The fallout continues from the recent collisions with merchant ships in the Pacific involving the destroyers USS Fitgerald and the USS John McCain. The collisions resulted in the deaths of 17 US sailors. Earlier in the year, two guided missile cruisers based in the Pacific were also in casualties — one grounding and one collision — without loss of life.
The Navy has announced the removal of Rear Adm. Charles Williams, commander of Combined Task Force 70, the Navy’s largest operational battle force. Also being removed is his subordinate, Captain Jeffery Bennett, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 15, the squadron. The Navy describes the actions as being part of “ongoing accountability actions as part of the Navy investigations.” Not directly related to the dismissals, the head of U.S. Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Tom Rowden put in a request last week to retire about two months early, several Navy officials confirmed to USNI News.
My latest novel, 
Not all oil pollution is petroleum. Recently, there have been reports of strange yellow blobs washing up on the beaches of France’s Opal Coast. The blobs described variously as 
The UK’s latest and greatest new aircraft carrier, HMS 
Hurricane Irma absolutely devastated many islands in the Caribbean. Now, in the aftermath of the catastrophic storm, aid is being sent by a small armada of ships and boats from governments, corporations and private citizens.
Two Scottish brothers, eight-year-old, Ollie and five-year-old, Harry Ferguson, are too young to go to sea themselves, so instead, they sent their toy pirate sailing ship on a voyage from the fine old port of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire earlier this year. The toy was a plastic Playmobil ship, named suitably Adventure. With the help of their father, the boys modified Adventure to make more a seaworthy craft. They added ballast and polystyrene foam to help it stay afloat. They also included a note asking anyone who finds the boat to send them a picture and launch Adventure back into the sea.
The 
I recently learned that 
Lewis Bennett, 38, a British engineer, was recently arrested by the FBI on charges related to possession of stolen rare silver and gold coins. The story behind the arrest gets very strange, involving a Caribbean theft, a missing wife, and a sunken catamaran.
The last of Corpus Christi’s Columbus replica ships has sunk. In 1992, the quincentenary of Columbus’ first voyage, replicas of his ships; the 
The boats and the circumstances are all different and yet each in its way is the same, from the “little ships” of Dunkirk, to the Manhattan Boat-Lift of 9/11, to the jon-boat navy of the Texas Gulf coast. When people need help, mariners of every stripe come to the rescue.