NAUTICAL LOG

Well now NAUTICAL LOG is feeling rather pleased!!  It appears that the SSCS fleet has followed a suggestion we made in our Post Operation Relentless and is now guarding the slipway of the MS Nisshin Maru thus preventing the catchers offloading their whales for butchering.  To quote Peter Hammarstedt of the MS Bob Barker:

"The primary strategy of our Antarctic Whale Defence Campaign is to secure the slipway of the Nisshin Maru and allow no dead whales to pass into this floating abattoir.  We have achieved this goal.  We will continue to block the slipway of this poaching ship, relentless in our mission to protect the whales and the sanctity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."

Wow! heady stuff indeed.  While the language is a little exaggerated and somewhat pompous the end result is the important point that the slipway of the MS Nisshin Maru is blocked preventing whales being hauled on board.

If the SSCS fleet can continue this blockage and shut down the Japanese Whaling Flee…

 Suddenly the morning coffee of NAUTICAL LOG tastes a little bitter.  Reading the maritime blogs there is an article in gCaptain about a Plan by the White House to make Arctic shipping safer. Oh! dear me if it is anything close to their ACA (Obamacare) then the Arctic is in further hot water - hmmm.


The Navy Oceanographer Rear-Admiral Jon White announced that an inter-agency team has made a comprehensive assessment after a review of current Arctic sea-ice projections.  By 2020 the Bering Strait is projected to be ice free 160 days in the year.   The U.S. State Department will attempt to reach agreement with Canada on the maritime boundary in the Beaufort Sea.

With all that the current Administration has on its plate, that it already cannot deal with, why would they not wait until the IMO Polar Code is presented for ratification.  The U.S. could then negotiate with Canada to present a Joint Amendment with regard to their part of the Arctic Region.

Good Watch


 On January 14, 2014 the Final Draft of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Polar Code was issued.  It was met with disgust by concerned environmental organisations whose representative Mr. Bill Hemmings stated:

"A Polar Code which fails to address the major environmental dangers of increased shipping opens the door to potentially catastrophic consequences should a disaster happen.  Environmental protection has essentially been put on a back-burner through the active lobbying of the shipping and cruise industry which consistently dismisses ecological concerns. 

This is a disgraceful illustration of big business working behind the closed doors to advance its own corporate interests before those of mankind and the unique polar environment.  When the next big incident happens in polar waters the public will know where responsibility lies."

NAUTICAL LOG completely and heartily concurs so has quoted Mr. Bill Hemmings here in full.  As has been the pattern in recent deca…

UPDATE:
Monday January 27, 2014.
Apparently the reason there are so few reports from Operation Relentless is that they are not doing very much.  The JWF continues catching whales while the SSCS give the impression that they are following the U.S. Court order to stay 400 metres away from the JWF ships.  So it appears  from the relative positions of the SSCS ships ahead and astern of the JWF MS Nisshin Maru.  The Operation Relentless seems to be more an Operation Useless.

Dramatic news from the Southern Ocean - well at least according to Sea Shepherd Australia.  There is a report on their website which claims as usual excellent results from very little action on the part of the SSCS in "boxing-in" the JWF.  According to them the JWF run away at the sight of the SSCS ships.

The report is of course somewhat exaggerated, a bit bombastic and while stating things rather gives itself away in not really knowing what the JWF have been doing.  It seems the SSCS vessels lost track of the…




The death occurred on Tuesday January 21, 2014 of Captain Paul Emile Francoeur (90).  For many years under different ownerships of Eastern Steamship Lines (ESL) he was Master of their SS Ariadne.NAUTICAL LOG served during 1969 as 2nd. Officer in the SS Ariadne which CAPT. Paul commanded on cruises from South Florida. In fact he was one of the original South Florida cruise ship Masters.

Born in St. Alexis de Matapedia, Gaspe, Quebec, Canada he served in various ships before joining Eastern Steamship Lines.  In 1970 he was accepted into the Biscayne Bay Pilots Association as a Port of Miami Pilot until retiring in 1991.

Eastern Steamship Lines was founded in 1901 by the Wall Street financier C. W. Morse and consolidated several small New England coastwise passenger lines.  They offered service from New York to New England ports and winter cruises to Florida.  Ceasing operations during World War 2 they resumed afterwards.  In 1954 the line was bought by F. Leslie Fraser who transferred…


On April 14, 1912 at 2340 the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage, the rest is history and the story well known.



On January 20, 1914 100 years ago today as a result of this tragedy 13 Nations held the International Convention of Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) it came into force in 1915 with just 5 Nations having ratified SOLAS. 

At that time Europe was involved in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 but eventually most if not all maritime nations signed and ratified the Convention and today it is the normal standard for safely operating vessels at sea.  In each country there is a body which is charged by its government and enforces SOLAS on all ships registered in or visiting its Ports.  Known as the Flag State and the Port State Inspections vessels are inspected to SOLAS standards they may be detained until repairs are made should defects be found by these Inspections. 

In the United States of America this is one of the missions of the United States Coast Guard (USCG…

Well now what a nice surprise this morning to open up the Sea Shepherd Australia link in and find a sensible report.  The article covering current happenings was well written, informative and non-bombastic which is quite a change from previous seasons when "Wats-his-name" wrote his nonsense. 
It is however quite amazing to NAUTICAL LOG that after all the reports about finding the JWF and ships following ships the SSCS has lost contact with the factory ship MS Nisshin Maru.  One would think that a SSCS ship perhaps the MS Sam Simon would be assigned to stay with her to keep track at all times.  It may be that there is not a well coordinated plan or the captains of the SSCS vessels are not able to execute the plan or handle their ships in an effective manner.  We shall just have to see if they have the navigational ability to do so.   Instead of racing back and forth in dramatic fashion across the Southern Ocean like the MS Bob Barker transmitting bombastic signals, remain and…