Maritime Monday 144

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 144th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 94 here. (Published 21 January 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 Germany’s »ORION« BULKERS:

»ORION« BULKERS’ core business activity is the full commercial and technical management of its very modern fleet of 28 bulk carriers ranging from handies up to capesizes.

»ORION« BULKERS is one of the leading bulk carrier operators world-wide.

* BETEIGEUZE *

* BETEIGEUZE in Shipyard *

* COURAGEOUS *

* INTREPID *

* BETEIGEUZE *

* BETEIGEUZE Cargo Hold #1 *

Their homepage can be found here.

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has “Gulf of Aden/Somalia NATO Piracy Update as of 7 Jan 09“.

gCaptain has “Bush to Protect More of The Pacific” and “Dangerously Misguided Journalism – Should We Stop Calling Them Pirates?“.

One Free Korea has lawsuit damages against North Korea in “Pueblo Crew Gives North Korea the Middle Finger Again“.

Kennebec Captain has “Seaman – The Fourth Worst Job“. That’s out of 200 jobs. Go see who your profession beat out and remember the next time you are cleaning out a ballast or sewage tank that you could have been stuck doing one of those other jobs…

Kennebec Captain also has “Navigation, Visually and by Radar“.

I honestly don’t understand why almost all new third mates have such a strong preference for using the radar when the situation can be more easily understood visually.

It is puzzling. It’s not like they don’t drill into your head at school to keep your eyes pointed out the bridge windows. RADAR is a very useful tool, but most of the time it is just an aid to reference as part of the overall evaluation of the situation.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has “The Delta Queen: America, save her“.

When it purchased the Delta Queen, the current ownership refused to deal with the Seafarers International Union, which had been the bargaining agent for the vessel’s employees.

Because of that, the union put pressure on Congress to refuse another exemption for the vessel from the 1966 Safety at Sea Act.

That act prevents ships with wooden superstructures, such as the Delta Queen, from carrying more than 50 overnight passengers. But the Queen is outfitted with top-notch safety equipment and its safety record is exemplary.

The Democrats who control Congress won’t lift a finger the save her. And so far, sadly, neither has President George W. Bush, who could grant a last-minute pardon with an executive order.

I was not aware that the ship could continue to operate as long as it didn’t carry more than 50 passengers. Just how did congress decide that the 51st passenger made the ship unsafe? President Bush should save the ship. If not, maybe someone should let our incoming maritime-friendly President and VP aware of the problem and ask them to save the ship, and the jobs that come with it. Every job is worth saving, right? Saving these jobs costs the tax payers nothing. WTTE 28 has a possible future for the ship with “Historic riverboat could become floating hotel“.

Tims Times is “10 minutes late“. Wow! What a day from hell. Of course it involves air travel.

Information Dissemination has analysis of the SIRIUS STAR Pirate Payoff in “Karma in Somalia“.

Considering all the pictures of the money drop on the US Navy website, what are the odds that we were watching the pirates flee the tanker? Pretty good I’d bet.

MarineBuzz has “Webcam View: London International Boat Show 2009 Progress“.

MarineBuzz also has”Naval Academy at Ezhimala of Indian Navy is the Largest in Asia“.

This Academy will prove to be the premier officer-training establishment of the Indian Navy and is the largest Naval Academy in Asia. From June this year, all officers inducted into the Indian Navy, under various schemes, will undergo basic training at this Academy.

BreakBulk Industry News has “Antwerp breakbulk declines“. It is not all bad news however as overall cargo volume rose.

Lloyd’s List has “‘Scrap and cancel’ tactics hold out hope for bulk market“.

RISING demolition activity, combined with growing numbers of cancelled orders, may create a brighter future for some of the new bulker tonnage on order than is suggested by many gloomy pundits.

A bulk carrier for delivery between 2010 and 2012 may turn out to be “a real and valuable asset”, said Greek newbuilding broker George Moundreas & Co, in its newly issued newbuilding report for December, another month in which there were no fresh Greek shipyard contracts to relate.

Lloyd’s List also has an update on the ongoing court battle in the wake of the 2002 PRESTIGE oil spill with “Industry shocked by Mangouras verdict“.

Brussels lawmakers also subsequently toughen laws so that seafarers now face the possibility of prison sentences following accidental spills. A broad industry coalition including shipowners and unions opposed this last change, arguing that it would put young people off from entering the profession.

Imagine if people were given the same sort of treatment if they get into a car accident. You can bet that the tune the politicians were playing would change pretty fast.

ireporter mikewells has photos from a shipyard in China: “The Demise Of The Exxon Valdez…Almost” as the ship is converted to a bulk carrier.

ireporter dlgdavis has photos: “Cuban Refugees Rescued at Sea by NCL Cruise Ship“

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Deep Water Writing has problems in the galley with “The icing on top“. My last ship had the largest stewards department and at the same time the worst. For example, they tried not to put bowls out for cereal because the cereal boxes themselves could be used as ‘bowls’. It was also the ship that served ‘plain omelets’ which was nothing more than a folded egg. That meal earned the chief cook a box of pancakes secured to his stateroom door with a fire ax. We had pancakes the next morning…

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has “Maine Initiative Focuses on Marine Careers“.

IMC Brokers has “Newly Formed Global Response Maritime Set To Salvage Remains MSC Napoli“.

BitterEnd has an interesting and bold tale of fraud committed by a US Government employee in “RCMP recover stolen U.S. navy boats on West Coast“.

Robin Storm – In Search of Severe Weather has “NOAA models tsunami warning system” and in the same post “Can other vessels see you on radar?“.

Other things being equal, radar that detects a cruiser at 10 miles will not detect a pleasure sailboat at more than one mile. The table also shows the difference between the typical 48-mile recreational radar (4 kW) and the typical 16 or 24-mile radar (2 kW). The greater maximum range is useful only for detecting high cliffs when far out at sea, or storm clouds at altitude, as anything on the surface beyond 16 miles would be well below the radar horizon and undetectable.

In case you didn’t see it, MailOnline has “Pictured: The moment a $3million ransom was parachuted to Somali pirates“. Although, most of them didn’t get to enjoy for long.

However things went badly wrong for the pirates soon after the drop – they squabbled over how to split the money and then a wave washed off their getaway boat and drowned five of them.

Sometimes life’s a bitch. Guess they died happy. The Jawa Report calls the now-departed pirates the ‘Most expensive shark food evah.’ since part of the ransom apparently was also lost at sea.

Ocra Marine Newsletter has “EU Sets Clearer Rules On State Aid To Motorways Of The Sea“.

BarentsObserver has “Russia plans to use nuclear-powered drilling submarine in the Arctic“.

The Russian program for oil production in Arctic includes plans on using a nuclear-powered drilling submarine.

Bellona has the report in question: “From polar to nuclear? – The concept of a nuclear-powered subsea drilling site for oil and gas development on the Russian Arctic shelf.“

Helsingin Sanomat has an update and photos in “Scrapping of Finnjet advances at fast pace in India“.

English Russia has photos: “Abandoned Russian Polar Nuclear Lighthouses“.

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NY TUGMASTER’S WEBLOG has “The Deck Chronicles; The Fine Art of Bitchin’“. There were any number of parts of this post I could have used to tempt you to go over and read it, so just go and do it.

The perspective changes, as it must, once you’re the man at the wheel. You know it’s likely the deckhand is cursing your lack of skill, style of dress, and even your taste in women. It’s entirely possible he’s calling your parent’s marital status into question as well. But as long as he’s turned and facing the dock when he does it, we can allow him his misery and let him vent.

Shipping Management Strategies has “SOS Trivia History“. SOS was part of a group of new signals.

Shipping Times has “World LNG fleet hits 300 mark“.

Sea * Fever has “FotoFriday: Ramon Terrado, Oceanogrophotographer“.

The MarEx Newsletter has “Seaway Concludes 50th Navigation Season“.

Shirlaw News Group has “Coast Guard searches for Opilio crab fisherman that fell into the Bering Sea“. He fell from the fishing vessel SEABROOKE after getting his feet tangled in a crab pot line. The accident probably took a second of not paying attention and appears to have cost him his life.

The Age has “Japanese whalers ‘fear Aussie arrest’” as one of their whaling vessels heads to Indonesia instead of closer Australia and New Zealand.

The USNI Blog has “Observing The Establishment of CTF 151“. Once you read that you’ll have to scroll through the other posts where the conversation continues on the matter. The first response is by CDR Salamander here: “Naughty, naughty Gal“

International Herald Tribune has “And when the lease on Sevastopol expires?” which starts by pointing out ‘What Russia has in natural gas, it lacks in good parking space for its navy.’

But territorial leases can also create problems. Arguments can arise over the rights of the tenant country, the rent it pays or the duration of the arrangement. And when the sovereign “owner” is stuck with a bigger and more powerful tenant, eviction can be difficult or impossible. Just ask Fidel and Raúl Castro about Guantánamo Bay. Or ask Russia – the Soviets tried and failed to help Cuba recover Guantánamo from the United States during the 1962 missile crisis.

Container Shipping Information Service has a PowerPoint presentation: “The Suez Canal – A Vital Shortcut“.

MSNBC has “Mystery Off Long Beach: Whales and More Whales“.

Naval Open Source INTelligence has “Sailor killed in fire on board Russian warship off Turkey“. The accident occurred on the Russian Carrier ADMIRAL KUZNETSOV.

Bob Couttie’s Maritime Accident Casebook has a warning with “Cheating On A Chain Stretcher Could Send You To A Stretcher“. It does not take too long when using a cheater bar on chains to realize how easy it is to get hurt. Kind of surprising that accidents like this one do not happen more often.

Master of Towing Vessels Association Forum has started working on his license renewal in “NVIC 4-08 And What It May Mean To The Working Mariner“.

The Monitor compares containership giants MSC DANIELA and the EMMA MAERSK in “Clash of the Titans“.

IceNews has “No deaths at sea for the first time” as Icelandic vessels have their best year in terms of safety in the last 1,000 years!.

Hellenic Shipping News has “Investment Banks Seek Supertankers for Contango, Frontline Says“.

The cost of storing on supertankers works out at about 80 to 90 cents a barrel each month, Denis Petropoulos, head of tankers at Braemar Shipping Services Plc, the world’s second-largest publicly traded shipbroker, said Jan. 7. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March delivery are trading at $45.98 a barrel, about $4.78 more than the February contract.

This should be an option checked out before sending that older supertanker of yours to lay-up or to scrap.

The Stupid Shall Be Punished has the US Navy’s decision to name a submarine after former Virginia Senator John Warner in “Not An April Fools Joke!” but a joke nonetheless. Not exactly a name that will strike fear in our enemies. I think it would be more fun to let America’s children come up with names for new Navy ships. They’d surely do a better job of it. There should be a rule on naming ships after persons in that they either need to have been a great Navy/Marine Corp hero who is no longer with us or have footed the bill to build the ship, using their own money. The latter option might be particularly useful for the Army and Coast Guard in modernizing their small-boats. Come up with a list of some standard small craft that are needed and let people order them online. Even give them a list of what is needed by home port so that they have the opportunity to actually see the craft named after them…

CDR Salamander and his reader/commenter’s have more on this latest Navy naming farce in “What, USS Virginia wasn’t enough for you?“. Here is an example:

Warner, eh?

It can only mean that the Nuclear Engineer types have figured out a way to run a reactor with pork.

Springbored’s Springboard links the Warner payoff to the naming of a yet-unfinished US Navy carrier in “Pay-For-Ship: Senator John Warner Gets His Payoff:” so what exactly made the Senator change his mind?

iCommandant – Web Journal of Admiral Thad Allen has “Coast Guard Small Boat Product Line — Better, more efficient mission support“.

Tugster has photos of the New York area’s former Floating Hospital in “Specialized 14“. The post has good timing as I spotted the ship moored and unused across from Staten Island coming home from Christmas vacation.

Kings Point Waterfront has “Report from Allison Davis ’08 Third Mate Aboard M/V National Geographic Endeavor“. The passengership is currently in the Antarctic. Beware of the rock whales!

Molten Eagle covers haircuts on submarines.

Never Sea Land has another dramatic Vendee Globe casualty in “Le Cam capsizes off Cape Horn“. This guy was pretty lucky that he is alive. I wonder if anyone is keeping track of all the merchant ship hours and miles wasted saving these guys.

Xinhua News Agency has the latest race news with yet another Vendee Globe solo sailor requiring a rescue in “Chilean navy rescues 2 French sailors in Vendee Globe race“. At this pace, there will be nobody left to finish the race!

Indian Express has “Scramble for the seabed“.

STRATFOR has “Japan: Tokyo Expands its Maritime Activities“.

Japan is preparing to launch a decade-long undersea exploration effort to map out seabed resources and plan future undersea mining of energy and mineral resources.

The Journal of Commerce has good news with “Record year for Montreal“.

Reuters has “U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel“.

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tonnes of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.

The story mentions that they did found a ship, which given the reported current market conditions is not surprising. Not that they wouldn’t in a good market, but any ship trading with Israel, especially one carrying ammunition, is likely to land on the ‘Arab Boycott List’. That is a list is ships that are banning in Middle East ports that honor the list. Nowadays with all these ships now headed to the scrapyard, the boycott does not mean much when the ship’s next stop is a beach in India…

Steeljaw Scribe has a painted sky photo in “Seascapes“.

THE ISLOMANIAC has the interesting video and story of “The King of Belmont Island NY“. Nice of the Coast Guard to give them a lift home.

Mr. Boat Blog has video: “Walking with an Ice breaker.” Actually, it looks like an ice-breaking cargoship.

Theo Spark has a photo of the battleship USS PENNSYLVANIA in “You forget how much is below the waterline….“

Freaque Waves has “The peril of ocean beach, again!“. This time it was just rough seas.

Professional Mariner has “HECSALV Part 2: “Illusion of Salvage”” (Part 1 here) with a look at the HECSALV program for casualty response to prevent a total loss.

During a salvage engineering effort using HECSALV, during the very real thing, what you couldn’t “see” before are the forces working on the ship. Most times these forces are not doing anything differently than they were when the ship was fine. It’s the ship that’s changed. Something with it failed. It’s almost as if it’s a different ship now. That may be the way to “look” at it.

So what can this newly-broken ship do? Or, maybe more important, what will it not be able to do? This is the magic question.

Answer: HECSALV will not only show you what you can’t see, it can show you what you will likely see.

thisiscornwall.co.uk has “Concerns over plans to close retired sailors’ centre in port“.

Business Mirror (Philippines) has “Women seafarers suffer from discrimination; policies needed to protect them“.

The discrimination of women seafarers, Tangi claimed, begins from the recruitment stage, when women applicants are already judged based on their youthfulness and beauty, and not on skills.

Sea Shepherd has “Japanese Anti-boarding Measures Revealed“.

The Japanese harpoon boat Yushin Maru No. 3 deployes anti-boarding nets, floats, and spikes. The nets run nearly the entire length of the vessel from bow to stern on both port and starboard sides. Photos: Eric Cheng / Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

YouTube poster ‘gundoy’ has “somali pirates actual footage“.

Actual footage of attempted boarding of MT Taiyoh-II tanker off the gulf of Aden – may 28,2008

Footage courtesy of famador barrio, crew member – tanker operator eagle maritime tokyo – 2 speed boats attempted to board. aborted attempt after 1 hour due to maneuvering . 23 crew members. position 60 n.m. off yemen coast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wplw55nhRM

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Haight’s Maritime Items has:

UK – report on enclosed space fatality – The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch released the report of its investigation of the fatality on board a passenger ship in Southampton on 11 June 2008. A petty officer was assigned to check the salinity of the water in a ballast tank. It was assumed that the tank was full. The petty officer apparently discovered that the tank was almost empty and entered the tank to complete his assignment. He did so without protective equipment or assistance even though he was aware of and practiced in the ship’s procedures for entering enclosed spaces. There was insufficient oxygen in the ballast tank due to corrosion of the tank’s steel structure. Enclosed space fatalities such as this are easily avoidable if owners, operators, masters, and crew focus on basic issues. Report No. 01/2009 (1/6/09). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

UK – custodial sentence for fishing vessel skipper – The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) issued a press notice stating that the shipper of a fishing vessel was given a twelve month custodial sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter. His fishing vessel had run aground due to failure to maintain a proper lookout. He quickly put the engines astern, causing the vessel to come off the rocks and promptly sink. The two crewmembers on the vessel drowned. (1/9/09). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

Fairplay Daily News has:

Rule stops salvor feeding frenzy – A NEW RULE that will prevent post-casualty jockeying for salvage jobs is being hailed today by US salvors.

The American Salvage Association praised the Coast Guard today for publishing the long-awaited regulation, which mandates that all tank vessels operating in US waters must include a designated salvor in its response plan.

Sources in the ASA told Fairplay that the regulation will bring “stability” to a system that has often translated into a feeding frenzy immediately after casualties, in which multiple salvage companies competed for the salvage job.

An ASA statement singled out the Coast Guard’s commandant, Admiral Thad Allen, and Rear Admiral Brian Salerno for special praise.

ASA President John Witte Jr, added: “We are so pleased with the announcement of the promulgation of the salvage and firefighting regulations. … These regulations will go a long way toward ensuring that the nation is ready and has the capability to respond to accidental or terrorist events in the marine sector that require a professional salvage response.”

Published in the Federal Register on 31 December, the regulation will go into effect with 30 days. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Neptune moving to Arizona – NEPTUNE ORIENT LINES has revealed it will move its US APL headquarters from San Francisco to Phoenix, Arizona.

The office, based in San Francisco for more than a century, is being moved as part of a cost cuts, the company announced yesterday.

“We’re excited to announce that Arizona will be the new home for our regional headquarters,” said NOL’s Americas chief, John Bowe. “The greater Phoenix area will be a cost-effective base of operations for us, and we’re going to a state that is well-known for its support and encouragement of business.”

Bowe added that Arizona “will be a very convenient location from which to manage our operations throughout the Americas”.

Bowe noted the move will not affect vessel calls as APL will continue to call regularly at its West Coast marine terminals in Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles.

APL’s global services also include vessel calls at ports up and down the US East Coast as well as in Central and South America. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

Why would a shipping company move to the desert? I bet it was to get away from office unionization of the office staff by the ILWU.

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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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