Marine Link
Thursday, March 28, 2024
SUBSCRIBE

First Mate News

13 Feb 2024

Wreck of WWII-era Cargo Ship Found in the Great Lakes

(Photo: Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society)

The wreck of a World War II-era freighter has been discovered in over 600 feet of water around 35 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula.Over the last 7 years, shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain has been studying remote sensing data in the search for shipwrecks in Lake Superior. After coming across a particularly deep anomaly, he reached out to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) for help in identifying the potential wreck. In 2023 GLSHS Director of Marine Operations…

14 Aug 2023

Commercial Fishing on the Great Lakes is a Family Affair

Š Hank Erdmann / Adobe Stock

Although the number of fishermen who make a living on the waters of the Great Lakes is much diminished from a half century ago, the region's commercial whitefish fishery continues to be viable and profitable.Henriksen Fisheries is one of about a dozen commercial entities in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan, focused on trap netting whitefish in Green Bay and the waters surrounding the Door Peninsula.Charlie Henriksen started his family-owned fishing business in Door County in 1987.Originally from Illinois…

23 Sep 2020

A Killing at Sea Implicates the Armed Forces in Lawless Venezuela

Around midnight on February 23, Eulalio Bravo, a marine electrician, was dozing in his rack aboard the San Ramon, an oil tanker anchored off the coast of Venezuela.Suddenly, he heard footsteps pounding along the passageway outside. His captain, Jaime Herrera, cried for help."Be still!" an unfamiliar voice ordered.A gun fired.By the time Bravo and eight other shipmates emerged to see what had happened, the captain lay dead, a gunshot in the back of his head. Herrera's stateroom had been pillaged, drawers flung open, his bunk overturned. The killers were gone, as were thousands of dollars the captain kept under lock and key, according to crew members interviewed by Reuters.The murder…

13 Feb 2020

Bulker Captain Missing

Š Andy Ru / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force and regional partners are searching for the master of a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier who has gone missing about 174 miles northwest of Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia.At 5:44 p.m., Tuesday, JRSC Guam watchstanders received a report from Rescue Coordination Center Australia watchstanders stating they received a call from the first mate of the 751-foot Rising Wind reporting the vessel’s 47-year-old master was missing. The master was last seen in his cabin…

16 Oct 2019

“Minor” Incident Sends Mariner Down S&R Rabbit Hole

The twists and turns of any marine casualty investigation can be unpredictable, but what is predictable is the potentially crushing cost to defend your license, livelihood and professional reputation.It was early afternoon on a late summer day in a busy commercial and fishing port in coastal New England. The captain of an offshore supply vessel was returning to his company’s dock and was lining up to transit past the harbor’s fixed storm mitigation gate when he decided to ‘bail out’ on his approach because the tide was ebbing and the outbound current of approximately two knots was offsetting his vessel to the east. No stranger to these waters…

07 Jun 2019

SAFETY: Distractions Can Sink Careers

Randy O’Neill, Senior Vice President with Lancer Insurance Company

Familiarity can and does breed contempt. You don’t need anything else added to that heavy burden.We live and work in a frenetic environment replete with a wide range of both human and technological distractions. When those two elements came together on the bridge of a towboat traveling downriver to pick up a load of empty barges, the result was career-changing for the vessel’s first mate, who was on the wheel. It was yet another costly reminder of the need for professional mariners…

05 Apr 2019

Nautilus Secures $11M in 'AI' Funding

L to R -  Matt Heider, Chief Executive Officer of Nautilus, and Greg Trauthwein, Editor of Marinelink (Photo: Marinelink)

Nautilus, the company building artificial intelligence for the maritime shipping industry, has announced $11M in Series A funding led by M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, along with Root Ventures. Existing and new investors including Quiet Capital, Trail Mix, and Amplifier Lab participated in the round, which brings Nautilus’ total funding raised to $14.5M.Nautilus was founded in 2016 to advance the efficiency of maritime shipping and build a more sustainable future for ocean commerce. Responsible for 90% of the world’s trade, ocean shipping consumes more than $100 billion in fuel every year.

14 Jul 2016

UK Convicts Captain, First Mate of Drug Trafficking

(Photo: NCA)

The captain and first officer of an ocean going tug boat have been found guilty of drug trafficking following the biggest ever U.K. seizure of class A drugs, the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced. The cocaine, worth an estimated potential street value of £512 million once adulterated, was found hidden aboard the Tanzanian flagged MV Hamal in April 2015. The vessel had been intercepted by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant in the North Sea approximately 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire.

11 Jun 2016

Newport Unveils Education Series for this year’s Boat Show

Newport Exhibition Group, owners and producers of the Newport International Boat Show, announced today the 2016 Education Series for this year’s Boat Show. Greatly expanding on past offerings, the Newport International Boat Show will host  on-water courses, seminars and demonstrations, giving showgoers plenty to look forward to beyond the excitement of new boat debuts and boating gear. This year’s education opportunities include Confident Captain’s At The Helm instruction program; the CruiserPort University seminar series presented by PassageMaker, Sail, Soundings and Power & Motoryacht; and Sail America’s Discover Sailing program.

08 Apr 2016

Workboat Comms: Controlling Connectivity Costs

Steve Burke (Photo: Bluetide Communications)

Bluetide Communications’ Access Management Portal (AMP) application for wireless network management is changing the way workboat operators manage data, crew and costs. Thousands of miles, and weeks or months out at sea, the next best thing to physically being there, is an electronic connection home, and today, mariners increasingly are reluctant to board vessels without access to some form of it. Internet access and cheap global roaming SIM cards top the list of desired amenities in recent surveys of seafarers.

07 Nov 2014

James Fisher Opens Offshore Vessel for Tours

Dart Fisher (Photo courtesy of James Fisher)

James Fisher Marine Services Ltd (JFMS), and Fendercare Marine, both subsidiaries of James Fisher and Sons plc (JFS), held an open day to demonstrate the capability of their shoreside support base and the offshore support vessel, the Dart Fisher. The Dart Fisher, which was berthed in the Fendercare Marine base in Great Yarmouth, is a 26-meter catamaran specifically designed to service the offshore energy industry with the capability to transfer up to 12 engineers, three 20-foot containers with a total combined cargo weight of 30 metric tons.

24 Sep 2014

Unpredictable & Dangerous Rogue Waves

Ever since man has taken vessels onto the seas, mariners have reported encounters with monstrous waves that seem to arise out of nowhere from an otherwise average sea state. On his third voyage to the New World in 1498, Christopher Columbus recorded in his logbook that a giant wave lifted up his vessels as they transited the waterway between the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela and the island of Trinidad, a waterway he then named Bocas del Dragón (the Mouths of the Dragon). In 1853…

26 Sep 2013

Greenpeace Arctic Protesters Under Lock & Key

Photo courtesy of Greenpeace

Twenty-eight Greenpeace International activists, as well as a freelance photographer and a freelance videographer, were taken to the Lenin district court in Murmansk in handcuffs, where they were placed in a cage and provided inadequate translators. Of the 30, a total of 22 were remanded in custody for two months pending an investigation into piracy charges, while eight were detained for three days pending a new hearing. “These detentions are like the Russian oil industry itself, a relic from an earlier era.

23 Jan 2013

Bourbon's Two New Offshore FSIV's

'Bourbon Sirocco': Photo credit Bourbon

FSIV (Fast Support Intervention Vessels) 'Bourbon Sirocco' delivered & 'Bourbon Shamal' soon to be delivered. Designed by Piriou Ingénierie and Mauric Design, and built by the Piriou SEAS shipyard in Vietnam, this brand new series relies on the solid experience both companies have and on their long-term partnership with Bourbon, which in 2004 resulted in the very first FSIV (Fast Support Intervention Vessels) series in the BOURBON fleet; currently numbering 30 such vessels. These ships provide rapid assistance and can simultaneously carry urgent supplies and intervention teams.

21 Dec 2012

Pirate Alley

Even with a multi-national flotilla of warships, armed security guards on merchant ships, and phalanxes of lawyers making policy and negotiating ransoms, seemingly unsophisticated Somalis and their small, simple skiffs still attack ships on the high seas and hold seafarers, ships and cargos for ever-growing sums of money. Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, a retired naval officer, had a front row seat in the effort to deter and defend against piracy on the high seas. McKnight, who with Michael Hirsh wrote Pirate Alley – Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia…

07 Dec 2011

Maritime Firefighting: Not Another Drill

OK, your ship has just pulled into port and will start unloading soon. The first mate has told everyone that while shore side paperwork is being completed there will be a mandated fire drill to fulfill international requirements. A designated fire team hooks up several lengths of fire hose to a fire hose station on the main deck. You are the junior crew member so you are told to drag the nozzle with hose attached to the bow of your ship. When you arrive there water is started and you are told to aim the water stream over the side for 30-minutes.

12 Oct 2010

Evaluating & Implementing Effective Anti-Piracy Technology & Technique

There is a new focus on technological solutions for ship self-defense against pirate attacks. Although some systems have been around a bit longer, the surge in new products is attributable largely to the dramatic increase in attacks on ships by Somali pirates over the last few years, the expanding areas of their attacks, and the worldwide attention these attacks have garnered. Suppliers have rushed to adapt existing products and develop new ones for the counter-piracy mission.

30 Jul 2010

Professional Mariners: Interacting with recreational vessels

As the summer wind comes blowing in, many professional mariners are painfully aware that the routes they normally ply with other commercial vessels for most of the year will be filled with all types of recreational craft. From sailboats and private fishing boats to speedboats and jet skis. Some of the busiest rivers, lakes, bays and harbors in the United States become extremely crowded with pleasure boaters who may or may not be familiar with the Rules of the Road when it comes to encounters with commercial vessels. In 2001, Captain Jack Sparks, who was then president of the American Pilots Association, told a reporter for The Journal of Commerce who asked about the impending start of the recreational boating season in the Mid-Atlantic States: “I am serious about this. They get in our way.

29 Jun 2010

Vocational Training Options Grow

The full-mission, full-bridge towboat wheelhouse simulator at Kirby’s training center (Photo courtesy Kirby Corp.)

Vocational training options continue to expand since the STCW 1995 rules put a crimp in the hawsepipe. The Pacific Maritime Institute’s (PMI) Workboat Academy has graduated its third class of mates. The State University New York (SUNY) Maritime College has opened a new two-year engineers program. Finally, Kirby’s training school continues to provide company employees with an in-house route to the wheelhouse. “We made the decision in 1995 that we weren’t going to be able to rely on other entities to provide training for our people,” said Patrick Kelly of Kirby Corporation.

02 Feb 2010

FLIR’s New First Mate Handheld Cameras

FLIR Systems (NASDAQ: FLIR) announced two new models of their First Mate line of handheld maritime thermal night vision cameras at the Miami International Boat Show. The new First Mate XP and XP+ feature improved 320 × 240 thermal image resolution, as well as expanded environmental survivability ratings and still image capture capability. The XP+ variant even offers users the ability to capture live thermal video to a removable SD card. Well-suited for use on recreational powerboat, yacht, or sailboat, First Mate cameras are also valuable tools for finding people in the water, providing higher image resolution and better image detail.

05 Apr 2002

Historic Dredge Gets New Lease on Life

By Ed Voigt, U.S. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oldest dredge is now also one of its youngest. The dustpan dredge Potter, the Corps last and longest-serving steam-powered dredge, helped keep the Mississippi River open to navigation for almost 70 years. Now she is back home at the St. Louis District Service Base after a $20 million repowering project by the district and the Corps' Marine Design Center (MDC). Halter Marine, Inc., of Gulfport, Miss, was the contractor. She departed Halter's New Orleans shipyard Sept. 29 with the same overall profile (minus smokestacks) and capabilities, but with an all-new stern and a diesel-electric power plant. Named for Brig. Gen.

05 Aug 2004

65th Anniversary: The First Voyage of the S.S. Michael Moran

I first went aboard the S.S. Michael Moran in the middle of August, 1944, while she was still in the shipyard in Portland, Me. where she was built. She was operated by Moore McCormack Lines, a company with whom I had sailed before. I signed on as Third Mate; this would be my fourth Liberty Ship. From Portland we sailed down to Boston where we loaded military cargo for a destination unknown. Most of the crew were down-easters. Capt. George Blanthorn was Master, a real gentleman with a good sense of humor. The First Mate was a Mr. Marshall, an older man who had flown with the French Escadrill in WWI. The Second Mate was Mr. Pease. I can still picture some of the rest of the crew; the Radio Operator and some of the engineers; but, I have long since forgotten their names.

31 Mar 2008

Marine Board of Investigation Begins Interviewing Witnesses in Casualty

Capt. Michael Rand, USCG, and Mr. Liam LaRue, NTSB, from the board gave statements as to the purpose of the investigation, their authority and the scope of the investigation. The recorder Lt. j.g. William Fitzgerald, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage, swore in the board. The first witness called was Capt. Scott Krey, master of the fishing vessel Alaska Warrior. The board questioned Krey for over an hour about the operations onboard the vessel, the material condition of the vessel, the safety measures and drills conducted onboard and his experiences during the response to the sinking of the Alaska Ranger and the rescue of its crew. Krey said…