain basement time on Asia-Europe” noting low container rates in the trade route despite ships sailing mostly full.
Blueflipper has “Looters heading for Greece” as it’s shoreline is opened to divers.
Never Sea Land has photos of “Birth of a marina“.
Molten Eagle has “Novel Approach to Anti-Submarine Warfare - AUNs“. Of course its novel, now.
MarEx Newsletter has “Coming Into U.S. Port With False Oil Record Book is a Crime“.
The Mission to Seafarers has their July-October issue of FLYING ANGEL NEWS available for download. (PDF Link)
TheNational has “The angel of the high seas” covering Fujairah’s seaman’s center service boat, the FLYING ANGEL which visits ships where seaman have little chance of getting ashore.
YLE has “Finnish Navy Marks 90th Anniversary“.
Anchorage Daily News has “Commercial fishermen face burdensome new rules” and it is not just griping by the industry either. Take this one example:
By September, any water running off the decks will be considered “incidental discharge” — if the Clean Boating Act gets the nod from Congress.
“Hosing off your recreational or fishing boat would be subject to EPA regulation and permitting. We don’t think this makes sense,” said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, adding that it also applies to bilge water, cooling water and ballast discharges.
All recreational boaters are lined up to get a pass on the EPA permits, but not America’s small fishing boats. Murkowski is taking heat from the huge sport-boat lobby for holding up the bill last week.
“We’ve got some 9,700 vessels in the Alaska fleet, predominately small boats with an average length of 36 feet. I think it is absolutely appropriate that if we exclude recreational vessels, as I believe that we should, that it is reasonable to also provide for permit relief for the smaller commercial vessels,” she said in a phone interview.
The Marine Exchange of Alaska calls it “a nightmare for anyone who operates a watercraft, from a 950-foot container ship to a 14-foot outboard.”
Cal Maritime. Follow The Voyage 2008 uploads a copy of the ship’s daily paper, the Bear’s Tales. The only thing I found interesting in Friday’s edition was that they show movies on three channels in the evening, and you can check out the ECDIS on ‘channel 16′.
Tugster has great photos of the Eisenhower Lock in “Seawaymax” as the ATLANTIC HURON and ALGOPORT squeeze through with little room to spare.
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International Trade Law News has the US “Court of International Trade Dismisses Harmonized Tariff Schedule Gender Discrimination Case“.
On July 3, 2008, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) denied Totes-Isotoner Corporation’s (”Totes”) claim alleging that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution by setting higher duty rates on men’s gloves than women’s gloves.
Skipper’s Scrivenings takes the USNS MERCY south of the Equator in “Neptunus Rex” on their way to East Timor.
Inhabitant has images of the art exhibit “FLOODED LONDON Depicts Life After Global Warming“.
Inhabitat also has cools photos of a “SHIPPING CONTAINER PLAYGROUND“.
The Age (Australia) has “Container home plan would lead to ghettos, says critic“.
The Wall Street Journal has “Ship Shape: Ports Spearhead Drive to Clean Up Shipping“.
Chron.com has “Storm signals fly over old ship - Galveston tries not to take sides on bid to relocate Battleship Texas“. The ship is located in La Porte. I spent my 21st birthday there. Never made it to the battleship though.
The Boston Globe has “World’s fastest cargo ship is tugged slowly out of dry dock” including video as the USNS CAPELLA leaves drydock after some hull cleaning.
The LA Times’s Greenspace has “Black cloud over estimates of tugboat, cargo ship soot“.
Bellona has good news in “Russian floating nuclear plant builder Sevmash diverting cash to other projects“.
ST. PETERSBURG - The construction of the Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant, the Mikhail Lomonosov, has been ceased because its main contractor – the Sevmash factory - spent the money earmarked for the plant on other project, and have not even begun the realisation of the floating nuclear facility, sources at the plant told Bellona Web.
Shirlaw News Group has “Grim toll of African refugees mounts on Spanish beaches“.
Offshore Magazine has “World’s largest LNG vessel named“. The ship’s name is MOZAH.
BitterEnd explains the difference in “Towing vs Salvage“.
BitterEnd also has the “BitterEnd Burgee Contest” with a prize.
Professional Mariner has “Toxic gas leaks from ship at Corpus Christi; 30 people exposed“.
Life at SEA has “OFFICER SHORTAGE DRIVES INITIATIVE FOR QUALITY“.
IMC Brokers has video: “Is it a Plane? Is it a Boat?“.
THE PRIVATE ISLANDS BLOG has news of a job opening with a one-year contract: “Doctor Needed For Pitcairn Island“.
My life at sea has a photo of the top of a drill pipe they removed from the ocean floor in “Bottom of tree where we had to cut 1.5″ steel casing and mutiple pipes inside.“.
Hellenic Shipping News has the “80th anniversary of Maersk Line“.
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Haight’s Maritime Items has:
UK – report on fatal confined space entry - The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) issued the report of its investigation of work undertaken in a dangerous enclosed/confined space and the consequent attempted rescue on board an offshore supply vessel resulting in the loss of three lives off the East Yorkshire coast on 23 September 2007. One crewmember entered the chain locker to do some work and collapsed. The crewmember standing by raised the alarm, entered the chain locker, and also collapsed. A third crewmember donned an Emergency Escape Breathing Device (EEBD) before entering the chain locker. The EEBD became dislodged and the third crewmember collapsed. All three died. There was a failure to recognize that the atmosphere in the chain locker could become oxygen-deficient over time and appropriate precautions were not taken. Report No. 12/2008 (7/9/08). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)
AND:
MARAD – ISO Superintendent for USMMA - The Maritime Administration (MARAD) is in search of a new Superintendent for the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) located at Kings Point, New York. Pay starts at $114,468. The job comes with housing and with reserved seats at all Academy football games. MARAD-SES-2008-03 (7/9/08). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)
Fairplay Daily News has:
Yard spying evidence mounts - BUSAN prosecutors say they have sufficient evidence to charge a Chinese surveyor with illegally obtaining shipbuilding technology from a South Korean shipyard.
According to a statement from prosecutors obtained by Fairplay 24, the Chinese citizen known only as ‘Mr J’ stole “core technology” while stationed as a ship surveyor at the yard on behalf of a Chinese shipping company that had ordered container ships.
The prosecutor’s office, which said today that it has completed its investigation, added that the suspect is from an unnamed American classification society and that 1,500 files with information relating to vital technology for construction of LNG carriers and drill ships had been downloaded into a notebook computer last year.
‘Mr J’ was arrested just before he was about to leave the country. Prosecutors have revealed two other instances of what they termed illegal downloads relating to construction of LPG carriers and large product tankers.
But they are not pursuing those cases because the two Chinese ciitzens involved were operating from China and Hong Kong at that time. - Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)
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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 fred@gcaptain.com 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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Photo from New Launch
Even if you are thousands of miles from the nearest land you probably didn’t miss the big news in the technology world this week; the launch of iPhone 2.0.
The secret, however, is that you don’t need a new 3G iPhone to get the best features. Simply connect your existing iPhone or iPod Touch to iTunes and click update. Once completed your firmware will update to version 2.0 providing access to the Application Store.
Here are the Top 10 Applications that will be of use to a mariner:
10) Bloomberg Fiance
Have a portfolio of stocks you need to track? Bloomberg’s free iphone application harnesses much of the power of their pricey terminals and displays the results on your iPhone. Charts, company news and fistorical price data are all included. And, yes, you can track the price of oil!
9) Scientific Calculator
This application you don’t have to install. Just click on your iPhone’s calculator and turn the device 90 degrees and the built in 4 function calc turns on the scientific data.
Dial Zero
Sometimes you need to spend your precious moments of port time sorting out your personal finances. Why spend this time listening to a computer tell you to “Press 1 for English…”? Dial zero gives you the codes to jump directly to a representative. Neat, eh!
7) Check Please
While some of you mariners fly high on expense accounts (those guys should try the app Expense2Go), most mariners need to pay for their own meals both in port and at training classes. This application takes the simple Tip Calculator found on many phones and gives it a much needed redesign.
6) Epocrates Rx
We are not doctors and the Medical PIC training most of us have taken simply allows us to administer care under the direction of a doctor. For small problems or when the doctor is talking over your head Epocrates might come in handy. This free drug reference manual lets you access information quickly at the point of care.
5) My Colored Strobe Light
While this application can do everything short of send flashing light messages it’s most basic function will be the most useful on the bridge of your ship. Set the color to to red, adjust the brightness and it turns your iphone into a dim flashlight that won’t ruin your night-vision.
4) Where
In port for only a few hours and want to have a nice diner, do some shopping and maybe pick up a latte? Where gives you restaurant reviews, zipcar locations and will even locate find the cheapest gas station in town.
3) Bank Of America
If you want to have a good chance of doing banking in any port in the world HSBC is by far the best choice but in the US they only have locations in a few states. For American mariners the best choices are Washington Mutual and Bank Of America of which B&A has, by far, the best technology features that make banking from the road a breeze.
2)NetNewsWire
Bandwidth is precious aboard ship so why waste it on gCaptain’s beautifull banners. Instead set up NetNews and subscribe to our RSS feed. This application takes the text and article photos only, displaying then on iphone’s screen in a bandwidth friendly format.
1) Evernote
This application does one thing but does it well! It recognizes handwriting in pictures and lets you search through your notes. This is the perfect application for digitizing and searching the logbook.
Be sure to check out their desktop application too. It has many advance features in an easy to use format and… it’s also FREE.
Runners Up:
This is not a comprehensive list and many other applications will be of use to mariners worldwide. Runners up include translation programs for a half dozen languages, weather applications that give you basic charts from NOAA and web 2.0 offerings like Jott (transcribes voice notes), Truphone (free wi-fi based phone calls) and To-do.
Should I upgrade?
If you need an excuse to upgrade the 3G iphone just tell your significant other “Combining the higher speeds of 3G with the new phone’s GPS will allow it to become a mini ECDIS. Soon I’ll be able to watch the ship navigate down the channel in real time”. While this feature doesn’t exist yet, the phone has all the hardware needed to enable this possibility. It’s just a matter of time for the guys at EarthNC, ActiveCaptain, Jakota Systems and others to write the software to make it happen.
Having seen ships being used as a 
