Don’t drink and steer?
November 2nd, 2010 | Coast Guard merchant ships | Posted by David Larter
The medium endurance cutter Active underway in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Coast Guardsmen busted a Korean freighter captain for drunken driving in the strait. // PA2 Jacquelyn Zettles
Everyone who watches television or looks at billboards has, at some point, been told how stupid it is to drink and drive. It’s one of those things you just know not to do.
If driving a car is a bad idea after drinking, then driving a 600-foot freighter down Juan de Fuca Strait, near the busy Puget Sound, is an even worse idea.
The Coast Guard busted Seong Og Sin, skipper of the STX Daisy, in April and charged him with operating under the influence. Sin blew a .108 when he was tested. A court in Tacoma, Wash., sentenced him last week to 14 days in lockup, according to the Victoria Times Colonist.
The Colonist poses an interesting question in its write-up of the incident:
What made the U.S. Coast Guard suspicious of the sea captain who was just jailed for driving his freighter down Juan de Fuca Strait while drunk? Was he weaving in the shipping lanes? Chucking empties out of the wheelhouse? Sporting a lampshade instead of a captain’s hat?
The Colonist reports the reason the Coast Guard busted the captain is unclear. But what is clear is that, under U.S. law, the captain of a seagoing vessel may not have a blood alcohol level above .04.
Whales and speed don’t mix
October 21st, 2010 | Coast Guard Environment merchant ships | Posted by David Larter
Harbor tugs and the Coast Guard coastal patrol boat Pike head toward the Bay Bridge in front of the San Francisco skyline. // AP Photo by Jeff Chiu
The Coast Guard is trying to juggle traffic flow into San Francisco’s busy port and pressure from environmentalists about its impact on marine sanctuaries where mammals feed.
San Francisco’s ABC affiliate reported earlier in the day that traffic is picking up into the Port of San Francisco and ships are zipping to and from the approach lanes to the bay at about 25 knots. As a result, the Coast Guard is seeking the public’s input, trying to balance the saving the whales and commercial realities.
KGO-TV San Francisco reports:
Faster ships and more whales are converging in an area near the Farallon Islands, where feeding grounds and shipping lanes converge. There is a new effort to reduce a growing number of whale strikes.
One ship didn’t realize a whale was impaled on the bow until it cruised into port last August.
Earlier in October, an endangered blue whale and its fetus washed ashore in San Mateo County. The National Marine Fisheries Service says so far this year six whales have been struck by ships — three were endangered species.
Environmentalists suggest a 10-knot speed limit in the disputed shipping lanes to allow the whales time to avoid being skewered. But shipping companies are concerned slowing down would impact tight delivery timetables, according to the report.
Representatives of the shipping industry declined to talk on camera, but they say restricted speeds to 10 knots would definitely affect their tight delivery schedules.
“They all have a very complicated logistics chain, so it’s planned very carefully and disruptions of it are problematic,” says U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Maguire.
The Coast Guard, according to the report, is weighing options as part of a “port access route study.”
Righting the ship
August 27th, 2010 | merchant ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
What does the incoming superintendent need to do to salvage the Merchant Marine Academy, here represented metaphorically? // Rafiq Maqbool / AP
After months of waiting, the Merchant Marine Academy got a new superintendent this week — Rear Adm. Philip Greene, formerly of the Navy’s “irregular warfare” office. He’s a Kings Point alumnus and a licensed master (oceans, any gross tonnage). By all appearances, he’s got his work cut out for him.
The campus of the Merchant Marine Academy is in bad shape these days, according to its capital report (pdf) from last March subtitled “red sky at morning” — which, as we all know, indicates that sailors should take warning. Moreover, unlike the other service academies, Kings Point competes with some six other state merchant marine schools, all of which feed officers into the world of commercial seagoing. In March, when the capital report was unveiled, shipbuilding expert Tim Colton wrote this:
I think the problem is more serious than the condition of the facilities themselves. I think it’s with the academy’s whole reason for existence. What is Kings Point for? Remember that it was an emergency creation in World War II. In addition, we also have six state maritime academies, all fine institutions and all receiving taxpayer support. So, how many merchant marine officers do we need to train every year? … Do we really need seven separate establishments training merchant marine officers — and that doesn’t include the maritime unions’ training schools — or is there some room here for rationalization?
So Greene is taking over an institution that is falling apart and in an identity crisis. We had some great discussion about this when the topic came up at Sea-Air-Space, so it’s worth bringing up again: What’s to be done?
What damaged the M Star? Here’s what it wasn’t
July 29th, 2010 | merchant ships Submarines The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
What could've caused this damage to the hull of the crude carrier M Star? Probably not a submarine. // AP via Emirates News Service
Here’s another high-seas mystery: The oil tanker M Star docked in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday after it had been damaged somehow during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz. That much we know. What we do not know is causing a buzz in maritime circles online.
Maybe it hit some floating wreckage, or, as some have suggested, a fizzled mine. If M Star hit another ship, what happened to it? Captains usually stick around after fender benders on the water. Another idea is that the M Star, a Marshal Islands-flagged very large crude carrier, collided with a submarine, which then sneaked away. This seems unlikely. Unfortunately, the Navy has already demonstrated what happens when a surface ship hits a submarine in the Strait of Hormuz, and this doesn’t quite match.
The fast attack submarine Hartford collided with the amphibious transport dock New Orleans in the strait last year, and the damage to both ships was much greater than what the M Star appears to have suffered. Together Hartford and New Orleans needed more than $102 million worth of repairs, and New Orleans was sliced open pretty bad. M Star endured some kind of small “explosion,” as it’s been described, that dented the hull and shook up the crew — but, at least according to the initial reports, didn’t let in any water.
That doesn’t make the idea that a crude carrier may have been attacked in one of the tensest parts of the world any less ominous, especially if it emerges that pirates or terrorists hit the ship with a suicide boat. That has happened before, too.
What do you make of it all?
Brothers and sisters of the blueberry
May 17th, 2010 | merchant ships Uniforms | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC2 Josue Escobosa / Navy
Capt. Joseph Kuzmick of the carrier John C. Stennis got ready to conduct a Navy Working Uniform inspection last week on the flight deck of his ship, but the U.S. Navy isn’t the only fan of this ensemble. The “tactical blueberry” or “aquaflage” uniform has fans in the maritime profession even outside the military — although the pattern is a little different, check out the getup worn by this Japanese whaler.
A giant Lego base at sea
March 23rd, 2010 | Life at Sea Maritime operations merchant ships Science and technology | Posted by Phil Ewing
For sailors' sakes, it would be convenient if tomorrow's theoretical giant Lego-style seabases included stairs, to preclude the need for rappelling down at chow time. // Navy
Speaking of containers and seabasing, here’s an interesting concept that could change the way sailors live in tomorrow’s long-term offshore operations: Those crazy scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking for ways to assemble bases at sea from ISO containers, to build what they call a Tactical Expendable Maritime Platform, which would take different shapes depending on the mission at hand. Here’s the announcement, including a link to a .pdf with all the details.
A container vessel loaded with thousands of units could assemble floating helicopter landing pads, small-boat refueling depots, extended living quarters, and anything else designers could dream up, Lego-style, from twenty-foot metal boxes. So if the Navy had to stand off the coast of a disaster-stricken nation for several months, theoretically the fleet could build a base full of Container Living Units – like the ones you see all over the place in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa — that might be much more comfortable than a warship’s regular racks.
As with all far-out DARPA projects, all or none of this could actually end up coming to fruition. But if you could design a giant Lego seabase of ISO containers, what amenities would you include?
This week in seabasing
March 4th, 2010 | Maritime operations merchant ships Military Sealift Command | Posted by Phil Ewing
USNS Soderman and the Mighty Servant 3 did an MLP-style dry run Jan. 29 in the Gulf of Mexico // Naval Sea Systems Command
Thursdays get pretty hectic here at the Center of Excellence, what with looming deadlines for the print edition of Navy Times, but every week we rely on one thing to provide an oasis of calm: Naval Sea Systems Command’s regular email round-up of official press releases, known affectionately as the “NavSea News Wire,” which is how insiders (or, rather, anyone) can stay in the loop about the Navy’s biggest systems command.
Today’s edition, for example, includes an update about the Navy’s test last month of the concept for its new Mobile Landing Platform, three of which are to be built by General Dynamics NASSCO out in San Diego. In January and February down in the Gulf of Mexico, the Military Sealift Command ro-ro ship Soderman unloaded a whole mess of green gear to the semi-submersible transport Mighty Servant 3, standing in for an MLP.
Continued NavSea: “Personnel and vehicles were successfully transferred between the ships in high sea state three and low sea state four during multiple days of testing in the Gulf of Mexico. Vehicles transferred included High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMWVVs), HMWVVs with trailers, Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements, Logistics Vehicle System wreckers, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, M88 tank recovery vehicles, and M1A1 Main Battle Tanks.”
If it had been a real amphibious operation, a Landing Craft, Air Cushion hovercraft would have come along and swept all that stuff to the beach — or so commanders hope.
The pirate fightin’ manual
March 4th, 2010 | Life at Sea Maritime operations merchant ships Pirates The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
5th Fleet recommends vessels in the Gulf of Aden take special precautions so they aren't hijacked, as this ship, Al Marjan, was in 2007 // Navy
Americans who grew up at a certain time may remember the cartoon characters Goofus and Gallant, of Highlights magazine fame, who represented the worst and best ways, respectively, to do anything. Gallant might be shown holding the door open for a little old lady to enter a church, for example, while Goofus would be shown kicking her in the face.
This story from 5th Fleet, recommending how merchant mariners should transit through the infamous pirate-infested waters off Somalia, has adapted the G&G template. Consider, for example, unnamed vessel the first:
The vessel placed itself in an unnecessarily dangerous position by traveling outside of the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor and unable to benefit from increased patrols in that portion of the Gulf of Aden. Unfortunately, the ship is now under the control of pirate gangs, and its crew forced to await the outcomes of negotiations while anchored off the coast of Somalia.
Yikes! But now consider unnamed vessel the second:
Unlike the first, this vessel followed the best management practices advice, and made thorough preparations for sailing through these dangerous waters. She had registered with the Maritime Shipping Centre – Horn of Africa (MSC-HOA) for updates on the Group Transit scheme, and was in contact with the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization (UKMTO) for the latest update on areas of higher piracy risk prior to entering the IRTC. The vessel had rigged fire hoses to push back any pirate boarding attempts, and razor wire was placed along the deck edges to block entry. Below decks, the crew mustered at a pre-determined safe area in order to account for themselves and ensure their collective safety. In the end, the crew was able to prevent pirates from boarding the ship, ensuring their safety and the ability of the vessel to reach its destination.
See? Only you can prevent pirate hijackings.
It’s a big job
March 2nd, 2010 | Maritime operations merchant ships Seabees | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus surveyed damage to the port of Port-au-Prince Monday at the water's edge in Haiti // MC2 Kevin O'Brien / Navy
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Seabee Capt. Cliff Maurer, who has been helping oversee the efforts to get this harbor operating after its docks and cranes were wrecked by January’s earthquake, summed up the basic cause of all its problems:
“This is all really poor-grade fill material,” he said, pointing to the harbor’s north pier, which was collapsed into the water in clumps like brown sugar. “When the shock waves came through here, this all just liquefied. This will all have to be demo’d and rebuilt.”
In the meantime, Seabees and Army engineers — some of whom have a cool shoulder tab that says “Sapper” — have rigged a set of barges out into the water between Haiti’s two previous piers. On Monday the bulk cargo carrier Tharinee Naree, out of Bankok, was docked on the barge-pier and getting ready to unload.
Scoop Deck’s colleagues Joe Gould and Chris Maddaloni just filed a really comprehensive report about the effort to rebuild Port au Prince’s harbor, which you can check out here. Highly recommended.
At last, a Shackleton at the South Pole
February 10th, 2010 | Environment Historical Life at Sea Maritime operations merchant ships Military Sealift Command | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy Reserve Cmdr. Scott Shackleton this week visited the South Pole that his legendary ancestor, Sir Ernest Shackleton, never saw // Military Sealift Command
The Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton tried thrice to reach the South Pole and was thrice denied, but all his American descendant had to do to get there was step off a plane.
Cmdr. Scott Shackleton, a U.S. Navy reservist, flew to Antarctica on Jan. 26 as part of a mission to resupply McMurdo Station from the Military Sealift Command tanker Paul Buck and its chartered container ship American Tern. Today’s Shackleton was charged with overseeing the cargo off-load, according to MSC, and he had a chance to see sites visited by yesteryear’s Shackleton, as well as the big one that the old guy never saw: the pole.
“I’ve always felt a kinship with Sir Ernest,” Scott Shackleton said. “It’s been an honor for me to have this tie to him and the name Shackleton.”
Scott made a short trip to the South Pole this week aboard an Air Force LC-130 Hercules, one of the special ice birds with skis and extra hardware to operate in the punishing polar climate. Then he flew back to McMurdo and was scheduled to start the long trip back from Antarctica today — something else his ancestor Shackleton never accomplished.
And here’s still more we can look forward to seeing come back from Antarctica: Sir Ernest’s personal stash of Scotch and brandy, which was discovered in his cabin by a team working to restore it. It’s a tantalizing concept if you enjoy a wee dram now and again — the distiller that made Shackleton’s whisky could use samples from the cabin to recreate the very spirit he and his men used to ward off the Antarctic chills.