Maritime Monday 120

Welcome to this 120th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 70 here. (Published 6 August 2007)

You can find last week’s edition here.

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

NOTE: gCaptain is Seeking an Engineer Blogger. So click on the link if interested.

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos are a couple I have taken this last week while working in Zurich, Switzerland. Even though the country is landlocked, doesn’t mean that it does not have ships. As it so happens, Switzerland has one of the largest fleets of paddle steamers:

Switzerland has a large paddle steamer fleet, most of the “Salon Steamer-type” built by Sulzer in Winterthur or Escher-Wyss in Zürich. There are five active and one inactive on Lake Lucerne, two on Lake Zürich, and one each on Lake Brienz, Lake Thun and Lake Constance. Swiss company CGN operates a number of paddle steamers on Lake Geneva. Their fleet includes three converted to diesel electric power in the 1960s and five retaining steam. One, Montreux, was reconverted in 2000 from diesel to an all-new steam engine. It is the world’s first electronically remote-controlled steam engine and has operating costs similar to state of the art diesels, while producing up to 90 percent less air pollution. – Wikipedia

Lake Zurich side-wheeler

Lake Zurich Paddle Steamer underway

Docking the paddle steamer

Side-wheels

Lake Zurich Search and Rescue

Lake Lucerne – Another Great Lake for side-wheelers

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This Week’s Items:

Some former members of the US Merchant Marine Academy Offshore Sailing Team will remember sailing coach Chris Winter. I met up with him during my recent visit to Finland. He is off to the Olympics as the Head Coach for the Finnish National Sailing Team. (Feel free to share and let everyone know in the comments if you know of any other maritime industry folks headed to the Olympics.)

EagleSpeak has an update on the M/V LEHMANN TIMBER in “USS Momsen to the rescue“. Also check out “Somalia: Death by Piracy” as the pirates cut off the supply lines to the failed country despite UN attempts to keep them open.

Also check out EagleSpeak‘s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: The Continuing Saga of J.H. Morrill“. This is great timing as I had just finished reading Mr. Morrill’s book on his escape to Australia after the fall of the Philippines. So this is a must-read for any one who enjoyed his book ‘South From Corregidor’.

gCaptain has exclusive video of an amazing new product “Golden Shellback Preview – Run Electronic Gear Underwater“. Go to minute 21 of the video and be amazed.

gCaptain also has an explanation of “Milestones In Ship Construction“.

euobserver has “EU to give extra cash to fishermen struggling with high oil prices“.

CNN has “Mexico seizes homemade sub carrying cocaine“.

BarentsObserver has “Russian sailors go abroad“.

Of the students studying in Russian maritime colleges, more than 90 percent go abroad to work. Now Russian authorities intend to make the sailors work for Russian companies.

Cruise Bruise has coverage of the detention of the cruise ship PACIFIC CLIPPER by the US Coast Guard as it was sinking-at-the-pier in “Cracked Hull Leaking Death Ship Was Headed To Venezuela With 1200 Aboard Until The USCG Stopped Her“. (OK, it wasn’t exactly sinking, but I doubt any of the passengers would have been comforted to find out that the crew had the flooding from the huge crack in the ship’s hull under control…)

Sea * Fever has “Has that SuperDuper yacht turtled? (Wall Street Journal)” with photos and well deserved criticism of Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko newest superyacht “A”. I recently posted about another example of ugly yacht syndrome in “Finland Gets an Ugly New Presidential Yacht“.

BitterEnd explains the reasoning behind deciding when to pass up some salvage/tow work in “Managing Risks“.

Bob Couttie’s Maritime Accident Casebook has “The Case Of The Rusty Assassin” covering the triple death in the chain locker of the supply vessel VIKING ISLAY. One died because the space lacked oxygen. The other two died because they went in after the victim without the proper equipment.

Hellenic Shipping News has “Shippers say job action slow SoCal port operations“.

Dockworkers at the nation’s largest port complex are continuing to take shift breaks at the same time and working at a slower pace, causing cargo traffic to slow down, a spokesman for the association representing West Coast shippers said Wednesday. The workers have been taking coordinated breaks every day since Friday and have taken other small job actions, Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug said. They include tractor drivers moving “more slowly than normal” and brief delays during the transferring of containers onto trucks or back on ships, he said.

MarEx Newsletter has “Officer Shortfalls Estimated at 34,000 and Rising“.

The July Edition of Marine Log is now available online.

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Popular Science has the very cool: “The Hyper-Sub – The first submersible speedboat transforms from wave rider to deep diver in seconds“.

GMA News has “Alert up over toxic cargo in sunken ship off Panay“. The cargo ship is the M/V OCEAN PAPA.

Lloyd’s List has “Hebei Spirit pair stuck in Korea for another year“.

The two Indian nationals have been prevented from leaving South Korea pending a retrial that is not expected to take place until early next year, even though they were cleared of charges related to the oil spill.

Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog has “Showing the strain” suggesting that shipping companies might want to take an interest in port crane safety noting that even the best of shipping companies are encountering accidents..

Molten Eagle has “The ‘Submarine Mafia’ and HMS Götland“.

Greenpeace has “Breaking Waves – The Pirate of the Pacific runs aground in Bali!“. The ship is the fishing vessel Ho TSAI FA 18 whose crew is under suspicion of mutiny. They are not sure at the moment because the captain is missing and presumed to have been thrown overboard.

Information Dissemination has “Two Views of Sea Basing, War and Peace Time Metrics” and also covers ongoing problems with Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats harassing Royal Navy units in the Persian Gulf. Well maybe the Royal Navy should blow one of the speedboats out of the water. That is the only sort of lessons the Iranians seem to understand.

Professional Mariner has “Cummings: Coast Guard needs more icebreaking capacity“. (See additional details below.)

MarineBuzz has “Greek Ship Argo Again on Golden Fleece” covering the voyage of the 14th century BC Greek warship replica.

MarineBuzz also has “Aircraft Carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince Of Wales to Join Royal Navy“. The first of which will join the fleet in 2014.

The BBC has “Greek ship dumps water for Cyprus” as Cyprus begins a serious effort to supply the island with desperately needed drinking water.

The Chronicle Herald has “Who Killed the Grand Banks? It was Canadians, author says“. Seems that one contributing factor of the collapse of the cod fishery was the extension of the economic area to 200 miles.

Times Online has “Riddle of Lusitania sinking may finally be solved – American entrepreneur Gregg Bemis finally gets courts go-ahead to explore the wreck off Ireland“.

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Pinoy Maritime has an example of current salary info for officers and ratings noting the pay difference between tankers and other vessel types for experienced sailors handling cargo.

Shirlaw News Group has “Unmanned yacht prompts search for man overboard“.

“The gentleman was attempting to re-secure the dinghy to his yacht when a line broke, leaving the man left behind in his dinghy and the yacht traveling away from him with all communications equipment on board.

blue water: news of my escape moves to the tug PAUL T. MORAN and provides some photos of tug and barge and the ”Bludworth’ coupling system that keeps them linked together.

Kennebec Captain covers a common problem in international shipping in “Language Confusion“. American sailors and Japanese charterers. Interesting combination.

Skipper’s Scrivenings of the USNS MERCY arrives in “Dili, Timor Leste“.

Houston Press has “Galveston — Exhibit A Against Offshore Drilling?“.

Gary’s Nautical Information has “Taking Soundings with a Lead Line“.

Jackaranda has “NIGERIAN ‘BLOOD OIL’ CREW PARADED !“

THE PRIVATE ISLANDS BLOG has “Sikaiana Island” which is a small a Polynesian island located in the Solomon Islands.

Neptunus Lex rants about some Air Force wasteful spending in “Ghey“. The Navy buys aircraft carriers. The Air Force buys ‘comfort capsules’. CDR Salamander has even more details on the project including mock up images of the ‘capsules’ in “Self actuating Air Force joke‏“.

The Stupid Shall Be Punished has “Another Reason It’s Better To Be At Sea Than In Port” covering a fire onboard the USS ANNAPOLIS in an unlikely location.

The Horse’s Mouth presents the latest bikini-clad woman and fish photo for his weekly series Fish On Fridays.

intheboatshed.net covers “How to build a Greenland kayak“.

Tims Times has “TLA (3 Letter Abbreviations)“.

Mr. Boat Blog has “Serious tow in surfing.“

The Destroyermen have “Division in the Spotlight – R – “R” Stands for REPAIR“.

Robin Storm – In Search of Severe Weather has “Why More Men Die in Floods“.

Investing Thoughts has “Steady income in a volatile sector” as he looks at Ship Finance International Ltd. and Nordic American Tankers.

The Read Family Adventures has photos of taking their 48 foot sailboat through the Panama Canal in “A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama“. Hmm, parents traveling with a small child. Seems that is a limitation as they are forced to call ports normally passed over by other adventurous sailors as noted in “Life in Chiapas“.

Afterlife has a summary of the life of Argentine Navy founder and hero William “guillermo brown“, from Ireland.

SY-SHIMMI ….CIRCUMNAVIGATION is another blog covering a personal attempt to circumnavigate the planet. At least this guy is not doing it alone. Good thing when you read this post: “When it hits the fan!!!“. Then again, I think it is better to go alone than to bring your four year old and 5 month old along with you! Be interesting to ‘sea’ how they far they make it in the Pacific before running into serious trouble.

Cal Maritime. Follow The Voyage 2008 has some photos from sea on the T/S GOLDEN BEAR including some fire drill photos in “Cruise Candids: Ship Date, Thursday, July 17“.

Tugster has photos of one way to reduce a tug’s “Air Draft“.

Space War has “French firm cleared over Indian submarine deal, says official“.

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Haight’s Maritime Items has:

Hearing re USCG icebreaking – On July 16, the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure conducted an oversight hearing on Coast Guard Ice Breaking. The purpose of the hearing was to focus on defining domestic and polar icebreaking missions, determining what resources are needed to accomplish the identified missions, and determining how to best provide the resources to carry out the missions. Committee Chair James Oberstar (D-MN) discussed the importance of the mission to the US economy. Subcommittee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) pointed out that icebreaking assets of the Coast Guard are inadequate for the missions. Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant, US Coast Guard, testified concerning the strategic significance of the agency’s icebreaking capability. Dr. Arden Bement, Jr., National Science Foundation, testified concerning the importance of the federal government having adequate polar ice breaking capability. Mr. Mead Treadwell, Arctic Research Commission, discussed the opportunities and challenges of an accessible Arctic. Mr. James H.I. Weakley, Lake Carriers Association, testified concerning the importance of domestic ice breaking to the economy of the Great Lakes region and the entire US. (7/16/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

Fairplay Daily News has:

Panama responds to Paris MOU – PANAMA has responded with a string of new technical requirements to the move by the Paris MOU to return the world’s largest register to its black list.

The Panama Maritime Authority’s Marine Merchant Marine Directorate, which administers the Panama Registry, issued a resolution requiring vessels more than 20 years old to submit to a check by a recognized inspection organisation (RO) before docking at a port within the Paris MOU.

If the vessel fails to go through such an RO inspection, it could “be deleted from the registry or subject to a fine”, the authority warned.

In addition, any vessels of that age that have been detained twice in six months will be cancelled from the register. Further, such ships must be approved by Panama’s Department of Navigation & Maritime Safety Section Port State Control before registering under the Panama flag.

The Panama Registry has already cancelled 35 vessels that did not fulfill the requirements, and 20 more are in process of cancellation, according to the authority’s merchant marine chief Alfonso Castillero.

He noted that the number of detentions in the Paris MOU “does not reflect the quality of the flag but [only] the behaviour of ships operating in that area”.

In the Paris MOU 2007 report, which is based on a three-year average of detentions, Panama ranked 65 out of 80. – 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.

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