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 PIRATES SPEND LOOT ON HOUSING BY HUGH WARE T he shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk will use more armed guards on tankers passing through the Gulf of Aden but has "no immediate plans" to extend the policy to its container ships. Anti-piracy efforts are focusing on tracing the flow of ransom money. There is growing evidence that it is being invested in the economies of surrounding nations and may be financing a real- estate boom in Kenya. Efforts to trace serial numbers of notes used to make ransom payments were thwarted at least twice when Danish authorities lost the lists of the numbers. THIN PLACES AND HARD KNOCKS Pulling a 3000 tonne Coast Guard training ship off a pier is normally routine work for two tugs, even when the waves are 3m high and the wind is blowing at 10m per second. But the tug Kita Maru No. 12 capsized while undocking the Miura at Wajima Port in Japan and both of the tug's crew died. The Finnish fishing vessel Florence was between Finland and Estonia when she collided with the container ship Amazon at night in dense fog. The Florence sank in less than a minute but an automatic alarm, possibly an EPIRB, alerted authorities. Rescuers found the fishermen because they were vigorously blowing the whistles on their lifejackets. The crew of the Amazon had noticed the collision but regarded the impact as mild, perhaps some flotsam, rather than another vessel. At Chicalim in Goa, India, a worker died and two others were seriously injured when the new barge Shantam 3884 blew up, probably from exploding paint solvents. The blast was so powerful the dead man's body was blown onto the roof of a nearby chapel. At Diliskelesi in Turkey, the chief mate was supervising the docking of the chemical tanker Chemstar Yasu when a "manoeuvering rope" snapped and hit him. He later died in hospital. GREY FLEETS The flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was big enough for the basketball teams of North Carolina and Michigan State to compete in a special 7000-person stadium built at no cost to the government. When France withdraws its only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, for planned autumn maintenance, neither it nor Britain will have an operational carrier. The Royal Malaysian Navy has made a major contribution to fighting piracy by acquiring the small container ship Bunga Mas 5 and converting her into a naval auxiliary. She proved her worth when she drove off skiffs approaching the tanker Eagle Stealth in the Strait of Bab-al-Manden. Sixty-four sailors will be discharged from the US Navy for using or distributing drugs, mostly the synthetic drug Spice. It mimics the effects of marijuana. The sailors were assigned to the nuclear submarine USS San Francisco, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and a floating dry dock. Six sailors also used cocaine and one had used methamphetamines. Bad apples have a way of being discovered. The former commanding officer of the destroyer USS Momsen will spend three years in jail after being courtmartialed on charges involving a junior female officer and an enlisted woman. He was charged 34 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 with (hang on) one count of rape, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of abusive sexual contact, one count of sodomy, two counts of maltreatment, three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and four counts of violating general orders. Los Angeles is the lucky winner of the battleship USS Iowa. The Pacific Battleship Centre plans to operate her as an interactive museum at Berth 87. The Ghana Armed Forces will use four new patrol boats built in China against the country's recalcitrant fishermen, who are fighting over fisheries regulations. (A recent clash was over the seizure of generators used in floodlight fishing.) Her secondary duties include combating illegal activities such as drug trafficking and pair trawling. The Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Broome was preparing to berth at the Papua New Guinea town of Alotau when her crew heard the container ship Vega Fynen had lost engine power and was drifting toward a reef. The Broome raced 146 miles at best speed to rendezvous with the ship and pull her away from immediate danger. WHITE FLEETS The Nordlys was about to arrive at Alesund when fire broke out in the engineroom, killing two people and severely burning another two. She managed to limp into the port, where her 262 passengers disembarked and fire services boarded for what proved to be a difficult fight before cars and passenger luggage could be unloaded. A young man jumped from the 11th deck of the Celebrity Equinox, hit a lifeboat's rigging and was dead when recovered about 30 minutes later. The Maasdam was docked at Charlottetown, Canada, when a female passenger reported her elderly husband was missing. A lobster fisherman soon found his body floating in Northumberland Strait. THOSE THAT GO BACK AND FORTH In Indonesia, a fire in a truck loaded with onions caused panic on board the docked ferry Kirana IX at Surabaya. At least eight people died and scores were injured. The truck remained drivable. The Turkish merchant ship Reina 1 sank in two minutes off Albania, taking with her eight sailors, after colliding with the car ferry Ankara. When fire broke out on the ferry Pella as she was 15 miles from Aqaba, 1230 passengers were told to get into liferafts. One passenger died when he jumped into the sea. After an eyewitness informed police the Kiel Canal ferry Memel was being operated in an unsafe manner, police found her captain under the influence of alcohol and his coffee cup filled with red wine. In Auckland, the Devonport-bound Kea was holed when she somehow backed into the berthed ferry Harbour Cat, punching a hole in that vessel. One person described the contact as "a bit of a crunch." There was one minor injury. LEGAL MATTERS Malaysian authorities spotted the small product tanker Yong An anchored illegally in Malaysian waters with her Malaysian flag flying upside down. The master faces up to two years in prison if it can be proven he deliberately flew the flag that way.