Update: Aftermath of the Sinking of the Princess Ashika

liferingThere will be a preliminary hearing into the sinking of the ferry, Princess Ashika, next Thursday in Nuku’alofa by the Royal Commission set up by the Government to investigate the tragedy.

A letter from Port Authority Port Authority general manager, Lupeti Vi, to the Tongan Prime Minister, Feleti Sevele, revealed that welding repairs were carried out at night on the ill-fated ferry, without permission, to try to conceal how rusty the ferry was.  The letter also implied that the ferry might not have been insured.   According to the Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit database, Princess Ashika had no current International Safety Management or International Ship and Port Facility Security code documentation.

A life buoy from the sunken Princess Ashika was found floating in Fijian water near Levuka about 1000 kilometers from where the ferry sank early last month.  The Princess Ashika formerly was owned by the Patterson Shipping Company of Fiji, whose owners are originally from Levuka. The buoy is being returned to Tonga.

The Swiss Decide Against Joining European Union’s Anti-Piracy Efforts

SwitzerlandFlagPerhaps it is the thought that counts. Swiss lawmakers have decided against joining EU anti-piracy efforts because it would violate the country’s long-held tradition of neutrality.  The land-locked country lacks a blue water navy so could not send a ship or ships to support the efforts but  had considered sending thirty military support personnel.    The Swiss navy does operate ten patrol boats on Lakes Konstanz and Leman.  Thirty-two merchant ships in international trade fly the Swiss flag.

Archeology Weekend at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

sloop_wheel_smThe Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is hosting an Archeology Weekend tomorrow and Sunday. it will include  presentations on Lake Champlain shipwrecks and feature some of their latest explorations including early steamboats, gunboats, sailing vessels and canal boats. There will be special demonstrations in the Conservation Lab, lectures and films and presentations on what threatens the lake’s collection of shipwrecks and what you can do to help protect and preserve underwater cultural resources.

Archeology Weekend – September 26-27, 2009
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Billboards for Submarines?

ivarssignWe previously posted about the Royal Navy installing Windows on submarines. We were relieved to learn that the  reference was to an a computer operating system and not panes of glass.    Then again, it appears that the late Ivar Haglund, owner of the Seattle restaurant chain, Ivar’s Seafood, expected submarine viewers when he installed underwater billboards for submarines in Puget Sound over fifty years ago.  On the other hand, some suggest that it may all be a hoax.

Is there something fishy about Ivar’s latest stunt?
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Mary Rose prepares to rise again

Depending on how you look at it, there is either good or bad news about the Mary Rose.  The Mary Rose is the only only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world. She was one of the first ships able to fire a broadside, and was a favorite of King Henry VIII.

The bad news is that her exhibit in Portsmouth is closing for three years.   The good news is that a new 35 million pound museum is being built to house her in the manner she so richly deserves.

Mary Rose prepares to rise again
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Breaking News – Spotted Dick is Back!

spotteddick300-1An update to our previous post – Spotted Dick Off the Menu.  As reported by the BBC:

Council chiefs have reversed a decision to rename the pudding Spotted Dick after receiving “abusive letters” and accusations of political correctness.

Canteen staff at Flintshire council had decided it would be referred to as “Spotted Richard” on their menu after “immature comments” by some customers.

The council now says the pudding will revert to its traditional name.

No word yet whether Boiled Baby will be added to the menu.   Boiled Baby is said to be similar to Spotted Dick, except without the raisins or eggs.

Digging into the Archives – Logs of the Serapis and Elegiac Epistles on the Calamities of Love and War

BonhommeRichardIn honor of John Paul Jones’ victory in the Battle of Flamborough Head where he captured HMS Serapis on this day 230 years ago, we offer two works from the archives. (For those who have not yet discovered it, the Internet Archive is a wonderful resource.)

The first is:

The logs of the Serapis–Alliance–Ariel, under the command of John Paul Jones, 1779-1780, with extracts from public documents, unpublished letters, and narratives, and illustrated with reproductions of scarce prints (1911)
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John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, 230 years ago today

pirate5

I have always been a John Paul Jones sceptic.   Was he a great naval leader or merely a prima dona?  Was he so difficult a personality that he was never an effective leader?   He was at the very least a complicated figure.   Even his greatest triumph, the slugging match between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis, while a huge moral victory for the colonies, was a strategic failure.  Though the Seraphis was defeated, she did ensure that the 41-ship convoy that she was escorting made good their escape.   If the American squadron had been fighting only the British, rather than each other, the victory might have been more complete.

From the Smithsonian
In an attempt to disrupt English shipping during the Revolutionary War, Continental Navy Capt. John Paul Jones attacks the frigate Serapis off the English coast September 23, 1779. In the heated 3 1/2-hour battle, Jones’ own ship, Bonhomme Richard, is badly hit. His retort when asked to surrender—”I have not yet begun to fight”—won’t be reported for 46 years, but whatever his words, fight Jones does, winning both the battle with the Serapis and the sobriquet “Father of the American Navy.”

See also Captain Jones — Pirate or Patriot?

HMS Victory Fires 64 Gun Broadside to Launch the National Museum of the Royal Navy

Victory_broadside-smlrLast Friday the HMS Victory fired a 64 gun rolling broadside to to help launch the National Museum of the Royal Navy.   (While the broadside was impressively load and smoky, the amount of gunpowder used for the symbolic broadside was reported to be less than the gunners onboard at Trafalgar would have used for a single shot.)  The creation of the NMRN has been a long-term objective of the Navy Board and will ensure that naval heritage as a whole is properly focused and deployed to its full potential in promoting the Naval Service.

HMS Victory’s future in Portsmouth is secured
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Charles W. Morgan to Sail Again?

charles_w_morganIntriguing news about Charles W. Morgan, the last American sailing whale ship.  From Boston.com

Mystic Seaport officials are now considering whether to make the ship seaworthy again so that it can tour New England’s coastline in the summer of 2012, with stops in New London, Newport, R.I., Provincetown, Mass., and New Bedford, Mass. The Morgan is undergoing a $6 million restoration at the museum, which has a working shipyard. Putting air in the sails would cost an additional $2 million. The idea has been tossed around for at least a decade, but last May, White and other officials started giving it serious consideration.

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The Bloop and the Sea Serpent

monsterLast month we posted about The Great Gloucester Sea Serpent of 1817.    Eric, a blog reader, commented, no doubt tongue in cheek, “So that is what the bloop was.”  His comment got me thinking about the ironies of observations, technology and the unknown.

For the uninitiated, the “bloop” was an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) several times during the summer of 1997.  NOAA was using an acoustic hydrophone array in the Pacific ocean originally developed by the US Navy to track Russian submarines.  The ”bloop” was heard on multiple sensors over a range greater than 5,000 km.  The sound appeared to be somewhere around 50° S 100° W (in the Pacific of the southwest coat of South American).  Scientists agreed that the bloop matches the audio profile of a living animal, but no known animal could have produced the sound.  Also given the range across which the sound was heard, any animal that created such a sound would have to be significantly larger than a blue whale, the largest creature ever know to have lived on the planet.

Tuning in to a deep sea monster
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Star-Crossed by Linda Collison, a Review

I started reading nautical fiction, specifically C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series, as a teenager. The Hornblower novels, while meant for adults, were great “boy books,” full of adventure and action, with a hero with just enough self doubt and angst for a teenager to relate to. The readers of most nautical fiction seem to be primarily boys and men, which is not surprising for a genre whose heroes and villains are overwhelming male. Is there room for female readers and indeed a female heroine in these crowded waters? And if so, what role could she and would she play? After reading Linda Collison’s novel, Star-Crossed, the answer to the first question is clearly yes.
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Skysail in Close-Encounter with Airplane

skysail1In June we posted about ships using SkySails to reduce fuel costs by an estimated 10 to 35%.   (See  Go Fly a Kite? A Look at SkySails)  One possibly unforeseen hazard of the SkySails became clear last week when an aircraft and a Skysail deployed from a ship had a close encounter.

Eurocontrol posts skysail warning
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Theodore Tugboat in the Big Harbor

theodore2While New York may have a great yearly tug boat race, I recently discovered that Halifax harbor has a real Theodore Tugboat.

In the 1990s, “Theodore Tugboat”, was a Canadian kid’s TV show about a harbor tug in the “Big Harbor”.  In the late 90s it was picked up by US television.  Using radio controlled model tugs, it was sort of a maritime “Thomas the Tank Engine“.

In 2000, a 65 foot harbor tug, the Theodore Too, was built in Halifax.   It is a full-size replica of the scale model of the tug used in the original series.  Theodore Too is currently operated as harbor tour boat – Tour the Big Harbor.
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In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day ….

Well it is that time of year again. In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day ….

Somali-English dictionary

Spare me the lame” arrgghs” and “shiver me timbers”.   If you want to talk like a budhcad badeed (Somali for pirate) show some effort.

Or if you want to be old school, looking back to the 90s when the Straits of Malacca were a pirate hot spot, you could also try Bahasa Indonesian, which is a bit easier.   “Tarik, kau penyakit kudis anjing” (according to Google) means “heave to, you scurvy dog.”

It is also the start of the Jewish New Year.  So far, I haven’t figured out how to say Happy Rosh Hashanah in Somali.

Dutch flotilla makes its way north on Hudson River

Following up on our previous posts – Dutch Barges invade New York and The Dutch Barge Fleet has Arrived in New York.  From the AP:

Dutch flotilla makes its way north on Hudson River

A flotilla of historic Dutch sailing ships is making its way up the Hudson River to mark this month’s 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage aboard the Half Moon.
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Gold and Ivory Shipwreck on a Beach of Diamonds

diamond-wreck-615The October 2009 National Geographic magazine has a fascinating story of a 16th century shipwreck on a beach in southern Namibia.  In 1533 a  Portuguese trading ship carrying a fortune in gold and ivory, bound for the famed spice ports of India, was swept ashore and wrecked by a winter storm.  It lay undisturbed until it was discovered only last year.   Ironically,  the treasure laden ship, believed to be the nau Bom Jesus, wrecked on a beach rich with diamonds.  The wreck was discovered in the Sperrgebiet, the Forbidden Zone, the fabulously rich and strictlyoff -limits De Beers diamond-mining lease near the mouth of the Orange River on Namibia’s southern coast.

Read the article:  Diamond Shipwreck – Shipwreck in the Forbidden Zone
Photo Gallery of the wreck site