Maritime Monday 163

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 163rd edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 113 here. (Published 2 June 2008)

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]

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos were taken by me at this last Friday’s Maritime Day Program held on the NS SAVANNAH:

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I have posted more photos on my blog here.

You can read more about Maritime Day here.

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has “U.S. Navy Future: 200 ships?“

gCaptain has “IMO: “We are against the arming of seafarers in the fight against pirates”” and “U.S.A. vs. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse – Court Documents“.

Deep Water Writing has “North Sea Spring“. Be sure to read about the shore leave adventures of the ship’s engine cadet. Oddly enough, I had almost an identical experience in the same port, identical except I was the ship’s deck cadet, and I was the one pulling the Chief Mate out of the cab. Unfortunately, I was the one covering the cab fare.

The reluctance to use more expensive weekend labor, a general trend to save costs at every possible opportunity has reduced the occurrence of quick in and out port calls. Instead we spent the past Sunday idle at the dock along with four other car carriers waiting for a Monday morning cargo start at 0600. The docks have a surprising amount of cargo on them, both automobile and the larger better paying “high and heavy” which all the Ro/Ro companies are scrambling to fill their strength decks with. Excavators, crane trucks, cherry pickers and buses abound. The new automobiles though are collecting pollen on their shiny hoods having been sitting without a car market to go to as brake drums slowly rust. We haven’t had a new automobile loaded in Europe for months.

The Official Blog of the Secretary of Transportation has “National Maritime Day celebrated as Smithsonian opens new exhibit“. (Click the image below to go to the museum’s Maritime website)

CargoLaw has the whole story of the loss of 31 containers of ammonium nitrate off the M/V PACIFIC ADVENTURER in “Queensland Mis-Adventurer“.

iCommandant – Web Journal of Admiral Thad Allen has “Coast Guard Academy Class of 2009 graduating and divesting themselves of cadet life“.

NY TUGMASTER’S WEBLOG has an in-depth report: “New York City’s East River and Hell Gate“. I have the unfortunate experience of going Eastbound through the Gate on a 72′ yacht with no power. I’ll never forget the voice from ashore, ‘Yo! Look at the boat!’ as we were pushed through at 5 kts, doing 360’s at the same time.

VietNews has “Cargo costs blow out as ships stranded“.

The cost of unloading cargo at Ho Chi Minh City ports has blown out because of a backlog, with ships queuing for up to a month for an unloading berth.

It used to take only three to five days to unload a ship. But since the beginning of the year, HCMC’s ports have not been able to handle the surge of goods arriving.

The Coaster (Canada) has “Perfect storm hits lobster fishery“.

Examiner.com has “Animal Planet Whale Wars returns for season two“.

Sunday Herald has “Controversial killing fleet tastes failure as Japanese lose their appetite for whale meat“.

MarineBuzz has “Sea Piracy: MV Farah III in the Hands of Sea Tigers of Sri Lanka” and “Shomudro Torongo in the Ganges Delta by Royal Navy and Bangladesh Navy“.

Puget Sound Maritime has “Deadliest Catch skipper featured in Coast Guard boating safety PSAs“.

Wikipedia has the history of the US COAST GUARD’s ‘Racing Stripe’:

The Racing Stripe, officially known as the Service Mark, was designed in 1964 by the industrial design office of Raymond Loewy Associates to give the Coast Guard a distinctive, modern image. This symbol was first used in 1967. It consists of a narrow blue bar, a narrow white stripe between, and a broad red bar with the Coast Guard shield centered. The stripes are canted at a 64 degree angle, coincidentally the year the Racing Stripe was designed. Auxiliary vessels maintained by the Coast Guard also carry the Racing Stripe in inverted colors and the Auxiliary Emblem.

The Stripe has been adopted for the use of other coast guards, such as the Canadian Coast Guard, the Italian Guardia Costiera, the French Maritime Gendarmerie, the Indian Coast Guard, the German Federal Coast Guard, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Netherlands Coastguard and the Australian Customs Service.

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Helsingin Sanomat has “Motion in Russian Duma may cause through traffic via Finland to stop“.

Suomenkuvalehti has “Kenya pirates“.

Kenya pirates – A French naval marine disembarks from the French naval frigate, Nivose, with an assault rifle seized from suspected pirates at the Mombasa port in Kenya Friday, May 8, 2009. Eleven suspected Somali pirates alleged to have mistakenly attempted to hijack a French naval ship on May 3 have Friday been handed over to Kenyan authorities.

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has “Homeport Licenses for Island Lobstermen“.

HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has “one of those moments…” It appears to be a good moment, while alone on deck loading a barge. Alone?

Kennebec Captain has “Incident Reports Point to Lack of BRM“. That would be Bridge Resource Management. Or at a more basic level, a lack of communication between those on the bridge. At an even more basic level it includes the problem of ‘underlings’ noticing (or suspecting) that there is a problem but not having the nerve to advise the Captain out of fear that they might make the Captain look bad in pointing out something or being on the receiving end of Captain rage when he strikes back noting that they are wrong. My experience is that you can tell a Captain almost anything, if you tell him the right way. How do you do that? Well it somewhat depends on the type of Captain your serving under and the type of person you are.

Modern Day Pirate Tales points to a website highlighting his new book: “Terror on the Seas“.

AMVER Blog has “Amver Awards; A Success!” including a video compilation of various rescues.

US Naval Institute Blog has my post on revelations published in Fairplay: “Did the USSR Give Birth to Somali Pirates?“

Trade and Logistics Malaysia has “Syariah shipping fund to ride on next upcycle“.

“However, acquisitions in the container ship segment will be given thorough consideration as it poses certain syariah complications such as the element of uncertainty (Gharar).

“This is because we are not allowed to engage in the transportation of prohibited goods such as pork and liquor,” he said.

The Old Salt Blog notes “New York Fleet Week 2009“.

flickr has various Fleet Week 2009 photos.

THE TENSION has “Photo Essay: Fleet Week New York City 2009“.

Terra Daily has “Surprising New Pathway For North Atlantic Circulation“.

Oceanographers have long known that the 20-year-old paradigm for describing the global ocean circulation- called the Great Ocean Conveyor – was an oversimplification. It’s a useful depiction, but it’s like describing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as a catchy tune.

Marine Log has published their May 2009 Edition online.

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Marine Log has “Tidewater says Venezuela grab took 11 vessels“.

At a conference call with investors yesterday, it emerged that Tidewater has been offered $2.8 million for the nationalized assets. It maintains they are worth more and Chairman, President and CEO Dean E. Taylor said the company would pursue all legal options.

As of March 31, Tidewater was owed around $40 million by PDVSA.

War is Boring has “Spain Invades the U.K. … over Fish?” as the Spanish pester the Royal Navy off Gibraltar

Houston Ship pilot/photographer OneEighteen has “Dawn in Paradise – Polynesia. Stuff of dreams.“

Professional Mariner has reader feedback with “Sailors, not lawyers, fight pirates“. It is short and to the point.

An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog has “The Coast Guard Image: In the Yard; DALLAS and GALLATIN“. Shouldn’t they have gone in during the winter?

The Bellona Foundation has “Russia begins building its first floating nuke plant amid pep talk for Medvedev from Kiriyenko“.

BitterEnd has the “Amphibious Tourist Bus“. Hmm, I can’t see these having anything other than a very limited market, if any. Than again, others (with money) think otherwise.

Tugster has a sailship launch with “Splash!! Onrust!” Be sure to check the other posts on the launching as well.

Breakbulk Industry News has “Texas makes Port of Brownsville overweight corridor program permanent“. And yet, there is all this concern about Mexican trucks on US highways.

Information Dissemination asks if a multi-billion dollar submarine deal between Russia and Venezuela was sunk due to a fistfight between Hugo Chavez’s bodyguards and Russian sailors earlier this year in “Is This For Real?” There are some valid questions about this being some BS excuse for Chavez not having enough cash to actually purchase the subs. This of course assumes that they do business like the rest of us where money changes hands when expected. However, these guys come to all sorts of arrangements to keep the balls rolling. Not for anything but money is not the only motivation for Russia to make this deal. They have the side benefit of forcing the US Navy to have to deal with more sub threats, based in new areas, close to home.

Hunt of the Sea Wolves has “Italian frigate captures nine suspected pirates“. The Italian Frigate is the MAESTRALE.

Indigenous Boats has photos of building a “Penobscot Bark Canoe“.

Shipgaz News has Danish “Termination of icebreaker service“.

Naval Open Source INTelligence has “Only one submarine left to defend Australia“. I am not sure what is worse; that Australia only has 6 submarines, or that 5 of them are ‘broken’.

IceNews has “Norway’s salmon market looks bright“.

CDR Salamander has video of a movie on Russian Admiral Kolchak in “Oh, so it is a chin strap …“

Pinoy Maritime has “One of the dangerous Force of Nature“.

WebUrbanist has “15 Creatively Offbeat Canoes, Kayaks & Boats“.

Tims Times looks at “GPS dependency“.

Never Sea Land has the sailboat photo: “Careening“

HometownAnnapolis has “Academy justice was tilted toward women“. (Found via Neptunus Lex, which has a ton of comments on the matter)

As revealed in about 3,000 pages of Navy and Naval Academy documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act covering the five-year period, female accusers – and sometimes their witnesses – generally received immunity for conduct violations uncovered during investigations of the alleged sexual abuse.

But male midshipmen accused of sexual abuse, even when the evidence against them was weak, were likely to be dismissed for the same type of offense for which a female mid received immunity, the documents show.

THE ISLOMANIAC has “Maryland Island For Sale“. Only $3.5 million and it’s yours.

Drilling Contractor has “In Gulf of Mexico, deepwater and Shelf markets face disparate futures“.

Theo Spark – ‘Last of the Few’ has the amusing photo: “Low tech GPS……” Knowing how the Government spends money, this would be a very expensive device, not that the poor would have to pay for it.

YouTube has “Gwangyang crane accident”.

On 20 October 2007, when the vessel M/V MAERSK MYTILINI was preparing to leave the port of Kwangyang, South Korea, a boom from a shore gantry crane detached itself and fell on to the vessel’s deck in front of the bridge.

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Fairplay Daily News has:

Greece considers ‘prison’ ships – ATHENS is considering anchoring ‘prison’ ships along its sea border with Turkey to deal with migrants trying to get into Greece.

Interior minister Christos Markoyannakis told reporters that the government is weighing whether to charter vessels to serve as what he termed floating reception points for intercepted migrants.

The purpose would be to ease overcrowding migrant reception centres on Greek islands and to apply diplomatic pressure on Ankara to repatriate migrants from Turkish shores, he explained. A great many ships worldwide have been idled for commercial activities during the global recession.

Athens has also decided to use navy and army forces to aid coastguard in curbing the growing influx of illegal migrants. This would involve creating a co-ordination body.

From the Turkish west coast to Greece, Greek coastguards intercepted 163 migrants over 12-18 May on seven boats and arrested three people suspected of smuggling migrants.

During the same period, police at Lesvos detained 38 migrants who arrived on the island from Turkey in small groups in inflatable rowboats; security officers at Igoumenitsa found 46 migrants hiding in two trucks during the same period; and two other trucks at the Patras ferry terminal were found to be carrying nine migrants. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Mega-ship safety alert issued – EUROPEAN tug owners and pilots today sounded an alert about dangers posed by ultra-large box ships.

A panel made up of the European Tugowners Association (ETA) and the European Pilots Association issued their safety concerns to class societies, yards and marine insurance companies.

In particular, the panel said, it is wrong to consider a minimum speed of 9-11kt as ‘dead slow ahead’ when dealing with 10,000teu vessels.

“This is definitely too much for tugs and their crews to safely connect a towing line,” it warned.

The alliance also raised doubts about the structural strength of hulls and bollards of such large ships.

The safety concerns took centre stage at the ETA’s annual general meeting in Lisbon last week, where Jörg Mainzer, managing director of Hamburg’s Fairplay Reederei, was elected chairman, succeeding Charo Coll of Boluda, Spain. Richard Knight, UK tug owner JP Knight’s CEO, was elected deputy chairman. – 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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