Free Republic

What Really Killed Costa Concordia’s Passengers? Captain Schettino has received a lot of criticism in the mainstream press and, possibly, even more from industry insiders including gCaptain for abandoning ship before the last passenger was safe. An important question is not being asked however… would his presence on the bridge have saved lives? The answer is likely no.

"What do you do with a 1,000-foot wreck that's full of fuel and half-submerged on a rocky ledge in the middle of an Italian marine sanctuary? Remove it. Very carefully. Stuck on a rocky shoal off the Tuscan island of Giglio, leaving the wreck where it is probably isn't an option but removing a massive ship that's run hard aground and incurred major damage to the hull involves logistical and environmental issues that are just as large. First there's the fuel. A half a million gallons of fuel could wreak havoc on the marine ecosystem — the ship is smack...

In an unprecedented case of gross malfeasance, it appears that the Captain of the giant cruise ship, Costa Concordia, purposely ordered his crew to CHANGE course, in a maritime version of a fly-by for entertainment purposes: “Questions also swirled about why the ship had navigated so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut out off Giglio's eastern coast, amid suspicions the captain might have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain tourists on the island." As a result of steering the ship off-course, it unexpectedly hit a reef. (Captain Shettino insists these rocks where “uncharted”...

The IDF’s Ashdod-based Navy unit deals with terrorist activity on a daily basis, security reconnaissance commander “D” said in the military’s Mahane magazine. .The routine security reconnaissance company of the Ashdod base was assigned the responsibility to maintain Israel's maritime closure on Gaza since the completion of Operation Cast Lead. Israel clamped the embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza to prevent the smuggling of more advanced weapons and terrorists. Captain “D” explained that the soldiers train with mock ships attempting suicide against IDF vessels, terrorist boats out at sea, and even terrorist activity on shore. "Our threat is constant. We deal with...

A sunken treasure worth about $500 million was discovered by an American company has been awarded to Spain by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The treasure-laden Spanish ship was located off the coast of Gibraltar in 2007. It had been sunk during a naval battle with the British navy in 1804. Several parties made claim to the treasure. The company that made the recovery, Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., the governments of Spain and Peru, and 25 individuals who were descendants of the sailors on the ship. The federal district court, which heard...

Last month, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) chief Ali Fadavi declared, “The frontline of the Islamic Republic is the sea. Our enemy, the United States, has a military capacity at sea and has secured hegemony by the means of its naval capacity. . . . It is necessary that the Iranian navy counters the enemy.” Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the local press “Iran plans to strengthen its naval forces to maintain security of the open seas … the message to regional countries is that there is no need for the presence of foreign forces.” Iran’s naval force,...

Amid rising tensions over gas reserves, Israel to submit proposal to UN on where maritime economic border with Lebanon should be over next few days; U.S. endorsed Lebanon's proposal submitted to UN in August. In the next few days Israel will submit to the United Nations its take on where its maritime economic border with Lebanon should be, as the two countries scramble for gas reserves estimated to be worth billions of dollars. Israel's position is due to be approved by the cabinet on Sunday; Jerusalem argues that Lebanon's proposal includes major areas belonging to Israel.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a five-year labor agreement on Tuesday that will cover more than $1.5 billion in planned Port of Los Angeles construction projects. Approved by the port governing board in March and the City Council in May, the agreement sets guidelines on the types of workers that must be hired by contractors for all capital projects at the port. The terms cover about 95 percent of the port's projected capital projects outlays for the next five years. "This project labor agreement gives thousands of our local workers in some of the most economically disadvantaged communities the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five Somali men were sentenced on Monday to spend the rest of their lives in a U.S. prison after being convicted of piracy and trying to attack an American warship off the coast of Africa last year. In November the group was convicted by a jury in a federal court in Virginia on charges of piracy, attacking to plunder a vessel and various other firearms and weapons charges. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a growing problem over the last several years, with pirate gangs making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, .. The...

An international maritime treaty means suspected pirates can be tried in the home countries of their victims – but some governments have been put off this course of action for fear that convicted pirates might not return to Somalia after serving out their time in jail. Kuznetzov seemed to echo this when he said: "Why should we feed some pirates?" Russian media reported that the 10 men were set adrift in a boat with no navigational equipment, and that contact was lost with the boat's radio beacon within an hour. However, Commander John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU naval...

Four Americans, including a Seattle couple, aboard a private yacht hijacked by Somali pirates are dead this morning, and readers reacting to the CBS story on-line are wondering why any of the pirates were taken alive. Likewise, after the Seattle Times caught up with the story at about 7:25 a.m., it didn’t take long for readers to suggest that the pirates be taught a lesson. The incident is hardly a first in that part of the world. Somali pirates have been emboldened by the willingness of some victims to pay outrageous ransoms. Reports indicate that negotiations were underway between the...

The U.S. Marshals Service has "arrested" a Chinese ship after a crane aboard the vessel damaged a towering new container crane at APM Terminals in Portsmouth. The arrest came after the Virginia Port Authority and its operating affiliate sued the Chinese company that made and delivered two new cranes. The suit in Norfolk's federal court seeks $14.65 million in damages. The court then issued an arrest warrant for the ship. While still berthed at APM Terminals, it's now in federal custody. "From the time that it's under arrest, it belongs to the United States Marshals Service - until the courts...

Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years. U.S. naval forces, who were trailig the Americans' captured yacht with four warships

NAIROBI (KTLA) -- U.S. military officials say they're prepared to rescue four Americans who are reportedly aboard a yacht that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. On Friday, a distress signal was sent by the boat from the middle of the Indian Ocean, according to the French news agency AFP. The hijacking was first reported by Ecoterra International, which monitors regional maritime activity. Ecoterra said the S/V Quest was seized 240 nautical miles (275 miles) off the coast of Oman. Two of the four U.S. citizens being held captive aboard the S/V Quest have been identified as...

UNITED NATIONS -- Somalia's U.N. Mission said Friday that pirates hijacked a yacht carrying four U.S. citizens in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.

Wreck of the The Two Brothers found 600 miles northwest of Honolulu Divers have found the shipwrecked vessel of a doomed sailor who inspired the classic American tale Moby Dick off the coast of Hawaii.When, in 1820, a fierce sperm whale sank George Pollard's first whaling ship — Essex — it captured the imagination of author Herman Melville, who published the book in 1851.And, just three years after his first ship sank, a second whaler captained by Pollard, 30, struck a coral reef during a night storm and sank in shallow water.Marine archaeologists scouring remote atolls 600 miles northwest...

Oil spilling from Navy warship after collision, fire continues An oil spill was reported from Indian Navy's warship INS Vindhyagiri , which caught fire early on Monday, hours after it collided with a cargo vessel near the Mumbai port on Sunday evening. The extent of oil spill was not yet known. The port officials said that all the equipments of Navy and Coast Guard were trying to control the situation. The warship had collided with a Norwegian container vessel MV Nordlake around 5 pm on Sunday. Hundreds of navy personnel's families, who were on board the INS Vindhyagiri at the...

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korean navy commandos Friday stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the 21 crew and killing eight pirates, military officials said. The SEAL special forces boarded the South Korean ship before dawn, freeing all the hostages and killing the pirates in cabin-to-cabin battles, they said. Five other pirates were captured. "This operation demonstrated our government's strong will that we won't tolerate illegal activities by pirates any more," Lieutenant-General Lee Sung-Ho of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a news briefing. The South Korean skipper of the chemical freighter suffered a...

Reporting from Newport News, Va. — When archaeologists and Navy divers recovered the warship Monitor's steam engine from the Atlantic in 2001, the pioneering Civil War propulsion unit was enshrouded in a thick layer of marine concretion. Sand, mud and corrosion combined with minerals in the deep waters off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to cloak every feature of Swedish American inventor John Ericsson's ingenious machine, and they continued to envelop the 30-ton artifact after nine years of desalination treatment. This month, however, conservators at the Mariners' Museum here and its USS Monitor Center drained the 35,000-gallon solution in which the massive...

NORFOLK In a historic decision, a jury in federal court today convicted five Somali nationals of piracy in the April 1 attack on the Norfolk-based frigate Nicholas. It’s the first time in nearly 200 years that a jury returned a guilty verdict in a piracy case in a U.S. court and now likely sets up years of appeals. The five men face mandatory life in prison. Each defendant stood without expression as the court clerk announced guilty verdicts on each of 14 counts. Their lawyers were polling the jury to ensure the verdict was read correctly. The jury deliberated about...

MOGADISHU, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A man was shot dead on Sunday after he refused to disembark from a yacht in the Indian Ocean that was hijacked by Somali pirates last week, pirates and residents said on Sunday. The man was killed in Barawe town on the southern Somali coastline by pirates who had taken him hostage and wanted him to go onshore from his yacht in which he was sailing with others, including a woman and a boy. His nationality was not immediately clear. "He was shot and killed after he refused to disembark from his yacht and move...

HELSINKI, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest cruise ship "Allure of the Seas," built in Finnish Turku Shipyard, left Turku on Friday and proceeded directly to Florida Fort Lauderdale of the United States. The construction of cruise ship "Allure of the Seas" was completed and handed over to Royal Caribbean International on Oct. 28. The cruise ship will be serving its first cruise trip in December 2010. The "Allure of the Seas" is an architectural fantasy on the sea. It is 361-meters long, 66-meters wide, 72-meters high above the water, and its gross tonnage is up to 225,000 tons....

Tests of the U.S. Navy's Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD) system conducted recently at the Potomac River Test Range confirmed the laser weapon system's readiness to proceed with at-sea testing later this year, according to Northrop Grumman Corporation. Operating from a fixed site on land, the MLD weapon system fired a laser beam at a number of stationary targets, including representative small boat sections, across the Potomac River, company executives said. The laser burned through small boat sections in these tests, conducted in late August and early September. "We have shown that the Maritime Laser Demonstrator's design is as lethal at...

A waitress who works on a Baltic Sea ferry is suing her employers after they refused to give her sick pay while she was recovering from cosmetic breast surgery. The waitress, who was born in 1981, took two weeks off from work last autumn to recover from the operation, which she admits was not for medical reasons. When the ferry company, Viking Line, found out why she had taken sick leave, bosses refused to give her sick pay and docked the time from her holiday allowance. Now, union bosses are taking Viking Line to the labour court. Documents submitted to...

Clerical workers at several terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike after their contract expired early Thursday. There was no extension when the labor contract elapsed at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, said Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the Harbor Employers Association. Berry said the shippers rejected the latest proposal which called for a wage increase of 21% over three years. Berry said the shippers countered with a proposal that includes a 10% increase in monthly pension payments and protection from layoffs. The shippers want to use new computer programs allowing customers access to booking information....

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-national-broadband-plan Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2010 Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental...

Parked all around Naval Base San Diego are impressive vessels that patrol waters all over the globe and in recent years we have been lucky enough to get a front row seat for Aegis Missile Tests, Aircraft Carrier Homeports and the war on terror in the Persian Gulf. Ships like the 'USS Ronald Reagan', 'USS Lake Erie' and the 'USS Milius' have given us an amazing insight into the workings of the world's most powerful Navy and the hard-working sailors and marines who keep us in charge on the seas.FOLLOW ADAM ON TWITTERAs the sun tries to peak through the...

GULF OF ADEN, June 1, 2010 – The U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto yesterday disrupted nine suspected Somali pirates from attacking a Maltese-flagged vessel that was transiting here. The San Jacinto responded to a distress call from the M/V Avenue Beauty, which was transiting 90 miles north of Somalia when the crew reported they were under attack by pirates. Upon hearing gun shots, the Avenue Beauty’s chief officer sounded a general alarm and directed the crew to execute counter-piracy measures, which caused the pirate skiff to call off the attack. The San Jacinto responded to the attack...

Our Navy commandoes fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members. A few minutes before the takeover attempt aboard the Marmara got underway, the operation commander was told that 20 people were waiting on the deck where a helicopter was to deploy the first team of the elite Flotilla 13 unit. The original plan was to disembark on the top deck, and from there rush to the vessel's bridge and order the Marmara's captain to stop. Officials estimated that passengers will show slight resistance, and possibly minor violence; for that reason, the operation's commander decided to bring the...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Investigators in Seoul say they have proof that North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship. The long-awaited investigation results released Thursday say the torpedo caused a massive underwater explosion that blew the ship apart on March 26.

South Korea came closer on Thursday to blaming North Korea for the sinking of a navy ship in March that killed 46 sailors with reports saying it plans economic measures to punish Pyongyang for a suspected torpedo attack.South Korea has not officially accused the North of sinking its navy ship but has made little secret of its belief Pyongyang deliberately torpedoed the 1,200 corvette Cheonan near their disputed border in retaliation for a naval clash last year. "The sinking of the Cheonan showed the cold hard realities of division (on the peninsula) for the world to see," South Korea's pointman...

Ten suspected Somali pirates captured by the Russian navy last week may have perished after their release, a defence source in Moscow has told reporters. Marines seized them during a dramatic operation to free a hijacked Russian oil tanker far from shore, killing an 11th suspect in the gun battle. They were released in an inflatable boat without navigational equipment. Within an hour, contact was lost with the boat's radio beacon, the defence source said. "It seems that they all died," the unnamed source was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency. Russia initially said the 10 pirates would...

MOSCOW, Russia — Following high level complaints about "imperfections" in international law, Russia announced Tuesday that captured Somali pirates "have all died." A Russian official claimed that 10 pirates seized by Russian special forces aboard an oil tanker last week were quickly freed but then died on their way back to the Somali coast.

Following high level complaints about "imperfections" in international law, Russia announced Tuesday that captured Somali pirates "have all died." A Russian official claimed that 10 pirates seized by Russian special forces aboard an oil tanker last week were quickly freed but then died on their way back to the Somali coast

The Somali pirates who were captured in an assault operation after hijacking a Russian tanker near the Gulf of Aden and then released by Russian military officials have not reached the coast and have apparently perished, a top-ranking source in Russia's Defense Ministry told journalists on Tuesday. Russia's Moscow University tanker was hijacked last week near the Gulf of Aden. Ten pirates were captured and one was killed in the assault operation. The captured pirates were initially to be sent to Moscow for prosecution, but Russian military officials then made the decision to release them, citing the absence of a...

Moscow - The Somali embassy in Moscow on Tuesday confirmed the death of 10 pirates released at sea last week by Russian forces off the coast of the Horn of Africa country. Earlier, an official from Russia's Defence Ministry told journalists that the men were presumed dead since their boat had not reached the shore. Russian forces had captured the pirates last week in an operation to rescue the tanker Moskovsky Universitet, which was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. But the pirates were released on Friday and put in one of their own boats, without weapons or navigation equipment,...

MOSCOW: Russian forces freed a hijacked Russian oil tanker and rescued its crew in a helicopter-backed operation on Thursday that killed a Somali pirate, authorities said. Russian investigators said 10 captured pirates, who seized the China-bound MV Moscow University in the Gulf of Aden, will be brought to Moscow for prosecution. They hijacked the tanker on Wednesday with its 23-member crew and a cargo of crude oil worth $52 million. Its rescue will please the Kremlin, which has been seeking to revive Russia"s naval muscle far from its shores despite limited resources. "Measures are being undertaken to bring the detained...

Aircraft Carrier USS Ronald Reagan Ever since WWII, America has been a dominant force upon the high seas. We have become so advanced in our military technology that the Soviet Union eventually collapsed, in large part because Ronald Reagan would not back down against them. In honor of his accomplishments and great leadership, congress named the worlds largest aircraft carrier after him, the USS Ronald Reagan. Thanks to Reagan, America has been able to set the standard for which other nations have wished to achieve. Well it has been 22 years since Reagan left office, and while we have been...

SEOUL, South Korea – An explosion from a torpedo likely sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month, the South's defense minister said Sunday amid growing speculation Pyongyang may be behind the blast. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the most likely cause of the disaster was a torpedo exploding near the ship, with the force of the underwater blast ripping the vessel apart. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it. "Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo...

Reuters cited an April 22 Yonhap News Agency report that the South Korean military believes a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank its navy corvette, the ROKS Cheonan, on March 26. The findings were based on intelligence gathered jointly with the United States. The ship had a crew of 104 men at the time of sinking, with 58 crew members being rescued and another 46 members unaccounted for. "North Korean submarines are all armed with heavy torpedoes with 200 kg (441 lb) warheads," the military source was quoted by Yonhap. "It is the military intelligence's assessment that the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Alleged Somali Pirates Indicted for Attacks on Navy Ships NORFOLK, VA—Federal grand juries in the Eastern District of Virginia have returned two separate indictments charging 11 men from Somalia with engaging in piracy and related offenses pertaining to attacks on two Navy ships. The indictments charge separate attacks by separate groups on the U.S.S. Nicholas and the U.S.S. Ashland. Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; George Venizelos, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office; Alex J. Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s...

ANXIETY is mounting in Seoul and Washington as South Korea braces for an inquiry finding that its warship, the Cheonan, was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, at the cost of 46 lives. With leaks from the Defence Ministry and military intelligence blaming the North Koreans for the March 26 explosion, South Korean, US and Australian experts are close to interim reports on the cause of the sinking. President Lee Myung-bak's administration is agonising over whether military retaliation should be part of a "proportionate" response to the suspected attack, with Mr Lee telling war veterans this week: "We will take...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Eleven Somalis accused of attacking two navy ships off the coast of Africa appeared in Virginia federal court Friday shortly after being indicted on charges of piracy.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. warship captured six suspected pirates Saturday after a battle off the Horn of Africa — the Navy's third direct encounter with seafaring bandits in less than two weeks. The Navy has taken at least 21 suspected pirates since March 31 in the violence-plagued waters off Somalia and nearby regions, where U.S. warships are part of an international anti-piracy flotilla....

A Norfolk-based dock landing ship has captured six pirates after being fired upon in the Gulf of Aden, the Navy announced today. It is the fourth confrontation by the Navy with pirates in the past two weeks and the second time in that span that pirates have opened fire on a U.S. Navy vessel. The Navy said 21 suspected pirates are now in U.S. custody from those incidents. Suspected pirates fired at the port side of the Ashland about 380 miles off the coast of Djibouti, the Navy said. The Navy ship returned fire with its 25mm gun, catching the...

A South Korean warship has caught up with a super-tanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The South Korean foreign ministry said the destroyer had arrived in waters near the tanker and would remain at a safe distance. The 300,000-ton Samho Dream, which was on its way from Iraq to the United States, has 24 crew and is laden with crude oil. Its owners said the pirates had not yet made any demands. When the crew of the South Korean operated super tanker first raised the alarm the navy destroyer, already on duty in the Gulf...

A South Korea-operated, Singapore-owned oil tanker has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream - loaded with crude oil - was on its way from Iraq to the United States with 24 crew when it was seized on Sunday. South Korea has sent a destroyer already in the area to intercept the tanker before it reaches any port. Pirates targeting ships off the coast of Somalia made tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments last year. The Cheong-hae destroyer was on patrol in the Gulf of Aden, where pirates have often staged attacks....

A U.S. Navy ship has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the Indian Ocean and captured 11 pirates, and then promptly let them go. It was the second time within 24 hours that U.S. forces captured Somali pirates. Earlier Thursday, five pirates were taken into custody after they attacked a U.S. warship. While those five pirates remain in custody, the 11 captured Thursday were allowed to leave in small skiffs after the mother ship was sunk. The action prompted a Pentagon spokesman to deny that the Navy had a "catch and release" policy regarding pirates. A Naval official told...

Somali pirates are not having it all their own way at present. In the latest incident, some unsophisticated pirates, seeing a large vessel on the horizon, sped up to it hoping for rich pickings only to find themselves confronting a US navy missile frigate, which exchanged fire severely damaging both of their boats, and later capturing the mother ship. April 2, 2010, [PDN]: Just after midnight, west of the Seychelles Islands, a gang of three pirates fired on a 453-foot American warship, the USS Nicholas, mistaking it for a commercial vessel. To their chagrin, the pirates found they had bitten...

Fishing boat missing after searching for sailors from sunken ship SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) -- A fishing boat has vanished and is feared to have sunk after searching for sailors missing from last week's naval disaster, maritime police said Saturday. Police said they lost contact with the 99-ton boat, Kumyang 98, carrying nine people aboard, after receiving a distress signal at around 8:30 p.m. Friday in the area off the western sea border with North Korea, where the patrol ship Cheonan ship sank on March 26. The fishing boat was among 10 vessels mobilized to find the Cheonan's 46 missing...