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 PROMISE NOT TO SUE? T BY HUGH WARE he owners of the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia offered passengers $14,500 each if they promised not to sue, but lawyers quickly calculated that a class-action suit might bring as much as $165,000 per person. THIN PLACES AND HARD KNOCKS Off New Zealand's Coromandel coast, the longliner Rebecca May began to "take on water very, very fast" and the crew of three were rescued from a liferaft. The FV may have hit debris from the wrecked container ship Rena lodged on Astrolabe Reef not too many miles away. In central Philippine waters the Seaford 2 sank after hitting a floating log while heading for Antique province. Her cargo of 35,000 bags of cement failed to provide much buoyancy. In Turkey's part of the Black Sea, the Vera radioed for help after her cargo of scrap metal shifted but the bulker had sunk by the time rescue forces arrived. Three saved, eight missing. In Greece, the small product tanker Alfa 1 capsized and sank west of Athens, possibly from hitting an old shipwreck. The master died while the crew of 10 survived. SHIPS RAN AGROUND The small container ship Anke-Angela ran firmly aground in the Kalmar Strait between the island of Oland and the mainland of Sweden, 70km north of the Oland Bridge. Swedish authorities suspected the two senior officers were drunk at the time of the accident and took them ashore for testing. In Ghana the cargo ship Le Shan, loaded with dumper trucks, iron rods and general cargo, ran aground because the master refused to hire a local pilot although instructed to do so. The product tanker Challenge Prelude ran aground at Dampier Port, Western Australia, created in the 1960s to handle iron ore shipments for Rio Tinto, salt, and petroleum gases, while under control of a pilot. The container ship MSC Carole ran aground off Jakarta. The crew were unharmed and no oil was spilled. The first attempt to pull the ship off the reef failed. SHIPS COLLIDED On the Tennessee River, the 61m cargo ship Delta Mariner carrying rocket components to Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg (California) Air Force Base, took out two spans of the Eggner Bridge. A 3220m stretch of the river was immediately closed, and the Army Corps of Engineers closed the entire river the following weekend when it released floodwaters from the Chickamauga Dam. In Belfast Lough, the coaster Union Moon T-boned the ferry Stena Feronia. The coasters master was drunk and both vessels will need extensive repairs. At Brazil's Antarctic research station in December: • a small fuel barge capsized and sank while being towed by four small boats in bad weather. None of the 10,000 litres of diesel fuel leaked out, and • a fire started in the station's generator room killing two navy personnel and forcing the helicopter evacuation of 44 to Chile's station. The burns of a third man were treated at Poland's Antarctic station before he was transferred to the Chilean station. The 3000teu container ship MOL Maneuver collided with the 34 Professional Skipper May/June 2012 6700teu container ship Zhen He while both were underway in open waters southeast of Hong Kong. No injuries, no oil spilled, some damage, and each proceeded on its way. FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS In Antarctica's Ross Sea, the toothfisher Jung Woo No. 2 caught fire. Three died, and two seriously burned were transferred to the National Science Foundation's research ship Nathaniel B Palmer which then headed for McMurdo Base. Five crewmembers died and six went missing after an explosion sank the South Korean oil tanker Doola No. 3 north of Jawol Island near Incheon. She usually transports fuel oil but the crew was carrying out tank-cleaning operations after unloading 6500 tonnes of gasoline at Incheon. The tanker sank in shallow water and was visible, her back broken. RESCUED The American-flagged container ship Horizon Reliance took three Canadian males off their battered 10m sailboat several hundred miles off Hawaii. In the dark of night with wind gusting to 40 knots and 6m swells, the yacht slammed into the ship and sank. One man managed to climb a rope ladder but the other two drifted off into the night and ended up on the other side of the ship, Thanks to the strobe lights on their lifejackets, they were located but it took nearly an hour to rescue them – a father (age 39), son (aged 9) and his uncle (aged 33) were safe. MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS The container ship COSCO Yokohama lost about 29 containers overboard in the Gulf of Alaska while en route from China to Prince Rupert. Many other containers shifted during the storm. The dry cargo ship Ivan Vikulov became stranded in ice in late January some 37 miles off Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and then caught fire. As this report is written, she is drifting, crewless and still on fire, in heavy ice in the middle of the Azov Sea. The Ivan VikulovIt is one of a fleet of about 40 icebound vessels awaiting the arrival of icebreakers. GREY FLEETS Three female US Navy officers will no longer be among the women recently selected to serve in the previously all-male submarine force after being caught submitting fraudulent travel claims. The US Navy claims the readiness of sailors and marines should improve now that random breathalyser and tests for synthetic drugs such as the synthetic marijuana Spice have been introduced. The Navy will also end discounting cigarettes for sale at service exchange, bringing prices to market levels. As Britain axed its only fixed-wing carrier HMS Ark Royal and all its associated Harrier GR9s, four Type-22 frigates, one of two LPDs (amphibious ships) have been placed into extended readiness for three years. And the Astute-class submarine construction programme has been slowed, the British Prime Minister announced: "The Royal Navy is going to pack a huge punch in the future….we are going to have a very, very capable Royal Navy." By 2015, the Royal Navy will have just 30 frontline ships, compared with nearly 100 at the time of the Falklands War in 1982. Fire broke out aboard the British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Talent. Authorities refused to disclose the fire's