By Hugh Ware
Necessary repairs to locks on the Columbia and Snake River will close the two rivers to barge traffic for three months. Much barge-carried cargo will shift to semi-truckers and trains, although wheat growers have stored grain and stocks of petroleum products filled all available tankage, much of it in the idled tank barges.
Thin Places and Hard Knocks
In northeastern China, a sand-dredging barge flipped in rough seas. A helicopter saved three crewmen but another eleven were missing.
In Yemen, the small Syrian livestock carrier Gamma Livestock 12 had a fire in the accommodation area so its crew abandoned the ship and its livestock (probably sheep), and the ship ran up on the beach about eight miles north of Kwawkhah. In the Caribbean, the tanker Azra-S went aground because of heavy seas and two weeks later it was refloated by the St Croix-based tug Storm. At Oxelosund in Sweden, the tanker Chantaco was driven aground by heavy winds during the night but was underway the next day. Off Brisbane, Australia, a sudden failure of steering put the containership MSC BaselCommodore Straits onto the Yule Sandbanks. After being freed, the ship was detained while investigations took place. On the St Lawrence Seaway, the Canadian tug went aground while pushing two barges. Both barges took on water but there was no polluting spill.
In the North Sea, some 30 kilometers off the Dutch coast, the Greek tanker Mindoro carrying jet fuel collided with the Cypriot container ship Jork Ranger. The holed tanker spewed jet fuel for a while but the leak was quickly contained.
At Lami in the Fijis, the sizable ro/ro Suilven was the star in an Emergency Planned Beaching (yes—“Emergency Planned …”) to repair its starboard propeller, damaged by entangling fishing lines. In South Australia at Port Lincoln, the bulker Grand Rodosi approached a pier. It overshot the desired berth and crashed into the tuna boat Apollo S. The FV slowly heeled over as fiberglass gave way and it sank within half an hour. The grain ship was arrested as part of a $28 million legal action but soon sailed with a full cargo. (Port Lincoln is featured as the major Australian loading destination in many books about the grain trade and square-riggers.) Speaking of square-rigged vessels, in nasty conditions about 100 miles off the Isles of Scilly in western UK, the Polish barque Fryderyak Chopin lost its bowsprit, quickly followed by both topmasts, and had to be towed into Falmouth. None of the 47 people aboard were injured but the ship was a picturesque old-time-y mess with yards hanging down and lines trailing overboard.
A female cadet fell from the rigging of the German Navy’s square- rigged training ship Gorch Fock to the deck. She died in a Brazilian hospital.
A Coast Guard helicopter took an American mariner suffering multiple leg injuries off the northbound 831-foot tanker Sierra 284 miles southwest of Sitka. He was injured when a deck plate fell on his legs. And perhaps the same chopper rescued a Chinese fitter from the 890-foot container ship Ever Unique 54 miles south of Dutch Harbor. He too had leg injuries but they were inflicted in the engine room.
Gray Fleets
The smallish (150 tons) South Korean Navy patrol boat Chamsuri sank after hitting a protuberance on a larger (270 ton) fishing boat. An injured sailor died in the hospital on Jeju Island.
The US Navy will station 24 women officers in teams of three or four on the following subs: USS Wyoming and USS Georgia, both based at King’s Bay, Georgia, and the Bangor-based USS Ohio and USS Maine. The lone head for officers on each sub will be fitted with a reversible sign.
Where was the US Navy born? At least five saltwater communities still lay claim although Congress decided in 1965 that Whitehall, New York (on Lake Champlain several hundred miles from saltwater!) was the real birthplace. The claimant communities are Beverly and Marblehead in Massachusetts; Machias, Maine; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Providence, Rhode Island.
The Australian Navy had to fly naval cadets to New Zealand for sea training on HMNZS Canterbury because Ozzieland’s two training ships, HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora (both ex-US LSTs), were under repair.
Did you know that little Thailand owns and operates an aircraft carrier? The “Offshore Patrol Helicopter Carrier” HTMS Chakri Narubet is the world’s smallest jump-jet carrier but can operate 18 VSTOL or rotary aircraft.
Has the Royal Navy hit upon hard times? One might think so. Stringent budget cuts will harm all UK military services but those for the Royal Navy approach ridiculousness. For example, the Senior Service has two large aircraft carriers under construction. Political realities ensure that both will be finished but one will carry troops and helicopters upon completion, and the other will have no aircraft until the VSTOL version of the Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is delivered in 2020 (if that version is not canceled by US budgetary cuts.) The carrier/s could have had some VSTOL fighters up to then except that the Harriers are scheduled to be deleted. (And what then would be available to defend the Falkland Islands a second time?)
French Rafale jet fighters might fly off the new carrier(s), a prospect that angered many Brits. The arrangement would give France a “permanent presence” at sea even when its single carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, is down for maintenance.
Privatization of the Royal Navy’s nuclear base at Coulport on the Clyde is in the probable future. A consortium that includes the US firm of Lockheed Martin is in the running for the job of storing, processing, maintaining, and issue of the Trident Weapon System and all ammo for the base’s four submarines. Letting a US firm in is a prospect that also angered many Brits.
The brand-new nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Astute, which has been described as “the most expensive and technologically advanced submarine in the world,” was on pre-delivery trials in Scotland when it ran painfully, publicly, aground on a shingle bank near the Isle of Skye during a crew change. To the rescue came the local Emergency Towing Vessel Anglian Prince (ironically, all four of the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency-chartered ETVS are scheduled be scrubbed next year as part of the budget cuts). The big seagoing tug put a towline over to the ship and took a strain. The line parted and recoiled, missing the matelots (seamen) on the sub’s deck but wrapping itself around the sub’s sail, then fouling the Anglian Prince’s propeller. That pulled the two ships together, damaging a foreplane on the £1 billion submarine. The commercial tug Ayton Cross took over towing the sub while the Anglian Prince was towed to Ullapool for removal of the line.
A stray budgie landed on HMS Westminster and was quickly adopted by an eager crew. But the bird died of shock when an alarm went off. The little yellow and green bird was given a burial at sea “with full honors.”
White Fleets
Cruise ships are getting so big that passing under bridges can be a problem. Take the 138,000-ton Enchantment of the Seas. To the top of the mast is about 240 feet but the ship had to transit Denmark’s Storebaelt Bridge, whose air draft is only 213 feet. No problem! The ship and at least one fleetmate are designed with retractable exhaust pipes protruding from the funnels, and they were retracted. About 4,000 tons of water ballast were taken on, and the watermakers had worked overtime since departure. Lastly, the ship increased speed so as to cause squatting in the shallow water. The result was a fascinating and tense view for spectators but plenty of air-draft clearance for the ship.
The cruise ship Carnival Splendor had an after engine room explosion and fire (due to a cracked crankcase of one of six engines driving generators) while about 150 miles south of San Diego. The fire was quickly extinguished but the resulting damage left the ship with only auxiliary power. Close to 4,000 passengers had no air conditioning, toilets, or hot food, while food supplies were low because the ship had expected to arrive at San Diego within the day. The US Navy quickly loaded Carrier Onboard Delivery planes with groceries including boxes of crabmeat, croissants, and other delicacies for the stranded passengers. (However, one photo showed endless rows of Spam cans being loaded on a COD.) The goodies were flown out to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and from there helicopters carried them to the ship. Meanwhile, two tugs towed the cruise liner to San Diego.
The Costa Atlantica had steering problems shortly after leaving Bermuda’s Dockyard and the pilot stopped the ship and called for two tugs. Engineers quickly fixed the problem and the ship headed for Port Canaveral. At the mouth of the Yangtze, the Costa Classica collided with the Belgian-flagged bulker Lowlands Longevity traveling in the same direction. Three of the 1,311 passengers were hospitalized and the cruise ship had a gash on its port side that was – how can we measure it? – eleven portholes long or maybe 80-90 feet long, and high enough to allow the curious plenty of room to look out and wonder at the damage.
Those That Go Back and Forth
In the Falkland war in 1982, the Brits chartered many commercial ships. Among those ships serving as troopships were the liner QE2 and the 27,000-ton ferry Norland. The Norland carried Royal Marines and other forces in San Carlos Sound, where the ship was under multiple attacks by Argentinean aircraft. Now, the 1974-built Norland and sister Norstar will be scrapped in India after many successful years of service.
In Scotland, the Hjaltland managed to dock at Rosyth a day late and more than 100 miles from its intended destination of Aberdeen. And across the North Sea, the Bergensfjord carrying 250 people from western Norway to Hirtshals in Denmark arrived three hours late but winds were too strong to allow it to dock so it spent hours idling in the harbor until the winds diminished a bit.
In Indonesian waters between the islands of Adonara Timur and Lembata, the wooden vessel Hasmita III (or maybe it was the Hastina III) capsized when hit by a 3-meter wave. Many people drowned but 21 were saved. (A later report said 70 were rescued.) Also in Indonesian waters but this time about 10 kilometers off the cape of Watumanuk on Flores Island, the ferry Tersanjung (or was it the Karya Pinang or the Karya Terang; reports vary?) sank because of rough weather. Local fishermen saved 44 but 22 went missing. As a casual footnote, the news report also noted that a small freighter (possibly the Karya Pinang mentioned above) with seven crew was reported as going down off Flores the same day. (Four of the crew were rescued.) A ferry with a listed capacity of 60 was carrying 220 when it sank near Ghoramara on Sundarbans Island in the eastern state of West Benegal. Dozens, many pilgrims returning from a Muslim religious event, went missing while more than 90 swam to safety.
A woman fell off a ferry as it approached Rosslare Harbor from Wales. She was rescued by the ferry’s rescue boat. In Scotland, a Dutchman fell off a ferry traveling from Tarbert to Ulg. Again the ferry’s rescue boat was quickly successful. But in spite of a fast (about five minutes) rescue by the ferry’s rescue boat and a nearby New York high-speed policeboat, a woman who jumped off the Staten Island ferry Guy V. Molinari was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
In Sydney Harbor, a speedboat carrying six became wedged under a ferryboat. Two occupants were thrown clear and one woman suffered a broken neck. The operator was charged with “culpably navigating in a dangerous manner so as to cause grievous bodily harm,” plus other charges.
The two ex-Hawaiian catamaran super ferries, repossessed by the Maritime Administration when the ferry line ran into political problems and ceased operations, were bought by MARAD for $25 million each at an auction. (The government was owed $135.7 million-plus.) The vessels are expected to end up in government service.
Legal Matters
A Detroit man, age 19, was sentenced to 18 months in jail, fined $100,000, and must pay $14,302 in restitution for making the Coast Guard respond to a hoax radio call.
A US firm owns and operates the 3,000-ton ice-breaking research vessel Laurence M. Gould in the Antarctic on behalf of the US Government. It must pay a $2.1 million fine for allowing crewmembers to knowingly discharge oily wastewater while en route to and from the Antarctic.
The Coast Guard found the Korean master of the 20,763-ton STX Daisy and another officer were drunk while transiting the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He served 14 days in jail and cannot sail in US waters for six months. (The news item made no mention as to what happened to the other officer. )
Nature
Large tabular ice floes are common in the Antarctic but are rarer at the northern end of the Earth. But an iceberg four times the size of Manhattan (about 1,700 acres) recently calved off one of Greenland’s two main glaciers and it will keep scientists and others busy for the next two years as it drifts into East Coast shipping lanes and toward offshore oil platforms. Perhaps paradoxically, the Newfoundland town of Twillingate, the Iceberg Capital of the World, is hurting because tourists did not show up to see icebergs floating past because none showed up this summer and a local businessman had to go to Labrador to get ice for his clients. Normally, the town of 3,000 people swells to 30,000 each summer.
Gamboling humpback whales, frolicking and breaching just outside and inside Sydney Harbor, delighted passengers on some Australian ferries. Several whales even ventured past the Opera House as far as the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
The US Congress passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act and that means that even double-hulled tankers will have to have two escorting tugs while transiting Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
Using financial assistance from the Port of Long Beach, Foss Maritime will convert one of its Dolphin-class tugs to hybrid propulsion. The Campbell Foss will join the Carolyn Dorothy, a Dolphin-class tug specifically built to be the world’s first hybrid tug.
Metal-Bashing
Shipbuilding in China can be unprofitable. About eighty shipyards were operating at a loss in 2006 and that number rose to more than 140 this year.
Three ship-scrappers were instantly killed in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Port when a steel plate dropped on them. A gusty wind played a role.
The US Government has ruled that all non-producing oil and gas wells (about 3,500) in the Gulf of Mexico must be permanently plugged and about 650 idle platforms must be removed. The cost to producers and explorers will range between $1.4 billion to $3.5 billion and some experts believe that plugging idle wells near active wells is unwise.
Austal Ltd received a US Navy contract to build two more Joint High Speed Vessels at its Mobile, Alabama facility. That makes five of the speedy catamarans on order in the $1.6 billion program, with options for five more. Five of the vessels will belong to the Army with the other five owned by the Marines. The Military Sealift Command will operate the vessels, with government-employee “civilian mariners” manning the first two and union members operating the next three in a shootout to see which kind of labor will operate the remaining vessels.
Nasties and Territorial Imperatives
Since piracy is an international crime, any nation can capture a pirate and any nation can try him but it is proving hard to convict him. For example, a Kenyan court freed seventeen suspect Somali pirates, saying the US Navy hadn’t provided the necessary evidence. But the struggle went on. The sail yacht Choizil with three aboard was captured by Somalis but its South African skipper jumped overboard during a chase by naval forces and was picked up. Royal Thai navy ships saved twenty two crewmen and one Yemeni policeman after the Thai trawler Sirichai Nava 11 was sunk by the Somali pirates, who had captured it earlier. But survivors said one Thai and four of the Yemeni policemen hired to guard the FV were missing. The trawler was fired at and sunk in the night by an unidentified vessel.
Imports
At Tampa, authorities arrested three stowaways on a barge that had just arrived from Turks and Caicos and a fourth man leapt overboard. He was soon spotted and detained.
The destroyer HMS Manchester used darkness to hide its approach to smugglers off Columbia. The ship was within 150 meters off the stern of the smuggling vessel before the naval vessel was spotted. The cargo was about 240 kilos of cocaine street-worth £67.2 million.
Odd Bits and Head-Shakers
In the UK, about 200 people gathered to block access to the Devonport Dockyard at Plymouth in a protest of the UK’s Trident sea-launched nuclear-missile system and thirteen of the anti-nuclear demonstrators demonstrated their solidarity by supergluing their hands together.
Hope Cove is an extremely scenic seaside village located in a Devon cove and it has its own RIB rescue boat. The nearest RNLI rescue boat is stationed at Salcombe, some twenty minutes away at top speed, so the Hope Covers use their boat when needed. Several years ago, the locals took the boat out for a rescue although the Maritime and Coastguard Agency authorities had “grounded” the boat for a crack in the transom – the Agency deemed it “an unacceptable risk” and forbade further use of the RIB. Recently, however, the urge to help those in trouble predominated and the Hope Cove boat and its crew rescued a canoeist in trouble off Bolt Tail and brought him back to Hope Cove before the Salcombe fast inshore boat even got to Bolt Head. The bureaucratic MCA remains adamant in its position, however, even returning a donation of £3,600 for repairs of the Hope Cove boat.
How to interpret news items from other countries is sometimes tricky. Take this item from Belize (edited, shortened, and italicized): “The barge Benita caught fire on Ambergris Caye. The fire apparently started in the cabin section of the barge and quickly ran to the tank located on the bottom compartment. Just before the explosion, all three passengers managed to escape by jumping through the front glass window of the barge.”
Overworked Indian coastal police borrowed six speedboats from other police departments in order to improve security coverage for President Obama’s visit to Mumbai. Operating at speed at night, the Sagar Shakti ran into a ship that had been submerged for more than twenty years. On board was a phlegmatic deputy commissioner of police who later commented, “We noticed a hole in the bottom of the boat through which water had started entering.”
