Piracy Ended With Military Action by US

Posted on April 14, 2009
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On April 8th, 2009, four Somali pirates boarded the small container ship Maersk Alabama and left, taking the captain hostage. Five days later, the crisis has been ended by naval sniper fire.

Adrift in the Gulf of Aden, the pirates waited with Captain Richard Phillips with the demand of two million dollars and a number of United States Naval vessels surrounding them.

FBI hostage negotiators were on board the USS Bainbridge which was the first ship to arrive in the gulf to attempt to regain Mr. Phillips. At one point the pirates contacted fellow conspirators and made plans to take the captain back to shore where they could hold him until a ransom was delivered. At roughly midnight between Thursday and Friday Phillips attempted to escape by swimming to the Bainbridge but AK-47 warning shots turned him back. Soon, the Bainbridge was accompanied by the USS Halyburton, a frigate which carries helicopters, and the USS Boxer, which is amphibious and capable of firing missiles.

Washington authorized the use of military force Friday night, Saturday morning for the captain, and the ships circled closer. Negotiations began to sour and eventually one pirate gave himself over to the Navy; he is still alive. Observers aboard the Bainbridge noticed Sunday evening, as many Americans were leaving Easter prayer services, that Phillips was tied and one of the pirates was aiming at his back. The order was given from the Bainbridge’s commander, and the remaining pirates were fired upon and Phillips was rescued soon thereafter.

Shell Oil Cast More Than Pennies Down This Well

Posted on January 2, 2009
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Shell Oil has embarked on quite an ambitious project 200 hundred miles off the coast of Galveston, TX.  In the summer to 2008 they anchored a newly built 50,000 ton floating rig to the seafloor, located over an area known as the Perdido foldbelt.  The rig is aimed at accessing the crude oil and natural gas locked in a swath of seabed roughly the size of Houston, which could potentially yield up to 130,000 barrels of oil a day.

The engineering behind this project is an amazing feat, with more specs than you could shake a stick at.  To access the oil, 22 wells are planned to be drilled in the seafloor below the rig, in addition to 13 more wells nine miles away.  Instead of each well being traditionally connected to the spar by its own pipe (one 2 mile length of pipe being 500 tons), there will be five pipes called risers connecting to the spar.  In addition, more pipe will connect each well on the seafloor, and truck sized generators will separate the oil from gas, pumping it up to the spar.  All in all, that will encompass 184 miles of pipe under almost two miles of water, depths at which there is extreme pressure.

Given that Americans consume over 20 million barrels of oil a day, 130,000 barrels a day won’t exactly solve the problem America’s oil problems.  However, given that there are hundreds of other locations in the gulf’s deep water, perfecting this technology can certainly help in accessing all that other oil waiting to be harvested.

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Floating City Soon to Sail

Posted on December 20, 2008
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In the American spirit of bigger is better and super sizing it, Royal Caribbean is coming close to completing their new $1.2 billion flagship, the Oasis of the Seas.  This ship will have the new claim of biggest passenger ship ever, making that claim by an overage of 2,000 passengers, with a total passenger capacity of 6,300.   Not only is the passenger size the biggest, but so is the balcony count, on board swimming pool, and first football sized tree filled outdoor park.  The 18 story behemoth superliner will not be pushed, but pulled by two 20 foot tall propellers mounted on swiveling pods, powered by 30,000 horsepower diesel engines.

As great as an accomplishment as all of that sounds, the current status of the world economy brings into question how much or how long it will take for this monster to bring in a profit.  Either way, take a look at the promo video.

Cruise ship strikes ice, stranded on Antarctic coast

Posted on December 4, 2008
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) – A cruise ship carrying 122 people was stranded Thursday on the coast of Antarctica after striking ice, officials said.

Mariano Memolli of the Argentina Antarctic Directorate told Argentina’s TodoNoticias (TN) Television a naval boat and plane were dispatched to evacuate the passengers of the Ushuaia as a precaution.

The ship, carrying 89 passengers and 33 crew members, was losing fuel and taking on water but was not in danger of sinking, Television C5N reported.

Adm. Daniel Martin, head of the naval base in Ushuaia, Argentina, where a call for help was received from the ship, said the passengers were “in a perfect state of health,” and were awaiting the arrival of the Atlantic Dream, a nearby cruise ship, C5N said.

Click here to read the full story.

Somali Pirate Update - Nov 19th 2008

Posted on November 19, 2008
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Indian warship destroys a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden

$10m ransom demanded for captured Saudi supertanker

Somali Pirates Hijack Thai Fishing Boat & 16 Crew

Ship belonging to Iran’s state shipping lines captured off the Yemen coast

39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in 2008

Pirates living the high life (BBC)

Somali Pirates Hijack Saudi Oil Tanker

Posted on November 17, 2008
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Just six weeks after Somali pirates had hijacked a Ukrainian ship bound for Kenya, Somali pirates have reportedly hijacked a Saudi oil tanker off the eastern coast of Africa. The 1,000 ft-long Sirius Star, which had been headed for the United States, is reported to be the largest ship hijacked to date.

Britain announced earlier this month that it would take the lead in a multi-national taskforce designed to tackle the heavily armed gangs patrolling the Arabian Sea. In the mean time, some shipping companies have taken matters into their own hands by refusing to navigate these dangerous waters, resulting in costly delays as a result of longer shipping routes. Read more

Cruise Company Sued Over Fuel Surcharges

Posted on November 11, 2008
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Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit against a Broward County cruise ship company for failing to adequately disclose fuel surcharge fees. According to the lawsuit, Imperial Majesty Cruise Line LLC has collected approximately $4m in fuel surcharges from late 2006 to present.

The company, which offers two-day cruises to the Bahamas, is also accused of falsely representing those fees as governmental taxes or fees. An investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division determined the company’s web site informs consumers that a “fuel/security” surcharge will be added to their onboard account “…only if (they) have not paid the governmental taxes and fees at the time of booking.”

Read the full story here.

Delta Queen, National Historic Landmark, Refused Exemption from SOLA

Posted on November 2, 2008
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The Delta Queen, a steamboat operated by Majestic America Line, will be retired after nearly eighty years of service.  While the “Safety of Life at Sea Act” classified boats with wooden superstructures as fire hazards in 1966, the Delta Queen had been operating with an exemption from congress. Without the temporary exemption that expired November 1, 2008, the wooden steamboat will no longer cruise the Mississippi River.

Heather platform evacuated after oil leak

Posted on October 31, 2008
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Personnel were evacuated today from the Petrofac-operated Heather oil production platform in the UK North Sea after an oil leak in the processing module shut down the facility.  Petrofac, which runs the Heather platform for Lundin Britain, confirmed that 57 workers were taken by three helicopters to Shetland as remaining staff tackled the oil spill, which happened at 10.30 am this morning.  Aberdeen Coastguard said there was no fire on board the platform and the evacuation was precautionary.

Read the full article here.

Irving Oil, Global Petroleum Settles for $315,500

Posted on October 25, 2008
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BOSTON (UsMaritimeLaw.org) - On March 8, 2006, contractors allegedly removed at least one check-valve from an oil fuel loading dock jointly owned by New Hampshire-based Irving Oil, Irving Oil Terminals and Global Petroleum Corp. This created a one- to two-foot gap in the pipeline. Global then attempted to transfer fuel oil through the pipeline, releasing 20,000 gallons of oil, 18,000 of which went into the Chelsea River and upstream into Mill Creek.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that the three companies have agreed on a settlement of $312,500 to an environmental restoration fund known as the “Natural Resource Damages Trust“.

Coakley said;

“This harmful spill could have been avoided had the companies simply communicated with each other ahead of the repair work and closed a few valves… We hope this settlement will prompt all companies to implement better preventative measures so our valuable resources can be protected.”

An Irving Oil spokesman said that since the incident, the company has made changes to the operating procedures at the dock to prevent something similar from happening. Poitras said;

“We take our environmental responsibilities seriously, as demonstrated by our quick response to the spill and the tireless efforts of our employees, working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Revere Fire Department, to minimize the spill’s impact,”

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