Maritime Monday 129

Welcome to this 129th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 79 here. (Published 8 October 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].

US MERCHANT MARINE PATCH CONTEST WINNER: ‘Thomas Jackson’, ‘Jean Poole’, and ‘DJ’ please email me with your mailing address as you have each won a patch. Thanks very much for participating.

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos come from the website of APL:

APL provides customers around the world with container transportation services through a network combining high-quality intermodal operations with state-of-the-art information technology.

APL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines, a global transportation and logistics company engaged in shipping and related businesses.

We help customers grow their business – whether that is venturing into new territories, exploring new business opportunities, or growing in already developed markets. With more than 150 years’ experience, APL has the knowledge and the expertise to help you negotiate the increasingly complex and ever-changing global marketplace.

Our partnership with some of the world’s best-known brands and success in fostering trade in emerging markets has helped defined global trade, setting new benchmarks in service innovation and excellence in every market we serve.

The containership APL England berthed at APL’s marine terminal, Global Gateway South, at the Port of Los Angeles.

APL containership President Adams outbound under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York.

The containership APL New York passing under Bayonne Bridge in New York Harbor.

Their homepage can be found here.

You can read about the history of the company here and a summary of the Company’s logo here.

Thanks to APL for providing the photos above!

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has ongoing coverage and photos of the hijacking of the MV FAINA, which the pirates managed to score a ship full of tanks and heavy weapons in “Somali Pirates: Under the Eyes of the U.S. Navy“. Be sure to check his homepage for the latest on pirate activity.

Also be sure to check out EagleSpeak‘s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: Andrew Jackson and the Malay Pirates“

gCaptain has “Incident Video Of The Week – Russian Navy Ship Marshal Shaposhnikov” and “Photos of the Somali Pirate’s Mothership“.

gCaptain also recognizes “World Maritime Day 2008 – The IMO Turns 60“. I wasn’t going to mention it because for some reason ‘World Maritime Day’ has little if any meaning for me. Is this day taken seriously anywhere outside the IMO? Maybe it just does not get any attention in the US.

MarEx Newsletter‘s Managing Editor Joe Keefe has the latest in his bid to bring his old license up to STCW 95 standards in “Wakeup Call: The Road to STCW Compliance Starts to Get Bumpy…“. The bump? Its the new mariner medical issue that I linked to last week.

Her Captain’s Voice has a National Geographic contest: “Want to explore the High seas with Indian Navy?“.

BitterEnd has more blog blowback, this time from the receiving end of blog coverage in “WSF responds to Attendee in BE Hat” as a BitterEnd reader donning a BitterEnd cap is followed around the meeting hall, photographed and just plain hassled as he attends a Washington State Ferry public hearing.

BitterEnd also has “TWIC – This means you!“. I think I pre-registered for a TWIC. I am now convinced that this program is not much more than busy work to drain the wallets of seafarers and port workers as well as to be used as a whacking stick against the same persons later on. Anyone agree? Disagree? Was this a total overreaction to port security?

CNN has “At least 52 Somalis die in smuggling attempt“.

(CNN) — At least 52 Somalis died when the boat smuggling them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen broke down, and they were left adrift with no food or water for 18 days, U.N. officials said Sunday.

An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog has “Boarding Team Member Thrown into Ocean by Resisting Crew, Drowns“.

Wired’s Danger Room Blog covers the ongoing freedom of Information request battle between An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog, Coast Guard Report and the US Coast Guard in “Coast Guard Isn’t Sure if Bloggers are Journalists” providing a good summary of the dispute. This probably would not have been an issue for the Coast Guard if the requested documents didn’t hide something. Although the Coast Guard Report did eventually get a somewhat straight answer from the US Coast Guard. Hopefully they will clarify it.

The Stupid Shall Be Punished has “Submarine Food “Rejected By Prison”?” The jewel of his post are all the comments.

Sea * Fever has video in “Sunday VOWs – Sea Shanties via the Art of Manliness“.

Robin Storm – In Search of Severe Weather has “Ship-induced Waves Affect Snails, Crabs And Insect Larvae In Sandy Lakes And Rivers“.

Professional Mariner has “Fire engulfs tugboat at Corpus Christi port: WITH VIDEO“. The video of the tug fire is impressive.

Journal of Commerce has “Typhoon kills Maersk engineer“.

BarentsObserver has “If an oil tanker crashed in the Arctic” as plans go forward for Beluga to try out sailing through the region next summer without an icebreaker escort.

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Israellycool has the latest on the Gaza ‘Peace Boats’ in “Free Gaza Freaks Stymied“. Seems that it is very expensive to operate a boat and they were doing it with borrowed funds. Worse, the people they borrowed the money from actually expect their money back.

La Russophobe has the end of the Ukraine’s patience with Russia’s demands to keep their navy in the Ukrainian Port of Sevastopol after the current agreement expires in 2017 in “Special Extra: Tymoshenko Puts Her Foot Down“. Unfortunately, I suspect that Sevastopol will be Russian before that 2017 date comes around

CDR Salamander covers the recent pirate attack on the USNS JOHN LENTHALL in “Ma will take care of you …“. He also prints a story from 2005 when two small boats were attacked by pirates while transiting the area, but got away because they fought back and were lucky doing so. As it so happens EagleSpeak covered this story back in 2005 “Firsthand Report of Violent Pirate Attack On Two Yachts Off Yemen“

The Maritime also comments on the recent pirate attack on the USNS JOHN LENTHALL in “Pirates attack U.S. Navy” noting the boldness of the pirates to attack a US Naval Vessel. Well I am not surprised they tried as it seems that only the French ones shoot back.

The Merchant Marine Express searches out the ships he sailed on to learn of their current fate in “Where are they now?“

MarineBuzz has “Danish Warship Absalon is a Nightmare to Somali Pirates“. Well he does update the post to note that they were more like a headache since the Danes released the pirates back in Somalia, not knowing what else to do with them.

MarineBuzz also has some details on “Weekend Flight: Fusion Man Yves Rossy Crosses English Channel with Jet Propelled Wing“.

Information Dissemination has “5th Fleet Focus: Pirates Not Our Problem” telling merchant ships to take measures to protect themselves. I suspect their concern would be a little different if the cargo ships were flying the US Flag. Then again, I can’t see how it is in the interest of the US to let pirates gain control of a ship full of weapons. That seems to be a big step backwards for the global war on terror. And just how was it a surprise that that ship’s cargo was tanks?

Tugster has “East River Mystery 2” asking if anyone knows the name of a wreck by Rikers Island.

The Monitor covers Scientology’s school/indoctrination ship FREEWINDS in “Lungfull of Asbestos, brainfull of …?“

Chaotic Synaptic Activity is now up to part X of his “19 Years Ago – Life at Sea” as he covers his ships return to the Naval Port of Charleston in the wake of Hurricane Hugo, with the crew tasked with keeping the ship running at the pier, cleaning up the Naval Base, surrounding community and homes as well.

Hellenic Shipping News has “Shipping Market Sinks Most in 9 Years on Steel Output“.

Molten Eagle has “The Most Common Category of Submarine Injuries Was …” Hmm. Concerning safety training, mine has seemed to turn me into a playground ‘Natsi’.

The New York Times has “Boston Lawyers Get a Few More Days in Court” as William Shatner and James Spader join the Coast Guard.

Maritime Compass has coverage of the NPR Radio report on the US Coast Guard getting the Houston ship channel open again after Hurricane Ike wrecked many of the aids to navigation in “Unclogging the Houston Ship Channel“.

Houston Ship Pilot/photographer OneEighteen has posted some recent post Hurricane Ike photos including this one “Paying Attention“. Also check out this RADAR image that charts all the ships waiting to go up the Houston Ship Channel: “Traffic Backlog“.

Craig Newkirk doing the pilot thing on the tanker Montego. The Star Grindanger is inbound and the ITB Orion is on berth at left.

Salty Guy is another Pilot / photographer. You can find his photos here.

Old time wheelsman doing his thing. No auto pilot on this old girl! – Link

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Japan Probe has “‘Foreign submarine’ may have been whale” and “Government will use sand-creating electrodes to save Okinotorishima“.

EnglishRussia has “An Abandoned Coastline Defense Canon Battery“.

The Firearm Blog has photos of “Weapons and Tactics of the Niger Delta“.

ISRAEL WITHOUT IFS OR BUTS has “Russia should reactivate nuclear icebreaker fleet – Putin“.

Steeljaw Scribe has “Naval Operations Concept (NOC) To Be Released Oct 08“.

Tims Times signs off his ship and heads home in “Home again, home again jiggety jog.” covering the different types of people you encounter while running through an airport. At least this sailor made it to his destination without a true horror story to tell.

The Boston Globe has “A primitive fish lures scientists to Maine“. It is the spiny dogfish.

USA Today has “World-famous fisherman-author arrested in Canada“.

Greenlaw, 47, of Isle au Haut, Maine, survived the so-called Perfect Storm of 1991 and was the last person in contact with the Andrea Gail, a swordfish boat from Massachusetts, that sank with all hands.

BreakBulk Industry News has US “Gulf-Russia trade lane busy despite political tensions“.

The Pilot Boat has photos of “Industrial Eagle sea trials“.

Offshore Magazine has drilling for oil offshore the coast of China.

THE PRIVATE ISLANDS BLOG has “Bardsey Island- the Isle of Avalon?” The island is home to the world’s rarest species of apple tree, it was an orchard of one but they are now grafting cuttings into new plants.

Shirlaw News Group has “Mystery ‘Marie Celeste’ ship sails into harbour without crew“. The ‘ship’ is a 20 foot sailboat that made port thanks to the autopilot.

Christiaan Conover covers one of the activities for merchant marine midshipmen with “Chart Work – The Core of Learning For a Young Deckie“.

Greenpeace has “New Japanese Whaling Commissioner“.

Mr. Boat Blog has insane video “How to jump from an oil tanker.“

Never Sea Land has photos: “Aircraft carrier in lego“. Be sure to follow the link for even more photos.

Inhabitat has “The SG Blocks Shipping Container House Debuts!” and unlike other concepts, they did a really good job concealing the container building blocks. More photos posted on flickr.

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Haight’s Maritime Items has:

EC – Galileo and EGNOS – The European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) issued a news release summarizing the roles planned for Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) in global monitoring, including maritime navigation. (9/22/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

UK – report on grounding – The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) released the report of its investigation of the grounding of a cargo vessel on the River Trent on 18 February 2008.  The master was the only person on board able to control the ship’s azimuth propulsion system.  While steering the ship in the close quarters of the river, he lost command perspective.  The MAIB reminds the industry of the importance of having sufficient trained persons on board to adequately support the missions and operations of the vessel. Report No. 16/2008 (9/26/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

Fairplay Daily News has:

Viking to unfurl its sails – THE HIGH cost of bunkers has encouraged Viking Line, the Finnish ferry operator, to consider fitting ships with sails to cut fuel costs. However, they would not become the sole source of propulsion. “I am quite certain this will happen in the near future,” said CEO Nils-Erik Eklund. “Our calculations show that sails can save a lot of fuel expense.” He told local media that several small sails would be fitted in ships, offering significant efficiency saving. “The US and Germany are leaders in this technology and the German Belugua project has seen a 15% drop in fuel expenses,” said Eklund, who is a keen yachtsman, and has increased his personal interest in developments in sail technology. Viking Line operates a fleet of seven vessels and it has one newbuilding on order in Spain. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

US shortsea needs new class of ship – A NEW class of vessels will be needed if a US shortsea system is to be feasible. That was the word from Bill Deaver, president and COO of Totem Ocean Trailer Express. Following a panel discussion on freight mobility yesterday at the American Association of Port Authorities conference in Anchorage, Deaver told Fairplay that he sees the ro-ro vessels used by his line as a good model. He said the two ships (North Star and Midnight Sun) that TOTE uses to carry goods between Tacoma, Washington and Anchorage cost about $300M per ship. “That’s too expensive … nobody can make money building two ships at a time,” he said, explaining that if a class is designed, the economies of scale will make the ships affordable. “We have conducted feasibility studies on the East Coast from Jacksonville to the Northeast,” he said. “The concept works.” The idea of using vessels that use trestles for roll on-roll off are preferable to box ships because ro-ro terminals are much cheaper than container facilities that need costly gantry cranes. “In addition, the trailers are more efficient because they can be pulled off the ship and taken straight to their destinations.” – 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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