The U.S. Coast Guard has completed a dramatic rescue of 28 crew members from the Taiwanese-flagged F/V Hou Chun 11 in the Pacific Ocean, just North of Kingman Reef, approximately 1000 NM South of Hawaii. The fishing vessel apparently caught fire, forcing the 28 crew members to abandon ship into liferafts. There are reports of several crew members suffering burns from the incident, but it appears all have survived. The rescue was conducted by the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley and with air support from a U.S. Navy P-3 and a Coast Guard C-130 from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.

You may have already heard about this one over at GCaptain or through the news, but I figured I’d put up an update on this incident and share some photos and video.
The deadly collision between the 70,426-dwt Formosaproduct Brick (built 2005)The 70,426-dwt Formosaproduct Brick (built 2005) and the 73,207-dwt Ostende Max (built 1998) occurred in [...]

The AP compiled a list of the deadliest and most famous civilian maritime disasters:

July 26 or 27, 2009: A sailboat overloaded with Haitian migrants capsizes off the Turks and Caicos Islands. Police recover 11 bodies and about 70 people are believed to be missing.

March 29, 2009: Wooden vessel packed with migrants bound for Europe from [...]