NAUTICAL LOG

In recent years there has been a steady decline in the professionalism, accuracy and quality of the various Media outlets and the social media.  In the rush to get there first with a story the shoddy Media - lets call it the really shoddy social media - have resorted to making up stories.  When growing up in the late 30's and 40's this was called lying and got one punished in our house.

Fake news includes inaccurate and unsupported stories all of which in the last year have been published without correction or apology.  Now it seems this attitude has spread to the maritime blogs.  One blog which was generally pretty good about its posts has slipped in accuracy lately including quoting from European tabloids.  A recent post was about H.M.S. Vengeance and its missile launches off the coast of Florida part of its programme to Certify boat and crew  The story was an ill advised, inaccurate choice in subject matter as to what happened and how the incident was reported to a Foreign N…

Well now here we are in the last couple of days of the 44th. Presidents term of Office and the end of his Administration.  One recalls his Inauguration speech full of hope about all people and races in the United States of America working together - hmm that didn't last a week before he was dividing the Nation by blaming the opposition  Party and previous Administration for the Nations ills.  So it continued whinging and whining for the next eight years with lowering standards and governmental stagnation.  The new 44th. President turned out to be quite unable to make timely decisions and develop an effective foreign policy. He continued to blame Congress and the Republican Party for being unable to get things done.  Of course it is hard to win support when you continually blame your mistakes on other people which he did.  Last week he made a farewell speech which referred to some imaginary country not the one he has attempted to administer these last eight difficult years.

This is …

Yesterday came the rather surprising news that President Obama, who leaves office next week, had cancelled the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that applied only to Cubans trying to get into the United States of America.

What on earth was this "wet foot, dry foot"?  First some background to understand this discriminatory policy.  Back in 1966 under a very different World political atmosphere the United States decided to create and pass into Federal Law the Cuban Adjustment Act which included the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program  it was signed into Federal Law by President Johnson that ultimate politician.  Act 1 was thus on stage.

This policy being unique to Cubans led to the influx of Cubans into Dade County Florida and in a very short time they had taken over the County in business, politics and language which led to the present state where 65% of the Miami-Dade County population now are Spanish speaking and indeed in business one is expected to speak Spanish a…

It must be a slow time for writers.  Once again the tragedy of the R.M.S. TITANIC has been dragged up for profit.  The National Geographic Society has apparently made a "documentary" based on writings by an Irish author with supposedly "new evidence" pertaining to the loss of this Trans-Atlantic liner over 100 years ago.

It is not new evidence at all merely a repeat about the bunker coal fire in the forward starboard portion of the lowest decks where the coal trimmers work.  These bunker fires were all too common in steam powered ships using coal and caused by spontaneous combustion.  It was one of the jobs of the trimmers to keep these from spreading. Then in turn feed the burning coal down the coal shoots to the firemen below who in turn fed it into the boiler fires - nice job - in absolutely appalling conditions.

There were no doubt several parameters which caused the loss of this passenger ship these include a poor lookout being kept, placing the ship on a course…

Here we are in a New Year 2017 and once again a pattern continues - that of Asian ferries catching fire, burning to the waterline with terrific loss of life.  Sadly this is a pattern which continues unabated in spite of lots of talk about inspections and safety from principally these same countries Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The latest is one of the interisland ferries in Indonesia when a ferry caught fire it appears in the engine-room and spread rapidly.  Its manifest listed 100 passengers but in fact there were at least 250 persons on board.  Belatedly the "captain" was arrested and we are told faces 10 years imprisonment.

When one reads the reports from both Media and occasionally the relative Government the sequence of events is repeated time and time again.  During the many years NAUTICAL LOG spent in cruise ships we had both Indonesian and Philippine crewmembers.  Later some Junior Officers from these countries were employed, all had to be carefully moni…

So as we thought here at NAUTICAL LOG the SSS OCEAN WARRIOR has started off Operation Nemesis in true Sea Shepherd style by violating Maritime Laws.  In this case she has been sailing in the Southern Ocean not transmitting on her AIS.   As a result claims to have found a vessel of the Japanese Whaling Fleet amongst the icebergs and ice floes of that area.

There are various Media reports of varying quality that reported this event and about half-a-dozen landed on the NAUTICAL LOG desk.  It seems that the Sea Shepherd vessels have been sailing "blacked out" as regards AIS and in ice and fog found one of the Japanese catcher ships.  With the speed of their new vessel they should be able to keep pace with her and no doubt find the rest of the fleet. 

Sea Shepherd reported that the catcher was hunting minke whales so this in turn could led the two SSS vessels to the factory ship.  In past years this has been the NISSHIN MARU  it is aboard this vessel that the whales are killed and…

UPDATE December 22, 2016:
According to MARINE TRAFFIC AIS the SSS OCEAN WARRIOR is in the same position, showing the same course and speed as she did on December 12, 2016.  According to the art of marine navigation this is clearly impossible on December 22, 2016.  So one has to believe that, in violation of Maritime Law, she is not transmitting her AIS.  Not that violating the Law is anything new for the Sea Shepherd Society.

How proud Australians must be of having these vessels based in Australian Ports and in addition not having the RAN or Customs patrolling the Southern Ocean for pirate Japanese whalers under the guise of RESEARCH slaughtering yet more minke whales.  This in spite of Rulings by the Australian CourtSystem regarding both the Japanese whalers and the Sea Shepherd Society whose Operation Nemesis is run by SSS Australia.


ORIGINAL POST December 16, 2016:
The last posted position of the Sea Shepherd's new vessel Ocean Warrior is at approximately 44° S.147° E. that was on …