The Dragon Harald Fairhair is the largest Viking longship to be built in modern times. (See our previous post: Building the Viking Longboat Dragon Harald Fairhair) Built of oak, in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway, the ship is hundred and fourteen feet, twenty-seven feet wide, displacing seventy tons, and will carry thirty-two hundred square feet of sail. This week the longship was rolled stern first from the fabrication shop closer to the launch ways to be be tarred. Launching is expected in June. Thanks to Marit Synnøve Vea for posting the photos on Facebook.
We consider AMVER to be one of the true “unsung heroes” of the maritime world. AMVER is the “Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue” system run by the US Coast Guard. Established in 1958, it is a computer-based voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities. Ships enrolled in the system report their positions periodically. When a distress signal is received anywhere in the world, the AMVER database identifies the closest ship that can render assistance and vectors that ship to the sailors in distress. At any one time there are over 5,000 AMVER enrolled ships at sea ready to render assistance. On average, every 33 hours an AMVER ship saves a life somewhere on the world’s oceans.
Here is an example of a rescue that took place just over a week ago, when the AMVER enrolled Stolt Invention rescued two Finnish sailors from their sailboat, Kamu, which was taking on water after being struck by a whale. AMVER makes the seas just a bit less dangerous and lonely.
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ID Integrity Photo: AMSA
Update: The first tug has reached the ID Integrity. As reported by vesseltracker.com: The commercial tug “PT Kotor” rendezvoused with the “ID Integrity” on May 20 at approximately 10:30am AEST. At 11:30am AMSA was advised that the tug had connected a towline to the “ID Integrity” and they were now travelling at slow speed in a south-easterly direction (i.e. way from the Outer Reef) awaiting the arrival of the larger tugs. AMSA’s Emergency Towage Vessel (ETV) “Pacific Responder” was now scheduled to be on scene around 3:00 p.m. Once on scene it will provide assistance as required and remain on station until the third tug, the “PB Leichhardt”, has arrived and has connected a tow line.
High drama on the high seas. The ID Integrity, a 46,000 DWT bulk carrier, had an engine failure on Friday night while about 325km north-east of Cairns, Australia, on a voyage in ballast, from Shanghai to Townsville. The ship drifted toward Shark Reef, but the crew was able to discharge sufficient ballast to decrease the ship’s draft to avoid grounding. A spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has now confirmed that the ship has drifted safely over the reef. The ship is now reported to be in open water drifting west towards Outer Reef. Emergency tugs have been dispatched. The first is expected to arrive on Sunday morning local time. Thanks to Phil Leon for passing along the news.
The intheboatshed.net blog recently featured a wonderful short video, The Little Ships of England, produced in 1943, highlighting wooden boat building in England during World War II.
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Representatives of Titan-Micoperi presented their plans to raise the Costa Concordia from where she sank after running aground off the island of Gilgio last January. Titan-Micoperi is the consortium of Titan Salvage, the Crowley-owned specialist marine salvage company, and Italian marine contractor Micoperi, which was selected to salvage the cruise ship.
Wrecked Costa Concordia to be raised from Italian sea bed
The operation will be divided into four basic stages, Costa said in its statement.
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Next Wednesday, May 23rd, OpSail 2012 and New York Fleet Week kick off with two parades of ships in the harbor and up the Hudson River. This year’s OpSail is organized to mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
At 8:10 AM, 17 international tall ships will depart from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and proceed north, up the harbor and up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge in a magnificent “Parade of Sail”. At 10 AM, a “Military Parade of Ships,” of ten ships, will set off from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and head north. They should meet the flotilla of tall ships traveling South around the aircraft carrier Intrepid.
The fleets will then disperse to berths in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, where they will be open to visitors through the 30th.
OpSail Bringing 17 Tall Ships to New York for Fleet Week 2012
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Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.
Aftermath of the Stena Spirit hitting a container gantry crane in the port of Gdynia
It has been a busy couple of days for ship collisions and allisions. Yesterday, the USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, collided with the USNS Yukon, a Navy Oiler, during underway replenishment operations about 120 miles off the coast of Southern California. In Poland, the ferry Stena Spirit knocked over a container crane this morning in the port of Gdynia. No deaths were reported in either accident.
Aargh. Once again, the junk food of maritime events, another “pirate” festival. This one is being sponsored by one of my favorite museums, the Maritime Museum of San Diego — home to the 1863 iron windjammer, Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship; the replica HMS Surprise (ex- HMS Rose), star performer in the academy award winning film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; and the replica 1874 revenue cutter, Californian, the Official Tall Ship of the State of California, among other historic and replica ships. They are also building a replica of the San Salvador, the ship on which the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego harbor in 1542. (See also: Maritime Museum, Port Celebrate Milestone in Construction of Historic Ship Replica.) None of the wonderful collection of ships or exhibits at the museum actually have anything to do with piracy, but be that as it may.
The museum’s Pirates Days on the Embarcadero! will take place on May 19 & 20, 2012.
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In March, the European Union Naval Force was authorized to attack Somali pirates in coastal waters and ashore. On Tuesday, EU naval forces and attack helicopters launched their first onshore raid on a suspected pirate supply center in Handulle village, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) north of Haradheere town, a key pirate lair.
In related news, a private fleet of 18 armed patrol boats is being outfitted to protect ships transiting the Gulf of Aden from from pirate attack. The fleet will be operated by the Convoy Escort Programme (CEP), a British company launched by the international shipping insurers Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) and the Lloyds of London underwriters Ascot. This “private navy” cost around US$ 70 million to set up and will be based in Djibouti. The patrol boats will convoy ships along the Internationally Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC).
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We recently posted “Beware the Supermoon! Wonder What They Will Blame on it This Time?” We noted that previous perigean full moons, when the moon is closest in its orbit to the earth, have been blamed for ship groundings and even the sinking of the Titanic. Both claims are more than a bit silly.
In the previous post, we wondered what would be blamed on this “supermoon.” We now have the answer. In a column in the Chicago Tribune, Liz Smith, gossip columnist and apparently an astrology buff writes: “World astrologists took plenty of notice recently when the “Super Moon” was close to Earth. Europeans gave it credit for the fact that the very next day the governments of France and Greece imploded!” Really? And we thought sailors were the superstitious ones.
Did the ‘Super Moon’ topple Greece and France?
On an overcast Tuesday morning, the Barque Picton Castle sailed into New York harbor and tied up at Pier 25 just before the rain set in. under the watchful eye of Captain Daniel Moreland, the crew of mostly young men and women brought the 179′ steel barque gracefully alongside. A short video from this morning:
Bark Picton Castle Arriving in New York Harbor 5/15/2012
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The museum ship SS American Victory will host the FBI, Transportation Security Administration and a half-dozen other law enforcement agencies in bomb detection and disposal training exercises later this month in preparation for the Republican National Convention to be held in Tampa the week of August 27, 2012.
The convention itself will be held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Despite using the ship for training and reports that the RNC will focus on “The Greatest Generation” among its patriotic themes, the Republican Committee on Arrangements has no plans to include the SS American Victory in its schedule of events and participants.
RNC security to train on American Victory ship
See also our recent post: Re-Living History on the SS American Victory
One hundred and fifty years ago today, Robert Smalls, a 23 year old mulatto slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, led eight fellow slaves in an audacious flight to freedom. They seized the CSS Planter, steamed it out past the batteries and forts of Charleston harbor and turned it over to the Union naval blockade. Smalls would go on to become the first black Captain of a U.S. Navy vessel, a South Carolina State Legislator, a Major General in the South Carolina Militia, a five-term U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Collector of Customs. This weekend Robert Small’s descendants are gathering in Charleston to mark the 150th anniversary of Smalls’ daring escape.
Harper’s Weekly of June 14, 1862 recounts the escape:
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Photo: Reuters / Molly Riley
The USCGC Stratton is the Coast Guard’s newest cutter. Built at Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., she was acquired by the Coast Guard on September 2, 2011 and officially commissioned on March 31, 2012. Roughly a month after the 418′ foot long cutter went into service, however, the ship’s engineers discovered what is described as a “golf-ball sized” hole and four pin-hole leaks in its hull plating. The ship is scheduled to enter a drydock for repairs and to determine the cause of the hull pitting. The Coast Guard says that no similar problems have been found in the two other ships of the class.
Coast Guard’s newest ship filled with holes
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We recently posted on “Pouring the Ballast on the Boston Tea Party Ship Beaver.” A follow up video on stepping the masts:
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Thanks to Tom Russell of the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in Group for pointing out the video.
A settlement has been reached in the civil lawsuit over the deaths of two Hungarian tourists and other passenger injuries when a barge pushed by a K-Sea tug, Caribbean Sea, struck the disabled “Duck boat” DUKW 34 at anchor in the Delaware River off Philadelphia on July 7, 2010. Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16, who were visiting Philadelphia, died in the crash on the Delaware River. The families of the two tourists who died when the duck boat was run down will split $15 million paid for by Ride the Ducks, the firm which operates the amphibious touring vehicles, and K-Sea Transportation Partners, which owned the tug. An additional $2 million will also be divided among 18 other survivors of the accident.
Victims of Philly duck boat crash settle suit for $17M
In a criminal case, last November, Matthew Devlin, the mate on watch on the tug Caribbean Sea, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the casualty.
Last month we posted about a stand-off between Chinese fishing vessels and Philippine Coast Guard ships at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both nations claim sovereignty over the area. Even the island name is in contention. The Philipines refers to Scarborough Shoal as Panatag Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc, whereas the Chinese call it Huangyan Island and Minzhu Jiao. This week 32 Chinese vessels blockaded the shoal, barring local Philippine fishermen access to the fishing grounds. The the shoal is 472 nautical miles from the Chinese coast and 124 nautical miles from the Philippines province of Zambales.
In another move to assert sovereignty over disputed waters in the South China Sea, China’s first deep-water drilling rig began operations near islands in the South China Sea. Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, said its semi-submersible CNOOC 981 began drilling yesterday 199 miles southeast of Hong Kong at a depth of 1,500 meters in an area north of the Paracel islands claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan.
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WWII Liberty ship like the John Harvey
Yesterday, we posted the obituary of Claude Holloway, a British Motor Torpedo Boat commander, who heroically saved dozens of sailors in the German attack on Bari, Italy in 1943. Holloway was nearly killed by mustard gas bombs secretly carried aboard the American Liberty ship, SS John Harvey. Ironically, the explosion of this secret mustard gas and its terrible aftermath, may have helped save countless lives.
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Sailing and sipping single malt scotch are among two of my favorite activities, (though not necessarily at the same time.) It does seem fitting that Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky and US Sailing have partnered to introduce the inaugural Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. From their press release:
Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky and US Sailing Introduce the Maritime Heroes Award: Calling Nominations for an Unsung Hero in the Sailing Community
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Claude Holloway died recently at the age of 93. He was one of the most successful motor torpedo boat commanders in the Mediterranean in the Second World War, earning a Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the Caorle Point action of April 1945, in which the 28th MTB Flotilla sank five enemy ships with six torpedoes. He also played a major role in rescuing dozens of sailors in the 1943 German air raid on Bari, Italy. His heroism nearly cost him his life.
on December 2, 1943, 105 German Junkers Ju88 bombers of Luftflotte 2 attacked the harbor, crowded with Allied shipping, sinking 28 merchant ships and damaging 12 others. One of the ships destroyed was the American Liberty ship, the SS John Harvey, which was carrying a secret cargo of 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs. The mustard gas in liquid form was sprayed across the harbor in the explosion which sank the John Harvey. 628 military victims were hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and 83 of them had died within a month. The number of civilian casualties is unknown.
Holloway’s command, MTB 242 of the 24th Flotilla, was moored at Bari during the attack. Holloway and his crew pulled dozens of sailors from the harbor waters and from burning ships. Holloway was covered in severe blisters and took three months to recover from his exposure to the chemical agents. The existence of the mustard gas on the John Harvey was covered up until after the war.
Claude Holloway: MTB commander who became a hero during the Bari harbour disaster
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