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.
An architectural marvel at sea, Oasis of the Seas will span 16 decks, encompass 220,000 gross registered tons (GRT), carry 5,400 guests at double occupancy, and feature 2,700 staterooms. She will be the first ship to tout the cruise line’s new neighborhood concept of seven distinct themed areas, which include Central Park, Boardwalk, the Royal Promenade, the Pool and Sports Zone, Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, Entertainment Place and Youth Zone. The ship will sail from her home port of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Additional information is available at www.oasisoftheseas.com.
* 21 November 2008 *
* 21 November 2008 *
* 21 November 2008 *
* 25 November 2008 *
* 3 September 2008 *
Many more photos and video can be found on the ship’s homepage 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.
Family operated for over 40 years American Canadian Caribbean Line of Warren, Rhode Island is the brainchild of shipbuilder, Capt. Luther H. Blount (1916-2006). In the 1950’s, in order to experience a small ship cruise on the historic Northeastern waterways, you had to own your own yacht or have a friend who did. Luther Blount owned such a yacht and invited many friends to join him and his young family. It evolved into a business as guests started to multiply, requesting to contribute to the cost and to bring friends of their own. What started first as family swordfishing vacations to New England and the Canadian Maritimes has developed into one of the most renowned niche cruise companies that has defined the industry. Capt. Blounts daughter Nancy now manageges the cruise line with the assistance of the Blount Executive Team that includes her sisters Julie and Marcia. They also oversea the shipyard and other family interests.
ACCL shallow draft vessels have a retractable pilot house and are able to navigate shallow coastal waters and under the low bridges of historic inland waterways including the Erie Canal and Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal.
* GRAND MARINER *
* “Grande Caribe bow landing in shallow tropical waters of the Bahamas. Small ships can access waters larger cruise ships simply can not.” *
* “ACCL’s exclusive bow ramp offers off-the-beaten path exploration in places only accessible by small ship.” *
* “Sunset in a hidden shallow Canadian cove, ACCL small ships can go where the big ships simply can not. ” *
To say that the operators had the best of intentions with the new service would be an understatement. I can say this with confidence, having spent almost three hours with John F. Lehman, the Superferry’s biggest proponent and investor, more than two years ago. In an exclusive interview that ran in our March 2007 print edition, Lehman said, “All of the abandoned farms, family farms, and local agriculture that have disappeared because there’s no inter-island transport are going to come back. It’s hard to imagine it, but this is one of the richest states in the union – three full growing seasons, and still they import 90% of their food.” Way ahead of his time, apparently, Lehman also talked about the ferry’s payload that could be configured to carry up to 28 full-size trucks, giving new meaning to the Maritime Administration’s popular buzzword, “shortsea shipping.”
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gCaptain also has US Coast Guard clarification on future issuance of full-size Merchant Marine licenses as they prepare to switch to issuing Consolidated Merchant Mariner Credentials (MMC) instead of the currently issued documents: “Merchant Mariner Credentials and Licenses“. The issue is still open concerning full-size licenses, which if continued would be an optional additional document for the Mariner’s own records.
As I note in the gCaptain post, I think the Coast Guard will in the end find a way to continue issuing full-size licenses, provided that the Coast Guard takes the position that this is something that they want to do.
Finnlines will probably put five of their ro-pax vessels for sale. Rumours tell that the intention is to sell Finnsailor and Translubeca, but also Finnarrow, Transeuropa and Finntrader may be disposed off. This is regarded quite surprising, as Finnlines so far has cut capacity mainly by redelivering chartered vessels to their owners.
Casco Bay Boaters Blog has all you ever wanted to know (and more) about how Canada manages their catch of lobster until the time when people around the world order them in “A Tale of Two Tails: High End vs. Low End Lobster“. Maine is only now looking at how to conduct a similar operation, in an attempt to insulate the lobster industry against crashes in market prices.
The MoU provides that both countries coordinate, cooperate and support each other for search and rescue operations within their respective search and rescue regions (SRRs). Both sides also agreed to authorize their Rescue Coordination Centre to request assistance via the rescue centre of the other country and to provide all information on the distress situation in their respective Search and Rescue Region.
South African authorities have seized a Taiwanese fishing boat accused of violating limits on shark fishing. Inspectors confiscated 1.6 tons of dried shark fins from the vessel and said it was “the biggest alleged illegal consignment during recent years.” The boat’s permit was valid for just 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of shark fins.
Meanwhile, all VOIs (Vessels of Interest) have become a seagoing version of the usual suspects. The same ships keep showing up again and again when the navy, coast guard or port authorities go looking for bad behavior.
Rosatom claims Zvezdockha shipyard in Severodvinsk have sold scrap metal from dismantled submarines and by that received additional income that should have been deposited in a special account and used for financing the dismantling program. The income in questions comes from scrap metal sales in 2007 and 2008.
THE GLOBAL shipping downturn is leading to a reduction in maritime accidents and improved prospects for safety at sea, according to the International Union of Marine Insurance.
Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog looks at the emerging opportunities in the shipping industry as more ships get laid up and head for scrapping in “Rich pickings“.
The New York Times asks “Is Antarctica Getting Too Popular?” My opinion is no. It is a whole continent we’re talking about after all. That said, if you do plan to go down there, be sure you first know how far away from everything you will be. Because successfully abandoning ship is only the first of your problems, if you happen to run into trouble.
Over the years, some of the Japanese fish masters physically assaulted some of the company’s American crewmen, repeatedly violated policies that prohibit shipboard drinking and helped oust two American skippers who defied their directives, the former crew members say. Such conduct increased the risks facing the Fishing Company of Alaska crews, who toil in an industry with the highest death rate in the U.S.
Be sure to follow the link and read the full story which goes into great detail not only of the accident but also into unbelievable behavior on these fishing boats by the Japanese ‘fish masters’.
A shoal of robotic fish which can detect pollution in the water are set to released into the sea off Spain, British scientists said Thursday.
Japan Probe has “Korean drycleaners want Americans to care about Dokdo“. That would be the Dokdo Islands, also known as Takeshima by the Japanese and the Liancourt Rocks by everyone else. The islands are claimed and held by Korea, but also actively claimed by the Japanese. As you can see from the photo, there is not much there. The real fight is over what is in the water and seabed. (More details at Wikipedia)
Kennebec Captain has a great video news report on laid up ships with “Philippine Shipping Slowdown“. Interesting how the crew keeps busy as well as has the unusual opportunity to visit their homes from work.
HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has photos of his tank-barge and tug in “la Vida Nostra“.
In a surprisingly active bidding war, the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower recently sold for $515,000 dollars. That’s more than half a million big ones. And what did the winning bidder get? A decrepit tower out in the middle of nowhere. Okay, so it’s surrounded by water, as it’s 35 miles out to sea.
The tower is located 35 miles off the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
Go read the rest of the story to find out what is planned for the former light tower, provided a cargoship does not run over it.
US Naval Institute Blog has the story and photos: “The Crucible: USS Franklin - 19 March 1945” Noting that ‘The USS Franklin was the most heavily damaged carrier of any action in WW2′. Damage control is a good skill to have. Even on Merchant vessels.
Oz tobacco smuggler in record fine - A SYDNEY man who tried to smuggle four separate shipments of illegal tobacco and cigarettes through Port Botany has been handed a record fine by the New South Wales Supreme Court.
Ramez Nabhan was penalised over A$11.4M ($7.7M) for illegally importing 12,592kg of tobacco and more than one million cigarettes in sea cargo consignments from China and Indonesia in late 2006/early 2007.
After being inspected at the Sydney Container Examination Facility, the shipments were found to contain loose leaf and manufactured tobacco and concealed cigarettes.
Customs and Border Protection charged Nabhan with four counts of smuggling goods and four counts of evading payment of duty.
He was ordered to pay a penalty of A$8,100,000 plus A$3,395,709 in reparation to the Commonwealth, as well as court costs. - 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.
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.
Thanks to Mike for going through the pain to get last week’s edition out! I am still on vacation until Thursday, but you can expect next week’s edition to be fully back to normal. At the moment I am still operating in a vacuum of information.
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This Week’s Photos:
This week’s photos come from Capt. Bill Palmer of the ATB PACIFIC RELIANCE taken on 11 March of the SAXONIA EXPRESS with the vessel’s bow aground at Shingle Pt. As the good Captain puts it: a “New Container dock on the mighty Mississippi”:
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This Week’s Items:
EagleSpeak has “Somali Pirates: Sea of Legal Issues“. Surely, all these discussions by the various governments is going to be a good starting point for the defense to claim that the courts the pirates finally do end up in lack jurisdiction.
gCaptain has the passing of the first licensed female ship captain in North America with “Passing The Bar - Molly Kool“.
Last week, John Cota, the California ship pilot who was on the bridge of the COSCO BUSAN when it hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge in November of 2007 pled guilty to negligently causing the discharge of approximately 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay, as well as “violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for the death of protected migratory birds.” The latter charge has become an increasingly popular arrow in the quiver of federal prosecutors as they pursue bad guys on the water. I’m pretty sure that the original intent of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act wasn’t to provide this sort of vehicle for lawyers, but it sure has come in handy for the Department of Justice in recent years.
An Egyptian appeals court has sentenced the wealthy owner of a ferry that sank in 2006, killing more than 1,000 people, to seven years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Wednesday’s ruling overturns last year’s acquittal of Mamdouh Ismail, which had outraged many in Egypt. Ismail, a wealthy, former member of parliament, was absent during the ruling and is believed to be in Europe.
ABC News (Australia) has “Union blames foreign crew for oil spill“. The spill is from the ship PACIFIC ADVENTURER. This is a growing story sure to feature in future editions of Maritime Monday.
The traditional, formal Merchant Marine Officer’s License as we have always known it, the actual paper certificate, is now on the fast track into the the waste bin of history as the Coast Guard, like a bull in a china shop, blunders into the implementation of their Merchant Mariner Credential final rule, which was published yesterday in the Federal Register.
After sitting down for talks with Russia over the inevitable battle for the vast oil and gas reserves lying under the Arctic Sea, Denmark has concluded that only international law can ultimately resolve the issues of ownership. Five nations lie along the Arctic coastline – Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and the US – and all have competing claims to the area.
Russian shipyards are inefficient and in need of “comprehensive modernization”, Russian PM Vladimir Putin said in a meeting last week. He now calls for the construction of brand new shipyards, which are to help Russia meet demands within shipping and on the shelf.
Am I the only one who thinks that the shipyards are not the problem?
Kings Point Waterfront has a photo “Harbor Seal Makes Rare Appearance at Kings Point“. I was there for four years and never heard of a harbor seal ever making an appearance. Not to mention growing up on the North Shore of Long Island, never seeing one either.
One of seven alleged Indonesian pirates arrested after a dramatic shootout on the high seas with Malaysian Marine Commandos about three weeks ago is an Indonesian police officer.
According to these organisations, Spain is fourth in a world league table for shark fishing, with the European Union, “principally due to Spain,” a global hotspot for shark “capture, consumption and commercialisation.”
Trade and Logistics Malaysia has “Cabotage policy affecting Sabah & Sarawak” as people look for an explanation why domestic shipping rates have not benefited from the global drop in freight rates.
CDR Salamander covers the nautical background of the HMS GANNET, which was the source of some wood which the UK used to make a symbolic gift for the new US President in his series “Fullbore Friday“.
First, let’s take a look at fatigue. It’s part of the territory. Unrealistic minimum manning standards, especially in coastal waters where regulations often require lower manning levels than on deep sea routes, are partly to blame: The more likely you are to hit a rock the fewer warm bodies you need on the bridge. Working hours, especially 6/6 schedules, contribute to fatigue particularly when only two officers handle watches. One man watching keeping contributes to fatigue.
If your are alone on watch during a 6/6 schedule at night you are at risk.
HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has to take care of a myriad of issues while off his ship in “Old stress, new stress.“
It has been a majestic rite: tall ships from across the world dotting Boston Harbor in July, recalling the city’s maritime history in a parade of billowing white sails and crisply attired sailors.
Deep Water Writing has a report of a transit through pirate-infested waters with “From the Front“. Must be nice to have an armed team onboard.
NY TUGMASTER’S WEBLOG has “Are You Here?” noting the attention required of those working on the sea pointing out that sometimes it might be better for all that you go back home if that’s where your mind keeps wandering.
Breakbulk Industry News has “NSCSA initiates call at Port of Charleston“. That would be the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia. Good thing Congress does not know that the Saudis are bringing their ships into US Ports looking at how they freaked out at the mere thought of a UAE Company owning shipping terminals in the US.
Fairplay Daily News: Back with this section next week. I have not had access to their daily email while on vacation.
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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. (I just noticed that a couple of these links have gone bad. This will be fixed next week as well.)
The following is posted by the gCaptain team. Unfortnately, Fred Frey contacted us earliersaying he would not be able to put together this weeks edition of Maritime Monday. But dont worry, we are going to see what we can put together for you and, perhaps of bigger worry, Fred will be returning next week.
So without further ado, welcome to this 152nd edition of Maritime Monday.
You can find Maritime Monday 102 here. (Published 17 March 2008)
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 are the photostream’s from some of our favorite groups on the photo sharing site, Flickr:
Be sure to check out all of the public Flickr groups gCaptain belongs to HERE
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This Week’s Items:
EagleSpeak has “Somali Pirates: Eyes in the Sky Intel,” featuring some good information on how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are put to use in thwarting Somali pirates.
EagleSpeak also has some great video on “how to build a bridge in the 1930’s” presented by U.S. Steel on bridging San Francisco Bay. Now, compare that to the new Bay Bridge.
In the past year we have worked with Faststream to find jobs for shoreside personnel and the feedback we have gotten from our readers has been nothing short of exceptional. What we enjoy most about working with Faststream are the people. From fellow SUNY Maritime alumni and Chief Engineer Tim Klaybor and gCaptain contributor Matt Fuhrman in their Florida office to my former sailing partner Rob Almeida handling Offshore recruitment in Houston, working with Faststream has been an enjoyable experience because they, like us, are mariners and have a robust knowledge of the shipping community.
gCaptain also announced the “YOUblog” feature on their forum.
Have a great idea you’d like to share with the industry? Ever think to yourself , “I could do a better job than these gCaptain guys“? Now is your chance to prove your worth.
Created by gCaptain readers, the YOUblog forum features subjects of discussion that are of interest to our members. Anyone can contribute and the best submissions are promoted to the main gCaptain blog!
So, do YOUblog?
Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog has “Big Mistake“. As empty boxship tonnage fills up the world’s anchorages, it begs the question of whether the ultra-large containership will go the way of its older cousin, the ultra-large crude carrier.
iCommandant had full coverage of “State of the Coast Guard Address” including an email distributed to the men and women of the United States Coast Guard by Admiral Thad Allen. They also have video of the address and the Q & A session that followed.
In 1988 Dr. Charles Czeisler and colleagues at the Center for the Design of Industrial Schedules conducted a sleep study of the Philadelphia Police Department. They reported astonishing results. Noticing that long, erratic work hours and shift work left police officers overly fatigued, he induced the Philadelphia Police Department to implement a new shift schedule. The result: a 21% drop in personnel falling asleep at work and an astounding 20% reduction in on-the-job motor vehicle accidents. Interestingly, daily alcohol usage dropped from 17% to 9%.
The satellite-based AIS that we’ve been doing right now is really more on the research and development side. As you know, we have paid for some sensors to be put on commercial satellites. The jury is kind of still out on how accurate it is and how much information it can provide. We’re still doing the analysis to see how the correlation works with, you know, terrestrial antennas we have that are picking up the same signal. But I think there’s, you know, high hope that, you know, satellites — if you chose to use that technology — have the capability to cover, you know, vast swathes of water, you know, much more so than you can with terrestrial antennas.
The Monitor has “2 Million Dollar Bolts” illustrating the lengthy process after a mechanical breakdown and the importance of record keeping as seen by BC Ferries.
Today Ship of the Day is the semi-submersible heavy load vessel Swan (IMO: 8001000, Port of Registry: Willemstad, Dutch Antilles). The ship is 180.5 meters long, 32.3 meters wide and has a maximum draught when submerged of 21.6 meters. The Swan provides a deck space of 126.8 meters by 31.6 meters with a deck load of 16-20 tonnes/sq.m which ensures the vessel to carry heavy cargo up to 25,000 tons. She is equipped with 4 ballast pumps, electrically driven, with a total capacity of 2,800 cu.m/hr and 3 cargo pumps, also electrically driven, with a total capacity of 3,000 cu.m/hr. The Swan was built in 1977 as the Swan Arrow and was converted into her current state in 2003. She is currently operated by the Dutch based company Dockwise Shipping B.V.
The Civil Air Patrol has launched a campaign to alert 121.5 beacon owners on the proper way of disposing of their old beacons. Read more about proper disposal procedures here. Improperly disposed of beacons means a volunteer air crew may have to risk their lives to search for a false alarm.
How do you dispose of a beacon?
Remove the battery!
Dispose of the device at an approved electronic disposal facility.
The good? Yep, I’m more of a sliver-lining type of guy. There are several stories I’ve seen both on the boob-tube and on line about people madly dashing to get survival gear for their vessels; particularly EPIRB’s.
There’s the once-mysterious Alborán Gyre, for example, an unusual swirling current in the Mediterranean Sea that looks like a bulls-eye on maps and acts like a washing machine in the ocean. Or, the relatively fresh water that pours out of the Baltic Sea into the Skaggerat and noses along the south coast of Norway, floating above saltier, heavier North Sea water. Or, the cold, dense masses of water that shrug along the ocean bottom, occasionally hitting a mountainous seafloor “bump,” rising up, and cascading down the other side, like waterfalls within water.
Smithsonian Magazine has “Steering Ships Through a Treacherous Waterway“. This is a great article (although it reads more like a story than an article) honoring Columbia River Bar Pilots.
Braving storms with 20-foot seas, an elite group of ship pilots steers through one of the world’s most treacherous waterways—the mouth of the Columbia River
Port Engineering News has “London Gateaway mega port put on hold” as its owner, DP World, reviews its expansion plans. Work on the site in Essex is still expected to go ahead, but its anticipated opening in early 2011 is likely to be delayed.
After a decade of fighting red tape and disgruntled competitors Atlantic Pacific S. A. (APSA) might be able to build a port to load and offload fuel in the area known as Oil Crib, in Balboa.
Two companies Port & Harbour Marine Services Corp and Transiberica Terminal & Services were competing for the concession and opposed to the project saying that they were unfairly treated.
Port and Transiberica put forward a request to construct marinas but the Panama Maritime Authority AMP did not give them an answer.
SteelGuru has “Slowdown signs - Chinese small shipbuilders to get hit more“. China Daily quoted an industry insider as saying that despite the positive impact of a stimulus package announced by the government recently, China’s shipbuilders, especially the mid and small scale players, would be deeply affected by the financial crisis.
Capt. John Cota, 61, admitted in a San Francisco courtroom that he acted negligently in piloting the 901-foot-long Cosco Busan in a heavy morning fog Nov. 7, 2007, without using the ship’s radar or discussing his plans with the captain and crew. He also admitted failing to disclose all the prescription drugs he was taking when he renewed his federal and state pilot’s licenses in 2006 and 2007.
According to the article, the guilty plea agreemtent calls for him to serve two to 10 months in prison.
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So that does it for this edition of Maritime Monday, and I have to say, this was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. We can’t thank Fred Frey enough for all the hard work he puts in on a weekly basis to provide us with this column, and I think I am going to be the first to say - We can’t wait to have you back, Fred.
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.
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 Florida’s Port Canaveral:
Port Canaveral has an illustrious past…as an historic participant in the space program, a strategic base for our military, a rising cargo and cruise port and home to many businesses.
The Navy first asked Congress to approve construction of a deepwater port at Canaveral in 1878. However, it took half a century until approval was granted in 1929, and another two decades before the port’s potential economic value was recognized fully. Port Canaveral, the major deepwater point of entry for Central Florida, ultimately was constructed for military and commercial purposes. It was dedicated on November 4, 1953.
The first industry here was commercial fishing. Cargo vessels started arriving within a few years, laden with oil and newsprint, and tanker vessels began carrying central Florida’s orange juice from here to New York in 1958. By 1966, the cargo tonnage moving through the Port had reached one million tons per year.
But can these ships be used for anything else? Transporting cattle has not proved a success, as the animals need a huge amount of fresh water. And it does not take much imagination to guess the other drawbacks. One line is considering converting vessels into student accommodation .
But with their massive car decks, can these great caverns by put to other uses? A theme park, maybe, or venue for rock concerts?
Springbored’s Springboard has a huge problem for Navy shipbuilding and Government employment in general with “How Not To Do Procurement Lessons Learned:“. Hey, it is the age of the internet. Somebody, give us names and examples.
Bryant’s Maritime Blog has “CBP – ship absconder apprehended“. There are millions of illegal aliens in the US but this one is treated differently because he arrived by ship. I know the location of a ship absconder. She has since taken the State of Maryland for free doctor and hospital expenses by having her kid here, free of charge, right up to stealing the hospital blankets. And her husband is currently awaiting trial in Maryland for drunk-driving-related charges. (But not actually drunk driving itself. He is also an ex-mariner, and illegal alien.)
Record checks performed by CBP revealed that Fernando last entered the United States at the Tampa Bay Seaport in 2002 as a crewman aboard the Greek flagged cargo ship M.V. Konstantinos. Fernando was given a landing pass to leave the ship, however failed to report for duty and the vessel departed without him. Fernando claims that he illegally remained in the United States living in the New York City area, where he supported himself by working construction and building maintenance until his departure to Canada in 2005.
The former Martha’s Vineyard ferry The Islander sold on eBay Monday for $23,600.
The Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation of New York put the vessel on eBay after an extensive marine survey found it needed at least $6 million in repair work. They originally purchased the ferry from the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority 18 months ago for $500,000. It was intended to handle an eight-minute run between Manhattan and Governors Island, which has been turned into a public venue for recreation and other civic purposes.
So the therapy is simple. Instead of spending a lot of money to keep their war ships down there for patrolling purposes, the super powers should dispose these money as assistance for the economic development of the said state.
If the Somalis have jobs and a real state, they would not harm themselves by engaging
in hijacks in the open seas. If a Somali navy existed, it would stop the pirates there and the world armada wouldn’t be needed.
“My initial view is that the 2012 deadline is not going to work. We’re going to have to work on what we do beyond that,” Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee. “To do 100 percent scanning requires agreements with many countries. There are lots of issues with that. There is a difference between screening and scanning in the lexicon of the cargo world, and I believe we are close to 100-percent screening now.”
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., raised the question. Democrats voted the 100-percent scanning requirement into law in 2007. Since then, DHS and Customs officials have maintained that the deadline is not feasible, and that a risk-based approach to cargo security is a better approach.
Arctic lakes producing methane could have been responsible for 87 percent of the methane spike in the last ice age, said UAF researcher Katey Walter, lead author of a report printed in the October 26th issue of Science.
That, if you ask me, is more worrisome. That a welder at a shipyard either misreads, or doesn’t read, a plan and his supervisor misses it, or simply oversees it, is one thing. That a professional inspector trained to look for faults misses it, that is something else entirely. That three inspectors miss it, that begins to look criminal.
We’ll call him Danek, not his real name but he was a real person, a Polish able seaman and one of nine crew aboard the 30 years old 81 metre general cargo ship Monika, flagged in Antigua Barbuda. Danek’s cabin is in the forward part of the accommodation which overhangs the aft bulkhead of one of Monika’s two holds by about half a metre. Next to his cabin is the ship’s hospital.
President Obama appears to have weighed in on the long-running Loran/eLoran — on the side of terminating the terrestrial radionavigation system and, apparently, its enhanced version that had been proposed as a backup to GPS.
In a February 26 message to U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) members, Vice-Admiral V. S. Crea, USCG Vice Commandant and Chief Operating Officer, said the Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget outlined in a document sent to Congress calls for termination of Loran-C in the coming year.
This is amazing, everybody knows the shipbreaking yard in Alang, India but there is also one in Gaddani or Gadani beach in Pakistan. The Gadani ship-breaking yard is a centre for the breaking up of derelict ocean-going vessels for scrap. The yard is located in Gadani, Pakistan, about 50 kilometres northwest of Karachi.
In the 1980s,the Gadani yard was described as the largest ship-breaking yard in the world, with more than 30,000 direct employees. However, competition from newer facilities in India and Bangladesh resulted in a significant reduction in output, with the Gadani yard producing less than one fifth of the scrap it produced twenty years ago. A reduction in taxes on scrap metal led to a modest resurgence at the Yard, which now employs around 6,000 workers.
In this clip we see in about 7 minutes how a ship is placed on the beach and breaking apart.
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Fairplay Daily News has:
Trade credit crunch eases - THE ISSUE of trade credit is being worked out, even though bank funding for shipping remains tight, according to Seaspan’s CEO Gerry Wang.
Wang explained at the Reuters Manufacturing Summit that the ‘letter of credit’ shortfall that stymied trade flow last fall has alleviated.
“Some normalisation of credit in international trade has come into play,” he told Reuters. “I think that situation is under control now.”
But hurdles remain high for shipping company bank funding. “Two weeks ago I went to meet all the ship finance banks to find out what their positions would be,” explained Wang.
He came out of these meetings with the perception that “we would have considerably less credit available than last year”.
According to Reuters, Wang believes that ship financing availability will be harmed by bank nationalisations.
Asked about potential acquisitions, Wang reportedly said Seaspan remains “very cautious”. He does not believe asset values had bottomed yet, Wang told Reuters, adding: “Capital is very precious today, so it’s much better to hunker down and stay healthy.” - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission)
AND:
Recession dims Philly prospects - US BUILDER Aker Philadelphia Shipyard has suffered currency-induced losses and could face challenges securing new orders after the completion of the OSG product tanker series.
Today, the yard posted $600,000 in losses for 4Q08, versus net income of $5.5M in 4Q07. The result was primarily attributed to the strengthening US dollar, which had an impact on NOK cash deposits and currency contracts.
Aker Philadelphia lost $1.8M in full-year 2008, versus net income of $3.9M in 2007.
The builder has just delivered its sixth product tanker in the 12-ship series chartered by OSG, with the final tanker due for delivery in 1Q11.
“A key focus for 2009 is securing new orders to expand the backlog,” the yard said in a statement, affirming that “shuttle tankers and containerships remain important prospects”.
But Aker Philly conceded that the outlook had worsened. “The current global economic crisis has created uncertainties which may delay the decision-making process for newbuilds and has created difficulties regarding financing of newbuild projects,” the builder warned.
The yard added that it “continues to monitor and assess its vendors, financing and partners closely”. - 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.
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.
It is the policy of Ernst Jacob (GmbH & Co KG) – as ship owners and ship managers – to provide safe and environmentally friendly service of consistent quality to the satisfaction of it’s clients and principals in compliance with contractual obligations, relevant national and international regulations, and the recommendations of the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 standards in order to create a fair profit. - More
Technically Incorrect explains the real cause of the seabed markings in the Atlantic that were suggested in the news this last week as the possible location of Atlantis in “Atlantis found on Google Earth? Er, no“.
In this case, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea-floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea-floor…The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data. The fact that there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world’s oceans.”
Molten Eagle looks at the odds of rescuing sub crews from submarines that sink to the bottom in “Out of Their Depth“.
BarentsObserver has “Russia prepares law on Northern Sea Route“. So when are they going to try and tax those who use the route? How long before the first ship is arrested by the Russians? This is a likely possibility given how Russia has seized ships off their Western Coast, even those clearly in International waters.
Australian Federal Police have raided anti-whaling flagship the Steve Irwin, seizing records and videos that could help Japan to prosecute the activist Sea Shepherd group.
An armed squad seized 157 of Discovery Channel’s raw videos, and navigational records from the ship in Hobart. The videos show the Sea Shepherd’s clashes with Japanese whalers and may be given to the Japanese Government. A federal agent said yesterday’s raid resulted from a formal referral from Japanese authorities and that police were undertaking preliminary inquiries into this summer’s Southern Ocean confrontation.
The ship was en route to Vladivostok from the South Korean port of Pusan on Feb. 17 when it veered toward Cape Musudan to avoid a storm, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. North Korean sailors boarded the vessel the next day and escorted it to the port of Kimchaek.
Casco Bay Boaters Blog has an example that our Congress has no monopoly on stupidity with “Maine Rep. Tom Watson Wants to Ride on YOUR Boat” as he submits legislation to require all boaters to wear lifejackets when on the water.
The exceptions in this law are much more dangerous than some other types of boating. For example you won’t have to wear a lifejacket when going to your mooring in a small zodiac or while in a canoe owned by a children’s summer camp?!
Applications being mailed to gain recognition as veterans are repeatedly rejected by the National Maritime Center because they cannot find records (trip discharges and/or logbooks) that show service for the periods required and they accept little else. Alternate methods to prove employment must be provided in order for these seamen to become veterans. This can be accomplished through administrative legislation at no cost.
Kind of our Government’s shame that this was not resolved decades ago. Even worse, the National Maritime Center can’t find the records because MARAD destroyed them in the ’70’s!.
The European Parliament’s transport committee wants to make maritime pollution a criminal offence. Even minor cases of pollution should be made criminal if they are repeated, committed deliberately or caused as a result of serious negligence. Penalties should apply to anyone involved in the pollution, from shipowners to classification societies.
Imagine if this kind of ‘ideology’ migrated to everyday life…
WHILE the shipping community may have differing views on inerting tanker cargoes to prevent explosions, it is united in its concern about the increase in the number of seafarers killed when they enter enclosed spaces on ships.
About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for it.
Scientists recently found black gold bubbling up from an otherwise undistinguished mass of ocean imagery. Chuanmin Hu, an optical oceanographer at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and colleagues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (UMass), found that they could detect oil seeping naturally from the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico by examining streaks amid the reflected sunlight on the ocean’s surface.
Theo Spark has more video of real life turned into model-looking animation with “Amazing: Bathtub Video…..” It’s ’tilt-shift’ video.
SAILORS, MARINERS & WARRIORS LEAGUE has “Saudi Frigate Provides Protection For Turkish Ship“. I think the Saudis can keep their frigate home. They can do much more good fighting those supporting terrorism in their own backyard.
YouTube has great video posted from a ship that is tossed about in a storm and loses a good portion of their deck cargo in “perils of the sea“. The crew on the bridge don’t sound to be too concerned out it. Then again, they were limited in what they could have done at that point. Surely, the video is good stuff for the insurance companies.
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Haight’s Maritime Items has:
Shifting my flag - After 13 years with Holland & Knight and 10 years publishing this electronic newsletter, I am shifting my flag to the Internet. Today is my last day with the law firm and my last day as editor of this newsletter. Henceforth, you can reach me at my blog – Bryant’s Maritime Blog
While the blog may superficially resemble the newsletter, there will be important differences. First, it will not show up in your e-mail’s In Box. Rather, you will have to go to it on the Internet. Therefore, you may wish to put the site on your Favorites list. Then again, maybe not – your choice. Second, while the blog will attempt to keep track of maritime developments (as did the newsletter), it will allow for a dialogue. Thus, if you wish to comment on a topic in the blog, or just wish to sound off, this will provide you with a forum. While I will retain editorial control, I will try to not stifle criticism, only irrelevancy and redundancy. Third, plans call for the blog to eventually include advertizing. Please support the blog site by clicking on some or all of the advertisements that interest you. I understand that some of my long-suffering readers may have trouble accessing the blog. Perhaps if you tell your IT Staff that the blog is both work-related and boring, they will grant access rights.
I have enjoyed the practice of law, particularly with the wonderful people at Holland & Knight. I have enjoyed editing the newsletter, and receiving your occasional constructive criticism (the blog will allow for even more of that). I have taken special pleasure in the notes received from many of you the past several days since I first announced my departure. Time prevents me from responding individually to each one. So, all the best to each and every one of you. If you wish to chat less publicly, you can reach me at: dennis.l.bryant@gmail.com. (2/20/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
Fairplay Daily News has:
Cry of ‘murder’ in ship deaths - A DIPLOMATIC row grew today between Russia and China over the deaths of eight crew from a dry cargo ship – including an accusation of “murder”.
Russian rescue and salvage teams were at work today in the Sea of Japan looking for missing seafarers and the cargo ship New Star, which Russian authorities believe has sunk.
Hong Kong’s J-Rui Lucky Shipping told the English-language news portal china.org.cn that the Russian account of the incident was false.
“The story the Russia authorities fed to the press is a cover-up that turns black into white,” the company said. “Their account does not mention the fact that their warship fired on our cargo ship. What they are portraying as a rescue was in fact an act of murder.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu urged Russia to spare no effort in its rescue operations and to investigate swiftly.
Lieutenant Colonel Natalia Rondaleva of Russia’s Federal Security Service FSB said yesterday that the rice vessel had unlawfully fled the port of Nakhodka, in the Vladivostok region.
The Sierra Leone-flagged ship left on 12 February “without receiving a permit from the border guard and illegally crossed the Russian frontier”, she told reporters, speaking for the local branch of the FSB.
It was chased by Russian border vessels after the buyer of its rice found the cargo spoiled. New Star was then hit by a heavy storm in neutral waters, had engine failure and started sinking.
The ship was abandoned, and the 16 crew members boarded life rafts. Eight of them were rescued by the pursuing Russians. - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission) [Fred Note: Video of the incident can bee seen at gCaptainHere]
AND:
Seafarers threaten run on banks - CROATIAN seafarers are threatening to withdraw €400M ($506M) from domestic banks if its government refuses to alter how they are taxed.
“We demand that the government counts the days seafarers spend on their way to and from ships, as well as days when they are ill and days when they are training,” Predrag Brazzoduro, head of the Croatian Seafarers’ Union, said on the union’s website.
Seafarers must now spend at least 183 days a year at sea to qualify for tax benefits. But Brazzoduro said the recession will prevent seafarers from going to sea that many days this year.
He has said the union, which represents 20,000 seafarers, will withdraw its deposits in Croatian banks if Zagreb refuses its demand. - 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.
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 the Port of Akureyri, located on Iceland’s North Shore:
The town of Akureyri, with its population of approximately 16,000 Inhabitants, is the administrative, transportation and commercial center of North Iceland. The mountains surrounding the fjord, which Akureyri is in the bottom of, is called Eyjafjordur. It is the longest fjord in Iceland, or 60 km, the fjord that all ships have to go through, on the way to Akureyri. Akureyri has provided rural communities in these high latitudes with sundry services as well as educational and industrial facilities. Akureyri has its own theater, symphony orchestra, University and one of the biggest hospitals in the country that serves as well East part of Greenland.
EagleSpeak has “Somali Pirates: Captured Pirates and Lawfare“. This is what happens when you try to fight a war as a police action. The US tried this before. Might be that we still don’t know how to do it.
Alex Naughton reports: “I have just been informed by a reliable source that the Maxim Gorky has passed through the Suez Canal and now is currently stationary in the Red Sea near Southern Egypt awaiting further instructions on her next moves. So yes, to clarify, the Maxim Gorky is not moving and is stationary at this time and is not making any further progress towards India at the moment.
This sounds like a replay of the FINNJET saga. It didn’t turn out too well for that ship in the end.
The SS United States docked in Philadelphia has been put up for sale. A preservation group for the mothballed ocean liner fears a buyer could end up using it as scrap metal.
A fully laden Panamax ship, the largest that can fit through the canal’s 110-foot-wide locks, typically pays a toll of about $250,000 for a transit with 2,000 FEUs. Some carriers can pass the tolls along to customers through surcharges. Others charge an all-in rate that includes the tolls. These carriers are looking for alternatives.
Most residents recycle with the belief they are helping the environment and are unaware that their municipalities are shipping materials to China and South Korea, creating a huge new carbon footprint.
EUROPE’S yards and marine equipment industries face being wiped out if credit markets do not ease “soon,” the European Commission has warned.
The large capital requirements of the shipbuilding industry and the lack of affordable finance have combined to “jeopardise the economic survival” of the European Union industry, said Brussels Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen.
Tims Times has “Seeming to be” noting that how many times your ship might call a port, they keep asking the same questions like it is the first time you have ever called there…
Russia Today News has “Information leak allowed Faina seizure“. This makes sense just like it is always the high-value containers that disappear from lots.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama thanking him for his country’s active participation in the operations to release the Ukrainian cargo ship Faina and its crew from pirate captivity.
The European Union demands that from the start of 2010, all fish sold on the EU market must have a certificate which can trace it back to where it was caught.
The Persian Gulf is home to hundreds of lighthouses, most of which have been modernized. But what happened to those classic lenses and other Aids to Navigation (ATON)? Were they dumped over the side of the lighthouses, like so many US Fresnel lenses were tossed when the US Coast Guard took over?
English Russia has a series of photos of a sinking fishing boat in “Drowning Ship in Estonia“. It is from 2006, but it is new to me and it is a great series of photos showing the death of a vessel.
A shipwreck missing off Victoria’s Ninety Mile Beach for 127 years has re-appeared at Loch Sport, with remnants of its frames and boiler now visible to beachgoers.
Heritage Victoria archaeologists believe the wreck is the Scottish-built, iron steamer Pretty Jane, which sunk in 1882 following a collision with the Magnolia.
Not far from New York City, Lake George offers dozens of private islands you can camp on, and have all to yourself for just a few bucks a day. There are 170 islands on Lake George, and you can camp on 44 of them!
The two bays in Davao can accommodate as many as 100 ships for a daily rate of $90 to $120 per vessel.
Philippine Ports Authority general manager Oscar Sevilla said one company was discussing its plan to lay up 10 vessels at the South Harbor in Manila Bay. Sevilla said Cebu was already full of parked vessels.
Neptunus Lex has a protest against the use of Navy dolphins to protect against an attack on submarines stationed in Portland, Oregon in “Deeply Stupid“.
YouTube has video of a triple container lift. Doesn’t look very safe, does it?
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Haight’s Maritime Items has:
USCG – 99% of towing vessel operators are properly licensed - The US Coast Guard issued a press release stating that its detailed examination of towing vessels in the Eighth Coast Guard District revealed that approximately 99% of the operators were properly licensed. More than 3,400 licenses were reviewed and only 43 were found to have issues. (2/9/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
The International Labor Organization (ILO) issued a press release stating that Panama deposited its instrument of ratification of the Maritime Labor Convention 2006. Panama is the largest flag state, with nearly 25% of the ocean-going fleet. Other major shipping countries that have ratified the Convention include Liberia, the Marshall Islands, and the Bahamas. The Convention has now been ratified by four nations representing more than 40% of the world’s fleet. The Convention will come into force when ratified by at least 26 more nations. (2/6/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
Fairplay Daily News has:
Odessa stink ship ‘could explode’ - OFFICIALS in the Ukrainian port of Odessa have held urgent talks to end the pollution threat posed by a ship carrying 3,000 tonnes of rotting bananas, which some say could explode.
Deputy city council leader Vyacheslav Kruk told his fellow representatives: “The ecological commission has received a letter from the port authority warning that if the methane concentration goes anywhere between 5-15% there could be an explosion.”
The cargo ship Amfitrite I’s cargo of rotting bananas has gradually been polluting the atmosphere in the city for five months.
Amfitrite I arrived in Odessa on 14 September and was impounded when customs officers found 11kg of cocaine worth more than $1M in the engine room.
The local council met yesterday to debate how the consignment of long-decaying bananas can be prevented from polluting Odessa or causing even more damage, due to the methane it is emitting with increasing intensity.
But Igor Derboglav, the council’s head for ecological safety, said that monitoring by his officials had found that the build up of the gas does not yet exceed the maximum possible amount.
There are 20 crew on board Amfitrite I, including Filipino, Ukrainian and Indian nationals. The shipowner has had to provide them with respirators and special clothing to try and protect them from the toxic air they are surrounded by.
The only respite they have, according to local reports, is when the wind blows toward the sea. - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission)
AND:
Russians stranded in Liverpool - THE 14-STRONG crew of the Russian cargo vessel Stalingrad, which is berthed in Liverpool, have been stranded on their ship since 19 December over a $150,000 fuel bill.
The vessel has been impounded by the UK Admiralty Court while talks continue involving the owner, SakhalinMor Trans CC and Dan Bunkering.
The crew’s situation has become desperate because they have not be paid and for some time no food has been provided by the owners.
The Admiralty Court is providing food, water and fuel for the crew. The ITF and UK maritime union Nautilus are trying to help the crew but no immediate resolution of the dispute is expected.
The Court can sell the ship and use the money to repatriate the crew as well meet their wage bill of an estimated €85,000 ($110,000). - 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.
—————————————-
Previous Editions: As linked below or click on the tag ‘Maritime Monday’ for all gCaptain editions.
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 Germany’s Senator Lines, which announced last week that it is closing down:
Senator Lines of Germany today announced it will wind down its liner services with immediate effect as the deepening slump in container shipping claimed its first high-profile casualty.
Senator, which is majority owned by Hanjin Shipping of South Korea, said it is halting operations in the face of reduced cargo volumes, overcapacity and increased competition, especially on the major east-west trade routes.
The carrier, which was established in 1987, will continue trading until it has delivered all of its cargoes.
gCaptain has “Mariner Shortage - Your Opinions“. I blame STCW 95. In the past sailors would move ashore when shipping was bad and go back out to sea when shipping was good again/when there were shortages of seafarers. Now, with STCW 95, it gets very difficult to maintain your license and training if you are working shoreside. A shipping company has no problem with sailing staff going off to collect some training during vacation time, but good luck trying to duck out of the office for a couple weeks to do some refresher training. Or you can try to do it during your vacation time, but that won’t go over well with the rest of the family, not to mention not having enough vacation time to cover all the training requirements.
Built in 1939 in the Netherlands for Lisbon based owners Parceria Geral de Pescarias, «ARGUS» has been cruising in the Caribbeans since 1976 under the name «POLYNESIA II». Sold by Parceria in 1974 to Canadian interests (White Fleet Cruise Ships), she was resold in 1975 to Windjammer Barefoot and converted to carry 126 passengers. However, this company has gone bankrupt… and we are affraid that «ARGUS» will be «left outside alone»…
Master of Towing Vessels Association Forum has comments on having a ‘dangerously sharp’ knife around for those times when you absolutely, positively want to disconnect your ship from what’s on the other end of that mooring/tow line in “Wicked Shahp!“. One of my sailor knives had extreme serrations on it. The old bosun on one ship didn’t believe that I was able to slice through the mooring line in seconds as we got down to re-splicing it.
Ananova has “Bananas ship seizure“. The ship has been detained for five months now. The whole port is complaining about the stench.
The Ukrainian secret service - the SBU - impounded a Greek-owned cargo ship loaded with bananas as part of a drug smuggling investigation.
No drugs have been found but security chiefs have said they will not release the ship which is being held in Odessa.
Now the ship’s crew has been issued with nuclear war-style bio-hazard suits and respirators to protect them from the toxic rotting bananas.
…America’s vast domestic oil and natural gas resources [have] been kept off-limits by Congress for decades [and] could generate more than $1.7 trillion in government revenue, create thousands of new jobs and enhance the nation’s energy security by significantly boosting domestic production, a study released Monday shows.
AND
According to the ICF study, U.S. crude oil production would rise by 36% by 2030 if development is permitted in the studied areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, ANWR and the Rockies and domestic natural gas production would rise by 10%. This activity would create 160,000 jobs in 2030. - ( See ‘Off-limits US oil, gas worth $1.7 trillion to government: study‘ by Energy API Study
I have pointed out in last week’s edition of Maritime Monday on how the Obama Administration has stopped further offshore oil development approved in the tail end of last year’s Congress.
Bob Couttie’s Maritime Accident Casebook has coverage of an anti-piracy guide in “OCIMF - Put A Pirate In Your Pocket“. Click the image below to open the PDF format guide.
Example of a warning sign in Somali, which states – DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRIC BARRIER
Good idea, provided they know how to read. Probably wouldn’t hurt to use it, with or without electricity…
The suit claims that the underwater rock the Jebsen bulk carrier Rocknes hit in Vatlestraumen south of Bergen on 19 January, 2004, was not marked on the charts. According to the P&I club Gard, the Norwegian Hydrographic Services (NHS) had known the rock’s exact location since 1995.
LONDON: Shipping investor Nobu Su plans to offer his fleet of 20 supertankers to speculators who want to store oil and bet they can sell it later in the year for a profit.
Su’s Taipei-based company, TMT Co Ltd, will lease out its two-million-barrel vessels at below-market prices in return for a share of any profit his customers make on the trade in oil. His fleet, able to hold enough crude to supply Europe for two days, is available for immediate hire, he said.
Its all good until everyone tries to sell their tanker loads of oil at once, right…
Never Sea Land has Vendee Globe Around the World Solo race video with “Roxy Sailing“. Yes, that really is fast for any type of boat, especially a sailboat!
9 News (Colorado) has unfortunate trouble for a future Merchant Marine Academy Midship-woman in “Student faces expulsion for fake drill team guns“. Actually they were real, drill-team drill rifles, which of course are fake rifles.
Maritime Information Centre has “Scrap yards full as owners cut their losses“. You can bet that these ships were making good profits for their owners until recently, which is why they were kept sailing past their useful life. Lets see how many were wise enough to put away enough money to buy nice new replacements for these vessels. So whatever they might lose for selling their all-of-a-sudden ‘rustbucket’ into low scrap prices, they are sure to earn back and then some getting a slightly used ship for a much better deal than the original owners did.
With less global consumption brought about by the recession, companies are turning to the sea to transport goods rather than air, according to shipping recruiters.
BitterEnd has “WSF could save millions, reports Captain Twohig“. The example is for Washington State Ferries. The question is are people willing to accepted reduced speeds? If so, then why not slower speeds for cars too? Then again, what if people are willing to pay for the faster transit even if it is only 3-4 minutes faster?
The announcement, at a press conference at Canary Wharf in London, is set to open a row over the contents of the ship, which is thought to be lying in international waters. Because it is a military wreck, the ship is protected by “sovereign immunity” and belongs to the state.
Traditionally, large numbers of documents are required by customs, immigration, health and other public authorities pertaining to a ship, its crew and passengers, baggage, cargo and mail. Unnecessary paperwork is a problem in most industries, but the potential for red tape is probably greater in shipping than in other industries, because of its international nature and the traditional acceptance of formalities and procedures.
Allusions to an underwater El Dorado are common in Western literature—such as the hymn by 16th century British poet Thomas Campion. A seafloor encrusted with hidden treasures awaits discovery to only the bravest who dare venture where the sun never shines.
On the brink of this quest, Nautilus Minerals is just steps away from testing the waters. Using technology developed by the offshore oil industry, the Canadian mining company is embarking on the world’s first deep-sea mining project.
Information Dissemination has “Israel Impounds Aid Ship“. The ship was coming from Lebanon, where I suspect there are enough people who need aid and are ignored by these same people simply looking to make a statement.
Israel Matzav has more on the ship which is currently named MONCHEGORSK (Some stories state that the ship had changed name and flag) in “Surprise: Iranian cargo ship was carrying weapons to Gaza“. The ship is Cyprus Flag and oddly enough, has been detained in Cyprus.
Crew members aboard Japanese harpoon whaling ship, the Yushin Maru No. 3, give Sea Shepherd activists a middle finger while using an LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) sonic weapon developed for the military. Photo by Adam Lau/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Better a finger than some LRAD in the face, right?
Hearing on international piracy on the high seas - On February 4, the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure conducted a hearing on International Piracy on the High Seas. Opening statements were made by Committee Chair James Oberstar (D-MN) and Subcommittee Chair Elijah Cummings. RADM William Baumgartner, JAG, USCG testified that coordinated application of naval force and legal authorities is required to suppress piracy off the coast of Somalia. RADM Ted Branch, USN testified concerning the increase in the number of naval vessels operating in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. Mr. James Caponiti, Maritime Administration, testified concerning that agency’s efforts to facilitate coordination and cooperation among the various stakeholders impacted by the piracy problem. Mr. Peter Chalk, RAND Corporation, testified that, among other things, defensive technologies should be more widely used and basic security protocols should be adhered to. Captain Phil Davies, OCIMF, testified regarding the special risks presented by tankers and implementation of best maritime practices. Dr. Peter Swift, INTERTANKO, testified that re-establishment of law and order on the high seas is largely a task for governments, not industry. Mr. Giles Noakes, BIMCO, expressed concern regarding weaknesses in the international and national legal systems that make it difficult to bring pirates to justice. (2/4/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
AND:
EPA – NPDES VGP program - reminder - This is a reminder to the regulated community that the EPA’s Vessel General Permit (VGP) program comes into effect on February 6. Following is our earlier report on this development: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice announcing the Vessel General Permit (VGP) program as part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA). A federal court previously ruled that the long-standing exemption from the NPDES permitting requirement was invalid and directed that the exemption be vacated as of December 19, 2008. The VGP program has been developed in response to that ruling. The program addresses 28 separate discharges from ships including, but are not limited to, ballast water discharges, deck washdown and runoff, bilge water, gray water, seawater cooling overboard discharge, controllable pitch propeller hydraulic fluid, and hull husbandry. Covered vessels (basically commercial vessels, foreign and domestic, of 79 feet in length and greater) operating on navigable waters of the United States have to adopt best management practices for each of these waste streams. In addition, covered vessels of 300 gross tons and greater will have to submit Notices of Intent (NOIs) relating to these discharges. The EPA also released its 162-page VGP permit and a 125-page Fact Sheet and a 179-page Economic Analysis. Finally, to further complicate an already difficult situation, it released the State and Tribal Certifications related to the VGP program. The EPA also issued a news release stating that the program affects approximately 61,000 domestic vessels and 8,000 foreign vessels. Note: Subsequent to the signing of this notice, the federal court granted a motion to delay implementation of the VGP program until February 6, 2009. This is a work in progress and there are certain to be further developments. 73 Fed. Reg. 79473 (December 29, 2008). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage(Used with Permission)
Spain’s maritime safety agency said the vessel was intercepted about 60 n-miles south of Gran Canaria Island. Three dead bodies were also found in the wooden boat.
Spanish authorities said the migrants left West Africa more than eight days ago. The survivors were taken today to Areguineguin on Gran Canaria.
The total number of migrants rescued in winter weather off the Canary Islands and West Africa exceeds 250 over the past six days, the agency said. - Fairplay Homepage(Used with Permission)
AND:
Tanker crewman stabbed to death - AN OIL tanker crewman has been stabbed to death following an argument with another man on the ship, the Philippines Coast Guard has said.
The dead man has been identified as a Filipino cook aboard the Greek tanker Stresa.
The incident occurred in the galley where the two Filipino crewmen had a heated argument that led to the stabbing while the tanker was off Itbayat, Batanes in the Philippines. The captain reported the incident to PCG. The attacker could not be found and is believed to have jumped ship.
The Stresa came from Kuwait and was heading for South Korea when the incident occurred. - 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.
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 are of the German Cruiseship SS MAXIM GORKIY that I took while in Finland last Summer:
SS Maxim Gorkiy is a cruise ship that was, until 30 November 2008, owned by Sovcomflot, Russia, under long-term charter to Phoenix Reisen, Germany. She was built in 1969 by Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft, Hamburg, West Germany for the German Atlantic Line as SS Hamburg. In 1973 she was renamed SS Hanseatic. The following year she was sold to the Black Sea Shipping Company, Soviet Union and received the name Maxim Gorkiy in honour of the poet Maxim Gorky. On 20 August 2008 the Maxim Gorkiy was sold to Orient Lines. She was due to enter service with her new owners on 15 April 2009 under the name SS Marco Polo II, but in November 2008 the relaunch of the Orient Lines brand was cancelled. On 8 January 2009 the ship was reportedly sold for scrap, but attempts to save her are ongoing as of 19 January 2009. - Wikipedia
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So, is this the end of the line for another classic ship?
We were escorted by the Indian warship in our west bound transit through G.O.A.
We are thankful to the Indians for an excellent service. When the L.P.G tanker was attacked the Indians sent their helicopter, and the vessel sailed to assist the tanker. But our convoy was about 20nm from the Longchamp so unfortunately the Indians were too late. We heard them talking on the VHF with a coalition warship that was also in the area saying that they were ready to board the tanker with commandos. When they arrived they decided to chase the suspected mother ship which they had spotted and suggested to the coalition ship that they boarded the ship since they could not be two places at once, but the Coalition warship said no ( this acc to regulations etc..). From a personal view, if it had been our ship, I would have liked them to board us and take the chance. Being boarded by these M.F.( the Somalians ) is like having armed unwanted visitors invading your house, threatening to kill you. This is our home when we are onboard. To repeat what I have already said: Give us some armed guards onboard with a license to kill.. Why is it that if criminals ashore decide to take hostages no one questions it, if the police shoots them to prevent the situation/ save the hostages, but as soon as it is ‘only’ seamen, nobody does a goddamn thing. - Anonymous (Minor grammatical edits made by Fred)
The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO reports that the World War II era cargo vessel, the SS Transglobe, and its crew have been inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame.
Designed as a cargo ship for Lykes Brothers Steamship Company, the vessel transported more than 200,000 passengers during World War II, including troops and casualties. It is best known for having completed seven convoy runs through the U-boat packs of the North Atlantic in 1944. It also took part in the D-Day invasion.
Russia and Japan have frequently clashed over fishing rights. But Tuesday’s incident took place in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), not near disputed islands where previous incidents have occurred.
Japan and Russia have not yet signed a peace treaty to end World War II because of the dispute over the islands, which the Soviet Union seized days after Japan surrendered in 1945.
EBKAfile reported Friday that its unidentified sources said the Iranian ship Iran Shahed is carrying communications equipment being used to maintain communications between Hamas leaders currently in hiding.
New twist introduced to seemingly familiar case involving piracy in the Gulf of Aden; all 28 crew members released unharmed as U.S. attorneys (Seward & Kissel) provide advice and counsel in first negotiation of its kind to be negotiated from the United States.
Shipgaz has “Birka Paradise latest victim of snuff legislation” as the ship is now the second re-flagged to Sweden, to protect the ship’s right to sell smokeless tobacco. Sweden is the only EU nation that permits sale of the tobacco product.
Master of Towing Vessels Association Forum has “Damaged Stability For Barges“. Once you have read that one, be sure to check out the follow-up posts.
Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog has “Act of cruelty” as the crew of the ship Silver Constellation quickly run out of food, apparently abandoned by the vessel’s owner.
The resistance on the Zhenhua 4 was no accident. The captain had worked out a drill to resist boarders, and had the crew rehearse it ten days before they were attacked.
American commentators have poo-hooed reported claims by Australian and Swiss researchers that more Americans survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 because they were politer than their British counterparts. Nobody from the maritime industry, however, has complained about suggestions in the report that crew members used their special knowledge in order to survive.
Imbroglio? The word would appear appropriate for the lifeboat issue. It comes from the Italian imbrogliare, meaning to tangle, confuse. In English, it can mean ‘an intricate and confusing situation’. This is often the case of lifeboat release mechanisms and/or their operating instructions. ‘Imbroglio’ may also be used to describe ‘a confused heap or tangle’ – often all that is left after a lifeboat plunges, uncontrolled, many tens of metres into the water.
National Geographic Channel (in the UK) has their new show “SALVAGE [CODE RED]“.
In National Geographic Channel’s Salvage Code Red, salvors race against time to rescue stricken ships, their cargo and crew, and prevent environmental disaster. Divers venture with helmet cameras inside sunken vessels to capture gripping footage of abandoned behemoths. The five-part series takes viewers inside the bowels of a burning ship while intricate CGI illustrates the immense challenges, and some innovative solutions, in hauling and repairing a sinking vessel.
In Firestorm, a multi-million dollar ferry becomes an inferno, burning uncontrollably for days until a salvage crew climbs onboard to battle lingering blazes, and savage seas tear apart a U.K. truck ferry. Two rookie salvage masters undergo a baptism by fire in Typhoon Showdown when a typhoon-battered Russian coal freighter forces the salvage team to abandon their divers overnight and a stranded Mexican ferry threatens a coastal reef. Heading back to the Russian freighter in Breaking Point, a salvage diver suffers a close call after becoming disoriented by violent wave surges while a storm wreaks havoc and causes substantial loses for a team salvaging a sunken freighter off the Strait of Gibraltar.
There is lots to see on the program’s website. The image above was taken from a video on the site of salvage of the NEW FLAME. There is lots more video there so go take a look. (and how about bringing the show to the US?).
Is anyone capable or interested in saving 17 Ukrainian sailors taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia?
From economic crisis to gas crisis, from autumn into winter, 17 Ukrainian sailors have remained hostages aboard the MV Faina cargo ship, seized by Somali pirates on Sept. 25.
The men are still waiting for rescue, amid reports that some of them are suffering poor health and that all of them are imprisoned in terrible conditions – enduring scorching temperatures off the lawless east African coast and spending most of their time in a cramped room aboard the hijacked ship.
Do the close working quarters and technical expertise of submariners inherently preclude ridiculous separations between various ranks? Or does it just depend on the boat you’re on?
tugster: a waterblog has photos of New York City’s newest sludge ship RED HOOK in “Sidekick“. More Sludge ship photos in Maritime Monday 133.
The Global Ice Center’s information covers such data as sea ice concentration, thickness and drift over not only the Arctic Sea, but also the Baltic Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated on Tuesday that he intends to scrap the Bush administration’s leasing plan that would have opened the coasts to drilling, even as he said the Obama administration is open to some expanded development of offshore oil and gas fields.
The Bush administration’s DOI issued a draft of a five-year leasing plan several days before leaving office, following on the expiration of the outer continental shelf moratorium last fall. But Salazar told the Associated Press that his department plans to work with Congress to craft “a plan that makes sense” for offshore oil and gas development in the context of a broader energy policy.
Danger Room Blog has “Russia Snares New Black Sea Bases“. They are going to put it in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia. And no, they didn’t ask the Georgians for permission.
BitterEnd has “State ferry aground after floating away“. There is a report of oil leaking from the ferry which makes me wonder if oil spills are seen as serious if the owner is the State? If this was a privately-owned ferry I would think that the State would be running around looking to handcuff people. However, in this case it looks like they would have to target themselves…
Deep Water Writing tries to adjust to life ashore in “Cipro“.
It’s often hard to remember that not everything on shore has to be attended to with the expediency and diligence that matters at sea require. Shopping trips and errands don’t require passage plans and job hazard analysis. Lines in stores and traffic jams cause great increases in blood pressure as I remind myself that a two minute commute at work is not the norm and that most people deal with these inconveniences everyday.
The Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Helga Pedersen is not pleased with the new Russian law on fisheries demanding that all fish caught in Russian economic zone shall be delivered in Russian ports.
June 2008, 3 wide span gantry cranes (2000 tons each) unloading from ship to shore at the ECT Delta Barge Feeder Terminal
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Haight’s Maritime Items has:
Djibouti – Code of Conduct to repress piracy - The IMO issued a news release stating that a high-level meeting was convened in Djibouti to help address the problem of piracy and armed robbery against ships off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. The meeting concluded with adoption of a Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The meeting was chaired by the IMO and the Government of Djibouti and was attended by representatives from Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen, as well as observers from other IMO Member States, United Nations specialized agencies and bodies, and international and regional inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. (1/30/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)
AND:
UK – wind farm workers evacuated from barge - The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) issued a press notice stating that wind farm workers were evacuated from a barge near Liverpool when anchor cables holding the barge started breaking in heavy seas. (1/30/09). - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)
Fairplay Daily News has:
Floating storage crude sold - ROYAL Dutch Shell has sold 600,000 barrels of crude to Vitol that had been stored aboard the Frontline VLCC Oliva – possibly the first sign of an unwinding ‘contango’ trade.
The allotment of Forties crude was sold in a ship-to-ship transfer Monday at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, according to multiple press reports.
Analysts predicted that the Shell sale would be the first of several transactions as traders unwind positions based on contango pricing, the spread between current and future oil pricing.
But the injection of floating storage volumes back into the market could yet again depress current pricing, widening the spread with future pricing and supporting future floating storage trades.
The current amount of crude in floating storage is today estimated at 60-80M barrels. The timing of the floating storage trade’s unwinding will probably affect VLCC spot rates, analysts warned last week.
Dahlman Rose analyst Omar Nokta estimated that the unwinding of the contango trade could return 33 VLCCs back into the spot market.
“We are concerned with the aftermath,” he said. - Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)
AND:
Ship captain reported ‘executed’ - PIRATES executed a ship’s captain after he resisted capture off the coast of West Africa, Fairplay can confirm today.
“A guerrilla attack on a commercial vessel retaliated on the captain and executed him, a source delivering a high-level briefing on piracy told Fairplay. “We are worried about the transfer [of piracy] from East Africa to West Africa.”
The Greek ministry of shipping named the captain as Theodoros Mastaloudis.
A news agency report said yesterday that pirates had killed a Greek master of an unnamed ship on Saturday off the coast of Cameroon but gave no details.
His vessel have come to the rescue of another ship being attacked by pirates, Reuters reported on Monday.
A senior naval officer told Fairplay that East African pirates appeared previously to follow a code of conduct in which they do not harm or abuse crews.
“We are worried about this,” the officer confirmed, “if they stop working to the same code. If the pirate business model works, then other people will copy it. And it will spread.”
Naval officers pointed that pirates have in the past killed other pirates for breaching this code. - 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.
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 Weeks Marine:
In over seventy-five years of existence, Weeks Marine, Inc. has grown into one of the leading marine construction and dredging organizations in the United States. Originally founded in 1919, the company has responded to the many changes in the marine industry and blossomed into a six division company. Weeks Marine was recently ranked 110th on the “Engineering News-Record” 2007 top 400 contractors list.
With our customer service focus, we are able to tailor our response to your specific needs. By utilizing the appropriate capabilities of the different divisions along with direction by the best qualified personnel, we are able to ensure a successful result to your project.
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MTA Subway Car Removal - New York, NY - Weeks Marine was contracted to transport about 1,700 obsolete NYC Transit subway cars to various permitted artificial reef sites along the eastern coastlines of NJ, DE, MD, VA, SC & GA. To do this, first the Transit Authority cleaned the cars of all environmentally unfriendly material and groups them together inside the MTA’s yard. The Weeks 297 barge and the Weeks 552 Heavy Lift crane are brought from the Greenville Yard to transport the cars from the MTA yard to various environmentally approved drop sites. The cars are loaded onto the 297 using the 552 crane and, once full, the 297 is towed back to the Greenville Yard, where workers secure the 5110 Cat Excavator for the tow to the dump site. Once they arrive, the Cat Excavator handles the picking and dumping of the rail cars thanks to an attachment put into place at the end of the machine’s boom, making the Cat work much like a forklift. This process will be repeated until all of the cars have been properly disposed of.
Anti-whaling activists say they are willing to end their aggressive protests against Japan’s whale hunt if Australia or New Zealand agree to challenge the whaling in an international court.
Thailand says 126 asylum-seekers from the Burmese Rohingya minority who were detained by the military a week ago have been sent back out to sea.
The UN Refugee Agency asked to see the detainees three days ago, but never received a response.
Last month almost 1,000 Rohingyas were detained and then towed out to sea by Thai security forces in boats with little food and no motors.
Hundreds of survivors have been rescued, but hundreds more are missing.
Maybe these migrants should claim to be pirates. That might get them better treatment.
CNN has more including photos with “Probe questions fate of refugees in Thailand“. Imagine the news coverage and international outrage if the US was caught doing this. Look at all the press a couple terrorists at GITMO get. These guys, not so much.
Marine Log has the answer to Denmark’s problem of what to do with the Somali Pirates they caught with “Netherlands to try pirate suspects“.
The Netherlands has asked Denmark for the extradition of five Somali pirate suspects.
The five have been held on the Danish frigate Absolon since January 2. They jumped from a boat that had caught fire after members of the crew of the Netherlands Antilles flagged merchant ship Samanyolu had foiled a hijacking attempt by firing light flares at the attacking vessel.
It claims that the Blue Baron’s cargo included at least ten tons of gold bullion, 70 tons of platinum, one a half tons of industrial diamonds and 16 million carats of gem quality diamonds.
Never Sea Land has the story and photo of “Esky lifeboat saves two“. An ‘Esky’ is a big cooler. These guys were in one for almost a month.
One official said the two-day search turned up ammunition that included artillery shells; and since Hamas is not known to use artillery, officials are now uncertain who the intended recipient was.
Debka reported on January 20, 2009, that that an “arms-smuggling vessel started its voyage as the Iran-Hedayat and changed its name in mid sea to Famagustus registered to Panama. The captain was ordered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to unload its cargo at a smugglers cove on the southeastern coast of Sinai opposite the Gulf of Suez, to be picked up by armed Bedouin gangs and moved to El Arish in northern Sinai. From there the contraband rockets were to be slipped gradually into the Gaza Strip.
AND:
The latest update indicates a different name for the ship: Cypriot-flagged Iranian freighter Nochegorsk.
According to international law, ships have very extensive obligations to rescue persons in distress at sea. The new guidelines are intended to help transfer persons rescued at sea from the rescuing ship to a safe place as fast as possible so that ships that have assisted in rescue operations are not unnecessarily delayed.
This reminds me of the Norwegian cargoship MV TAMPA that picked up a couple hundred refugees at sea back in 2001 only to find out that the Australians didn’t want to take them.
The 1986 Single European Act paved the way for a single market in Europe, yet the shipping industry has long complained that barriers and excessive red tape still exist. These have resulted in increased costs and time delays, forcing producers to opt for land transportation.
The Academy (a USMMA Midshipman) heads for the “44th Presidential Inauguration - One for the Books“. The US Merchant Marine Academy appears to still be marching with electro-welded 1903 rifles. I had heard that during a previous inauguration the Secret Service took a look at the first one, saw that everyone was carrying the same hunk of metal and quickly moved on to the next group as these things had stopped being rifles long ago.
The crew of a semi-submersible vessel prepares to abandon ship before being intercepted and detained by the U.S.Coast Guard about 150 miles northwest of the Colombia-Ecuador border two weeks ago. Photo: U.S Navy
090121-N-3392P-168 PERSIAN GULF (Jan. 21, 2009) Sailors aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) watch the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) breakaway from the Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1) after a replenishment at sea. Carter Hall and Iwo Jima are deployed as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Katrina Parker/Released) - Link
Fiery torches of palm fronds light up the night near the Caroline Islands as men in outrigger canoes wait with long-handled nets to scoop flying fish in midair. The jumping fish are attracted by light. (Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “Micronesia—The Americanization of Eden,” May 1967, National Geographic magazine)
“Concerns have been voiced over where the Finns will get their snus. Nobody seems to be interested in what will happen to the Finnish sailors”, The Finnish Seamen’s Union Secretary Kenneth Bondas says with some astonishment.
“The selling of smokeless tobacco will not cease. It will simply be sold on ships re-registered in Sweden.”
Some of these routes in Northern Europe are fully dependent on tax free sales for continued profitability. Many Finns traveling from Finland to Sweden do not get off the ship when it arrived in Stockholm, taking the trip mainly to acquire cheap cigarettes and alcohol. The EU has eliminated most tax free sales and limiting what they can sell just makes it more difficult to keep these routes open. (Or forces them to raise rates, driving away bargain hunters.)
NAUTICAL SHETLAND has a photo of the Norwegian Reefer ship “FIRDA“.
I dispatched the deckhand forward with a radio and instructions to keep track of any survivors that may surface. I could only see the top of his mast as he reached the middle of the bow, I just knew he was going to be raked under by the chain bridles. The deckhand was yelling for him to get out of the way or jump or anything, and the guy replies “I can’t”. He then turned around, reached for and pulled the rope starter on his little 2 cylinder kicker which started on the first pull. He cranked the throttle in time to clear with moments to spare.
We had a similar moment like that on my first ship. We were pulling into Brunswick, Georgia and a sailboat decided to cross our bow. Over the sound of the pilot sounding the danger signal, the Bosun and AB were arguing over who was going to have to paint over the scratches on the hull because a collision looked certain. The guy in the sailboat only looked up at us once, pushed the throttle to the inboard full ahead and kind of rocked back and forth as if it would make the boat go a little faster. Amazingly he went down our port side with about two feet to space. I am sure that there was concern for the guy in the sailboat even though I don’t remember anything other than anger and just plain confusion on my part because nobody in their right might would have done what that boater did. As for the anger part, the crew was certain that shore leave was going to be delayed to investigate the accident which thankfully never happened.
CDR Salamander covers the war record of the US Battleship USS WASHINGTON which was not at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked and later managed to inflict substantial losses on the Japanese Navy.
BitterEnd has “Capt. Pierson’s TWIC Experience“. I would say that the enrollment process has problems and these problems have been around for a while. The nice thing about getting contractors involved in a project like this, both they and the Government can point fingers at the other as to who is to blame. Then again, this problem impacts nobody but transportation professionals, so no need to make it better, right???
Hellenic Shipping News has “Obama sets stage for likely trade war with China“. I think that China has bigger problems that they are going to have to deal with as trade is drying up on its own. Maybe they should concern themselves with the quality issues of the products they make.
Lou Minatti looks at industry’s “Supply chain” from China.
Any idea what possible societal upheaval in China will do to the supply chain? So many companies throughout the world have outsourced critical items to China.
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Haight’s Maritime Items has:
Court upholds conviction for failure to properly “maintain” ORB - The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the conviction of a vessel operator for failure to properly maintain an oil record book (ORB) while the vessel was within the navigable waters of the United States. In the instant case, the defendant was convicted at a jury trial for, among other things, having on board while in US waters an ORB with entries known to be materially inaccurate. Evidence showed that members of the crew, at the direction of the chief engineer, had discharged oily waste water directly into the ocean while the vessel was at sea and that the chief engineer had made entries in the ORB that did not reflect such improper discharge. On appeal, defendant argued that it could only be convicted for a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) if the ORB entries had been made while the vessel was in US waters (which was not the case here). The appellate court rejected that argument, finding that a violation of APPS occurs when the vessel enters US waters with an ORB that contains knowingly inaccurate entries. United States v. Ionia Management S.A., No. 07-5801-cr (2nd Cir., January 20, 2009). Note: This court has adopted the rationale espoused by the Fifth Circuit in the recent case of United States v. Jho. While not condoning the use of magic pipes, personally, I consider both decisions to be flawed because I believe that there should be a requirement in the elements of the offense that the ORB be presented to a Coast Guard boarding officer or other government official before the offense can be said to have occurred. MARPOL regulations require only that full and complete entries be made in the ORB of all oil transfers and that the ORB be kept on board for examination by government officials. The purpose of APPS is to allow US officials to enforce MARPOL, not to create new offenses. - Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)
Panagopoulos freed - GREEK shipping magnate Periklis Panagopoulos has been freed after eight days in captivity.
Previously his wife had reportedly paid an undisclosed sum of money for his release. According to a police announcement, Panagopoulos was found at around 0130 this morning, sitting at a bench in a parking lot on the Athens-Corinth motorway, close to Hellenic Shipyards.
He was unhurt and in good health. Speaking to journalists today, he said his kidnappers had provided him with the medication he needed and treated him well.
Early reports suggested that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of €40M ($51.8M) but although the sum paid remains unconfirmed, according to all major Greek dailies his wife Katerina paid the abductors €30M ($38.7M). In her negotiations with them there was no police involvement. - Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)
AND:
‘Contango hangover’ feared - THE VLCC market has been buoyed by floating storage charters, but there could be fallout when the ‘contango’ oil trade unwinds, warned Dahlman Rose analyst Omar Nokta.
In a research note today, Nokta cited Imarex data that at least 33 VLCCs are being employed for floating storage, or 6.5% of the global fleet. The trend has been driven by capacity constraints at land-based storage facilities amidst the oil price ‘contango’ – with futures higher than current pricing. “Floating storage is being done on hopes of selling the stored crude at a higher price in the future,” the analyst explained.
Nokta speculated that oil futures will normalise and the contango trade will unwind. “We are concerned with the aftermath,” he said.
Beyond the impact of 33 VLCCs re-entering the spot trade, he also pointed to the 2.8M bpd in additional OPEC reductions, the equivalent of 40 VLCC cargoes/month. “Thus far spot rates have been shielded by floating storage, but we believe rates could see significant pressure in the coming months,” said Nokta, who believes that Frontline, OSG, Nordic American Tankers and Teekay face the most exposure.
Nokta maintained his ‘hold’ rating on Frontline and OSG, but downgraded Nordic American and Teekay from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’. - 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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