NAUTICAL LOG

This morning on opening our Press Folder NAUTICAL LOG was horrified to read in the BBC NEWS Asia that a replica of the RMS Titanic is going to be built.


It used to be that "The Americans" were accused of misuse of their wealth now it seems this has shifted to "The Australians" for the replica of this tragic vessel has been contracted by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer.  Apparently he is a mining billionaire and construction of the replica will begin in a Chinese shipyard at the end of next year.


NAUTICAL LOG is certainly not going to go into the details of the projected vessel - research that for yourselves - however we do hope that there will be sufficient disgust at the insensitivity of Palmer to have the project scuppered before the keel is laid.


This vessel will be built in a yard, CSC Jining Shipyard, of a country with chronic Human Rights issues just as the original vessel was.  Harland and Wolff of Belfast hired its workers based on religious preference and…

The following M-Notices are available at www.dft.gov.uk/ if you have any difficulties call 023 8032 9391 for assistance.




MGN 446 (M+F) The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Control of Vibration at Work) Regulatuion 2007 - Procedure for Seeking Exemptions


MGN 447 (M+F) The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Control of Noise at Work) Regulation 2007 - Procedure for Seeking Exemptions


Good Watch.

Please remember the some 300 of our fellow seafarers held hostage by pirates off the coast of Puntland, Somalia.

In the 15th. Century Chinese Admiral Zheng He (1371 - 1433) made a series of world voyages with a huge fleet of vessels.  These voyages have been described in two books "1421" and "1434" by Gavin Menzies, a former British Royal Navy Officer.  His work and theories have largely been confirmed by research done by his own team and the Chinese Government.


Now with the current expansion of China the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is building ships and making world wide voyages once again.  The PLAN naval training ship is named after him and PLAN Zhenghe 81 is currently making a five month voyage around the world.  Her dimensions are, displacement 6,103 tonnes, length 132 M, breadth 15.8 M and draft 4.8 M.


The vessel sailed from the Naval Port of Dalian in northeast China last Monday with 308 naval personnel and 110 Cadets from the Dalian Naval Academy.  Over the five month voyage she will visit Vietnam, Malaysia, and India then cross the Indian Ocean to transit the S…

As our regular readers know NAUTICAL LOG is extremely concerned about piracy and the lack of action to rescue the seafarers held hostage off the coast of Puntland, Somalia.  We are republishing here an infographic from the Travel Insurance Guide which was published in gCaptain® this morning.  It is an excellent summation of the Somali piracy situation.


Good Watch.

There are currently some 300 of our fellow seafarers held hostage off the coast of Puntland, Somali by pirates and they face mutilation or death every day.

During this last month there have been numerous Media Specials and articles about the RMS Titanic.  The loss of passengers for Ireland was an extremely painful episode in already hard and difficult lives of most of the Irish country people.  The event was never talked about at all and it is only now some one hundred years later that some of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those lost have been able to face the fact, plan and build memorials to their lost fellow villagers.


It was of course a double loss for them, the family member and fellow villager was gone and so also was the money that had been collected for their passage with no hope of any return or more family and villagers going in the future.  What does one mean by that?


Well it was quite impossible for the person wanting and prepared to go to America to raise the Steerage passage fare money.  So what happened was the village got together and raised the fare money which for a Steerage passage which was about £25.00 o…

A sense of humour is a complicated thing, it mostly likely depends on the influences under which one is raised.  For NAUTICAL LOG the older style drier British humour is the one that mostly appeals while the British "music hall" style does not.


So it was that when we received a comment to our Post 'KNOW ALLS' in regard to an article in the 'Borowitz Report' that the commenter did not like we did not quite know what to expect when we opened the website this morning. 


The article was about the supposed relationship between pirates and cruise ships. Now as all our readers know NAUTICAL LOG is extremely distressed about the seafarers held captive certainly there is absolutely nothing funny about that and the fact that little or nothing is being done to rescue them.


It turns out, since we had never heard of the person, Mr. Andy Borowitz is a product of Harvard via the Harvard Lampoon and Hasty Pudding Theatricals.  As far as NAUTICAL LOG is concerned the article is …

Yesterday one of our household staff had been listening to NPR on the way to work and came to me with a story about a Cruise ship ignoring fishermen who later turned up dead.  As NAUTICAL LOG was not aware that there had been two incidents in the last couple of months we did not pay very much attention.  Then this morning in OLD SALT BLOG there was a Post which explained the two incidents as reported by NPR.


NAUTICAL LOG does not listen to NPR and for those of you who do not know what NPR is we should perhaps explain.  It stands for National Public Radio (NPR) and from that title one could reasonably think it reflects the viewpoint of all Americans - it does not - over the years it has drifted further and further to the socialist left thinking.  It supports the current "class warfare" attitude of the left and far left thinkers with complete disregard for the Constitution on which this country was founded.  They prefer a Europe West nation rather than the United States of Amer…

With the passing of the 100th. Anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15, 2012 the status of this wrecked vessel changed under International Maritime Law and United Nations Rules.


Senator John Kerry of the United States has proposed that the wreck be declared a nautical grave site.  As such she would be protected from further desecration by diving expeditions and the removal of artifacts.


At present a company named RMS Titanic, Inc. has the sole "right" to salvage items from the vessel.  This "right" was awarded by a U.S. Federal Judge and is legally in doubt since that Judge had no jurisdiction to do so in the first place.  The judgment is reviewed and renewed annually, but in fact  it is a false judgement to begin with since neither the United States Federal or any other U.S. Court has  jurisdiction the wrecked vessel being in International Waters.


The United Kingdom enacted the "Protection of Military Remains Act, 1986" and this applies to bot…

"They that go down to the sea in ships, they that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep."
Psalm 107


April 15, 1912

In two recent Posts we mentioned River Cruising and the lack of information about Safety Protocols and Procedures.  With the ever increasing popularity and building of new vessels it is remarkably difficult to get Safety Information about what these vessels carry in the way of Lifesaving Equipment.  Are there Liferafts on board?  Are there Lifejackets on board?


NAUTICAL LOG decided, since we receive numerous brochures describing the wonders of River Cruising, to take the direct approach and e-mail the "Contact Us" address for Viking River Cruises this morning.  By lunchtime we had our answer and we quote the reply from a Cheri Stratton of Viking River Cruises, complete with spelling as received at  NAUTICAL LOG


"Der Mr. Boucher,
Each Vessel has a briefing on emergencies once you board.
We have many different itineraries and ships so those briefings may vary
Thank you for your inquiry
Viking River Cruises"


Now this is an answer but not one that informs about either Lifesav…

In a recent Post "AWAY AND BACK" we discussed Piracy.  As regular readers known this is something that disturbs us greatly and the resulting suffering of the captive seafarers held hostage NAUTICAL LOG finds personally painful. The fact that little or nothing is being done by World Governments and the International Maritime Organization to assist and rescue them concerns NAUTICAL LOG very much.


As a result of this international lack of action or caring for the seafarers held hostage many persons seem to think that Piracy is outside the Law.  This attitude was reflected in a comment to our Post "AWAY AND BACK" where the commenter seemed to think that nothing could be done because of jurisdictional issues. Nothing could be further from the truth the only issue in dealing with Piracy once and for all is the will of the International Maritime Organization and the various National Governments of maritime nations.  For some reason which is quite beyond the understanding o…

The following M-Notices are available from www.dft.gov.uk if you experience any difficulty contact 023 8032 9391




MGN 439 (F) Survey Standards for 24m and Over Registered Length Fishing Vessels


Good Watch.

Please remember the seafarers held hostages by pirates off the coast of Puntland, Somalia.  The remaining crew of the MS Iceberg 1 have now been two years in captivity, some have died both through ill health and by suicide.