Piracy Post at USNI Blog

 USNI site has a good summary of the the origins of piracy in the Horn of Africa region  The Reality of Piracy by Alexander Martin.

The first organized piracy ring in Somalia was started in Harradera. In 2004 the Harradera cartel expended their hunt for ransoms beyond the near-coastal waters and into an over-the-horizon effort targeting larger ships, with bigger payoffs. In 2005 they determined they could extract immense payoffs from commercial merchant ships and by 2006 began capturing larger “motherships” to give them the legs they needed to capture the big prizes – merchant cargo vessels with no security and large insurance umbrellas.

 The rest of the post is not bad but most of the comment thread is the usual argument that the problem could be solved easily if we were only willing to get tough. Maybe, but  I always remember what one of my former chief engineers used to say, "You've got to be smart."

K.C.

Identifying Pirate Skiffs in the Gulf of Aden

50 cal rifle

The site Information Dissemination has a post Swarm Tactics with some photos from a Sina article: 50 pirate vessels driven out by Chinese naval fleet

I don't agree with the original captions from Sina or the comments at I.D. I have put the original captions at the top of each photo and my own captions at the bottom in bold.

About 50 suspected pirate vessels approach a ship escorted by the Chinese naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden, Feb. 25, 2010. The vessels harassed the 31 Chinese and foreign ships that the naval fleet was escorting. They were driven out soon after the fleet dispatched vessels and helicopters. (Xinhua Photo)

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My caption: Typical behavior of Gulf of Aden Fishing Vessels

I began routinely making  transits through the GoA in 1999, before pirates became a problem, it wasn't uncommon to see fisherman acting the way they are shown in the photo above.

Next photo from the same post.

A suspected pirate vessel is driven out by the Chinese naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden, February 25, 2010. (Xinhua Photo)

My Caption: A typical fishing skiff in the Gulf of Aden.

Regarding  the use of large outboard engines on fishing skiffs, it is sometimes asserted that fisherman have no need for such powerful engines on their skiff but in fact it is a long standing practice, in place prior to the piracy problem in the area:

The "A Whale" Recovers No Oil

T/V A Whale (USCG Photo)

The results from the testing the A Whale in the Gulf oil spill are in. According to Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Zunkunft  after two week of testing the A Whale recovered no oil. From Reuters Giant 'super skimmer' no help with Gulf oil spill.

"The results are the amount of oil recovered by the A Whale is nil," Zunkunft said"

The A Whale is the wrong tool for the job.

K.C.

Good post by a mariner at Oil-Electric: A Whale: Super Skimmer or Great White Elephant? (Update 7-5)


New release from Unified Command here
My other post on the A Whale:

Video of T/V A Whale in Operation.
"A Whale" - Pay by Barrel Recovered, Not by the Day
The "A Whale" - Not a skimmer - The Gulf not a lawn
Would Supertankers be useful on the GoM Oil Spill?

Jones Act hinders Short Sea Shipping

Coastwise vessel Beirut Lebanon (Photo by K.C.)

The Jones Act is seen as one of the factors  hindering the growth of short sea shipping. The two salient parts of the Jones Act are the requirement that the crew be U.S. mariners and  that  the vessels be built in the United States. It is the second requirement that hinders short sea shipping. From Marine News via MarineLink.com:  Navigating Obstacles: Short Sea Shipping

....crewing and flagging of a vessel have very little impact on the cost — it’s the price of building vessels in the U.S. that puts short-sea shipping at a significant disadvantage to trucking

Eliminating the U.S. built requirement would align coastwise cabotage laws with similar  laws which protect U.S. airlines and trucking industries. Both the trucking and the airline industries are protected from foreign  competition but are not required to purchase equipment built exclusively in the United States. A U.S. trucker is free to purchase a truck from say Volvo and U.S. airlines can purchase an Airbus if they wish.

Obviously there would be winners and losers if the built in U.S. requirement was dropped. The winners would be American mariners, other highway users, our economy  and the environment.

K.C.

Other views:

Jones Act thread at gcaptain forum.

From Kelly Sweeny Encourage short-sea shipping, but keep the Jones Act intact

Ro/Ro Vessels dificulties in wind underway and at anchor

A 200 meter long  PCTC upbound Westerschelde River (photo by K.C.) 

From: The Nautical Institute Marine Accident Reporting Scheme MARS Report No 190 August 2008



Ro-ro ships – manoeuvring difficulties

An inbound pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) was approaching the pilot station at her scheduled time, in very confined waters. A gale warning was in force and with only two miles to go to the pilot embarkation point, the wind suddenly increased and pilotage services were abruptly suspended.

The master was instructed to await further orders and decided to head back to open waters rather than wait in the confined area or anchor there. The wind caught the beam of the high-freeboard and low draught vessel, and started setting her on to the lee shore, less than two miles downwind. Using full rudder and engine power, and transmitting appropriate signals on the air horn and VHF radio, the master just managed to turn the ship’s head into the wind and execute the 180-degree turn and head out to open sea.

Once out of the lee of the land, the full force of the gale caused the ship to move sideways at about five knots, even with the engine going on harbour full ahead. The vessel remained stubbornly beam on to the wind despite all attempts to heave to with the head into the sea and swell. This type of vessel has been rightly described as a ‘ping-pong ball on the water’ and under high wind conditions, ro-ros are almost impossible to control or manoeuvre.

At the first indication of approaching strong winds, masters of ro-ros and similar high-sided vessels must not hesitate to leave port or confined waters and anchorages and head out to open sea. Maintaining a safe position under way in the lee of a high offshore island is a safe option, provided the location and predicted movement of the weather system is known.

If sailing from port is not possible, ships have been kept alongside with continuous use of tugs, and, in uncrowded anchorages, mooring to two bower anchors may considered, but with engines in full readiness until the wind has abated.

Even with full scope of chain on both anchors, ro-ro vessels tend to yaw violently in strong winds and the ‘jerk’ at the extremity of each yaw may cause the anchors to drag, especially if the holding ground is less than ideal.

Mariners whose vessels may be navigating or lying at anchor near a ro-ro vessel in high winds, must allow for a greater margin of safety.

Video of T/V A Whale in operaton.

T/V A Whale (USCG Photo)

MarineLog has a video of the T/V A Whale in action.

The problem with capturing oil from the sea is that the surface of the sea is uneven and constantly changing. The slots cut into the hull of the A Whale on the other hand are fixed.

The other issue it the nature of the movement of the oil. Here is: Why is oil spill hard to predict? Look to the clouds.

According to the Coast Guard the A Whale managed to  recover 1100 barrels of oil in 24 hours. The report from CNN here. That is   much lower then the hype from the owner who claimed (NOLA.com A Whale' oil skimmer testing extended a week)
that:

A Whale can process 21 million gallons oily water a day. That's about 75 percent of the total collected in two and a half months by 500 smaller skimmers working to clean up the massive BP spill.

In other words the claim was that A Whale would be about  28,000 times more effective then the skimmers already working the spill.

The media has been conflating the terms "oily water" and  "oil" which makes the comparisons confusing.  In any case these numbers are not a meaningful measure of how effective the  T/V A Whale  is at reducing the adverse environmental and economic impacts of the oil spill.

K.C.

The "A Whale" - Not a skimmer - The Gulf not a lawn

A lawn mower (Photo from Wikipedia)

 UPDATE: From MarineLog A Whale continues skimming operations

If you cut the blades off a lawn mower  and fastened them underneath a tractor trailer truck would the result be a very large lawn mower? Or would the result be a tractor trailer truck, with lawnmower blades affixed underneath, good for neither hauling freight nor mowing lawns?

What about the vessel "A Whale"?  Is it really the world's largest skimmers or is it a tanker/bulker with slots cut into the hull and being sold as a skimmer?

The lawn mower analogy comes from the ship owners themselves,  CEO Nobu Su told reporters that A whale  was “like a lawnmower cutting the grass,” and that is would be:  "effectively doubling the skimming capability of the oil response effort,"

 Skimming oil from the surface of the sea under the influnce of the wind and current is not like mowing the lawn and the A Whale is more tanker then skimmer, a tanker with slots cut in the hull.

 The best reporting I've seen on the A Whale is here: Oil-eating Whale or ‘white elephant’? This is the only report I have seen where someone with some maritime expertise was consulted, namely Dennis Bryant, known here via the  site Bryant's Maritime Blog 

We should hear some reports on the A Whale soon, it is currently being tested in the Gulf. I haven't seen the math on the speed of the ship, the width of the swath being picked up, percentages of oil recovered and so forth, I don't think reporters are doing a very good job of covering this story.

K.C.