Plunderers Plundering the Plunder – Peru Claims Share of Coin Treasure

Posted on by February 28, 2012

The silver and gold coins valued at $500 million that Odyssey Marine recovered from the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes have now been flown to Spain.  American courts ruled that the coins had been removed illegally and that they were Spanish property by treaty.  Odyssey and Spain were not, however, the only parties to  lawsuits over the treasure.  The government of Peru along with 17 families in Peru and Columbia, who are descendants of the original owners of the cargo, are also claiming a share.  The silver and gold were mined in Peru and Colombia, and the coins were struck at a mint in Lima.  Spain has rejected their claims.

Cecilia Rodriguez, writing in Forbes sums it up nicely:  To many in Colombia and Peru, this is yet another story of robbers robbing robbers, plunderers plundering the plunder of other plunderers.

Chasing Gold Coins to Spain

Costa Allegra Under Tow to Seychelles, Expected to Arrive Thursday

Posted on by February 28, 2012

Photo released Tuesday by the Seychelles coast guard Photo:AFP/Getty

A French fishing vessel was the first ship to reach the stricken Costa Allegra, which has been drifting without power in the Indian Ocean, as the result of an engine room fire Monday. The fishing vessel took the cruise ship under tow and has since been joined by two tugs to assist in towing the stricken ship to the Seychelles.  The ship in tow is expected to arrive at the island of Mahé, in the Seychelles, on Thursday.

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Costa Allegra: Not A Sister Ship – the Unusual Transformation from Container Ship to Cruise Ship

Posted on by February 28, 2012

Anniie Johnson III (Left), Costa Allegra (Right) Photo:Rickard Sahlsten & Peter Asklander

The headlines from several media sources (see here or here) have referred to the Costa Allegra, the cruise ship adrift in the Indian Ocean after an engine room fire, as a sister ship to the Costa Concordia.  A sister ship is generally defined as a “a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship.”  To their credit, several newspapers have changed their headlines, no doubt after fact checkers pointed out that the two cruise ships are not anywhere close to being “sister ships.”  Second cousins, perhaps.

The Costa Allegra is an unusual ship.  She was built in 1969 and served for almost two decades as a container ship, the Annie Johnson III,  for Rederi AB Nordstjernan.  In 1986, she was sold to Antonis Lelakis, who planned on converting her to a cruise ship for Regency Cruises.  These plans fell through and she was passed between different owners until acquired by Costa in 1990.  Costa converted the ship at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. She entered service as Costa Allegra in 1992.
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Cruise Ship Costa Allegra Adrift off Seychelles After Fire

Posted on by February 27, 2012

Costa Allegra

Sixteen months after the Carnival Splendor was blacked out by an engine room fire in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico, another Carnival owned cruise ship is drifting, dead in the water, after an engine room fire.  The Costa Allegra, a cruise ship owned by Costa Cruises, a Carnival Corporation subsidiary, had a fire in her after generator room and is now adrift, without propulsion and operating on emergency generators, approximately 200 miles SW of the Seychelle Islands in the Indian Ocean, near Alphonse Island.  There are reported to be 636 passengers and 413 crew aboard the ship which departed Madagascar on Saturday.  The fire was put out before it could spread to other areas in the ship by the ship’s shipboard fire-extinguishing system and the ship’s firefighting squads. No injuries were reported.
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Peter Maddison Occupying Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Again

Posted on by February 27, 2012

Peter Maddison, right

Just as preparations for moving the world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, to her namesake city in Australia, are getting underway, Peter Maddison, a former councillor from Sunderland, where the ship was built, has occupied the old clipper, again.  Maddison had previously staged a short occupation in 2009 when it appeared that the ship might by scrapped.  In 2009 he gave up his occupation when he ran short of provisions. This time, he has told BBC Scotland,  that he is stocked for a  “sustained occupation.”
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Update – Slavery at Sea? Abuse of Indonesian Sailors on Chartered Fishing Vessels

Posted on by February 26, 2012

Last April we posted, Slavery at Sea ? Abuse of Sailors on New Zealand Chartered Fishing Vessels.

Secret papers reveal the government has allowed fishermen from poor countries to be exploited in New Zealand waters.  Workers are fishing in rusting boats turned into high seas sweatshops that take large parts of the country’s $1.4 billion-a-year catch. …  Files obtained under the Official Information Act show the government has known about the problem for some time.

Now, in a six-month investigation, Bloomberg Businessweek had documented similar abuse on at least ten vessels chartered to fish in New Zealand’s waters.

Fishing as Slaves on the High Seas
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Update: Admiral Confirms Nuclear Submarine Ekaterinburg Fully Armed During Fire

Posted on by February 26, 2012

Last week we posted about a report by to the Russian magazine Vlast  that claimed that “Russia [was] … on the verge of the largest man-made disaster since Chernobyl” when a fire broke out on December 29th, 2011 on the K-84 Ekaterinburg, a Russian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, in a dry-dock in Murmansk.

Despite claims by the Russian Defense Ministry that the submarine’s weapons had been removed prior to entering the drydock, Vlast said that the submarine was fully armed with 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads as well as up to 12 torpedoes and anti-submarine missiles, each tipped with either 300 kilograms of high-power military explosive or a nuclear warhead.

Now, the Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet, Vice Admiral Aleksander Vitko, has confirmed  that the submarine was brought into dock outside Murmansk without first having the weapons removed.  Sparks from welding were reported to have set fire to wooden scaffolding which spread to the rubber acoustic coating on the submarine’s hull. If any of the torpedoes had exploded, it is likely that they could have set off the fuel in the ballistic missiles or damaged the nuclear reactors.

Northern Fleet: The burning submarine was armed
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Rebuilding the Whaleship Charles W. Morgan – First Hull Plank

Posted on by February 25, 2012

The Charles W. Morgan was launched in 1841. She is America’s last surviving wooden whaleship and is the “crown jewel” of the Mystic Seaport Museum collection.  She has been undergoing restoration at the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport since 2010.  Earlier this week, they installed the first new hull plank, a significant milestone. Museum President, Steve White, drove in the first spike.

First Hull Plank

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Fisher Poets Gathering Underway This Weekend in Astoria

Posted on by February 25, 2012

The 15th Annual Fisher Poets Gathering is underway in Astoria, Oregon.  As the name suggests, it is a gathering where poets of the sea swap verse, music and stories.  Men and women tied to the fishing industry share original poems, stories, songs, memoirs, essays and art in celebration of the work, its people and their concerns.  The gathering runs through tomorrow at Clatsop Community College.  Thanks to Darren O’Brien for pointing it out.

Fishermen Bards Trawl for Meaning

Matt Rutherford Sailing Singlehanded Around the Americas – In Need of Resupply

Posted on by February 25, 2012

Matt Rutherford set out from Annapolis, Maryland last June 11th with an audacious goal. He intended to sail single-handed entirely around the Americas in a 27′ Albin Vega.  He planned to sail a counterclockwise loop up the East Coast, cross the the Arctic via the Northwest Passage, sail down the Pacific Coast of North and South America, around Cape Horn and then back north again to the East Coast of the US.  He has nearly made it. He is currently off the coast of Brazil. His problem now is that nearly everything on his boat is either broken or just worn out.  He is planning a resupply stop off Recife, Brasil and he could really use donations for new parts. Click the link below to learn more and/or make a donation.

Upcoming Resupply, Matt needs your help

From the Washington Post: Annapolis sailor on unprecedented, around-the-Americas odyssey

Thanks to Fernando Costa for passing the news along.

Return to the Mariana Trench – Teams Racing to Dive 6 NM Down

Posted on by February 24, 2012

Virgin Deep Flight Challenger, submersible from one of possibly four attempts to return to the bottom of the Mariana Trench

Fifty two years ago, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and oceanographer Jacques Piccard dove to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the bathyscaphe Trieste. They were the first, and so far, the only humans to have ventured to the deepest spot in all the the world’s oceans.  Now three and possibly four teams are preparing to return to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

The vessels planning to return to the deepest place on earth include a three man submarine designed and built by Triton Submarines; a one man submarine, the Virgin Deep Flight Challenger, sponsored by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, designed by Graham Hawkes, and to be piloted by Chris Welsh; and a submarine with a two or three man crew developed by DOER Marine. Hollywood director James Cameron is also understood to be preparing for a descent.
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Rum Running – Documentary Now Online at CBC’s “Land and Sea”

Posted on by February 24, 2012

Last week we posted about “Rum Running,” a new documentary which was broadcast last weekend on CBCs “Land and Sea.”   It is now online and definitely worth watching.  It is a fascinating look at when many sailors in Nova Scotia stopped fishing and became international smugglers during Prohibition in the US in the 1920’s and 30’s.  Click here to watch the 21 minute documentary.

The Ruth Montgomery Collection at the Penobscot Marine Museum

Posted on by February 23, 2012

The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine documents the rich and deep maritime history of the region and the town that was famous for its ship captains. The museum has a wonderful set of on-line, searchable, photography collections documenting the area’s ships, boats and the people who sailed them.  One such collection is a series of close to 500 glass plate negatives from Ruth Montgomery, a sea captain’s daughter from Boothbay that document her life and travels.

The Ruth Montgomery Collection at the Penobscot Marine Museum

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Seabourn Odyssey Rescues Three Men Adrift in the World’s Largest Ocean

Posted on by February 22, 2012

Seaborne rescue boat approaching drifting fishermen

The Pacific Ocean is indeed the world’s largest ocean. It is hard to grasp just how many fisherman from the myriad of islands in the Pacific become lost, are carried away by a storm, break down or run out of fuel and find themselves adrift on this vast ocean. This month we posted “US Army Landing Craft, Great Bridge, Rescues 101 Adrift in the Pacific,” and last November we posted, “Adrift in the Pacific – Two Kiribati Men Missing for 33 Days Come Ashore in Marshall Islands.”  A year before we posted about “Three Teenagers Found Alive after Fifty Days adrift in Pacific Ocean.”   One wonders how many are never found.

This Sunday, the Seaborne Odyssey rescued three fishermen adrift in the Pacific 150 miles southwest of Pago Pago, America Samoa.  The fishermen had sailed from Apia in Western Samoa, had ran out of fuel and had been adrift for nearly three weeks.  This is apparently the second rescue involving a Seabourn ship in less than a year.
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Eight More Bodies Found on the Costa Concordia

Posted on by February 22, 2012

Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

The presumed death toll remains at 32 in the sinking of the Costa Concordia.  Today divers located eight more bodies, bringing the number of known dead to 25 while the number of missing and presumed dead dropped to 7.  Only three of the bodies; woman, a girl and a man, were removed from the ship due to worsening weather conditions.  The bodies were taken ashore for identification, a process that can take several days.  One of the bodies was identified, however, as Dayana Arlotti, who was five years old, the only young girl to be lost in the tragedy.  Her father is still listed among the missing.

Divers in Italy Find Eight More Bodies at Costa Concordia Wreck

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