From 2014: MV Rhosus – Crew Held Hostage on Floating Bomb

Posted on by August 6, 2020

The events leading up to the catastrophic explosion in Beirut, Lebanon that killed more than 135 and injured 5,000, began in November 2013, when the cargo ship MV Rhosus, loaded with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, made an unplanned stop in Beirut. 

The ship, built in 1986, flying the flag of Moldova, was carrying the cargo to an explosives manufacturing firm in Mozambique. Reportedly, the ship’s owner, a Russian living in Cyprus, lacked the funds to pay the Suez Canal fees, so the ship was diverted to Beirut to pick up a cargo of heavy machinery to earn the additional cash needed to complete the journey. Once in Beirut, the machinery couldn’t be loaded and local authorities cited the ship as unseaworthy. The ship would not be allowed to leave the port until repairs were made.

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Massive Explosion in the Port of Beirut, Echoes of Texas City

Posted on by August 5, 2020

Port of Beirut Explosion Aftermath

Yesterday, a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon killed at least 100 people and injured thousands. The blast destroyed buildings in the port district while the shockwave shattered windows and overturned vehicles across the city. An estimated 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes. With an untold number of people still missing, officials expect that the death toll will rise. 

The force of the explosion was the equivalent to a magnitude 3.5 earthquake and could be heard and felt as far away as Cyprus, about 200 kilometers across the Mediterranean.

While the cause of the explosion is still being investigated, it is believed to have been caused by the ignition of about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a warehouse at the port since it was confiscated from a cargo ship in 2014. The chemical is used for fertilizer and as an explosive. 

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Happy 230th Birthday US Coast Guard!

Posted on by August 4, 2020

Alexander Hamilton suggested in The Federalist Papers that “a few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at the entrances of our ports, might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws.”

When Hamilton became the first Treasury Secretary of the newly formed United States, he lobbied for the acquisition of 10 revenue cutters to assist in the collection of duties and to catch smugglers. On August 4, 1790, 230 years ago today, President Washington signed a bill establishing the Revenue Cutter Service, the precursor to today’s United States Coast Guard. Alexander Hamilton is considered by many to be the father of the US Coast Guard.

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Iran Accidentally Sinks Fake Aircraft Carrier

Posted on by August 3, 2020

Iranian “aircraft carrier” before capsizing

This seems like a good story for a Monday. Forbes reports that Iran accidentally sank its fake aircraft carrier and did so in a very inconvenient place.  The “fake carrier” is actually a targeting barge, a scaled-down mockup of a U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, that Iran’s armed forces has been using for training and war games. The fake carrier, built in 2014, was intended to be reusable and has been symbolically ‘destroyed’ at least twice already in exercises.

After the most recent attacks on the carrier, however, something went wrong. While being towed back to Bandar Abbas, the craft developed a serious list and then capsized.

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Ruby Princess Outbreak — Confused Test Results Allowed the Virus to Disembark

Posted on by August 2, 2020

On March 19, 2020, the Princess Cruise Line ship Ruby Princess arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and disembarked 2,700 passengers. These passengers included those who had been isolated in their cabins with fever. Roughly 2,000 of the passengers had been swabbed for coronavirus but were allowed to leave before the test results were available.

Within two months, COVID-19 infections associated with passengers from Ruby Princess became the largest coronavirus cluster outside of Wuhan, China, with at least 662 cases of the virus and 22 known deaths. Additional cases may have been spread internationally by 900 passengers from countries other than Australia who left Sydney after the ship docked.

Why were so many passengers allowed to disembark without test results? It now appears that a senior Australian Border Force (ABF) officer confused the results for flu tests with those for the coronavirus. He mistakenly believed passengers displaying “flu-like symptoms” had tested negative to COVID-19, when they had instead only tested negative for the common flu.

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Marine Amphibious Assault Vehicle Sinks — 1 Dead, 8 Missing

Posted on by August 1, 2020

Photo:Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Barker/Navy

One Marine died and two were critically injured on Thursday off the coast of California when an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit took on water and sank rapidly. Seven Marines and one Navy sailor are missing and feared dead. 

Marine Corps Times reports that the AAV was returning to the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset after conducting a training raid at San Clemente Island, California. The vehicle had 15 Marines and one sailor aboard at the time, according to the document and later confirmed by the Marine Corps.

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First “Mega” Cruise Ships Go to Scrap Yard

Posted on by August 3, 2020


Carnival Fantasy entering in Aliaga to be scrapped

In the video, the Carnival Fantasy is being beached at the Aliaga scrapyard in Turkey.  Next to it are two other cruise ships, the Sovereign and the Monarch, which had been operated by Pullmantur Cruises, a joint venture controlled by Royal Caribbean. The three ships waiting to be scrapped are among the first “mega” cruise ships, which had a huge impact on the cruise industry.

The Sovereign and the Monarch were originally the Sovereign of the Seas and the Monarch of the Seas, the first of a new generation of “mega” cruise ships built by Royal Caribbean. When the Sovereign of the Seas was launched in 1988, it was the largest cruise ship in the world, at 74,000 GT, more than twice as large as the next largest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. It featured a five-story internal atrium with glass elevators, a first in cruise ships.

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Ecuadorian Navy Raises Alarm Over Fleet of Chinese Fishing Vessels Near Galápagos

Posted on by July 30, 2020

Ecuador has raised an alarm after a naval patrol sighted a fleet of around 260 Chinese fishing vessels just outside the Galápagos protection zone. Naval patrols had been stepped up to monitor the Chinese ships. Chinese fishing vessels come regularly to the Pacific around the Galápagos, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest in recent years.

The Galápagos islands were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. The waters surrounding the islands have been protected since 1998 by the Galápagos Marine Reserve, which spans more than 50,000 square miles around the archipelago. 

Chinese ships are currently in international waters to the just outside a 188-mile wide Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the islands, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said a former environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse.

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NYC Woman Dies in Maine’s First Fatal Shark Attack

Posted on by July 29, 2020

Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, from New York City died Monday after being bitten by a great white shark while she was swimming approximately 20 yards off the western shore of Bailey Island, near the city of Portland, according to Maine Department of Marine Resources Patrick Keliher in a statement Tuesday.

Ms. Holowach, who was wearing a black wetsuit, was swimming with her daughter when she was attacked. Her daughter swam for the island and screamed for help. Two nearby kayakers brought the badly injured Holowach to shore, where she died before paramedics could arrive. 

After the attack, officials recovered a fragment of a tooth, which was positively identified as from a great white shark.

Shark attacks are very rare in Maine. The attack on Holowach is the first fatal shark attack on record in the state.

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With Pandemic Spiking, Hong Kong Restricts Crew Changes

Posted on by July 28, 2020

As Hong Kong braces for its third wave of coronavirus infections, local authorities are cracking down on allowing crew changes on ships, except for those loading or discharging cargo in the port.  The rule change could significantly affect shipping across the region.

Previously, merchant vessels could exchange crew while at a local anchorage. Recently, however, four imported cases of the virus involving seafarers were recorded in Hong Kong. Also, six ships at anchor, with approximately 100 sailors aboard, are now under quarantine after crew tested positive for the virus.  

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Remembering Larry Pardey, 1938 — 2020

Posted on by July 27, 2020

Lin & Larry Pardey sailing Seraffyn Photo: Facebook

Lin and Larry Pardey met in 1965. Lin was 21. Larry was 26. He was a sailor and shipwright and was beginning to build a 24′ engineless Lyle Hess designed cutter, to be named Seraffyn, in which he planned on sailing the world. Lin offered to help. They married in 1968.

In their 52 year marriage, they would sail over 200,000 miles together, circumnavigating the world both east-about and west-about. They would also write 12 books on their voyages, as well as on seamanship, and boat construction. With their mantra, “Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now,” they inspired an entire generation of cruising sailors.

Sadly, in recent years Larry has suffered from Parkinson’s and Parkinsonian dementia. He died last night. Lin posted this message on Facebook this morning.

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National Museum of the Royal Navy ‘Saved from Insolvency’ Due to Virus Lockdown

Posted on by July 26, 2020

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) has announced that it has been saved from imminent insolvency by a promise of emergency government funding. The museum group includes Lord Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory and HMS Warrior at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the frigate HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool, among vessels and exhibitions at seven UK sites. 

The museum said the closure of its sites due to the coronavirus lockdown had caused a £6.35m shortfall which would have resulted in its filing for insolvency within the next month had the emergency funding not been granted. NMRN will now able to begin to reopen its sites in Portsmouth, Gosport, Hartlepool, and Yeovilton and will be making announcements about dates for reopening, in the coming weeks. NMRN said the government had indicated it would give £5.4m to cover losses this financial year.

NMRN will not, however, be able to open its site in Belfast as HMS Caroline is governed by a different funding model via the Northern Ireland Executive.

Update: Golden Ray Removal Delayed & Salvage Animation

Posted on by July 25, 2020

Lasy week, we posted that the removal of the capsized car carrier Golden Ray was being delayed by an outbreak of coronavirus in the salvage team on the heavy-lift barge VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches.”  Now with the onset of the hurricane season, the salvage operation has been postponed until at least October 1.  The Golden Ray capsized as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles last September.

In the meantime, here is an animation of how the Golden Ray will be cut into eight sections that will be hauled off by barges to the scrapyard.  

Golden Ray Cargo Ship Salvage Procedure | 3D-Rendered Video

First North American to Circumnavigate Solo, Non-stop, Using Only Celestial Navigation

Posted on by July 24, 2020

Canadian Bert terHart recently completed a 267-day solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the world via the five capes on his 43′ sailboat using only traditional celestial navigation. He is the first North American to circle the globe solo and non-stop using only a sextant, a chronometer, an almanac, pen, paper, and charts with which to navigate.

While not using global positioning satellites to navigate, he did bring along an email equipped satellite phone and posted to a blog and an Instagram account. In addition to maintaining contact with friends and family,  he was also followed online by about 2,000 children from Kenya to New Zealand to New York from their classrooms.

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Greyhound, Tom Hanks Fights the Battle of the Atlantic

Posted on by July 23, 2020

Greyhound, a movie that was written by and stars Tom Hanks, tells the story of a destroyer captain fighting a German U-boat wolf-pack that is attacking a convoy of Allied ships in the North Atlantic. The movie was inspired by C.S. Forester’s novel, The Good Shepherd.

This is not my review. I had planned on writing a review but so far I have been unable to see the movie, which is streaming only on Apple TV. Not for a lack of trying, I attempted to sign up for Apple TV so that I could stream it on a PC, but I gave up after about 20 minutes, which included getting several “page not found” messages when I attempted to access Apple’s online support. So rather than post my own review, I am posting two videos.

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UK Nuclear Submarine in Near Collision with Passenger Ferry

Posted on by July 21, 2020

In November 2018, a Royal Navy nuclear submarine came within 50-100m of a collision with the Stena Superfast VII ferry near the entrance to Belfast harbor, according to an inquiry by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

The Guardian reports: The report, released on Thursday, said the submarine’s control room team had underestimated the ferry’s speed and overestimated its range, which led to the near-miss. The ferry, which was traveling from Belfast to Cairnyan, in Scotland with 215 passengers and 67 crew on board when the lookout spotted the submarine’s periscope close ahead. The officer on watch had to immediately turn the ship to avoid a collision.

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Update: Mayflower II Moves From Mystic to New London For Sea Trials

Posted on by July 20, 2020

Today, Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth, MA, was towed to New London, CT for two weeks of sea trials and final outfitting before returning to its homeport in Plymouth.

In September of last year, we posted about the launching of the Mayflower II at the Mystic Seaport Museum‘s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The 64-year-old ship underwent a more than three-year $11 million restoration at the seaport shipyard.

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Update: Facing Hurricanes, Removal of Car Carrier Golden Ray Delayed by Coronavirus

Posted on by July 18, 2020

The removal of the capsized car carrier Golden Ray is being delayed by the coronavirus. We recently posted about the VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches,” the largest heavy-lift vessel ever built in the United States, that was getting ready to use chains to slice the Golden Ray into eight sections, to be placed on barges and towed away to be scrapped. The Golden Ray partially capsized as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles last September.

The initial goal was to have the ship cut up and removed before the onset of the hurricane season beginning June 1.  That date slipped to September 1, still hoping to avoid the worst of the storms.

Now, the project has been delayed further by the coronavirus. The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that nine people directly involved with the removal of the cargo ship Golden Ray have tested positive for COVID-19. Everyone who has had contact with the nine individuals is now being tested for the virus.  If all goes well the project should restart within a week or two.