When Iran threatened to get nasty, the US Navy passed carrier battle groups through the Strait of Hormuz. Seeing no military advantage in having European ships taking part, the US Navy preferred an all-American response. Great Britain wanted to participate but was turned down. The French insisted on participating and sent the frigate La Motte-Picquet. So the Brits decided that “Britain must participate too, regardless of the military importance“ and sent the frigate HMS Argyll, thus preserving “the Special Relationship” between the US and Great Britain, a relationship that has come under doubt during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Most of the world’s largest container ships serve Europe but some are being shifted to trans-Pacific routes, possibly to force increases in freight rates.
Outfitting the entire world fleet by the end of the decade with equipment to kill invasive species in ballast water is physically impossible and would cost $74 billion. So predicted one group.
It has been long recognized that the suppression of regional piracy largely depends on the existence of a stable Somalian government. It is yet to be created but, encouragingly, regional Somali authorities are now hiring private security firms to provide counter-piracy forces. Puntland is creating its own maritime police force thanks to substantial financial aid from the United Arab Emirates while the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is forming its own anti-piracy taskforce with financing from international donors and a French sovereign wealth fund.
Thin Places and Hard Knocks
The Chinese freighter Xinyuanshun 6 was carrying 5,000 tons of pottery clay to the coastal Shandong province when it sank off the coast of Chongwu in Fujian province, drowning eight crewmembers and leaving another two missing. The capsize might have been caused by shifting cargo. In Greece, the small product tanker Alfa 1 capsized and sank west of Athens, possibly from hitting an old shipwreck. The master died while the other ten of the crew survived.
In Texas, the platform supply vessel Miss Pearl managed to run up onto the west side of the Sabine jetties until it was almost completely out of the water. The four-man crew suffered a variety of injuries from the sudden stop and was helicopter-evacuated to a local hospital. About 4,000 gallons of fuel were spilled. In Western Australia, while under control of a pilot, the product tanker Challenge Prelude ran aground at Dampier Port. (The port was created in the 1960s to handle iron ore shipments for Rio Tinto and it also exports salt, produced in nearby evaporation beds, and petroleum gasses.) The container ship MSC Carole ran aground off Jakarta for as-yet-unexplained reasons. The crew was OK and no oil was spilled but the first attempt to pull the ship off the reef failed.
In Belfast Lough, the coaster Union Moon T-boned the ferry Stena Feronia. The coaster master was drunk and both vessels will need extensive repairs.
In Finland at Hamina, the container ship Bianca Rambow experienced an explosion in the engine room. Nobody was hurt since the space was unmanned at the time. Life at Brazil’s Antarctic research station has been eventful. In December, a small fuel barge capsized and sank while being towed by four small boats in bad weather. None of the 10,000 liters of diesel fuel has leaked out. Then, a fire starting in the station’s generator room killed two navy personnel and forced helicopter evacuation of forty-four to Chile’s station. The burns of a third man were treated at Poland’s Antarctic station and then he was transferred to the Chilean station. In Ajman (the smallest of the seven emirates forming the United Arab Emirates), a short-circuiting industrial vacuum cleaner caused a ship fire that killed three and seriously burned another five workers.
The 3,000-TEU container ship MOL Maneuver collided with the 6,700-TEU container ship Zhen He while both were underway in open waters southeast of Hong Kong. No injuries, no oil spilled, some damage, and each proceeded on its way.
A female dockworker was killed at Port Newark when caught between containers being unloaded from a ship. At Portland, Oregon, a worker on the barge D/B Boaz fell into a tank and drowned. Responders used a camera to confirm the body was in the tank and then pumped out the toxic, corrosive lignin amine so two people in hazmat clothing could be lowered into the tank to remove the body.
In bad weather, an Iranian sailing dhow capsized in the Persian Gulf, triggering a search and rescue effort. The coastal patrol boats USS Firebolt and the USCGC Maui found one survivor and parts of the bodies (sharks?) of three others of the dhow’s crew of six. The bulk carrier Global Bay was more than 200 miles south of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, when it asked for help because it had a crewmember suffering from abdominal pain and possible appendicitis. The bulker was told to close towards Dutch Harbor so a Coast Guard helicopter on the cutter Alex Haley could make a mercy run. The man was medevaced and, after stopping at the Alex Haley to refuel, the chopper took the man to Dutch Harbor and a connection with a commercial medical flight. (The chopper was on the Alex Haley because the Coast Guard tries to maintain search and rescue-ready assets in the Bering Sea due to the harsh weather and job hazards experienced by those who work in that environment.)
And a Coast Guard helicopter flew more than 300 miles from Clearwater, Florida into Cuban waters to evacuate a 44-year-old man off the Carnival Liberty. He was suffering from abdominal pains. The ship, although American-owned, is Panamanian-flagged. Which may explain why Cuba didn’t raise a fuss about the intrusion of the chopper!
Gray Fleets
Three female US Navy officers were among several officers caught submitting fraudulent travel claims. The trio will no longer among the women recently selected to serve in the previously all-male submarine force.
Since drug use by sailors is up, the US Navy will start using Breathalyzer tests and random tests for synthetic drugs such as the synthetic marijuana Spice. The procedures should improve the readiness of sailors and Marines, the Navy claimed. The Navy will also end discounting cigarettes for sale at service exchange, raising the prices up to market levels.
Recently, the British Prime Minister pontificated that, "The Royal Navy is going to pack a huge punch in the future… we are going to have a very, very capable Royal Navy." But its only fixed-wing carrier (HMS Ark Royal) and all the Harrier GR9s capable of flying from it were axed, as were four highly capable Type-22 frigates. One of the Navy's two LPDs (amphibious ships) has been placed into extended readiness for three years and the Astute-class submarine construction program has been slowed. By 2015, the Royal Navy will have just thirty frontline ships, compared with nearly 100 at the time of the Falklands War in 1982.
The British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Talent has been experiencing exciting events lately. First, hydraulic shutter doors protecting the mast suddenly closed on the head of an engineer and he was trapped for a few minutes. He had minor injuries. Six days later, fire broke out onboard. Authorities refused to disclose the fire’s location.
In 1998, Canada purchased four mothballed diesel-electric submarines and the second-hand subs have been trouble-prone ever since. The four were originally purchased from Britain for $890 million but estimates put repairs since at close to the same figure. HMCS Victoria is currently doing sea trials that include firing torpedoes. HMCS Chicoutemi and HMCS Windsor are being refitted and will be in the water by the end of next year while HMCS Cornerbrook is in extended maintenance until 2016. The subs must soldier on to at least 2030 But good news; planners will start thinking about their replacements some time in the next four years.
A South Korean firm will build three submarines for Indonesia. The 1,400-ton diesel-powered vessels will have eight torpedo tubes capable of emitting torpedoes, mines, or guided missiles, and a crew of forty. Deliveries will be in the first half of 2018.
The Maverick air-to-ground missile saw combat in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and other conflicts but has been out of production for more than two decades. Now the laser-guided version is back in production. It is effective against frigate-size ships, small moving boats, tanks, fortified personnel, and fast-moving maneuvering vehicles in excess of 70 miles per hour.
White Fleets
It has not been a good year for Costa Cruises. A major contributor to the Costa Concordia fiasco may have been that the master didn’t have his glasses with him and had to repeatedly ask the first officer to adjust the scale of the radar so the master could see. Or so it was revealed at the first post-wreck inquiry.
A generator-room fire crippled the Costa Allegra while more than 200 miles off the East African island of the Seychelles. First to arrive on-scene was the French purse-seine tuna catcher Trevignon, which took the cruise ship in tow. Two tugs arrived soon after but the French fishing vessel, possibly with thoughts of salvage, refused to transfer the tow. (It was later revealed that the Costa Allegra had a history of fire violations so an appropriate award might be €1 million.) It maintained a creditable six knots, a surprising accomplishment for a vessel designed more for speed than pull, but the three-day tow to Mahe took several hours longer than necessary. In the interim, helicopters delivered fresh bread, 400 flashlights, and satellite phones but the lack of electrical power on the cruise ship meant the 627 passengers tended to cluster on deck in any available shade rather than retreat to their non-air conditioned cabins, which were often smelly from unflushable toilets. A company spokesman did optimistically note that the six-knot towing speed of the ship “creates a slight breeze... making the situation more comfortable.”
And a third Costa cruise ship had smaller problems. A cigarette started a fire in a cabin on the Costa Voyager while in the Red Sea. A sprinkler quickly took care of the fire but the carpet needed to be replaced.
The cruise ships Adonia (3,250 passengers) and Star Princess (2,580 pax) were denied entry to Argentina’s southernmost port of Ushuaia “for political reasons” and had to continue on to Chile. Both had just stopped at the Falkland Islands.
The Queen Mary 2 had two power outages while voyaging from Port Louis to Fremantle. The first lasted for 25 minutes. The second, in rough weather, lasted about ten minutes. Passengers were inconvenienced only momentarily by the loss of lights and TV but the engines took more than eight minutes to resume propelling the vessel. “Routine maintenance” was blamed for both outages.
A crewmember jumped overboard from the Magic while the ship was about 100 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas in rough weather and at night. He was wearing a life vest with a strobe light attached so the Magic’s rescue boat was able to pick him up within 45 minutes.
Those That Go Back and Forth
In Scotland, strong winds drove the Oban-Mull ferry Isle of Mull into the pier at Oban. No injuries to the 177 passengers. A few days earlier, a strong gust drove the Caledonian Isles into the pier at Androssan. The master had the ferry tied-off to the pier until winds abated and about an hour later the ferry berthed and landed its 277 passengers.
Also in Scotland, a landslide before Christmas closed A890 so the highway was replaced by a six-car ferry. Then, motorists faced a 180-mle detour because the Glenachulish ran aground. The thrifty Highland Council had the ferry beached at high tide so repairs could be made.
In the Philippines, the Cebu Ferry had an onboard fire after leaving Batangas 60 miles south of Manila and two Coast Guard vessels responded. The ferry’s 43 passengers, including one child, were safely transferred to the ferry Supercat-38.
While enroute from Lae to Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, the ferry Kimbe Queen ran aground on a reef off West New Britain. The thirty passengers were evacuated by boats provided by the Hargy Oil Palm Company and the ferry was refloated later that day.
Greek bureaucracy and problems faced by ferry companies could mean that a number of Aegean islands will be without ferry service this summer. Fuel costs have gone up 44 percent since 2010 and are expected to increase, and passenger and vehicle traffic has been down.
In Lagos, a sudden but seasonal overabundance of water hyacinth, a pernicious waterweed, has been denying ferries access to their berths and thus commuters had to find alternative ways to get to work. Also affected were fishing boats. The government took actions to clear the affected waterways.
Legal Matters
In New Zealand, the master and second officer of the wrecked container ship Rena admitted willfully perverting justice by altering various ship’s documents after the vessel grounded. Both also pleaded guilty to operating a vessel in a manner that caused unnecessary risk. The master also admitted that he was responsible for discharging harmful substances from the vessel. Several years of jail time and a sizable fine seem to be in their near futures.
When the bulker Laconia arrived at Astoria, Oregon, a Customs agent thought the master was drunk and soon after the Coast Guard agreed and also found open alcohol containers in his stateroom. The master’s blood-alcohol level was well above legal limit for a ship operator and he was taken into custody. He was sentenced to a $500 fine and one-year probation during which he must stay out of US waters.
The 1989-built Global Star was detained at Plymouth, UK after port state control inspectors found 19 deficiencies, four bad enough so as to constitute grounds for detention. The ship jumped detention and authorities in Europe, North America and Egypt were asked to keep their eyes open for the Mongolian-flagged chemical tanker. Authorities at the Suez Canal may spot the ship since it was originally bound for Alang for scrapping.
Perhaps because he was towing two barges, the master of the Volga River tugboat Dunaisky-66 opted not to go to the assistance of the sinking river cruise ship Bulgaria when it capsized and sank in a storm last July. At least 122 people died. He was fined 190,000 rubles (about $6,000) by a city court.
Nature
Satellite tracking data suggests that most dolphins rescued during recent mass strandings in New England survived their ordeal.
Marine scientists and a commercial telecommunications company are exploring deployment of sensors along a deep-sea cable and using the cable to send data such as the size and direction of passing tsunamis. The initial project may use a cable route spanning 12,950 kilometers (8,105 miles) from Sydney to Auckland and across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles. Initial efforts may use seismometers, pressure gauges, and temperature sensors.
Greenpeace activists, including “Xena” actress Lucy Lawless, swarmed over the drill rig Noble Discovery at Port Taranaki, New Zealand, and set up light housekeeping atop the 53-meter drilling tower for several days. Eventually, seven activists were arrested, reportedly for burglary. The rig was about to set off for the Sea of Chukchi off Alaska where it would have drilled three exploratory wells.
In the Antarctic, Sea Shepherd activists managed to get a rope into the propeller of the “research” vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, slowing it to some extent. The anti-whaling activists also threw smoke-producing flares and bottles of butyric acid (these stinkbombs spoil any whale meat they come in contact with and make it almost impossible to work on the deck) onto the ship and it responded by feebly spraying water and issuing warnings. The “fun” lasted about two hours and nobody was hurt.
Metal-Bashing
ExxonMobil sold for scrapping its tanker S/R Long Beach, the last single-hulled tanker in the Alaska crude-oil trade. The 1987-built, 214,853-dwt vessel was reflagged to Tuvalu on January 31 and its name shortened to Beach. By now, it may have been scrapped, probably in China.
Nasties and Territorial Imperatives
A British researcher concluded that 30 percent of a typical ransom goes to the Somalian pirates themselves, 10 percent to their shore-based support, 10 percent in bribes to local communities, and 50 percent to bosses, often safe in foreign countries. But local economies have been boosted, the exchange rate is better, real wages have risen, and inflation is down, all due to hard work by pirates. Another conclusion by the researcher was that the revenue from a typical ransom was roughly equivalent to exporting 1,650 head of cattle.
A commercial anti-piracy center recently established in the UK by a private firm will be manned by ex-Royal Navy warfare specialists and intelligence experts. The center can warn clients, such as shipping companies and charterers, if their vessels are standing into peril. Its intelligence warnings can also save, so the company claims, an average of two to four days of transit time and the hire of physical security guards at $90,000 to $220,000 per voyage.
Conflicting accounts told how a six-man Italian military security force on the Italian tanker Enrica Lexie fired at a threatening pirate boat in Indian waters but hit nobody. Or maybe it was the Indian fishing boat St Anthony the military fired at, killing two fishermen. India arrested the tanker and two of the security force. The two countries then argued about where the two Italian marines should be tried.
Odd Bits and Head-Shakers
Archeologists are searching for thirteen privately owned British transport service vessels burned and sunk in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island when that port was blockaded by the French Navy in 1778. Somewhere among the wrecks is HMB Endeavour, British explorer Capt. James Cook’s vessel. Endeavour was later used as a Navy store ship and in 1775 was sold to a private owner who offered the vessel back to the British transport service under the new name of Lord Sandwich.
A recent Tanzanian government decision forced the ferry company that links Kilombero and Ulanga districts to carry only 20-foot containers and a maximum of 50 tons at a time. These restrictions are limiting shipments by Africa’s largest grower of teak. The company has a backlog of more than 100 containers and has suspended sale and export of some products.
If ships go into Arctic waters, a trade group wants to see them equipped with the crisis-management products of its members. These include a built-in system of fast oil recovery piping that would greatly simplify the removal of fuels from a stricken ship, magnetic patches to cover ice-made holes in hulls, valves that allow passage of water but not pollutants, and specialized submersible pumps.
Danish authorities noted that the small container ship Danica Hav was standing into danger at Sjællands Odde, a long peninsula on the northwest coast of Zealand. The ship didn’t answer radio calls so a rescue helicopter lowered a crewman onto the ship. He found the quite-drunk master at the wheel. A mate, roused from sleep, turned the ship aside minutes before it ran aground.
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