Maritime Monday 173

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 173rd edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 123 here. (Published 11 August 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 come from the website of Mann Lines:

Mann Lines and its sister companies within the privately-owned Mann Group provide liner ro-ro and container vessel services, ships agency, stevedoring, chilled and ambient warehousing, forwarding, chilled and ambient distribution and European express freight.

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Below are a couple screen shots from Mann Line’s very cool Interactive Virtual Tour of M/V ESTRADEN. So don’t mind the images below. Go and find your way up to the very spacious bridge on this vessel. Very nice.

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Their homepage can be found here.

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In case you have not seen it already: “A Petition to name the next United States Navy nuclear powered aircraft carrier the USS ENTERPRISE“.

Whereas the namesake ENTERPRISE has been proudly borne by two combat aircraft carriers of the United States Navy;

Whereas the first USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) (seventh ship to bear this name) and her embarked airwing and crew gallantly fought in every major battle in the Pacific during World War Two, including the signatory battle at Midway when vastly outnumbered by the ships and planes of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet, ENTERPRISE, with YORKTOWN and HORNET struck a mortal blow, sinking four enemy aircraft carriers and turning the tide of the war in the Pacific;

Whereas the same ENTERPRISE concluded that war as the most decorated warship in the United States Navy with 20 battle stars, a Presidential Unit Citation, a British Admiralty Pennant, Navy Unit Commendation, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and Task Force 16 Citation among many other accolades;

Whereas the second United States Navy aircraft carrier to be named ENTERPRISE (CVAN/CVN-65) was the first such ship of her class in the world to be nuclear powered;

Whereas that ENTERPRISE, the eighth ship to bear that name in the United States Navy is concluding a half-century of service to this nation and has honorably served in every theater of operations from leading the naval quarantine off Cuba in 1962 to conducting the first strikes following the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11th, 2001;

Be It Resolved
That the next nuclear aircraft carrier to be constructed (CVN-79) should bear the name USS ENTERPRISE in recognition and honor of the fighting men and women of the United States Navy who have sailed in her namesakes through the centuries.

We The Undersigned:
Call upon the Congress of the United States to remand H. CON. RES. 83 and replace it with a resolution supporting the naming of CVN-79 or the next nuclear aircraft carrier to be constructed, the USS ENTERPRISE.

Call upon the Secretary of the Navy to support this petition of the tax-paying people of these United States and name the next nuclear aircraft carrier to be constructed the USS ENTERPRISE. – Sign the petition

SteelJaw Scribe, the author of the petition, has more with “CVN Naming – Enough With the Politics Already“.

The nonsense began with CVN-70 and reached the height of historical blindness with the Truman (honestly, naming a carrier for a president who tried his hardest to kill naval aviation and oversaw the death of the United States (CVA-58) in favor of the B-36).

Congress is supposed to represent ‘The People‘of the United States. Where did they come up with the thought that ‘The People’ wanted to name one of our newest carriers the ‘U.S.S. Barry M. Goldwater’? This is just more proof how out of touch Congress is with their constituents. Here is a thought. How about leaving the naming of Naval vessels to the Navy? They certainly can’t do any worse…

This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has the latest incident in “Caribbean: People Smuggling“.

Also be sure to check out EagleSpeak‘s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: Rum War of the Prohibition Era“

gCaptain has “Failure At Sea – Are Too Few Mariners Getting Failing Grades?“

The Merchant Marine Express has a must-read for the newbie’s with “My First Trip…what to expect!?“

I will introduce you to the experience of meeting a ship for the first time and how to pack accordingly! There might be some of you out there, looking for a ship. And being so, this would be your first ship, at that! I hadn’t a clue what to pack, or how much to pack, let alone- what my first ship experience would bring. The emotions ran high similar to a flooding tide on a full moon! I had to think and bring myself down from the high that this anxiety may have caused.

DO bring a knife with you. DON’T bring a hard-copy of Bowditch. I only mention it as one deckie I ran across did that. (He didn’t want to fight over it when on the bridge!) That said, many reference guides are now available in electronic format, so feel free to take recent copies with you. I suggest leaving most anything of value home, especially jewelry. What else should you leave home?

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has bad luck for thieves in “Fugitive Couple Steals Yacht but Starves to Death Adrift at Sea“.

The diary says the couple was drinking a combination of sea water and urine in an attempt to survive. The final entry in the diary is dated in June 2006, two months before the boat was discovered off the coast of Dakar, in Senegal, the Daily Mail reports.

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has “World Fisheries Report: No More Gloom and Doom“. Surely it does not apply if you are the European Union or a tuna…

One Free Korea has “Breaking: N. Korea Seizes S. Korean Fishing Boat“. You would think the South Koreans would pay more attention to be sure that they kept well away from the North Koreans. Then again, when you keep telling the population that there is no immediate threat, you also reduce the concern for avoiding what is being presented as a non-threat.

The Village Voice has “Pirate School, For the Merchant Sailor in You – The three Arrrrrs: Maritime schools tackle the seafaring menace“.

Bryant’s Maritime Blog has “Bill introduced re Arctic shipping“.

Senator Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Implementation Act of 2009 (S. 1514) to ensure safe, secure, and reliable marine shipping in the Arctic including the availability of aids to navigation, vessel escorts, spill response capability, and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic, and for other purposes. (7/24/09).

US Naval Institute Blog has “Sustaining Our Essential Warfighting Capabilities“, authored by US Navy Admiral John C. Harvey, Jr. Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command

MarineBuzz has “Tata Communications to have Around the World Undersea Cable Network” and “Intelligent Buoys to Avoid Whale Ship Collisions“. Click the image below for the Right Whale Listening Network website.

AP has “King salmon vanishing in Alaska, smokehouses empty” as many fish fail to return this year to spawn. (Note for AP: Fair use)

The Miami Herald has “NOAA seeks public input on filling quotas“.

Because of strong conservation rules and economic forces, the United States for years has been harvesting less than half its quota of bluefin tuna and swordfish. Some U.S. officials fear that ICCAT will award the unused share to developing nations with fishing practices that fail to protect juvenile fish, as well as marine mammals and sea turtles.

Sky News has “Sunken Flagship Replica Destroyed By Fire” with photo of the ship engulfed in flames. It was the PRINS WILLEM. Blik op Nieuws.nl has the following photo:

Hartford Courant has “Scientists, Fishermen Work To Preserve Long Island Sound Oysters“.

Puget Sound Maritime has “Coast Guard launches Web-based merchant mariner credential verification tool“. I’m in there even though all my documents are expired. (it just has my basic info) It is a nice feature to be able to verify documents that have been presented to you.

The Business Insider has “Dirty Dozen: The 12 Most Polluted Beaches in The U.S.“

Zach’s Bay at Jones Beach State Park

Location: Wantagh, New York

Major Offenses: Tested repeatedly for high levels of bacteria in the last three years. No public advisories issued.

This popular New York beach, where boaters also often anchor, has failed many of the twice-weekly tests for the last three years. Bacteria-infested water is not the only problem here: Advisories telling you about the high levels of pollutants in the water are almost never posted online or at the beach.

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THE ISLOMANIAC has “Xavier Rosset, 300 days alone on an island“.

Tugster continues his photo exploration of the alphabet. He has made it up to Y as of Sunday night. That would leave Z still.

iCommandant – Web Journal of Admiral Thad Allen has the Coast Guard’s response to a number of recent vessel fires in “Safety Stand Down“.

The Local (Sweden) has “Norwegian cargo ship found“. The ship was the LANGELAND which so far seems to have taken all hands down with it.

The Maritime Executive makes the case for bringing natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 by ship and not pipeline through Canada in “Lining up the Gas: Steaming in the Wrong Direction“.

HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has “what I’m thinking about today” as his time onboard gets short.

CNN has “Is the ocean Florida’s untapped energy source?“

“The predictions at this point estimate that the strength of the Gulf Stream could generate anywhere between four to 10 gigawatts of power, the equivalent of four to 10 nuclear power plants,” said Skemp.

“The Gulf Stream is the strongest current in the world, so we want to harness our greatest resource. It’s renewable, emission free and reliable,” said Jeremy Susac, executive director of the Florida Energy and Climate Commission.

There is one similar ongoing project that takes advantage of the strong currents in New York’s East River. One advantage for the Florida project is that there is no slack time or change in current direction that has to be dealt with in the East River project.

OneEighteen has “Stolt Jade“.

Sea * Fever has team video with “Remember when the America’s Cup budgets were less than the cost of making this video?“

Greenpeace helps catch illegal fishermen in “Mediterranean pirates discovered by Rainbow Warrior“.

The Old Salt Blog has “Amazing riches recovered from George III’s pirate ship“.

Mail Online (UK) has “Pictured: The amazing moment Mila the Beluga whale saved a stricken diver’s life by pushing her to the surface“.

War is Boring has “Navy Studies Super-Speedy SEAL Sub“. How fast? Try 100 knots!

The Journal of Commerce has “EU Slams Container Security Initiative“. With a bonus complaint against the Jones Act.

The European Union highlighted the Container Security Initiative in its latest annual report on U.S. trade and investment barriers.

The CSI screening and related additional U.S. customs routines are causing significant additional costs and delays to shipments of European machinery and electrical equipment to the United States, according to the 2009 report.

“This burden is so severe that a number of small European engineering companies have decided not to export to the U.S. any longer,” the report says.

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Marine Log has “Canada ponders shipbuilding strategy” as part of renewing the Government’s fleet of vessels.

HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS WORLDWIDE has “Sea of troubles“.

FROM the sheltered waters of Subic Bay in the Philippines to Falmouth on the south coast of England, a vast, swelling armada lies idle. In Asia’s deep-sea havens 750 vessels—container ships, bulk carriers, tankers, car carriers and others—are laid up. A further 280 are sheltering in European waters. According to Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit, nearly 10% of the world’s merchant ships are swaying gently at anchor because of a collapse in global trade.

Deep Water Writing writes about reporting to his first ship in “Looking for a ship?“

The pilot logged out for the night and gave me a ride to the harbor launches where I waited for the next boat out. My ship was anchored inside the breakwater and unbeknown to me had just been sold as scrap. Her cargo had all ready been offloaded and all that stood between her and the cutting yards of Bangladesh was a complete tank washing and a Pacific Ocean crossing both of which I would be participating in.

Trade and Logistics Malaysia has “LNG Tankers to U.K. Rise; Kuwait and Italy Await First Cargoes“.

Space War has “Russia eyes Med naval base in Syria“.

Wired has “Somali Piracy: The Game“. Being an American and impatient, I normally took the first offer made to release the vessel when playing the game. Not sure how it would work out in real life seeing how drawn out these situations are. I might think that they weren’t paying attention and have to sent a more aggressive message.

Modern Day Pirate Tales wonders if there is a side benefit for the rest of us in relation to the damaged undersea internet cable that connects much of Africa to the rest of the world in “A respite for my in-box?“

BitterEnd has the story and photo of the classic yacht “Blue Peter“. In the comments is a discussion on whether it is appropriate for the BLUE PETER to use the BLUE PETER signal flag as it’s house flag. I do not see it as a problem. After all IF anyone knew what the flag meant, they would know that the signal was not meant for them. Go to the post for the definition. Go here for a copy of the International Code of Signals publication.

The Horse’s Mouth has a sailboat that should be racing by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in “Wednesday Wipeout. “Barkeep, I’ll Have Mine On The Rocks!”“.

Hunt of the Sea Wolves has “DynCorp wins security contract in Afghanistan“. I hope DynCorp treats their security personnel better than their merchant seaman staff. Remember, be sure to ask if overtime pay is time and a half as well as asking if the ‘fair Labor Standards Act’ applies to any position that your considering taking with DynCorp, because if it does not,  they are not going to tell you, and you’ll probably be looking at overtime at a straight pay rate. It was real funny how months later DynCorp was still sending people to the ship I was on who had no clue that they were screwed over. The Third Mate took real joy in breaking the news to them. (The Company might have learned a lesson since then. I am just stating what they did back in the 90’s)

China Law Blog has more from last week with “How To Avoid Getting Kidnapped In China. Plan In Advance Or Go Home.” and includes commentary on the following comment:

Before entering a partnership with a Chinese company, you should find an “uncle”–a person both parties trust who will be able to mediate differences. This assures each side that issues will be resolved fairly. I have seen too many American businessmen drag out an inch-thick contract with some clause that they think lets them out of a deal. To their Chinese counterparts, it is clear the Americans are cheating. Use relationships rather than legalese whenever possible to solve problems.

IceNews has “European Union seal ban angers Inuit people“. I thought the Europeans were supposed to be progressive?

Maritime Information Centre has “Vessels without enough crew ‘are a hazard to shipping’“.

“A large number of vessels on the short sea trade continue to trade around the UK with insufficient crew to operate safely. Many still fail to have a dedicated bridge lookout when required, and fatigued officers of the watch are a hazard to themselves and to others.

“In the case of Antari, which grounded in Northern Ireland in January 2008, the officer of the watch had been asleep for over three hours before the accident, while the vessel ploughed on like an unguided missile.”

The Monitor becomes a dad for the third time in “New duck in the house“.

CDR Salamander has a point concerning the news that India plans on building 100 warships in “Well, they do have their own ocean …“.

Chaotic Synaptic Activity has “Monday Maritime Matters“.

English Russia has the story of “The First Russian Submarine“.

The first submarine in Russia was constructed in 1834 by Carl Schilder, though there had been some attempts, not really successful ones, in the period of Peter’s rule. In 1832 Schilder was engaged in investigation of underwater behavior of galvanic mines to apply them in protection of the Russian ports, and right then he conceived the basic idea of creation a submarine that would be able to move under water, come close to an enemy ship and blow it up with a galvanic mine.

Freaque Waves covers Rembrandt’s only seascape painting: “The storm on the Sea of Galilee” with Jesus. The painting was stolen in 1990. You can read the story of the bold theft at Wikipedia here.

fastlane.dot.gov has “U.S., Philippines Agree to Fight Piracy“.

Drilling Contractor has “California says no to offshore Tranquillon Ridge project“.

Plains E&P’s Tranquillon Ridge project was a no-go after the California State Assembly failed to approve legislation earlier this week that could’ve allowed it to become the state’s first offshore oil lease in decades. The rejection came despite support from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and bipartisan approval by the California State Senate.

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Fairplay Daily News has:

13 held in Venezuela raid – VENEZUELA has closed a Puerto Caballo shipping agency office and arrested 13 workers after agents seized 1. 26 tonnes of cocaine.

The agency – Internacional Maritime CA, Intermarca – has a head office in Caracas and branches in five Venezuelan ports. Its clients include major shipping lines calling at Puerto Cabello, La Guaira, Maracaibo, Guanta and Puerto Sucre.

Since the beginning of 2009, the government has captured 32 tonnes of drugs and detained 3,200 people, said interior minister Tarek El Aissami.

The cocaine was to have been loaded aboard the Panama-flagged Cala Pantera and was consigned to Letmex, a Mexican company. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Warsaw admits yard deal souring – POLISH prime minister Donald Tusk today admitted that the new buyer of the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards could pull out of the deal that was announced in mid-May.

Qatari investor Qinvest stalled on paying for the two yards on 21 July because it had received a letter written by shareholders in the private company that owned the Szczecin yard until 2002, damning how the facility was managed in 2003-9. The letter alleged that the yard had been engaged in money laundering and other shady practices.

After talks with the Polish government, Qinvest said that it wants to delay payment until 17 August, with Warsaw applying to the EC for a deadline extension for the transfer on Thursday.

On Friday, Tusk said treasury minister Aleksander Grad’s job now depended on whether the yard deal succeeds.

He added today that Warsaw has contingency plans should this deal fail, adding: “Independently of what happens with this fund, we will not be admitting defeat. If it loses interest in the shipyards, we will try to find another investor.” – 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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