DISQUS

"Coast Guards diversity recruiting problems at CGA"
- This is completely backwards and come to think of it perhaps even highlights a reason for the 'problem'.

Why is it that minorities have to be recruited? This is something to compete for. Engraved invitations is no way to fix diversity. Others have to compete. If there a diversity problem maybe it is just due to a lack of interest or just maybe qualified minority candidates have other better options available to them such as scholarships to other prestigious schools.

As for Congress investigating, that is a crock as well. Congressmen from minority districts do not give away all their appointments. Sure there are no Congressional appointments for CGA, but that does not mean that members of Congress can't suggest the CGA as an option. It would not hurt if they stopped badmouthing the military and telling their constituants to avoid military service so as not to help in the 'Bush Wars'.

Jack,
Glad you enjoyed them and thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your comment although I cannot see Biden as any friend of the Merchant Marine outside of what the Maritime Union leadership want him to be.

Since Barney Frank is calling for a 25% cut in military spending and there being a tape floating around on other blogs of how Obama plans to gut the military, I can't see the maritime side somehow escaping their ax, especially Military Sealift Command which is a large Maritime employer. Add to their their opposition to offshore oil drilling puts them in the enemy of the Merchant Marine in my book. They also want to kill coal which could be a good export cargo.

Not that McCain is a friend. Just better, for the very reasons stated above.

Thanks all. Contest is closed. Winner(s) to be announced in Maritime Monday 129.

"How do you find time to find all this info?"
- It takes all week to come up with each Maritime Monday post. With a day job, wife and two kids, this is a hobby that is best done late at night.

Thanks all for the compliments!

Thanks Zbigniew,

Time will tell. As it stands, Russia has never had to face up to its Soviet past like the Germans had to do with Nazism. Many seem to think that they have a right to the countries that border them.

I just wonder where they are finding people to fill all of this housing they are building?

Good link. Seems that the ship was pretty well trashed.

This is a great find and well worth a look, if this sort of thing interests you....

Great! Glad to hear it.

Tonight (Wednesday) Public television is airing a documentary on the SS UNITED STATES.

The program is called "SS UNITED STATES: Lady in Waiting"

Amazing stuff. The only way I would end up on either one of those boasts would be as 'captain'.

Visually inspect once every two years? F that. Inspect it the first time you have a lifeboat drill after joining a ship, unless you are the one who inspected it for it's two-year check. Officers are onboard for only a couple months and many never return to the same vessel, so it is easy to pass on problems to the releaving officer.

Enclosed boats are coffin feeders.

Got a lion photo in Maritime Monday 5. Will post another this week.

When I was living in Finland I gave a presentation on the Merchant Marine to a (US) Boy Scout troop there. One of the kids was the son of a diplomat there who happen to have had a career in the Air Force. I heard back later on that his kid had gone home and proudly declared that he wanted to be a merchant mariner when he grew up. Apparently it was the news that you can eat all the ice cream you want on ship that sealed the deal. the cool photos I brought didn't hurt either. One was of a container of circus lions we were getting ready to ship out of Charleston.

That episode of America's Port was great. A bit overdramatic, but I gues that's needed since things really happen much slower, except when things go wrong.

Did the ship turn off it's AIS?

"Maritime journalist Terry Hutson, who tipped off The Independent on Saturday about the ship's sudden departure, had been tracking the ship and noticed that it was no longer traceable on a tracking device."

Vessel Tracker covers Durban and it has the ship at anchor. Isn't it a no-no to switch it off?

Anyone know if there is any site that is covering Maputo?

That's great! Keep the feedback coming and of course it is always a good idea to get the navy and Coast Guard side of things as well. At least in the US, many merchant mariners are also Navy reservists or at least were at one point.

We are all sharing the oceans together, whether we like it or not!

The latest news in this event is that the ship left South Africa after longshoremen refuse to discharge the cargo. The news is reporting that the ship is now headed to Mozambique, to apparently try again. This reminds me of the infamous 'garbage barge'.

Yes, the OCEAN VICTORY story is just crazy. Why pull a knife on the pilot? Just how drunk were these guys to be so stupid. I would think that the knife-man was an officer seeing that the pilot was left "alone" on the bridge. Hard to say as the story is a little vague on the position of that crewman and the 'second crewman' who walked off the bridge.

“What do you call the last member of the graduating class? Mate!”
- Ha. I am sure we all know some classmates who are glad that the Coast Guard doesn't print exam grades on licenses either!

Wow, who chose the colors for that FPSO? All the colors are slightly off. And I thought engine-room green was ugly.

Is that an MSC UNREP vessel in the background?

Thanks much all for the comments!

Thanks everyone!

There is another issue here.

Did you know that concentrated orange juice is being portrayed as kinda-sorta hazardous? It is not classified as hazardous cargo, but it is not, not classified either. It is currently in some sort of classification black hole that the carriers are trying to figure out, because nobody bothered to classify it before.

So whatever happens, keep the OJ out of the water, because the operators might just wish it were oil before it's all over.

I am by far no expert on the OJ issue. I just know that it exists. Just remember to wear the proper safety equipment the next time your in your local supermarket in the frozen juice isle!

This is from today's Fairplay Daily News email:

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"Protestor action could be ‘piracy’

CANBERRA - 16 January – An incident involving whaling protestors is threatening Australia's relationship with Japan and has thrown up some intriguing questions of maritime law. Two crew members, one British and one Australian, from the Netherlands-registered ship Steve Irwin have been detained on the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No 2. The men, members of the environmentalist group Sea Shepherd, reportedly boarded the Japanese vessel in the Southern Ocean to hand over a "letter of intent". However, questions of security have been raised – notably whether the incident counts as an "unauthorised boarding" or something more serious such as piracy or terrorism. The clash came about as anti-whaling protesters sought to prevent the annual Japanese whaling activities in the Southern Ocean which Japan insists is in the name of research. According to Australian media reports, the Japanese vessel sent an e-mail to the Steve Irwin to arrange the handover but had not received a response. The message reportedly demanded that the men's release was conditional on Sea Shepherd not interfering with the whaling operation."
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