Maritime Monday 174

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 174th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 124 here. (Published 25 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 Lithuania’s Western Shipyard:

AB ”Vakarų laivų gamykla“ (VLG) – one of the biggest Lithuanian companies shall celebrate its 40 year activity jubilee in 2009.

VLG history started in 1966, when a specialized fishing industry big tonnage ship repair yard construction for the grown Lithuanian fleet repair was begun in the southern part of the port. By the project that had to be the biggest and the most modern yard within northwestern region, also the biggest one in Klaipeda – 50 ha of the territory, 3 km of quays, production workshops – 100 th. m², 10 000 employees.

March 1,1969 is the official birthday of Western Shipyard and its cessionary AB “Vakarų laivų gamykla“. The same year, in July 18, the first ship was put in a dock for repair.

In 1975 companys had 2600 employees; the second yard workshop construction phase was started. Western Shipyard repaired trawlers – refrigerators, plants, and other fishing vessels.

After the downfall of the USSR, huge fishing fleet became a burden for Lithuanian Republic. Ships were sold or written down to scrap. In 1993 company restructured its activity and turned to repair Western countries ships. Since then company‘s strengthening within international market went on and on.

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You can find a video here on the building of the windfarm lift vessel WIND LIFT 1.

Their homepage can be found here.

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This Week’s Items:

I point out on my Blog Fred Fry International: “Liberty Ship JOHN W BROWN Open for Tours in Baltimore 13 – 16 August“. (gCaptain cross-posting here)

EagleSpeak has ‘red on red’ in “Somali Pirates: Everyone has troubles“.

Also be sure to check out EagleSpeak‘s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: Tradition“

gCaptain has “Maritime Jobs – 101 (or so) Tips To Find A Dream Job At Sea“.

gCaptain has the very cool “Ship Photo of The Week – SS Chesapeake SALM Release“. (SALM = Single Anchored Leg Moor)

Helsingin Sanomat has “Fears that new Pilotage Act could increase number of marine accidents – Winter conditions pose a stiff challenge to foreign vessels without a pilot“.

The Finnish State Pilotage Enterprise Finnpilot fears that the forthcoming Pilotage Act could heighten the risk of marine accidents in Finnish sea areas.

An amendment to the Pilotage Act implies that in the future the number of foreign vessels sailing in Finnish waters without local pilotage services could increase. The only requirement would be that the captain of a cargo vessel has passed a so-called liner pilot exam, the degree requirements of which are considerably lower than those for professional pilots.

Chief pilot Jukka Ketonen gave pilotage services on Wednesday to the container ship Jork Ranger, sailing under the Cyprus flag and heading for Vuosaari Harbour. Photo: TEEMU KUUSIMURTO

Helsingin Sanomat also has “Location of “hijacked” Arctic Sea freighter a mystery – Due in Algeria Thursday, ship probably not yet passed Gibraltar“. The ship is still missing as of this Monday morning.

FAS Strategic Security Blog has “French Aircraft Carrier Sails Without Nukes” which is sure to comfort everyone, including the enemies of France.

Space War has more salt for the wound in “Soviet warship turns into India’s white elephant“. This is what happens when you try and go the cheap route. Still, nobody is interested in having the commercial shipping industry build naval vessels. They at least have the competence to deliver ships on time and on cost. Hell, they at least have delivered ships.

Modern Day Pirate Tales has “Shipboard guards as an effective deterrent to piracy: Let the buyer beware“.

Now word comes from the Courthouse News Service that Tyco Telecommunications is suing two firms contracted to protect its cable-laying vessels working off East Africa from pirates. As the CN report lays out, Tyco feels that the firms – based in Georgia and Serbia- failed to do, well, much of anything, though they had been paid something in the nature of a million dollars as an advance. The report says that after hiring the security firms, Tyco saw something “worse than a comedy of errors, with gross incompetence accompanied by several false and misleading claims”, according to court documents (Tyco is suing the two firms for a million-plus in Manhattan Federal Court).

War Is Boring points out that the whole carrier-naming initiative was started by a Republican in “How Not to Name a Warship“. So when your congressman is looking to change the subject from health care, here is another one you can hammer him on.

Hunt of the Sea Wolves has “Cruise ships will increasingly become pirate targets“. That’s OK, because I keep hearing how pirates don’t hurt anybody.

BitterEnd discovers that it is possible to launch a boat from a ferry ramp in “Now here’s a first“. I can see it being launched this way, but I am pretty sure they need to do something else to get it out later on.

Times Online (UK) has “Fumes from rotting seaweed on France’s northern beaches could kill“. (Found via JammieWearingFool)

The dangers were highlighted after Vincent Petit, 27, a veterinary surgeon from Paris, said that rotting seaweed a metre deep had killed his horse last week as he rode across St-Michel-en-Grève beach. Mr Petit lost consciousness and was pulled off the beach. A post-mortem on the horse showed that it had died of pulmonary oedema caused by inhaling hydrogen sulphide given off by the rotting seaweed.

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Casco Bay Boaters Blog has photos: “USCG Tall Ship Eagle Portland, Maine State Pier” and the news “Charles W. Morgan: The Last Wooden Whale Ship Could Sail Again“.

The Old Salt Blog has “The Maritime Art of Hans Breeman“. Click on the image below to go to the artist’s website.

AFP has “Pirates flee with million dollar booty, and toothbrushes“. This concerns the HANSA STAVENGER. But remember, the pirates don’t harm crew, so this is all O.K.

AFP also has a developing story: “‘India investigating detained North Korean ship’“. The ship is the MV MUSEN and the India had to shoot at it to compel it to stop. Reuters has more with “RPT-N.Korea ship crew uncooperative:India investigators“.

The Globe and Mail has “Baltic Sea a shipwreck-tour treasure chest“.

The Anna Maria is part of a vast graveyard of ill-fated ships hidden in the murky waters of the Baltic Sea, protected from the shipworm that destroys wooden wrecks in saltier oceans. About 20,000 shipwrecks have been found – half of them in Swedish waters – dating back to as far as the Viking age. Researchers believe as many as 80,000 more could still be waiting to be discovered.

MarineBuzz has “Mobile WiMAX: BATS Demonstrates Ship to Ship Wireless Broadband Communications Tracking System“.

MarineBuzz also has “Injustice to Seafarers of VLCC Tosa in Taiwan” as they get blamed for not saving some fishermen that they may or may not have collided with or just never tried to save. Oddly enough the story makes no mention of whether the vessel knew that the fishermen were in distress. The answer would clearly be yes if there was a collision, but if not, this seems like a hunt to blame somebody.

It seems seafarers are treated better by the Somali pirates than the State authorities. The crew of Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Tosa are detained in Taiwan since April 18. After three months of detention, the master of the vessel Glen Patrick Aroza is going to be tried for ‘involuntary man-slaughter’ and the trial is scheduled to commence on August 20 at Hualien County, Taiwan.

Miler-McCune has “Saving Fuel But Melting Ice Faster“.

While it’s been documented that ships are big generators of greenhouse gases as it is, half of a cargo ship’s particulate emissions are soot — and soot (aka black carbon) emitted by ships sailing in the polar region will further blacken the remaining ice. The dark ice in turn will lose more of its former solar reflectivity, absorbing sunlight and emitting solar heat instead. The Earth will then warm even faster.

Six years ago, NASA estimated black soot might be responsible for as much as a quarter of observed global warming over the past century (and last year, one study suggested even double that). Noting that “soot may be a more all-around bad actor than has been appreciated,” NASA’s controversial James Hansen wrote that as the ice melts soot builds up and darkens the field more, causing it to melt even faster. Plus, wet snow is darker than dry snow, adding additional “positive feedback.”

Telegraph (UK) has “‘Cloud ship’ scheme to deflect the sun’s rays is favourite to cut global warming“.

According to The Times, The Royal Society is expected to announce that the decade-old cloud ship plan is one of the most promising.

The Copenhagen Consensus Centre, which advises governments on how to spend aid money, examined the various plans and found the cloud ships to be the most cost-effective.

They would cost $9 billion (£5.3 billion) to test and launch within 25 years, compared to the $250 billion that the world’s leading nations are considering spending each year to cut CO2 emissions, and the $395 trillion it would cost to launch mirrors into space.

Marine Log has “Committee approves LoBiondo bill protecting mariners who defend themselves against pirates“. I have heard that this bill is now dead despite committee support as there is zero support in the greater Congress to pass anything that might result in the harming of a pirate, let alone permit merchant mariners to defend themselves.

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Lloyd’s List has criminalization of the seafarer with “Full City master in police custody“.

THE Chinese captain of the 26,800 dwt bulk vessel Full City, aground off southern Norway is in police custody.

A spokesperson for the Telemark region police confirmed that the master had his passport confiscated to prevent him from leaving the country. She said he was being accused of not notifying the Norwegian emergency services of the vessels predicament or requesting assistance to prevent the vessel running aground during a heavy storm last week.

Maybe this Captain remembered how little good notifying the authorities helped the Captain of the PRESTIGE, where his vessel was forced out to sea to break-up and spill oil everywhere.

Lloyd’s List also has “Wilh. Wilhelmsen sees upturn in second half“.

THE global car carrier market has scrapped 85 vessels and cancelled orders for another 30 vessels as owners respond to the market downturn.

Oslo-listed shipowner Wilh. Wilhelmsen says its markets are bottoming out and that it expects to see signs of recovery in the second half of this year.

Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog discusses “To lay up or not?“

Skilled seafarers are still scarce and owners are understandably loathe to let go of these difficult to procure crews, which could be lost to their service or to the shipping industry all together.

Consequently, rather than going for long-term lay-up, many owners are opting for hot lay-up, forgoing a higher recovery of their insurance premiums, while retaining minimum crews to be able to swiftly respond to a change in market conditions.

Houston ship pilot/photographer OneEighteen has the photo “Captain, Pigeon Point” noting that ‘He was going home to Poland for vacation this day.’ The comments included this gem in response to another commenting suggesting that ‘…even the USCG has had to be reminded to treat them humanely’:

Someone is reminding the Coast Guard? Public officials, terminals and port authorities tend to treat foreign sailors very badly. They are often denied permission to go ashore in the US…even to make a phone call. Immigration and customs officials treat even the captains as potential criminals. Much stupid bullshit is done in the name of “security”.

For example, foreign sailors finishing their tour of duty on a ship are often denied permission to make flight arrangements to their homes that involve changing planes in the US. An Irish ship captain told me his company was required to hire a security escort to drive him from Corpus Christi to Houston to put him on a direct flight to London. I guess Irish ship captains flying from Corpus to Houston to London are a threat to Americans somehow.

I remember visiting Poland a few years ago for training and showing up at the airport with a smile and a passport and they smiled back and stamped my passport and said “welcome to Poland!” Sadly, we don’t return the favor to one of America’s most loyal allies since the days of the American Revolution.

CBC News (Canada) has “Dolphin slaughter film not Tokyo bound“. The film is called ‘The Cove’. See the trailer at the movie’s website here.

The Cove follows former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry and a team of divers and tech experts who infiltrate a heavily protected cove in the town of Taiji, where dolphins are caught for entertainment purposes.

The Maritime Executive has “London P&I Club Weighs in on Stowaways & Crew abandonment Issues“.

Sea * Fever points to the “Mad Mariner Flickr Group“.

US Naval Institute Blog has “USNS Comfort Returns Home“.

Offshore Magazine has “Mighty Servant 3 returns to Dockwise fleet after 20-month repair” after going fully-submerged.

59° 56′ N has “Economist despairs for shipping“.

Mr. Boat Blog has video answering “How would the oceans look if there was no water.“

English Russia has photos: “B-413 Submarine. Interiors.“

The Stupid Shall Be Punished has reader comments at “Submarine Escape Trainer Pictures“.

Maritime Compass has information with “Northwest Passage news“.

Information Dissemination has sub news with “The Bear Comes Calling Off the East Coast“.

BarentsObserver has more with “Russian Navy: We never stopped patrolling the world’s oceans“.

THE ISLOMANIAC has “Best Islands To Live On Guide“.

Kings Point Waterfront has photos: “Kings Pointer Ready to Leave Shipyard“.

Shipgaz has “Four Grimaldi vessels to leave the Swedish flag” for Gibraltar.

HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has been busy repainting his ‘ship’ in “Learn how to take a complement, A-Hole!“.

The Merchant Marine Express has success with “I’m shipping out, folks!” He is headed for the MV AMERICAN TERN.

IceNews has “Russian ship Kruzenshtern arrives in Reykjavik today“.

The Kruzenshtern was built in Bremerhaven-Wesermünde in Germany in the year 1926. It is a four masted barque tall ship. It was originally named after the Italian city of Padua, but then to Kruzenshtern when it was given to the Soviet Union as war reparations from Germany. Since 1991, the ship has been based in Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave in the Baltic.

Seaman’s Church Institute takes a trip “A Journey through the Gulf of Aden – SCI’s Douglas Stevenson Travels on a Maersk Container Ship through Pirate-Infested Waters“. The voyage details can be found in his Twitter account here.

Since Port Said Maersk Idaho has become (on radio comms) Mer-skie Eee-DAH-hoe. We change pronunciation or risk not being answered on radio.

Sign on San Diego has sea trial for the USNS WALLY SCHIRRA in “New Navy ship in shape“.

Unlike other notorious shipbuilding programs that have been plagued by cost overruns and scheduling delays, the NASSCO-built cargo ships have been delivered on time and within budget, said Capt. Dean Krestos, supervisor of shipbuilding for the Naval Sea Systems Command.

“They’re probably the best news in Navy shipbuilding right now,” he said of the company.

YouTube has a heavylift accident with a yacht. There seem to be way too many of these.

During lifting of a motor yacht one crane booms up too quickly and do not keep the yacht leveled, causing it to fall out of the lifting tackles. Leave it to the professionals!

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Fairplay Daily News has:

Beware this piracy loophole – SHIPOWNERS are at serious risk of losing out on huge ransom claims, a maritime lawyer warned Fairplay today.

Peter Tribe, a partner with the law firm Elborne Mitchell, said few owners realise that if their vessel is proven ‘unseaworthy’, their claim can go against them. Insufficient seaworthiness itself is not a defence under most standard forms of policy, he told Fairplay, but can be used against an owner failing to address the piracy threat.

“If the owner knows that he hasn’t provided crew training, or knows that the ship does not have any of the anti-piracy equipment that is available, he is ‘seriously at risk’ of being told that his vessel was, with his knowledge, unseaworthy,” he explained.

So the owner might be “likely to lose his insurance cover”, added Tribe.

Cargo interests would be likely to face a large proportion of any general average claim, so they would “very likely” argue the seaworthiness defence.

If cargo owners do not pay their proportion, then the owner would be left seriously out of pocket and present whole ransom cost to underwriters, Tribe predicted.

Neil Roberts, at Lloyd’s Market Association, pointed out that underwriters try to divide the costs among them and P&I will respond only to a claim that directly applies to them. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Stink ship’s ordeal ends – A REEFER with a toxic cargo of rotting meat has been allowed to dock for vital repairs after spending eight months marooned off the Ukrainian port of Odessa.

Beriks has been carrying more than 200 tonnes of rotting pork and chicken since it left the Georgian port of Poti in December 2008. Several Ukrainian ports have ordered it to steer clear, fearing that the cargo was a serious environmental hazard.

But on Friday evening, the ship was given permission to dock at the Odessa ship repair yard (SR3), where vital work on the vessel will be carried out to allow it to set return to service.

Beriks’s crew was also changed and observers remarked on the dishevelled state of its seafarers; supplies had run dangerously short.

The port’s chief health inspector Nikolai Golubyatnikov told reporters that the crew is suffering from psychological stress and have been in “a state of despair because of the lack of food, water and fuel”. – 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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