FSO Safer — Environmental Disaster Waiting to Happen in the Red Sea off Yemen

Posted on by October 17, 2021

For several years, the FSO Safer, a floating oil storage and offloading vessel, moored in the Red Sea north of the Yemeni city of Al Hudaydah, may be an environmental disaster waiting to happen. The ship has been held as a virtual hostage in the ongoing Yemeni civil war. A converted 400,000 DWT ultra large crude carrier (ULCC), built in 1976, the ship now contains about 1.14 million barrels of oil valued at up to US$80 million. The ship has been progressively deteriorating due to a lack of maintenance and supplies, and many are concerned that the Safer is in imminent risk of sinking, fire, or explosion.

Update: The F.S.O. Safer—pronounced “Saffer”—is named for a patch of desert near the city of Marib, in central Yemen, where the country’s first reserves of crude oil were discovered.

Should the Safer sink or explode, a massive spill would be disastrous, potentially four times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill of 1999.

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Wreck of Legendary Cutter USS Bear Identified Off Cape Sable

Posted on by October 15, 2021

The wreck of the legendary cutter USS Bear was recently identified off Cape Sable. The wreck was located in 2019 but it was only in August of this year that a team of experts looking at the evidence came to the conclusion that they are “reasonably certain” that the wreck is indeed the Bear, officials of the US Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at a waterfront news conference in Boston.

The Bear sank in 1963 about 260 miles east of Boston as it was being towed to Philadelphia, where it was going to be converted into a floating restaurant.

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The Cost of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Most Advanced & Most Expensive Aircraft Carrier

Posted on by October 14, 2021

Here is a short and concise video by Business Insider looking at the cost, the myriad of problems and the potential of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest, most advanced, and most expensive aircraft carrier ever built.

The True Cost Of The Most Advanced Aircraft Carrier

Last Conventionally Powered Carriers, Kitty Hawk & John F. Kennedy, Sold For a Penny Each

Posted on by October 13, 2021

USS Kitty Hawk

The decommissioned supercarriers USS Kitty Hawk and the USS John F. Kennedy have finally been sold for scrap for a modest one cent each to a Texas breaking yard. The last carriers to be powered by fuel oil, the ships have been mothballed for over a decade, as various groups have attempted unsuccessfully to secure them to turn them into museums. 

The Kitty Hawk is expected to be towed shortly from Puget Sound to International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. The timeline for when the ex-John F. Kennedy, which the Navy retired in 2007, will make its final journey is much less certain.

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Scientists Identify New Type of Transient Orca Off Pacific West Coast

Posted on by October 12, 2021

Another reminder of how little we know and understand about orca whales. Scientists have identified a new type of orca, also known as killer whales, off the US and Canadian Pacific West Coast. Termed ‘outer coast transient whales,‘ the newly discovered orca type preys on large sea mammals, prefers deepwater for hunting, and has a unique high-pitched vocal dialect. Experts believe they are a subset of transient orcas known as Bigg’s killer whales.

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Sub Secrets in a Peanut Butter Sandwich — FBI Arrests Navy Engineer for Espionage

Posted on by October 11, 2021

Virginia Class Submarine

Half of a peanut butter sandwich in a plastic bag was left at an agreed location in West Virginia by a Navy nuclear engineer. Inside the sandwich, wrapped in plastic, was a 16 GB memory card containing detailed secret information about the US Navy’s Virginia-class submarine reactors.  In subsequent drops, more memory cards containing submarine secrets were left in a bandaid box and a chewing gum container at sites in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, and his wife, Diana Toebbe, thought that they were giving the information to a foreign country in exchange for cryptocurrency payments. Instead, the FBI had intercepted their correspondence and impersonated foreign agents. 

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Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg : A New Journey Begins – Asia Expedition

Posted on by October 10, 2021

As we posted in September, the replica Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg is preparing to sail for Asia in April of 2022. The expedition is intended to promote and open new trade opportunities for Swedish and Asian companies. The nearly 60-meter (197-feet) long East Indiaman is billed the world’s largest operational wooden sailing vessel and is modeled after the Götheborg that sank off Gothenburg, Sweden in 1745. Here is a short video about the upcoming voyage.

A New Journey Begins – Asia Expedition

Bristol Holds First Sea Shanty Festival in Brunel Square

Posted on by October 9, 2021

On Sunday, October 10, from noon to 6PM, Bristol, England will host its first sea shanty festival with ten shanty crews performing on outdoor stages on the city’s harborside.

Classicalmusic.com reports that crews will perform in Brunel Square beside the iconic SS Great Britain; on The Matthew, a modern reconstruction of the original Matthew that sailed to Newfoundland in 1497; in Underfall Yard, a historic boatyard on Spike Island; and within the grounds of the SS Great Britain itself.

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Submarine USS Connecticut Collides With Underwater Object in South China Sea

Posted on by October 8, 2021

Yesterday, the US Navy Pacific Fleet announced that the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut struck an object in international waters while submerged on the afternoon of Oct. 2. While the announcement did not identify where the collision took place, reports are that it was in the South China Sea. Eleven sailors were reported to be hurt – two suffered moderate injuries and the rest had minor scrapes and bruises, officials said. All were treated on the sub.

Today, the Navy says that the USS Connecticut has returned safely to port in Guam.  The submarine’s nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were reported to not have been affected by the collision and to have remained fully operational. The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed.

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San Diego’s Foxtrot-Class Sub B-39 Heading to Scrap Yard

Posted on by October 7, 2021

For the last 15 years, the Soviet-era Foxtrot-class diesel-electric submarine B-39 has been a museum ship at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Now, with its outer hull deteriorating, the museum has decided to scrap the retired attack submarine. 

Stars and Stripes reports that museum officials said the sub is not as bad as it looks — that the pressure hull remains stable, making B-39 as seaworthy as it was when it debuted at the Embarcadero in 2005.

“But that doesn’t make its condition cosmetically acceptable in so prominent a location,” said Raymond Ashley, president and CEO of the museum.

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California Oil Spill — Possibly a Ship’s Anchor & an Ignored Oil Low-Pressure Alarm

Posted on by October 6, 2021

We have posted about the ongoing port congestion that has resulted in as many as 70 ships being anchored off the Southern Californian coast waiting for berths. While no one knows for certain what caused the pipeline rupture that leaked more than 140,000 gallons of oil off the California coast, initial indications suggest that it may have been the result of a ship’s anchor catching the pipeline. 

USA Today reports that the U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday that divers were able to locate a bend in the 17-mile pipeline and found it had been moved by 105 feet. Coast Guard Capt. Rebecca Ore said divers also located a split in the pipeline that was more than a foot long — 13 inches, which investigators believe could be the source of the oil leak.

Preliminary reports suggest the failure may have been “caused by an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear,” federal transportation investigators said.

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Echoes of Fat Leonard — Navy Hit by New Contractor Bribery Scandal

Posted on by October 5, 2021

For almost a decade the US Navy has struggled through an ongoing corruption and bribery scandal involving ship support contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a firm run by Leonard Glenn Francis, a Malaysian national known as “Fat Leonard.” U.S. federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against 33 people in connection with the scandal, in what has been described as “perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War.”

Navy officials pledged to clean up their contracting processes in response to the Fat Leonard scandal, but a new case suggests that corruption persists.

The Washington Post is reporting that Federal agents are investigating a new U.S. Navy corruption case that has strong echoes of the Fat Leonard scandal, with a defense contractor facing accusations that he delivered cash bribes and bilked the Navy out of at least $50 million to service its ships in foreign ports, according to recently unsealed court records.
 
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Coca Cola Charters Handysized Bulkers to Keep Production Running

Posted on by October 4, 2021

We recently posted about Home Depot and Costco independently chartering containerships to address ship and port congestion problems. Now, Coca-Cola is taking another approach to fix its broken supply chains.

Splash247.com reports that Coca-Cola becomes the latest global mega-brand to decide to switch from regular liner choices for crucial deliveries, instead opting to move just over 60,000 tonnes of material on three handysize bulk carriers to keep its production lines running across the world.

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Schooner Bowdoin, Arctic Veteran Turns 100

Posted on by October 3, 2021

Photo: Tom Stewart

The schooner Bowdoin turned 100 years old this year. She was designed by William H. Hand, Jr., and built in East Boothbay, Maine, at the Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard. The only American schooner built specifically for Arctic exploration, she was designed under the direction of explorer Donald B. MacMillan. She has made 29 trips above the Arctic Circle in her life, including three since she was acquired by the Maine Maritime Academy in 1988. She is currently owned by the Maine Maritime Academy, located in Castine, Maine, and is used for their sail training curriculum.

To celebrate the schooner’s centennial, Downeast Magazine has featured a trove of stunning photos, some never published, by Maine photographer Tom Stewart, who accompanied Maine’s official state vessel on its momentous return voyages to the far north in the early 1990s. Click on the link below to see more:

The 100-Year-Old Schooner Bowdoin as It Was Meant to Be Seen — In the Arctic

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Maersk Bets on Methanol — Orders One Feeder and Eight Large Dual Fuel Containerships

Posted on by October 2, 2021

In February we posted about an announcement by A.P. Moller-Maersk, the largest container ship operator in the world, that it would launch the world’s first carbon-neutral cargo liner vessel in 2023 – seven years ahead of its initial 2030 target. Maersk’s first carbon-neutral ship will be a 2,000 TEU feeder vessel fueled by methanol, operating on one of its intra-regional networks.

A little over a month ago, A.P. Moller-Maersk doubled down on its strategy by ordering 8 large ocean-going container vessels capable of being operated on carbon-neutral methanol. The vessels will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) for delivery around 2024, and have a nominal capacity of approximately 16,000 TEU.  The agreement with HHI includes an option for 4 additional vessels in 2025.

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