NAUTICAL LOG

STV Fryderyk Chopin This year has seen several accidents, some fatal, in sail training vessels (STV). While it is an excellent way to teach people of all ages about ships and the sea it requires considerable planning. Just this week there have been two maritime incidents in the same general area namely the English Channel Approaches. First there was the FFV Athena which caught fire and the Master wisely evacuated the crew to survival craft keeping a small team aboard to fight the fire. The second incident was of much greater concern to the maritime community even thought things worked out well. The UK Coastguard had to launch a rescue operation in response to a distress call from the Polish sail training ship STV Fryderyk Chopin which had lost one of its two masts in severe weather and was in danger of losing the second one. Ships in the area headed for her and helicopters were launched from bases in Cornwall and Devon. The ship was located about 100 nautical miles southwest of the...

From our European Union correspondent came an article from the Avaaz Organisation www.avaaz.org while NAUTICAL LOG is not familiar with the organization the article was about whales. With our natural concern for whales and appalled that whaling is still practiced in several countries here are quotes from the article as sent by our correspondent. We have no way of knowing if the numbers given in the article are correct or even how they were counted. "There are only 300 northern right whales left and 99% of the blue whales have been wiped out." "Right now 193 governments are meeting in Japan to try and create a global agreement to create, fund and enforce protected areas covering 20% of our lands and seas by 2020." Well there it is the meeting is in Japan, is this not rather ironic since the premier country violating the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (SOWS) is Japan. Under the ridiculous premise that they are conducting ' research ' the ICR Japanese whaling...

FPB Ocean Adventurer 7 underway flying flag of South Africa After waiting for an exciting announcement on a glittering Hollywood evening it all went kind of flat. The Sea Shepherd Pirate Group (SSPG) at their soap opera "Night for the Oceans" event were supposedly going to introduce their latest 'Interceptor Ship' - did not happen. No Press Release (there may have been but it was later removed or so NAUTICAL LOG was told) bursting with the usual 'Wats-his-name' bombastic phraseology and no vessel. According to Ecorazzi, who attended the event, there is a vessel somewhere however as yet it is not quite paid for, named or found a Flag State. That latter should not be a problem as the Netherlands flag is given out freely without honour by the Dutch Government and they have already registered the other two SSPG ships MS Steve Irwin and MS Bob Barker . The begging - oh sorry fund raising - continues as 'Wats-his-name' tries to raise $1.5 million to ...

generic iPMS console In a recent interview the Commanding Officer of HMS Astute , now facing Court Martial as a result of the grounding in Inner Sound, stated that the vessel was controlled by a Platform Management System (PMS). This is the latest in maritime automation and is the integration of human abilities with computer abilities. Generally known as an integrated Platform Management System (iPMS) it is fitted in many warships of different nations as well as merchant vessels and even a few mega-yachts. As can be seen from the photo above it consists of a console with indicators, screens, keyboards and a 'joystick'. One person manning a console can control these applications: Power management Propulsion control Ship systems automation Ship system remote monitoring and control Alarm system including Extension Alarm Panels Damage management Conning displays Loading and Stability computer CCTV camera system Data logging Provide training Provide electronic mail Distribute video...

UPDATE October 22, 2010: The HMS Astute was floated free by the evenings high tide with the help of three support vessels. Her stern had grounded on a shingle bank in the morning while she was transferring people ashore. The word ' astute ' means clever, cunning, or shrewd however these do not, it appears, apply to the Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute. This morning she ran aground off the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was alerted to the incident at 0819 BST (British Summer Time) and announced " We have sent a coastguard tug to where the submarine ran aground on rocks at the Kyle of Lochalsh near the Skye bridge". Since the tide is rising at around 1800 BST it is possible the vessel can be removed then. The Inner Sound area is well marked with navigational buoys and the sea around Skye and Raasay is used as a training area by the Royal Navy (RN). One would think that naval watchofficers and navigators should be quite familiar wit...

A generic Corvette-sized Ocean Patrol Vessel A generic Corvette-sized Ocean Patrol Vessel A couple of weeks ago NAUTICAL LOG received some information that frankly we thought was a bit far out in left field. This being the time of the year when we hear of preparations for the coming whaling season in Southern waters on both sides of the issue. Then came some other announcements from Sea Shepherds that their anti-whaling patrol vessel MS Bob Barker had completed a major refit in Hobart, Tasmania. Also that there would be a Hollywood event October 23, 2010 to announce their new Darth Vader 2 "interceptor craft". While there has been no Press Release to date about the MS Steve Irwin she is due soon to voyage from the Mediterranean to the Southern seas once again. So where does all this leave the Japanese and what can they do to protect themselves. We turned to that information received to see what could be put together. According to the data there is an organization named ...

Yangtze River delta News has reached NAUTICAL LOG by several sources of a collision between the Costa Cruises MS Costa Classica passenger ship and the Belgian Flag State MS Lowlands Longevity a bulk carrier. The damage to the passenger ship is along the starboard side well above the waterline. It appears both vessels were in the deep water channel of the Yangtze River and both were in bound. According to the Shanghai Maritime Safety Bureau (SMSB) "liner lost control due to a power glitch". This is the sort of statement made when too deep an investigation would lead to possible embarrassment to the local authorities. NAUTICAL LOG surmises that the pilots were aboard each vessel and this is, once again, a case of things going wrong when Master is in Command and Pilot is advising the Bridge Team. NAUTICAL LOG suspects that the 'liner' was overtaking the bulk carrier, got too close alongside and the vessels were 'sucked' together by water displacement caus...