The Navy has announced that the minesweeper, USS Guardian, which ran up on Tubbataha reef in the Philippines Sula Sea two weeks ago, will be cut up in place and hauled away. The reason given is that the approach will “involve the least damage to the Tubbataha Reef.” They had previously determined that the fiberglass sheathed wooden ship was too damaged to float if towed off the reef. Depending on the availability of crane vessels, the Navy may have had no other choice.
All indications are that the electronic charts had the reef miss-plotted by roughly eight nautical miles. The larger question, however, is what the minesweeper was doing so close to the reef which is part of the Philippines’ Tubbataha National Marine Park and a designated World Heritage Site. Reportedly, the ship was warned that it was in protected area and that it was approaching the reef, but apparently ignored the warnings. Thus far the grounding is reported to have damaged around 1,000 square meters of coral reef or about 1% of the reef withing the park. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III is demanding an explanation as to why the ship grounded onthe reef.
In its more than 60 year history, the 
The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is credited as the first successful submarine, in that it was the first submarine to sink an enemy warship in combat. New findings, however, might cause some to reconsider this “success.” The Hunley may have been sunk by the force of its own explosive mine.
Tomorrow, January 27th, at 8 PM ET & PT, the Discovery Channel is airing 
François Gabart sailing MCIF in the 
Only on rare occasional does one find a boat that would be significantly improved if run hard aground. Here is one example, however. Many large yachts have hot tubs onboard. This 16′ boat, however, is simply a floating hot tub with a diesel-powered boiler to keep the water hot, an electric motor for propulsion, a sound system and four coolers for beverages (of course.) I wonder where the PFDs are stored. Why this nautical accident-waiting-to-happen is in any way superior to a dock-side hot tub is not clear to me. With luck it would never leave the dock. Available at
