The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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BEYOND THE HORIZON CONTINUED��� catastrophic explosion and fire. Eight died, 207 were rescued, and the master and chief officer of the Norgas Cathinka were accused of negligence. The accident has led to increased calls for a bridge connecting Java and Sumatra. The new freight ferry Huelin Dispatch on its maiden voyage from Southampton to the Channel Islands touched bottom hard enough to cause leaks. Gusts of wind caused the ro-ro ferry Napoleon Bonaparte to break its moorings at Marseille and it ended up aground and leaning heavily on a dock. That ripped an underwater breach in the hull about 30 metres long, The ferry was out of service for the winter. The ro-ro/pax Pride of Burgundy collided with the similar ferry Berlioz off Calais in bad conditions. The PoB had damage to its starboard bridge wing. In the Egyptian province of Beheira, a minibus rolled off a ferry into the Nile and 14 died. LEGAL MATTERS Arresting a nation���s largest sail-training vessel in a foreign country will get attention. That happened to the Argentine Navy���s square-rigged Libertad in Ghana. The court order was sought by creditors suing Argentina in international courts after Argentina declared a world-record sovereign debt default during an economic meltdown a decade ago. Bondholders wanted to recover the full value of the defaulted bonds and sought to freeze state assets: the Libertad qualified. NATURE After fishing was stopped three years ago, sonar surveys by a fisherman revealed that the fish populations of tilapia and sardines in the Sea of Galilee may have risen to ���very optimistic��� levels. Shell had hoped to do some serious drilling in the Alaskan Arctic but decided to limit efforts to drilling shallow ���top holes��� that won���t reach oil-bearing depths and wait for next year. Could rising sea temperatures be melting methane hydrates, which remain frozen in a seabed under very low temperatures and very high pressures? Scientists investigated methane vents near Spitzbergen decided that at least some of the gas outlets had been active for a long time, since carbonate deposits, which form when microorganisms convert the escaping methane, were found on the vents. An Australian-Bahraini team of coral-reef rebuilders has been using realistic moulded-concrete replicas of coral heads but may switch to more complex heads printed by a 3-D printer. Scientists are working on ways to ���see��� though the icy crust on an ocean to explore what is underneath. A major problem is the sea is on Europa, a moon of Jupiter some 390 million miles from Earth. METAL-BASHING The former 31-year-old former Royal Navy flagship HMS Ark Royal was sold to a Turkish scrap metal firm for ��3 million. Alternative bids would have turned the warship into a diving reef, a helipad in the Thames, a museum, or a casino were ���judged either not feasible or appropriate, or carried too much risk���. The Ark Royal was withdrawn from service last year five years early as part of sweeping military cutbacks. Three labourers died when steel plates fell on them from a ship���s deck at the Gadani scrapping yard on the Balochistan coast in Pakistan. In India, Asia���s largest ship breaking yard, Alang, was closed as a protest against the arrest of company officials in connection with death of six labourers in a blast on a oil tanker being 36 Professional Skipper January/February 2013 dismantled. Those arrested were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligent conduct with respect to fire rather than the more-usual charge of negligence, and they could get life imprisonment. Russia may hire international salvage companies to raise two old nuclear submarines. While being towed to a dismantling site, B-159 (originally K-159), a November-class submarine, sank in the Barents Sea in 2003 with nine of her crew and 1760 lbs (800 kg) of spent nuclear fuel. K-27 was an experimental attack submarine built in 1962 and decommissioned in 1979 due to its troublesome nuclear reactors. Nine of her crew died when fuel elements failed. Her reactor compartment was sealed and the submarine was scuttled in the eastern Kara Sea in 1982. ���Bottom suction��� is often a limiting factor when refloating a grounded vessel. At Valencia, the grounded bulker Celia broke bottom suction by using its cranes to swing two heavy containers from one side to the other while the tug Punta Mayor pulled. Everything worked and all that remained were a damage assessment and an investigation into why the ship had gone aground almost a month earlier. REFUGEES As many as 130 people may have drowned off the coast of southern Bangladesh after a boat carrying passengers trying to get illegally into Malaysia sank in the Bay of Bengal. Only six survivors were found. At least 61 people died when a boat believed to be carrying illegal Syrians and Palestinians migrants sank off the coast of Turkey. A boat carrying as many as 100 Tunisian migrants ran into trouble in the Mediterranean and at least 56 people were rescued, some from the sea and others from the small and uninhabited Sicilian island of Lampione In the Java Sea, the Bahamas-flagged, Danish-owned bulker Clipper Mayflower picked up two injured survivors of a sunken immigrant boat and later received praise for its role as on-site communications coordinator. The remaining 78 survivors were picked up by Australian defence vessels and taken to Christmas Island. A boat carrying illegal immigrants sank halfway to its destination of Lampedusa island and Italian authorities arrested two survivors, probably the master and his assistant. That particular tragedy triggered creation of an investigative committee. On it are Italy���s Minster of the Interior and Tunisia���s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lampedusa has become illegal immigrants��� entry to Europe and thousands of illegals are camping out on the island. NASTIES AND TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVES The Thai Navy, using five vessels and two helicopters, plus five other governmental agencies, arrested 108 Vietnamese fishermen on ten trawlers that had been catching giant cuttlefish in Thai waters. West Africa was the month���s piracy hot spot. Seven nonNigerian mariners were kidnapped from the anchor-handler Bourbon Liberty 249 off Nigeria while another nine crewmen, reportedly all Nigerians, were left on board. The vessel was soon located at Bonny Island and the captives were released two weeks later, probably after ransoms were paid. The comment was made that ���this attack was a ���departure against the usual pattern of piracy��� in the Gulf of Guinea���. The Aframax tanker Orfeas quietly left anchorage at Abidjan, probably hijacked and heading for Lagos, Nigeria. About three days later, the tanker was released minus a goodly part of its cargo of 32,068 tonnes of gasoline.