Was Drunk News

I’ve had the good fortune to work with marine operators around the world, and one thing has become painfully apparent to me; most marine companies don’t appreciate the profound affect technology can have on their organizations. Information technology can save lives, increase profitability, improve customer satisfaction, and even keep you in business.Some may think this is crazy talk from a Kool-Aid drunk techy, or that I need a vacation, but I assure you, it’s modern reality.

Vietnamese crewmen held over killing of S.Korea ship captain, engineer. Two Vietnamese crewmen on a South Korean fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean have allegedly stabbed and killed the ship's captain and the engineer over a dispute, South Korea's coast guard said Monday. The two, both aged 32, have since been overpowered by other crew members and are locked up aboard the vessel as it sails to the Seychelles capital Victoria, a coast guard official in South Korea's southern city of Busan said. The attack against the captain and the engineer took place early morning South Korean time Monday and was reported to the coast guard by the vessel's owner located in Busan, coast guard official Kim In-ho said by telephone.

Dutch vessel 85-metre (279ft) long cargo ship the Abis Bergen has been towed free after running aground and blocking the entrance to the German port of Rostock.    The ship's captain reportedly caused the accident while under the influence of alcohol. Police said he was "absolutely unfit for duty".   The identity of the captain has not been made public. Police said he risked causing an accident.   According to a BBC report, a breathalyser test, carried out after harbour police smelled alcohol on the captain's breath, established he was over the legal limit.   The ship was refloated using tugboats and steered back into the harbour in north-eastern Germany. There are no reports of injuries or damages.

Backlog of vessels at port threaten loading delays; ships with half a million tonnes taking the long route to Europe. Unwanted diesel and jet fuel cargoes are backing up outside Europe's ports and taking longer, slower routes around the southern tip of Africa, traders say. A symptom of the world's excess of oil, it also paints a gloomy picture of the chance of an oil price rebound. The abundance of crude that roiled commodity markets and turned the balance sheets of oil majors on their head also encouraged under-pressure European oil refineries to run at full clip. Refineries from Rotterdam to India to Louisiana, drunk on cheap crude, ran regardless of whether the world wanted what they were making. Meteoric demand growth earlier this year for products such as gasoline masked the surplus.

Russian prosecutors detained four Moscow airport workers and denied bail to the driver of a snow plough which hit a private jet killing the CEO of French oil company Total earlier this week, officials said on Thursday. Russia's investigative committee has moved quickly to detain those it says might be responsible for the crash, which killed Christophe de Margerie in a tragedy which has done little to improve Russia's reputation for poor air safety. The chief executive of Moscow's Vnukovo airport and his deputy resigned over the crash, but some critics have accused investigators of trying to find a scapegoat by accusing the driver of the snow plough, 60-year-old Vladimir Martynenko, of being drunk. His lawyer denied the allegations.

Private jet collided with snow plow during takeoff; Total's CEO a defender of Moscow policies. Insiders Boisseau and Pouyanne long seen as potential successors. The chief executive of French oil major Total, Christophe de Margerie, was killed when his private jet collided with a snow plough as it was taking off from Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Monday night. De Margerie's death leaves a void at the top of one of the world's biggest listed oil firms at a difficult time for the industry as oil prices fall and state-backed competitors keep them out of some of the best oil exploration territory. The collision occurred minutes before midnight Moscow time as de Margerie's Dassault Falcon jet was taking off for Paris.

According to a Nov. 4 report from CBC News, the captain of a South Korean freighter has been sentenced to 14 days in a U.S. jail for commanding a vessel through the Juan de Fuca Strait at the south end of Vancouver Island while drunk and without any navigational charts. (Source: CBC News)

Late on Jan. 7, ABP notified the Maritime & Coastguard Agency via Solent Coastguard after concerns were raised that a vessel Balu C was not being managed correctly on its passage into a berth at the port. The Master of the Balu C, Valery Semenov, was breathalysed by the Police upon arrival into Southampton Port, and he was found to have 94 microgrammes (mg) in 100 millilitres of breath. In the case of breath, 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres is the legal limit. Therefore Semenov, a 52 year old Russian national was nearly three times that legal limit. The Balu C is a 2008 built general cargo ship registered in Antigua and Barbuda. Her deadweight tonnage (carrying capacity) is 8,045 tonnes. She was on passage from Amsterdam to Southampton with a cargo of grain with a crew of 12.

In the UK’s Snaresbrook Crown Court on Nov. 19, Captain Gonchar Volodymyr aged 53, was sentenced to two months in jail, and will be deported upon completion of the sentence after pleading guilty to being the Master of a ship whilst being over the alcohol limit. On the 4th November 2008, Gonchar Volodymyr, a Ukrainian, was Master of the Cypriot registered chemical tanker; Elousa Trikoukiotisa bound for London from Rostock in Northern Germany. The vessel was laden with Ammonium Nitrate in liquid form and had a crew of 15 on board.

The Greek master of a commercial ship pleaded guilty and was charged Thursday with operating his vessel while intoxicated. Nikolaos Zografos was charged before a U.S. magistrate judge with being drunk while aboard the 580-foot freight ship Winner at St. John's Buoys, near Reserve, La. Zografos pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to one-year probation, restriction from being a master or licensed officer on any vessel in U.S. waters for the duration of his probation and received a $5,500 fine. On Oct. 28, contract workers cleaning cargo holds aboard Winner informed the Coast Guard that the master appeared intoxicated. Lt. Boris…

An Alabama resident and master of an inland towing vessel was sentenced Thursday for a January 2004 incident where he was found to be operating in U.S. waters under the influence of alcohol. Daniel L. Ferrell, 63, of Atmore Ala., was sentenced by Judge James J. Brady of the U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, La., to serve two years probation, 100 hours of community service and will be required to participate in an alcohol assessment program. On Jan. 16, 2004, Ferrell was piloting the City of Port Allen when it struck the Brusly Railroad Lift Bridge on the Port Allen-Morgan City alternate route waterway. Investigators from the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Unit in Baton Rouge who responded to the initial incident tested Ferrell for alcohol.

We couldn't say it never happens, but we doubt it is any too frequent: a fine artist, commission in hand and passion in heart, sets-up easel, mixes palette, and fervently depicts the people at work at the of Motor Vehicles department. Sure they're good people, and they uphold social order. Still, their setting, their actions, their challenges each day, do not seem the sort to engage the artist. This is the stuff for the Kodak Advantix. Artists could spend hours reproducing a gesture that took a split second in life. This gives them time to think. What was the mood of that gesture, and its eventual effect? The artist expands time with those thoughts, having seen what came before, during, and after the instant depicted.

The Polish chief officer of a cargo vessel that ran aground off the coast of Scotland reportedly admitted that he was drunk at the time. Jerzy Pawluk pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of the Bahamian-registered freighter Roustel and endangering the lives of his crew. Magistrates referred the matter to Newcastle Crown Court, saying that only a prison sentence would be appropriate. The offense - conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals - carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine. He was ordered held on bail. The Roustel ran aground in the early hours of Tuesday morning off the east coast of Scotland between Arbroath and Montrose. After being alerted by the crew, coastguards pulled the 892 gross ton vessel off the rocks. No injuries were reported.