NAUTICAL LOG

Regular readers - we do HAVE regular readers don't we? - will notice that the NAUTICAL LOG 'Blog List' and 'Link List' have been revised.   Sites visited frequently have been transferred from the 'Link List' to the 'Blog List' so that they can be visited more easily.  Any suggestions - politely please - on these changes are welcomed and will be considered.  Just added to the 'Link List' is a new blog, to us anyway, Marine Cafe www.marine-cafe.com/ and have the Barista Uno point-of-view from the Philippines.


We take this opportunity to wish All Hands a Happy Easter, Joyeuses Pâques, Feliz Pascua, Feliz Páscoa and Joyous Passover. 

At the bottom of our Posts we have a statement regarding our fellow seafarers, perhaps the webmasters of other Blogs would like to copy that or do something similar.  The situation has now worsened with selected hostages being kept even after ransom has been paid and the vessel departs.  Also there has been no news,…

The first in class of the new United States Coast Guard cutter Sentinel Class was "launched" yesterday at Lockport, LA.  Named the Bernard C. Webber (154 ft.) she did not as can be seen from the photos have a traditional launch.  Somehow it does not have the same impact, however we at NAUTICAL LOG wish her well and successful patrols once she is commissioned.  Photos courtesy of the USCG Compass with thanks.


Good Watch.

Please remember the seafarers held captive by pirates off Somalia - let us work with India and others to free them.


UPDATE: April 23, 2011

We regret to report that Mrs. Richardson has died in Cumberland Hospital overnight, our sympathies to the families.

Regretfully the news regarding Mrs. Richardson, the lady who was dropped from a stretcher into -3°C. Arctic waters is not good.  The doctors say it is hard to estimate if this is due to her underlying medical condition or the traumatic experience she suffered during the transfer from the MS Ocean Countess to the NSSR/Redningsselskapet lifeboat.  There is a full Investigation underway in which all parties involved are assisting.  We at NAUTICAL LOG wish the Richardson family well and hope the work of the medical staff at Cumberland Hospital will have a successful outcome.


Good Watch.

Please remember the seafarers held captive by pirates off Somalia - let us work with India and others to free them.

When rescues go wrong they can really go wrong this is one of those occasions.  In a report today from the United Kingdom comes word of a passenger in MS Ocean Countess, Mrs. Richardson, who was taken ill onboard and it was decided to transfer her ashore.  The cruise ship was cruising the Norwegian Fjords and the Norwegian Rescue Service lifeboat responded.  However originally a helicopter transfer was planned but it changed to a lifeboat response.  In transferring the patient by stretcher from the vessel to the lifeboat the six (6) stretcher bearers lost control when the lifeboat lurched and its stern swung away.  Mrs. Richardson fell into the freezing water of -3°C. in which she struggled for some eight (8) minutes.  Fortunately she was wearing a lifejacket and once back in the lifeboat was rushed to hospital in Bodo, Norway which is just north of the Arctic Circle.  She has now been transferred to Cumberland Hospital in Carlisle, Cumbria, UK.  We at NAUTICAL LOG wish the Richardson…

On this the Deepwater Horizon Anniversary of the worst oil spill in United States history that of the Transocean  BP drill platform in the Gulf of Mexico.  The response to which was less than steller by a United States Coast Guard which repeated all the mistakes of the Exxon Valdez disaster plus adding in a few new ones - the Media had a field day and still are from anniversary coverage.  Since the USCG became part of the Department of Homeland Security their added missions seem to have overwhelmed the original purpose of having a USCG.  We now have RHIB's manned by young bosun's mates not yet of legal drinking age racing around with powerful weapons and flashbangs playing at being maritime law enforcement officers.  In recruiting areas well known to seafarers and boaters one can add in latino machismo to the volatile mix of youth, inexperience, weapons and gungho-oorah this latter encouraged by those in command.  It is hard to pay very much attention to some kid in a uniform …


For those of you that know and have watched Doctor Who over the years transporting around in TARDIS his blue British Police Call Box will be sad to learn of the death of Elisabeth Sladen.  Joining the programme in 1973 she became one of the most popular companions in the role of Sarah Jane Smith.  The Liverpool born actress Elisabeth Sladen was known to family and friends as Lis.  She starred in Doctor Who alongside Jon Pertwee the third doctor and Tom Baker the fourth doctor.


Elisabeth Sladen was suffering from cancer and died yesterday leaving behind her husband actor Brian Miller and daughter Sadie.  Lis was 63 which is itself hard for NAUTICAL LOG to believe.  Safe passage and


Good Watch.
Please remember the seafarers held captive by pirates off Somalia - let us work with India to free them.

It is amazing to NAUTICAL LOG and one suspects many others, that vast sums of money can be paid in bribes, graft and payouts to the pirates and their associates.  At the same time the United Nations is rumoured to be running low in anti-piracy operating funds. 

At an anti-piracy conference yesterday Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan the UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs agreed to donate $1 million to the fund and around $400,00 was pledged by private companies in the UAE and further $100,00 by Dubai Port operator DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.  Last year the fund had an operational budget of $4.5 million .  Only $100,000 of that operational fund remains and without this infusion of monies the fund would have ceased operating.


While these contributions by UAE entities are generous it is but a fraction of the payouts to the pirates themselves and somehow this all seems a ridiculous situation to NAUTICAL LOG.  The UN states it needs $20 million annually, this puts furthe…

Cable ships have come in all shapes and sizes over the years and just to the south of the NAUTICAL LOG home port is one named SV Western Union.  Her home port in Key West, FL, which before its present rebirth as an alternative lifestyle tourist resort and cruise ship call port, was a fishing port, US Naval Base, US Coast Guard Base and second home to President Harry S. Truman.
The SV Western Union was designed, timbers cut in Grand Cayman of native woods and shipped to Key West where she was assembled and rigged in 1939 by Grand Cayman and Conch craftsmen.  She is an American coastal schooner of traditional design and served the telegraph company as a cable repair ship for 35 years.  Years later she was tidied-up and used as a local tour vessel in response to a growing tourist trade to replace the reduction and eventual departure of the US Naval Base, though the USCG still has an important Base there to the present day.


When Historic Tours of America ceased operations there was a fear …

PIRACY


Here we are TGIF and the weekend looms, at least for some of us.  Once again we have information from one of our European correspondents and once again it is about Piracy.  No matter how many meetings, conferences and reports are conducted in the maritime world the Piracy continues and no leadership is displayed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) whatsoever.


In a report received by NAUTICAL LOG this morning Katerina Kerr who quotes the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Director CAPT. Pottengal Mukundan and whom both are summarized and quoted by NAUTICAL LOG.


"Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past three months are higher than we've ever recorded in the first quarter of any year".


The IMB have monitored piracy worldwide since 1991.  The east coast of Somalia, in and around the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden are areas with most reported hijackings and hostages taken, says the report.  Some 299 persons with their vessels held captive an…




It seems that this is the year of aircraft carriers as both China and the United Kingdom are building them.  Of the two China's is rather interesting it is a former Ukraine Navy vessel which China bought in 1998 and towed without an engine and with much of the vessel missing, to a shipyard at China.  The Chinese Navy studied it, used it for training purposes and designed a rebuilding programme which now is bearing fruit.  She is named after Shi Lang an Admiral who conquered Taiwan in 1681, in itself an interesting and perhaps warning choice of name.  On April 28, 2011 Shi Lang may well put to sea for the commencement of a long programme of ship trials and training of Chinese Naval personnel, of all ranks and rates, in operating aircraft carriers and flight operations from them. 

She will be the first of several planned carriers which may be restored from old vessels bought in the last decades or more likely build from Chinese designs in China's shipyards or perhaps a combina…

Now that the required United States Coast Guard (USCG)  publishing and waiting period have been completed the Final Rule on vessel capacity calculation will come into effect on December 01, 2011.  Due to the persons being bigger and heavier the weight per person was increased from 150 lbs. to 185 lbs. as the division numeral.  On making a 'walmartvisit' to your local shopping center and looking around one may feel that is actually quite generous!!  

The International Merchant Shipping Convention Rules state:

4.4.2.1  No lifeboat shall be approved to accommodate more than 150 persons.
4.4.2.2  The number of persons which a lifeboat to be launched by falls shall be permitted to accommodate shall be equal to the lesser of;
.1  the number of persons having an average mass of 75 kg /165 lbs.(for a lifeboat intended for a passenger ship) or 82.5 kg /181.5 lbs.(for a lifeboat intended for a cargo ship), all wearing lifejackets, that can be seated in a normal position without interfering …