Some of the Things the Coast Guard Has Been Doing While Not Getting Paid

Posted on by January 18, 2019

As the wholly unnecessary and reckless partial government shutdown rolls on, 41,000 active duty US Coast Guard personnel are still doing their jobs, without getting paid. Roughly 8,500 civilian support staff are furloughed, also without paychecks.

Across the country, concerned citizens are trying to find means to help the Coast Gaurd families with everything from gift cards to food banks. Through it all, Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel are saving lives, intercepting criminals, and generally defending our coasts. Here is an incomplete list of what the US Coast Guard has been up to while not getting a paycheck, as compiled by Military.com. 
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TBT – NY Harbor Ferries & the Other “Miracle on the Hudson”

Posted on by January 17, 2019

For Throwback Thursday, an updated repost of an event from ten years ago — the other “Miracle on the Hudson.” 

Ten years ago this week, US Airways Flight 1549  made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s pilots, Captain Chesley “Sulley” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles had not glided the plane in at just the right angle and airspeed, it is likely that the plane would have broken apart and that all the 155 passengers and crew aboard could have died. The landing is often called the “Miracle on the Hudson.” There was, however, a second miracle on the Hudson that day. Remarkably, New York harbor commuter ferries began arriving at the flooding plane less than four minutes after the crash.  Had it not been for the ferries’ rapid rescue of the passengers from the icy waters, the “miracle” might have ended as tragedy.

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“Cost Explosion” on Repair of German Training Ship Gorch Foch

Posted on by January 16, 2019

In November 2015, the German Navy training ship, Gorch Fock, went into a shipyard for hull repairs. The cost of repairs and refurbishment to the three-masted barque, built in 1958, was budgeted at 9.6 million euros. Repairs were expected to take 17 weeks. Now, over three years later, the ship is still not in service and the final project costs are estimated to reach 135 million euros. Der Spiegel refers to the overruns as a “cost explosion.”

The repairs are reported to include the replating of 80% of the hull, new masts, completely rebuilt mid and upper decks and a new teak deck. 

At various points, the work has been stopped to evaluate options but so far, the German Ministry of Defense has approved continuing the work. The Ministry determined that the cost of a new ship could reach 167 million euros. The Federal Court of Auditors has said that that figure is too high based on other recent new ship construction.

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One Hundred Years Ago Today — The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

Posted on by January 15, 2019

Today marks the 100th year anniversary of the Great Boston Molasses Flood, which inundated Boston’s North End sending a wall of molasses, killing 21 and injuring 150.

The Purity Distilling Company built a large molasses storage tank on Commercial Street in Boston’s North End to store molasses until it could be distilled into alcohol. In early January 1919, just a few days before the disaster, a ship had discharged a full load of molasses into the tank. When the cargo was discharged, the weather was cold, only around 4 degrees F. Then on January 15th, the temperature rose suddenly to an unseasonably warm 40 degrees.

The molasses began to expand stressing the steel of the 54 high and 90-foot diameter tank. The tank groaned and wept molasses from the tank seams under the load. Then at around 12:30 in the afternoon, when the streets were occupied with workers from the distillery and local factories breaking for lunch, there was a sound like gunfire as the tank’s rivets popped and the steel plates ripped open. The tank collapsed, dumping 2,300,000 US gallons of molasses in a 25-foot high wall of molasses surging through the streets at a speed estimated to be 35 mph (56 km/h). Twenty-one died and 150 were injured.

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Thoughts on a Broken Boom — No Simple Solution to Ocean Plastic

Posted on by January 15, 2019

Much of the media have taken the claims of Boyan Slat at face value. The young Dutch engineer has claimed that his design for a series of floating ocean booms will clean the oceans of plastic. The BBC headline in 2014 which read, “The Dutch boy mopping up a sea of plastic” was pretty typical, reflecting the assumption that Slat’s design would work as intended. The media and Slat’s supporters really want to believe that the young engineer had found the solution for cleaning plastics from the oceans.  

Impressively, Slat and his non-profit Ocean Cleanup succeeded in raising $20 million to fabricate and deploy a 600-meter-long prototype boom designed to trap and collect plastic refuse. It was towed 1,400 miles offshore to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch for trials. Unfortunately, the prototype boom did not collect significant amounts of plastic as it was designed to do, and, worse, broke apart due to wave action. It will be towed back to California as weather permits.

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Baby Shark Takes over the World — Song Hits Billboard Top 40!

Posted on by January 13, 2019

And now for something completely different. Baby Shark has taken over the world! At least, the song, “Baby Shark” sure seems to be everywhere. The Youtube video of the song as performed by the Korean group Pinkfong has been viewed 2.2 billion times. That is billion, not million. Given that there are roughly 7 billion people on the planet, that is substantial. The song also ranked at 25 in Youtube’s all-time viewed videos. It also reached 32 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, the only time in recent memory that a kids’ song broke into the top 40. Here is the Pinkfong dance version. (Warning, the song can become a dangerous earworm. Listen with care.)

Baby Shark Dance | Sing and Dance! | Animal Songs | PINKFONG Songs for Children

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The World is in Hot Water — Ocean Warming Accelerating

Posted on by January 12, 2019

A new analysis published in the journal Science has concluded that the oceans are warming four times faster than had been previously predicted by a United Nations panel five years ago. The research found that ocean temperatures had broken records for several years running.

“2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.”

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Hamilton’s Hurricanes — The Great Storm of 1772 and Hurricane Maria of 2017

Posted on by January 11, 2019

In August of 1772, a powerful hurricane devastated much of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. On the island of St. Croix, the town of Christiansted was virtually leveled. An impoverished 17-year-old clerk, who worked for a local merchant, wrote a letter to his long distant father describing the storm. That letter would influence the history of a nation not yet born. The young clerk’s name, of course, was Alexander Hamilton   

In addition to vividly describing the horrors of the hurricane, the letter also suggested that the storm was a “divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity.” The letter passed through the hands of Hugh Knox, a minister, and journalist, who published the letter in the Royal Danish-American Gazette. The newspaper’s readers were so impressed by the eloquence and skill of the 17-year-old letter writer that they raised money to send him to be educated in New York.

Alexander Hamilton would go on to fight in the American revolution, to be the first Secretary of the Treasury, principal author of Federalist Papers, and founder of the nation’s financial system, as well as the US Coast Guard. He is also the unlikely inspiration for a major Broadway musical. 

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Crabber Mary B II Capsizes Crossing Yaquina Bay bar — Three Fishermen Lost

Posted on by January 10, 2019

The Dungeness crab season opened late in the Northwest, starting last Friday, January 4th. The weather was terrible, with high winds and waves. Conditions were especially challenging on river bars, where the river’s current opposing the ocean waves can raise monstrous breakers. 

Of the crab boats setting out to fish this season from Yaquina Bay in Newport, Ore., one never made it back. The Mary B II, a wooden 42-foot fishing vessel, capsized as it was returning across the Yaquina Bay bar — the point at which at the Yaquina River meets the Pacific Ocean. The Coast Guard had been called out to help escort the Mary B II across the bar, where the breaking waves were reported to be 20 feet high. Before the Coast Guard could reach the fishing boat, it abruptly capsized.

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Jeanne Socrates — Singlehanding Non-Stop Around the World at 76

Posted on by January 9, 2019

Jeanne Socrates is a 76-year-old grandmother of three, originally from Ealing, West London. She didn’t start sailing until she was 50 but nevertheless has circumnavigated the globe under sail three times in S/V Nereida, a Najad 380. She currently holds the record as the oldest female to have circumnavigated the world single-handed, and she is the only woman to have circumnavigated solo nonstop from N. America. She was awarded the Cruising Club of America’s Blue Water Medal in 2013.

And now, at 76, she is almost 100 days into her fourth solo circumnavigation. She left Victoria, British Columbia last October and successfully rounded Cape Horn just before Christmas. If all goes well, she will become the oldest person of either gender to sail alone, nonstop and unassisted around the world. The current record is held by Minoru Saito who sailed solo nonstop around the world at age 71.

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Disasters at Sea — New Series on the Smithsonian Channel

Posted on by January 8, 2019

I am very excited by a new series, “Disasters at Sea” that will be premiering on the Smithsonian Channel this Sunday, January 13th. The series is produced by Exploration Production Inc. in association with Smithsonian Networks and Discovery Channel (Canada). The series will be airing in Canada in early February. 

The premiere episode, “Trapped in Typhoon Alley “, looks at the mysterious sinking of MV Derbyshire, which disappeared in Typhoon Orchid off Japan with a load of 160,000 tonnes of iron ore in 1980. She remains the largest British ship ever to have been lost at sea.

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Save the Falls of Clyde International Postpones Ship Move

Posted on by January 7, 2019

The effort to save the Falls of Clyde has suffered at least a temporary setback. Last November, we posted about an announcement by the Save the Falls of Clyde — International, a group endeavoring to move the Falls of Clyde, the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, from Hawaii back to Scotland for restoration. The announcement read, in part: “After many months of negotiation, a deal has finally agreed between this group and Sevenstar Yacht Transfer, to collect the ‘Falls of Clyde’. She will be loaded onboard their flo/flo ship, ‘Yacht Express ‘ during the week 3rd February 2019.”

Recently, the group has announced that the move will be delayed pending finalization of sponsorship. They announced on January 4th: 

I regret to inform supporters that we have decided to cancel the planned lift operation scheduled for the 3rd February of the Falls of Clyde.  There are a variety of reasons for this decision but in the main, we are not ready. We have been engaging with major sponsors for the lift exercise, however, negotiations are taking longer than envisaged. Continue reading →

Bad Week for Containerships, Part 2 — Yantian Express on Fire, Crew Evacuated

Posted on by January 6, 2019

Yantian Express, ex Shanghai Express

On Thursday, a fire broke out in one cargo container on the Yantian Express, a 7,510 TEU container ship, about 1,500 kilometers southeast of Halifax. The fire spread to adjacent containers. The firefighting tug, Smit Nicobar, arrived Friday evening but weather conditions limited what the tug’s crew could do to fight the fire. 

Yantian Express has a complement of 8 officers and 15 seafarers. On Saturday, 11 of the crew moved aboard the Smit Nicobar. The remaining personnel are expected to shift aboard the tug on Sunday. With improved weather conditions, the tug is continuing to fight the container fire aboard the ship.

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Bad Week for Container Ships, Part 1 — 277 Boxes Lost on MSC Zoe

Posted on by January 5, 2019


MSC Zoe is one of the largest container ships in the world with a capacity of over 19,000 twenty foot containers. Nevertheless, when Storm Zeetje pounded northern Germany with gale force winds late on Tuesday night, 277 containers were washed off the huge ship in the Wadden Sea. Some of these containers or their contents were carried onto the beaches of five West Frisian Islands islands including Terschelling, Vlieland and Ameland. At least one lost container was loaded with toxic chemicals. The Netherlands deployed 100 troops to help in the clean up and to search for dangerous cargo.

The New York Times reports that the MSC Zoe was carrying three containers containing seven tons of peroxide powder each in small bags. One such bag was found on Thursday on a beach in Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island near the German border. It was not yet clear how many of the three containers went overboard.

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Remembering the HMY Iolaire Disaster, 100 Years Ago This Week

Posted on by January 4, 2019

On New Year’s Eve 1918, over 200 men crowded the dock at the port of Kyle of Lochalsh waiting to the board the HMY Iolaire, a 190′ long iron-hulled yacht requisitioned by the Admiralty. Most of the men were Royal Navy Reservists. The Great War was over and they were returning home to the Isle of Lewis on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. When they boarded the Iolaire, it was a tight fit, but after fighting the long and brutal war, no one seemed to mind a bit of crowding. 

At 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of the harbor, the Iolaire hit the infamous rocks “The Beasts of Holm” and sank. Unlike the many Hebrides islanders aboard, the officers on the bridge were unfamiliar with the local waters and made a fatal error in navigation.

Of the 283 aboard, at least 205 died. Because of the crowding aboard, the number could have been higher. Among the dead, were 181 islanders. There were only 83 survivors. The sinking of the Iolaire was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Great Britain since the Titanic.  Continue reading →

A Closer Look at Abby Sunderland’s Unsinkable ‘Wild Eyes’

Posted on by January 3, 2019

In 2010, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world, non-stop singlehanded. It didn’t go well. Sunderland’s boat, Wild Eyes, an Open 40 class racer, capsized and was dismasted in a remote region of the southern Indian Ocean. Abby Sunderland was rescued by a French fishing vessel but Wild Eyes was abandoned to the mercy of the sea.

Now over eight years later, Wild Eyes has reappeared off Australia’s Kangaroo Island, over 3,000 nautical miles from where it was abandoned. Wild Eyes was found adrift, bottom-up, without her keel.  Initial reports from 2010, suggested that the keel had been lost in the capsize as well as the rig. Later reports said that the keel was intact. If it was intact, at some point in the last eight years, the keel broke off.

How did Wild Eyes survive so long in some of the roughest seas on earth? 

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Car Carrier ‘Sincerity Ace’ on Fire — 16 Rescued, 1 Missing, 4 Feared Dead

Posted on by January 2, 2019

Around 1,800 nautical miles northwest of Oahu, the car carrier Sincerity Ace is adrift and on fire. Sixteen of her Philippine crew have been rescued, while four are feared dead and one remains missing. The fire broke on on Monday on the Panamanian flag car carrier operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, traveling from Japan bound for Hawaii. The cause of the fire is still unknown. 

The 665′ long car carrier was in a remote region of the Pacific when the ofre broke out, beyond the range of rescue helicopters.  A US Coast Guard vessel and five merchant vessels responded to the distress call. A US Navy vessel is also in transit to assist in the search for the missing crew member.

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A Virtual Visit to Null Island — “Like No Place on Earth”

Posted on by January 1, 2019

Weather buoy — Null Island

Yesterday, we posted about a ship which allegedly crossed the International Date Line and the equator at exactly the right time. Today, we will look at the other side of the globe, where the Prime Meridian crosses the equator, to the crowded, yet wholly fictional, or perhaps more accurately, entirely virtual, Null Island, at latitude and longitude 0,0.  An updated repost from several years ago.

Several years ago, a website for the Republic of Null Island appeared on the internet. It read, in part “Welcome to Null Island! The Republic of Null Island is one of the smallest and least-visited nations on Earth. Situated where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator, Null Island sits 1600 kilometres off the western coast of Africa.” The website goes on to describe the geography, the people and the history of this “least-visited nation.” Sadly, the website and apparently also the republic have now vanished.

In fact, Null Island, at a latitude and longitude of 0,0, does not exist. Or does it? Continue reading →

RMS Warrimoo — In Several Places and Times at Once

Posted on by December 31, 2018

Here is a wonderful sea story which appears to be more or less true. RMS Warrimoo was an Australian/New Zealand passenger ship, launched in 1892. The ship is best remembered for crossing the intersection of the international dateline and the equator at precisely the turn of the century from 1899 to 1900. Here is how the story is usually told:

The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was latitude 0 degrees x 31 minutes north and longitude 179 degrees x 30 minutes west.

The date was 30 December 1899. Know what this means? First Mate Payton broke in, we’re only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line.

Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check and double check the ship’s position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather and clear night worked in his favor. At midnight the Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line! Continue reading →

The Coast Guard, Drug Busts, and the Wall

Posted on by December 30, 2018

Sometimes the events of the day seem downright surreal. Yesterday, I read about the US Coast Guard cutter Campbell which returned to the Portsmouth Naval Base from a three month Pacific patrol in which it seized more than 11,000 pounds of cocaine, worth about $159 million. Nevertheless, the personnel aboard the Campbell are not currently being paid for their work due to the current partial Federal shutdown. Nationally, the 42,000 Coast Guardsmen and women are the only military personnel working without pay. Thousands of Coast Guard civilian personnel, who support the Coast Guard military personnel, have also been furloughed without pay.

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