NAUTICAL LOG

The dictionary defines "decision" as "the quality of being decided in character," "a settlement," "final".
For NAUTICAL LOG the choice is final because we have decided to cease publication of this Blog. 

Originally we wrote two blogs one maritime themed and the other under a pen name politically themed.  As we saw what we considered declining standards and professional behaviour in the maritime world the two blogs formed into NAUTICAL LOG as an activist maritime blog.  Our hope was that by pointing out some things they might be changed for the better saving the lives of seafarers.  How simplistic our thinking was!! 

First with piracy placing our comment after each Post got little or no response - except begging letters for money - to support phony organisations cashing in on another human beings misery. On issues of safety we saw a minimum of response on an individual basis never collectively.

The World Court never had the courtesy to even acknowl…

NAUTICAL LOG along with most of the seafarers of the world are stunned to learn that the crew of the MS Costa Concordia have collectively been award the "Seafarer of Year" by Lloyds List publication.

It appears Lloyds List found their performance admirable after they wrecked their own ship on that Italian island and caused 32 known persons deaths.

This is supposed to promote maritime safety on the UN/IMO World Maritime Day ??

Good Watch.

By designation of the United Nations today is World Maritime Day which is celebrated during the last week of September and is a movable date.

With its usual insensitivity to national events the UN/IMO has selected the great tragedy of the RMS Titanic (NAUTICAL LOG is even reluctant to type that name) as its World Maritime Day theme.

The excuse used with this choice of theme was to bring attention to maritime safety - after 100 years totally out of date !!  Pretty reflective of how the UN/IMO works.  The logic of the UN/IMO boggles the mind but then look at the nonsense going on there this week in the UN Building New York, NY with speeches by some of the worlds greatest scumbags with whom one has a wide and varied selection to choose from both male and female.

NAUTICAL LOG noted two items just this week which reflects the state of world shipping from the manning aspect .  The British MCA has developed an alternative method for non-sailing Officers to re-validate their Certificates of Comp…

The training ship PLAN Zheng He 81 left Surabaya, Indonesia on September 07, 2012 and is now visiting Brunei at Muara Port.  She embarked young Officers of the Indonesian and Brunei navies in Surabaya for the passage to continue their training under the PRC PLAN concept. 

NAUTICAL LOG has been  re-reading 1421 and 1434 by Gavin Menzies (Lt.Cmdr. RN Ret.) and it is very interesting to compare the concept of the Chinese Emperors to the present day PRC methods of building contacts and influencing other nations.  When Gavin Menzies was completing his Cadet and Midshipman service in the British Royal Navy NAUTICAL LOG was serving as Cadet and Deck Apprentice in the Merchant Navy during the same time period.  In his book 1434 he writes of how multi-national the RN was and how Officers were expected to learn the culture of those serving with them. 

In the MN it was even more so and included something of the language, the ships with Laskar (fromPakistan, India and Ceylon) crews had separate s…

In the NAUTICAL LOG Press Folder this morning was an article about and photo of the PRC Maritime Safety Administration exercise off Oahu, HI with the USCG.  The article mentioned that the USCGC Galveston Island looked small and insignificant compared to the China MSA vessel Haixun 31.  Of course the two vessels are designed for quite different purposes and the USCG has some large ocean-going cutters.

However what really caught the NAUTICAL LOG eye was a useful, for the PRC, translation of the MSA painted on the hull.  In this case the letters stand for Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) but they also stand for Maritime Surveillance Agency (MSA) another marine law enforcement agency of the PRC and the one most engaged with forcing the PRC Ocean Policy down everyone's throat.

The PRC Ocean Policy is of course their desire for absolute control of the South China Sea and East China Sea in complete disregard to International Maritime Law, the Right of Innocent Passage, and the Rulings …

UPDATE:

September 11, 2012.  In a move which was not exactly unexpected the PRC has dispatched two "Patrol Ships" to the Senkaku Islands as a result of the Japanese Government official announcment of its contract signing to purchase three (3) of the Islands from a private Japanese owner.  The vessels are likely to be China Surveillance Agency vessels however NAUTICAL LOG does not have confirmation on that as yet.  China Surveillance Agency has drawn up a plan to continue its claim to the Senkaku Islands but clearly they are now Japanese owned and any action to enter inside the Territorial Waters or even land on the Islands would be a violation of Sovereign Japanese Territory and thus International Law and International Maritime Law.  At present in the PRC there is a change of leadership underway and as a result there is tension with PRC political people trying to show off how nationalistic they are.



Looking through the NAUTICAL LOG Press Folder this morning there is an interes…

Back in the Spring when the PLA training ship PLAN Zheng He 81 started out on its worldwide voyage there were ecstatic announcements from the PRC about a voyage of knowledge and friendship.  As time and the voyage progressed it quickly became obvious that things were becoming more restrained.  The announcements about where she was and her next Port-of-Call took two days to arrive in both the Peoples Daily and the PRC Government official notifications.

It has now come to light that many of the countries visited were less than enthusiastic that their local Chinese population were heavily involved, in some cases, with the visiting Chinese warship.  The relationship triggered some investigations of the local Chinese in some of these same countries to find out just what was going on.  Some even declined a visit from this naval training ship, in fact only Ecuador of all the South American countries allowed a Port Call.  Now it appears the PLAN Zheng He 81 training ship has arrived in Tanjung…

Once again in the United States Navy (USN) there are reports of Command reliefs. 

On Saturday September 01, 2012 CMDR. Sara Santoski was relieved of Command of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15.  Also relieved was Master Chief Petty Officer Bobby T. Anderson who was the Command Master Chief.

These firings resulted from two crashes in one of which there was loss of life in Oman in July 2012 and the other was at Bahrain International Airport in August 2012. 

So once again the Gulf Region Commands find themselves in trouble and once again there are questions as to the training and selection of these Commissioned Officers and non-Commissioned Officers.  It would seem the malaise continues to spread throughout this Command Region. 

Also the Navy football team was humbled at Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland when playing against Notre Dame - the final score was Notre Dame 50 Navy 10.  Oh! dear it seems not much is going positively at the USNA in either the areas of scholastics or spor…

Continuing the Posts about ships Bridges a favourite subject of NAUTICAL LOG both from the Watchkeeping point of view and the design.  We were very pleased when going through our Press Folder to see an article about the new design concept by Ulstein®.  The design incorporates all the current technology and the most up-to-date method of exercising control over that technology.  Using the current methods found when one uses a cellphone, information pad or other electronic wizardry of today's world.  While most comprehensive the Bridge equipment is extremely easy to both understand and operate.  Particularly NAUTICAL LOG likes the ability to individualise controlling the equipment and the heads-up projection on the Bridge windows.  This latter is most necessary and really helpful when maneuvering in close waters.

The concept will appeal to the young officers and crew coming up and also to us older seafarers, 76 years young in the case of NAUTICAL LOG.  Having always dreamed of command…

This is a photo of the latest, sixth and last, of the British Royal Navy Type 45 Class Destroyer HMS Duncan D37 underway conducting sea trials.

As one can see she is an ultra modern naval vessel which by all reports is extraordinarily capable in warfighting.  No doubt with all the latest modern goodies computer controlled with the minimum of crew to do the job.  But something looks very weird to NAUTICAL LOG eyes and that is the Bridge.

It is an old fashioned design perched low on the forward main superstructure.  One would have thought that a sleek modern design somewhat higher on the house would have been constructed - but no.

While the Royal Navy is very tradition bound, the Type 45 Bridges look like they were left over from another era perhaps lying in the BAE Systems shipyards which someone decided to use up by sticking them on the Type 45 to save some  construction money.

While NAUTICAL LOG is quite sure the Royal Navy Bridge Watch Team will maintain its usual high Watchkeeping stan…