Maritime Monday 102

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 102nd edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 52 here. (Published 26 March 2007)

You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. To stay informed all week long, be sure to check out gCaptain’s Discoverer site and vote for your favorite stories as well as add ones that you find.

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos are from the website of Swire Pacific Offshore:

Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) is a trusted name in the offshore marine industry. Established in 1975, we have built a reputation as a leading service provider to the offshore oil and gas industry, with a network that spans the globe.

Swire Pacific Offshore owns and operates over 65 offshore support vessels, with over 20 new vessels on order for delivery from yards in 2008-2011. SPO’s fleet is modern, with an average age of 11 years, and a large proportion of the fleet is equipped with dynamic positioning systems (DP 1 or DP 2). The fleet includes over 55 Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessels, Platform Supply Vessels (PSV), Anchor Handling Tugs (AHT), seismic survey vessels, ROV support / dive support vessels and maintenance / accommodation support vessels. We are fully equipped to support a wide range of offshore activities, including drilling, production, exploration, pipe-lay, subsea construction and FPSO operations.

With a strong emphasis on operational excellence and a proactive attitude towards Health, Safety and the Environment (HSE), SPO places great importance on providing reliability for its partners through quality service. The establishment of a dedicated marine training centre in 2007 has reinforced this commitment to high standards, even under challenging conditions in harsh operating environments.

Headquartered in Singapore, SPO has regional offices in Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Qatar, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates, and operates vessels in every major oil exploration region outside of North America. – Link

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Many more photos on their website here.

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This Weeks Items:

EagleSpeak has “The Time is Right for Revolution” which is a post about the US Navy’s Shipbuilding Program and is in response to CDR Salamander‘s post “Maritime Strategy Monday: the Revolt of the Commanders“. Both posts make you wonder just what is the US Navy thinking.

Chaotic Synaptic Activity has for his weekly series Monday Maritime Matters a summary of the career of US Navy Admiral and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Paul Foster, noting that “At this point in his career, then LCDR Foster became the first man to be awarded all three of the top awards for his service time; The Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal.“

Maritime Accident Casebook covers the release of the accident report investigating the QUEEN OF THE NORTH sinking.

BitterEnd has some wireless internet monkey business going on in the Washington State Ferry System in “Porn in a WSF Pilot House: Say it ain’t so“. As if they didn’t have enough problems.

American Shipper has an explosion next to the US-Flag LIBERTY STAR while at a shipyard in Turkey.

YID With LID has photos and the story of being caught wet-handed discharging oily bilge water in ““Environmentalist” Ted Kennedy Polluting Nantucket Sound“

War is Boring points out that the Navy’s T-AKE cargo ship is a shining example of what is right with Navy shipbuilding, while all the other projects are a complete mess. Maybe the program is successful is because everyone wants to get their finger into the warship programs. In comparison, there are his other posts “Coastie Cutter Almost 100-Percent Over-Budget” and what would be considered an accounting trick if this were an accounting exercise in “Coastie “Special Commission” = Navy Dirty Trick?“

The Coast Guard is trying to create the impression that there are no further delays in getting its first National Security Cutter into service by placing the vessel, Bertholf, into a “special” commissioning status. The status will allow her to sail with a crew to her home port in California, but won’t allow her to go on regular patrols.

Just imagine buying a new car and being allowed to drive it home, but having to leave it on the driveway because it is not yet ‘street-legal.’ That is what the US Navy and Coast Guard have been doing and it’s wrong.

IMC Brokers has photos of “Tugs and Barges on the River Scheldt“

gCaptain has “Go Sail A Rust Bucket – 10 Reasons Why“. Odd, I do not remember having to be talked into sailing a rustbucket. I think the issue was which rustbucket, as the non-rustbucket variety was not available at the time (1994). gCaptain also has “English For Maritime Students – STCW Competency Evaluation“

The PEOPLESNAVY sail a protest boat to Diego Garcia and it is promptly seized and the crew of two are arrested. I am not sure of the wisdom of protesting someplace where there are no witnesses. After all, it’s not like anyone is willing to sail into North Korea.

Cruise Bruise is contacted by three more married couples who claim that Carnival Cruises sent them to different ships against their will.

MarineBuzz has “China Introduces World’s First E-Tags in International Container Routes” and “World’s First Wave Powered Boat to Sail from Hawai to Japan“

frogblog explains that an FPSO is basically a ship that had it’s propulsion system disabled, and then poses a relevant question on the matter. So go and read it.

Molten Eagle has an interesting “Solution to Navy Sonar Dilemma“

Lloyds List has “Demolition prices surge” as fewer ships are headed to the scrapheap.

Lloyds List also has the latest in the tax wars against shipping in “Non-dom shipowners to lose tax-free status“. (To be taxed on earnings outside the UK even if not brought into the country.)

euobserver has “Croatia abandons fishing zone to boost EU bid“

Sea * Fever has photos of the German training ship ROALD AMUNDSEN’s with its sails in shreds after surviving a storm with hurricane-force winds.

Kiwi at Sea covers the first half of his working day in “A typical day at sea – Part one” and “A day at sea Part 2“

It occurred that my life at sea is completely alien to most of my readers who work ashore. My place of work, is also my home, and is constantly on the move – the scene from my cabin window is never the same, and can be a tropical island, a giant iceberg, a menacing grey sea, or a thriving metropolis – although usually its just some guy leaning on the rail outside smoking and blocking the view.

The Horse’s Mouth has photos of the grounded cargo ship ARTEMIS in “Look What The Tide Brought In.“

More photos of the ARTEMIS on the beach can be found at Pretty Cool Things.

Charles Bremner (Times Online, UK) covers the ARTEMIS from another point of view in “Beached freighter delights French resort“

SAILORS, MARINERS & WARRIORS LEAGUE has news that a P&O cruiseship with the same name, ARTEMIS, was hit with a freak wave.

Lloyds List Newsroom Blog has “Fancy getting a ferry?” as ferry transport is looked at again as a ‘greener’ alternative to short-haul flights from the UK.

Zephrius writes about working as a stevedore in Singapore.

Tugster has photos of both a fireboat and Staten Island Ferry in drydock.

The Great Red Comet -Earth Science Chronicles has “Fears Loom of a Tsunami in the Mediterranean“

Robin Storm has an update on the Pacific Ocean tsunami warning system in “Sea alarms set“

BIMCO Seascapes has a series of articles covering all sorts of “Ships that serve us“

The Pilot Boat has photos of the “Spanish 2008 built Passenger/Ro-Ro ferry” VOLCAN DE TIJARAFE as she heads to drydock for a final coat of paint. That’s a cool name, as long as it never catches fire, or explodes.

The Baltimoresun has “Old ship could bring life to coast“. The vessel in question is the ex USS Arthur W. Radford. It is going to become an artificial reef. The unanswered question is where.

Wired Magazine has “Arrrr! Warships vs. Somali Pirates” noting the assistance of French and Dutch warships in the fight. (Thanks to Autistic Vulture for the link.)

The BBC has the interesting story “Nauru seeks to regain lost fortunes“

Nauru may be little, but it once enjoyed enormous wealth. In fact Nauruans were among the richest people, per capita, in the world.

A quirk of nature means that their island consists of some of the world’s purest phosphate – the legacy of millions of years of sea bird droppings reacting with an uplifted coral.

Vladivostok News has a case of fuel smuggling gone bad in “N. Korean captain fined for furtive fuel“

SailKarma has an update on the trimaran GROUPAMA 3 that capsized in February with photos of the sailboat lashed to a cargo ship for the trip back to Europe. I am impressed that they were able to recover it.

SolOceans has “Too many icebergs to round Cape Horn“

The Post Online has “African Partnership Station Trains Cameroon Navy“

Steeljaw Scribe has “Weekend Matinee: USS Oriskany Retrospective“

Never Sea Land has video of “Hawai’ian Sailing Canoes“

StrangeHarvest has some great old photos of lightships in “Light Vessel Automata” See Maritime Monday 65 for photos of the Lightship NANTUCKET.

The Greenwich Phantom has “The Sad Story of Admiral Byng” who was executed in March, 1757.

Japan Probe has “IWC Unanimously Condemns Sea Shepherd” in relation to their attacks on Japan’s ‘research’/whaling ships.

BMW Blog has “The Non-Enthusiast Blog: The Wait” writing about his ordering a custom Bimmer from the factory and his tracking the car through the process and across the ocean. I kept waiting for the end where he found out that his car was turned into scrap as covered here a couple weeks ago (here). But no, his arrived unscratched.

The Daily of the University of Washington has “From the deep: UW Seaglider draws U.S. military attention“

Finally, a little bird told me to keep an eye out on the FREEDOMSHIP Project. Seems that they are going to make an announcement sometime in the next five or so weeks. So if you have been wondering if the program was dead or not. Apparently not.

Haight’s Maritime Items has:

Canada – marine investigation report re passenger ferry sinking – The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada issued the report of its investigation into the striking and sinking of the passenger and vehicle ferry QUEEN OF THE NORTH at Gil Island, British Columbia on 22 March 2006. The primary cause of the incident was the failure of the officer of the watch to order a planned course change and his continuing failure to check the ship’s position until the grounding occurred approximately 14 minutes later. Contributing causes included the failure to maintain good watchkeeping procedures, failure to provide adequate training on new equipment, and failure to conduct adequate abandon-ship drills. M06W0052 (3/12/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

Fairplay Daily News has:

Credit crunch hits newbuilds – LONDON 12 March – Up to three quarters of the newbuilding contracts for ships of all types may lack finance, according to Fotini Karamalis, CEO of the Athens-based dry bulk shipping company Hellenic Carriers. The situation is likely to lead into delays in deliveries or cancellations of some contracts as the credit crunch is likely to get worse, she said. However, second hand values of dry bulk carriers are likely to remain high despite the crunch, as owners have enjoyed good earnings since 3Q03 and few of them are forced to sell ships. On the other hand, the credit crunch may slow down the sale and purchase market, she said. Karamanlis noted that the Baltic Dry Index, which is recovering from sharp falls a couple of months ago after hitting an all-time high of 11,000 points in November, may beat the record later this year. The market thrives on industrialisation, urbanisation and infrastructure projects of China and many other Far Eastern countries and it has little to fear from a recession in the US. The market’s anticipated strength supports high second-hand market prices for dry bulkers, she said. – 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 [email protected] for inclusion in future editions as well as suggest areas of coverage.

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

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 24 – 25 – 26 – 27 – 28 – 29 – 30 – 31 – 32 – 33 – 34 – 35 – 36 – 37 – 38 – 39 – 40 – 41 – 42 – 43 – 44 – 45 – 46 – 47 – 48 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 52 – 53 – 54 – 55 – 56 – 57 – 58 – 59 – 60 – 61 – 62 – 63 – 64 – 65 – 66 – 67 – 68 – 69 – 70 – 71 – 72 – 73 – 74 – 75 – 76 – 77 – 78 – 79 – 80 – 81 – 82 – 83 – 84 – 85 – 86 – 87 – 88 – 89 – 90 – 91 – 92 – 93 – 94 – 95 – 96 – 97 – 98 – gCaptain Editions: 99 – 100 – 101 – 102 – 103 – 104 – 105

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