I came across this free ship simulator that allows you to control different types of ships in different areas of the world using Google Earth in your web browser. Its very basic, and the true simulator connoisseur may find many faults, but hey, its fun! There are no explosions or special effects if you try [...]

Several attacks by Somali pirates have been successfully thwarted in recent days by NATO and other foreign warships patrolling in the region, unfortunately the pirates in those attacks were left still roaming the high seas, albeit minus a few weapons.  Here is a brief listing of the attacks thwarted that I know of and their outcome. 18 [...]

For those keeping up with vessel tracking technology, Bryant’s Maritime Blog alerts us that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on the review of vessel tracking systems used by the Coast Guard.  Specifically, the report focuses on the duplication of data that the two primary long range tracking methods provide which include [...]

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or applications such asTweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and feedalizr. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

The Maritime Executive brings us news on the type approval by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) class society of the Ulstein Bridge Alarm System (Ulstein BAS). The system, developed by Ulstein Elektro is specifically designed to enable a near fail-safe, one-man bridge operation through a ladder of alarms or alerts to other qualified navigators, and the master should a situation occur that needs the attention of others.