DISQUS

The previous links did not paste correctly.
Go to the Pilot Commission Home page for the report

"http://www.pilotcommission.org/home.shtml"

A good link was also published as a gCaptain forum entry

"http://gcaptain.com/maritime/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=544"

http://www.pilotcommission.org/notices/press%20...
http://www.pilotcommission.org/notices/Cota%20I...

COSCO BUSAN Incident Review Committee Report
"The Board of Pilot Commissioners today received a report of the investigation by its Incident Review Committee "IRC) of the accident on November 7, 2007 in which the M/V COSCO BUSAN, under the navigational control of Captain John Cota, a Board-licensed pilot, struck one of the towers of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, damaging the ship and releasing over 50,000 gallons of fuel oil into the waters of San Francisco Bay."

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Coastal_Buoy_Tender

USCGC Harry Claiborne (WLM-561) Galveston, Texas

The United States Coast Guard commissioned a new Keeper-class of coastal buoy tenders in the 1990's that are 175 feet (53 m) in length and named after Lighthouse keepers.
They were the first Coast Guard cutters equipped with Z-drive Azimuth thruster propulsion units instead of the standard propeller and rudder configuration. They are designed to independently rotate 360 degrees. Combined with a thruster in the bow, they give the Keeper-class cutters a lot of maneuverability.

USCGC Harry Claiborne (WLM-561) Galveston, Texas

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sea-launc...
Sea Launch Successfully Delivers EchoStar XI to Orbit


"Last update: 3:28 a.m. EDT July 16, 2008
LONG BEACH, Calif., July 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Sea Launch Company has successfully launched the EchoStar XI broadcast satellite from its ocean-based platform on the Equator, marking its fourth successful mission of 2008 and its third mission for DISH Network. "

"A Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off at 10:21pm PDT on July 15 (5:21 GMT, July 16) from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude. "

The launch described successfully occured on 15 January 2008.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/15/satelli...

Sea Launch is engaged in another operation at this writing

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/...

“(07-09) 12:32 PDT Long Beach, Calif. (AP) –

Sea Launch Co.’s oceangoing rocket platform and command ship are en route to the equatorial Pacific to launch a satellite for Dish Network Corp.
Long Beach-based Sea Launch says liftoff of the EchoStar 11 satellite is planned for July 15.”

http://www.sea-launch.com/
http://www.sea-launch.com/current_launch.htm

“Sea Launch is preparing to launch a Zenit-3SL rocket with aThuraya-3 communication satellite shortly from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean.”

That story was originally posted on 26 November 2007. The launch described successfully occured on 15 January 2008.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/15/satelli...

Sea Launch is engaged in another operation at this writing

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/...

“(07-09) 12:32 PDT Long Beach, Calif. (AP) –

Sea Launch Co.’s oceangoing rocket platform and command ship are en route to the equatorial Pacific to launch a satellite for Dish Network Corp.
Long Beach-based Sea Launch says liftoff of the EchoStar 11 satellite is planned for July 15.”

http://www.sea-launch.com/
http://www.sea-launch.com/current_launch.htm

I see what happened. The article above is recycled from the more contemporaneous version of 27 November 2007. Google cache reveals all.
From Ship to Space - Rocket Platforms at Sea | gCaptain.com
Nov 27, 2007 ... Our favorite competitor in professional mariner news, Marine-Buzz.com, has an exceptional post on maritime technology used to launch rockets ...

"Our favorite competitor in professional mariner news, Marine-Buzz.com, recently had an exceptional post on maritime technology used to launch rockets into space."

The technology is significant, but I am not sure what your definition of recently is.

"Sea Launch is preparing to launch a Zenit-3SL rocket with aThuraya-3 communication satellite shortly from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean."

That story was originally posted on 26 November 2007. The launch described successfully occured on 15 January 2008.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/15/satelli...

Sea Launch is engaged in another operation at this writing

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/...

"(07-09) 12:32 PDT Long Beach, Calif. (AP) --

Sea Launch Co.'s oceangoing rocket platform and command ship are en route to the equatorial Pacific to launch a satellite for Dish Network Corp.
Long Beach-based Sea Launch says liftoff of the EchoStar 11 satellite is planned for July 15."

http://www.sea-launch.com/
http://www.sea-launch.com/current_launch.htm

I reserve the right to be wrong about the colocation of the two cameras mentioned above and referenced below.

Both are still impressive.

http://hd-sf.com/index.html

http://webmarin.com/

I had stumbled on the hd-sf.com site a few days ago while looking at impressive webcam imagery located at webmarin.com. I think that the webmarin image is derived from the hd-sf.com camera located the hills above Sausalito. I had missed the 30 day composite on hd-df which may be very new. The direct url is:

http://hd-sf.com/30days.html

It certainly is impressive.

I am a voyeur of the San Francisco Bay shipping scene with access to a live AIS feed. If I had an input I would suggest that the camera be shifted left (or wider) to show the whole Bay Bridge. The hd-sf.com scene does not even get to the "B" tower. The webmarin.com image gets just beyond the "C" pier. A mariner would love to see the the edge of Yerba Buena Island to include the DE span of COSCO BUSAN fame.

Even with the "limited" view there are impressive operations available. On the evening 29 March I was able to see imagery (on webmarin) and AIS of the cruise ship CELEBRITY MERCURY departing SFO 35 for Astoria. The imagery was mostly lights but very neat.

Both efforts are a slick addition to the local scene and provide a testing ground for new concepts.

You could always edit it and drop the two (now three) comments. It is a great poster.

The Bearing [sic] Sea?
Maybe if Cougar Ace had gone down there.
Ok, bad joke...

There is a reasonably good timed animation showing the the period 08:28:52 PST - 08:31:37 PST here:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/gcaptain-s3/maritime/vi...

as explained here:
Cosco Busan - ECDIS Tracking w/ Google Maps
http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/cosco-busan-g...

The period 08:27:27 PST - 08:31:37 PST is reasonably well documented in an animation here:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/gcaptain-s3/maritime/vi...

as explained here:

http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/cosco-busan-g...

It is my understanding that the ISPR was meant to deal with the response to the allision, leaving the cause of the allision to other investigations; in particular but not limited to the NTSB.

The technique of augmenting the reach of a camera by using a spotting scope or binoculars has a name: digiscoping. Digiscoping specifically refers to replacing your eye with a camera at the eyepiece of the scope or binocular. There is an active community of interest specializing in imaging birds. I have augmented both still and video cameras. A google search will yield many variations. Remember that high effective magnifications require stable platforms; faster shuuter speeds help but the technique comes with an inherent loss in f/stop. A vibration reducing SLR zoom lens may provide better results if you are bouncing around. On land the technique can provide a great deal of satisfaction. The components include the scope or binocular, the camera, a bracket mating the two (hand holding is possible but gets old quickly). In the case of a spotting scope, there may be eyepieces/adaptors available to facilitate the mating. The camera generally acknowledged to enable this art was the Nikon Coolpix 950/995 which had an easy lens interface (fully internal focusing) and a decent LCD viewfinder.

An answer (accuracy unknown) to your question

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytime...

No fuel spilled into Bay from barge collision
By Doug Oakley, MediaNews
Article Last Updated: 01/11/2008 06:22:48 PM PST

None of the 3 million gallons of fuel on a barge that struck the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Thursday evening spilled into the Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard said today.
"We know for certain all the oil remains on the barge," Capt. John Long said at an afternoon news conference on Yerba Buena Island.
The barge, on its way from the ConocoPhillips refinery in Rodeo to Portland, Ore., was operating with one to two miles of visibility and calm seas at the time of the 6 p.m. accident, Long said.

.
.
.

Mr. Lanham suggests that the tracks of Cosco Busan (presented above) lead to the self fulfilling concluson that the ship ended up where it was directed, allegedly by the error of the Chinese Captain in "highlighting" Pier D as Mid-span.

The Incident Review Committee of the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San
Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun has accused the Pilot of misconduct. Detail of that accusation include:
"During the period ... the visibility in the approach to the bridge was reduced to about 0.1 nm, the ship’s radar pictures deteriorated to the point that (the Pilot) lost confidence in them, and he lost situational awareness to accurately assess the vessel's position, although he had the means to do so."
" Under the circumstances, prudence and compliance with Inland Navigation Rules 6, 7 and 19 would have dictated that (the pilot) reduce speed and/or proceed to Anchorage 9 rather than
continue to attempt to transit under the bridge between the Delta and Echo towers, which he could
not see on radar and which were not visible due to the dense fog."
"(The Pilot) failedt o make full use of all available resources, including the tug REVOLUTION, which remained tethered to the stern and thus useless to him, of the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service, which could have provided more information as to his position and heading if he had requested it, and of his ship's lookout, who could have provided information on the bridge's fog signals and lights if the lookout had been properly instructed."

I read this to indicate that the Board holds that determining the location of mid-span and guiding the ship under it is the proper role of the Pilot.

The destination of Cosco Busan according to the reporting of her own AIS system is "QINQDAO" (Tsingtao), China.

ShipPlotter derived time-tagged animation is said to "run slow". Exactly correct. It was timed to run in real time, just as the situation evolved. Use the slider on the player for fast scan. Four minutes of real time are depicted.

ShipPlotter results:
"Yes but in stepped a gCaptain reader who we can’t thank enough. He transposed the timestamps from regional AIS beacons and helped us create a shipplotter version (Disclaimer here and shipplotter results here) of the events."

You PC drivers may temporarily have to do a right click: Save Target As.. to get the animation to download. QuickTime is a sure viewer. Others work. Time Tags are the hook.

In the referenced radio interview, Captain Sweeney raised three major contributing factors to the incident: crew competence, foreign language barriers, and the role of the traffic monitoring system. Two of the three arguments are cogent. In his discussion of traffic monitoring, he targets the (AIS) technology as archaic and unreliable. I have previously noted his torturous use of language on the technical issues when he was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle. It doesn't get much better when he is speaking directly. In this piece, he was apparently referring to the new initiatives for long range tracking. The potential AIS enhancement/replacement for long range tracking has no application to the current situation. At the end of the day, this incident will not be attributed to a failure of AIS. AIS "bashing" in this context is counterproductive, a poor use of the "bully pulpit" he has been provided.

In your posting of November 20, you selectively quoted Captain Kelly Sweeney: "Sweeney said the AIS is "occasionally unreliable," has blind spots such
as when a ship is behind islands or structures, and is "antiquated" when compared with modern electronics."

Please note that the preface to the quoted segment was:
"Sweeney thinks there is plenty of blame to go around - including a failure to use the most modern electronics, which might have allowed the Coast Guard to prevent the accident. The Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service, he says, uses an Automatic Identification System - called AIS - as the principal way to identify ships and track their
courses. This system, Sweeney said, is based on radio transmissions, while a tracking operation with a Global Positioning System uses satellites."

Then your quoted segment:

"Sweeney said the AIS is "occasionally unreliable," has blind spots
such as when a ship is behind islands or structures, and is
"antiquated" when compared with modern electronics..."

I can't let the following outrageous portion go un-noticed

"This system, Sweeney said, is based on radio transmissions, while a tracking operation with a Global Positioning System uses satellites."

The position reported by AIS generally provided by the ships onboard GPS system, which determines the ships position by making measurements on signals transmitted from a constellation of satellites. The GPS satellites have no inherent tracking capability. One may eventually see
an enhanced AIS like system that reports ships positions in real time using radio transmissions through satellites, but that is in the future. As you yourself have noted, AIS is a very capable system when deployed at its full functionality.

David Hindin
Sunnyvale, CA

I am under the impression that the pilot comes aboard the ship with his own laptop loaded with charts. The laptop has an interface to the "Pilot Port" of the ship's AIS system giving him connectivity to the ships GPS and the other navigation systems. This connectivity gives the pilot the same AIS derived picture that VTS sees. Can someone affirm or deny my assertion regarding SF pilots. If I am correct, the pilot can navigate from his own laptop making it unnecessary for him to (mis)interpret the ships chart display?