On June 8th, the restored 1883 built pilot schooner No.5 Elbe sank following a collision with the container ship Astrosprinter. Salvors have now refloated the historic schooner using airbags and pumps and will now assess the extent of the damage. Images from the Pressure Drop forum.
On Monday, 15.5 tonnes of cocaine worth roughly $1 billion was seized by Federal authorities aboard the MSC Gayane in the Port of Philadelphia. The drugs were found in seven shipping containers. It was one of the largest drug seizures in US history. How the drugs came to be aboard the 9,962 TEU container ship is a bizarre and almost unbelievable story, involving the ship’s crew loading drugs at sea from more than two dozen small boats, operated by smugglers wearing ski masks.
Officials are not sure that they have found all the cocaine aboard the ship. Officials told CBS News there could be 30 tons more on board.
Model SS Cornubia
Today is Juneteeth, a commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas, in particular, and in the Confederate states in general, one hundred and fifty-four years ago today. Although the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the nation’s largest war on April 9, 1865, emancipation did not arrive in Texas until two ex-Confederate steamships sailed into Galveston Harbor two months later. Here is an updated repost from four years ago.
MSC Gayane – Photo: HHM / Dietmar Hasenpusch
In one of the largest drug seizures in United States history, Federal authorities seized 15,500 kilos of cocaine hidden in seven shipping containers on the container ship MSC Gayane in the port of Philadelphia. The street value of the drugs is estimated to be worth $1 billion. The MSC Gayane’s previous port calls included ports in Colombia, Chile, Panama, and the Bahamas. Authorities believe that the drug-laden containers were put aboard in the Bahamas. Members of the ship’s crew have been arrested and federally charged as the investigation continues, authorities said. MSC Gayane is a 9,962 TEU Liberian flag containership built in 2018.
The current bust far surpasses the previous record for seized drugs set last March, when nearly 1,000 pounds of cocaine worth around $15 million was seized on the 9,400 TEU container ship, MSC Desiree, on its way from Colombia to Europe.
Note: We have received comments over the quantities of drugs seized. The currents reports are that the total was 15,500 kilograms. The initial reports were 15,000 kilos. The two figures translate into 15.5 and 15.0 metric tonnes, respectively, or around 17 and 16.5 short tons. Previously we mixed short tons and kilos which was confusing. We have updated the post to use only metric units.
The good news is that after years of not-so-benign neglect the US Coast Guard is finally getting an appropriation to build three new heavy polar icebreakers, followed by the construction of three new medium polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard currently has one heavy icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star, which is 43 years old and has suffered repeated breakdowns. It has been kept operating primarily by scavenging from a sister ship, Polar Sea which has not been in service since 2010. The Coast Guard also has one medium icebreaker, the ten-year-old USCGC Healy.
The less than good news is that while the $745.9 million construction contract for the first heavy icebreaker, dubbed a Polar Security Cutter, has been awarded to VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, MS, the ship will not be delivered until 2024. The Polar Star and the Healy will have to hang on for another five years. The two follow-on heavy icebreakers are also not guaranteed as they are priced as contract options.
Here is an incredibly beautiful video shot by Enrico Tettamanti and his wife Giulia Azzalli who spent over five years exploring the globe aboard their Solaris 72 Kamana. Truly amazing footage. Well worth just over 5 minutes of your time.
“Our videos are our simple way to show the beauty of our planet – one that is strongly connected to the human impact we have on it,” says Enrico.
Disturbing video shot from the deck of the pilot schooner No. 5 Elbe immediately before her collision with the container ship Astrosprinter. It appears that the helmsman made the wrong maneuver at exactly the wrong time.
Kurz vor der Kollision mit “No. 5 Elbe” am 08.06.2019
Commentary from NDR.De: Continue reading
Hyundai Heavy Industries, in a collaboration with Lloyd’s Register and Norsepower, has developed the design of an “Eco-Tanker,” a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with a unique propulsion system combining wind power with natural gas. The design also includes a volatile organic compound (VOC) recovery system which mixes the VOC with the natural gas as fuel. VOC is naturally-occurring vapor from the cargo tank during operation. Wind-assist propulsion is provided by four Norsepower modern Flettner rotors.
Early this morning, two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, not far from the Strait of Hormuz, were struck and disabled by explosions. The 110,000-dwt Front Altair, built in 2016 was carrying naphtha and broke out in flames following the explosion. A second tanker, the 27,000-dwt Kokuka Courageous, carrying methanol, was also damaged above the waterline by an explosion and was on fire. The 44 crew on the two ships were evacuated and were picked up by a rescue team from the southern Iranian province of Horozgan. Only one minor injury was reported. The US Navy’s U.S.S. Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer, was also reported to be rendering assistance.
Mermaid on the Danube Before the Collision
The New York Times is reporting that well before Hungary’s worst boating accident in at least six decades, Hungarian officials had been warned that traffic on the Danube had soared to dangerous levels around Budapest, but the government did not curb the number of vessels plying the river.
On the night of May 29, in a driving rain, an international cruise ship, the Viking Sigyn struck and sank a smaller sightseeing boat, the Mermaid, killing 28 people. The cause is still under investigation, but the accident has raised concerns that at the municipal and national levels, where tourism has become a major source of revenue, political calculations and the drive for profit outweighed safety concerns.
In related news, the captain of the Viking Sigyn, identified only as C. Yuriy, 64, of Odessa, was previously involved in another Viking collision in the Netherlands in April. He is reported to have served as the first officer of the Viking Idun which collided with the tanker, Chemical Marketer, in the Netherlands’ Western Scheldt, near Antwerp, on April 1. Five people reported minor injuries as a result of the collision.
Yesterday we posted about the sinking of the restored pilot schooner Elbe No.5, ex-Wander Bird, following a collision with a container ship near Stade, Germany on the Elbe River. The schooner, launched in 1883, had just completed a $1.7 million renovation. Fortunately while several were injured, none of the 43 passengers and crew died in the collision. An investigation of the incident is ongoing.
The schooner has had a fascinating history. It served as a pilot schooner on the River Elbe for 41 years, carrying pilots to guide ships from the North Sea up the river to the mighty port of Hamburg. She then spent a few years with several owners as a private yacht, named Wandervogel. In 1929, the schooner was purchased by American journalist Warwick Tompkins, who translated the German name to Wander Bird.
On Saturday, the restored pilot schooner No. 5 Elbe sank following a collision with a containership on its namesake river at Stade, Germany. The 43 people aboard the 1883 built schooner were rescued almost immediately thanks to a quick response from five rescue boats which happened to be in the area on another distress call. Six adults and two children were injured, one seriously, in the collision.
An investigation will determine the cause of the collision between the pilot schooner and the Cyprus-flagged container ship, Astrosprinter. Current reports suggest that the schooner turned across the fairway, directly into the path of the container ship. The Guardian describes the course change as a “failed tack” by the gaff-rigged schooner. Other reports suggest that the container ship was outside the channel lane.
On May 18th, we posted that singlehander Jeanne Socrates, 76, on her fourth circumnavigation, suffered a knockdown on S/V Nereida off the South Island of New Zealand. Despite the loss of solar panels and damage to the wind generator system, Socrates was unhurt, and sails, rig, most instruments, autopilot, and radio were undamaged.
Socrates is attempting to become the oldest person to sail solo around the world non-stop and unassisted. After the knockdown, most would have given up and put into port, but Jeanne has not abandoned her quest. She has put into Timaru Harbour, South Island, New Zealand to make necessary repairs to her Najad 380, Nerieda. As long as she does not go ashore or receive support or supplies, she can continue on her voyage “non-stop and unassisted.”
In April, we posted, Judge Threatens to Block Carnival Cruise Ships from Docking in US Ports, in which U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz considered temporarily blocking the largest cruise corporation in the world from docking its ships at ports in the United States as punishment for a possible probation violation of a previous pollution settlement.
In 2016, Princess Cruise Lines, a Carnival subsidiary, agreed to pay a $40 million fine for illegally dumping and attempting the cover up the dumping of oil-contaminated waste into the sea. Part of the deal was an agreement that Carnival, Princess and associated cruise lines would, figuratively and literally, clean up their act. The cruise giant was put on five years’ probation.
In a settlement announced on Monday, Carnival agreed to pay an additional $20 million, after admitted to failing to live up to the terms of the probation. A whistleblower reported the dumping of grey water and plastics, falsifying records, and hiding violations from Federal inspectors.
The Battle of Midway, fought from June 3 — 7, 1942, seventy-seven years ago this week, was a major American victory in the Pacific theater in World War II. Only six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Midway was a turning point in the naval war in the Pacific. Key to the victory was the American breaking of the Japanese naval code. Thanks to the code breakers, what had been intended to be another Japanese surprise attack became a well-laid trap by the US Navy. Here is a 15-minute tactical overview of the battle. Well worth watching.
I am aware of only one man who was praised by both Eisenhower and Hitler. A repost on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
General Dwight David Eisenhower said that “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”
Adolph Hitler referred to Andrew Higgins as the “new Noah,” though his admiration was more begrudging. On the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, better known as D-Day, it seems worthwhile to remember Andrew Higgins and the amazing Higgins boat.
Queen Anne’s Revenge
Edward Teach, better known as the pirate Blackbeard, terrorized the Caribbean and the North American East Coast in the early 18th century. Now a documentary filmmaker is claiming that the State of North Carolina is engaging in modern-day digital piracy. On Monday, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case brought by filmmaker, Frederick Allen, against state officials in North Carolina who he accuses of unlawfully pirating his footage of the wrecked pirate ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which went down in 1718.
As reported by the LA Times: The case began with the discovery of the wreckage of Blackbeard’s flagship, which sank in November 1718 and was found by a private research group in 1996.
The crash of the MSC Opera into the dock and a river tour boat while docking on the Giudecca Canal on Sunday in Venice Italy, has prompted new calls for limits or an outright ban of large cruise ships in Venice. After the crash, Venice’s mayor Luigi Brugnaro said, “Once again it is shown that big ships cannot cross the Giudecca Canal.”
“It worries me because it’s something that could’ve happened so many other times, and could happen again today, ” said Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist who heads We Are Here Venice, which wants to ban cruise ships.
At about 8:30 AM on Sunday, the cruise ship MSC Opera lost control while docking on the Giudecca Canal in Venice Italy, slamming into the dock and hitting a tour boat. Five people were reported to be injured, but none seriously. The ship was accompanied by two tugs which were unable to control the 65,591 GT ship. MSC Opera was built in 2004 and has a capacity of around 2,150 passengers and 728 crew.
“The MSC ship had an engine failure, which was immediately reported by the captain,” Davide Calderan, head of a tugboat company involved in accompanying the ship into its berth, told Italian media. “The engine was blocked, but with its thrust on, because the speed was increasing,” he said.
For several years, we have followed the attempts to control, if not eradicate, the invasive lionfish from the waters around Florida and the Caribbean. Recently, divers participating in Destin, Florida’s Emerald Coast Open, which is described as the “world’s largest lionfish tournament,” removed 19,167 of the invasive predators.
Sometime in the 1990s, two different species of lionfish made it into the waters of the Atlantic off Florida. Native to the Indo-Pacific, the venomous, predatory fish spread rapidly, decimating local reef fish in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Lacking local predators to stop its spreading, the lionfish have been described as “one of the most aggressively invasive species on the planet.”