The 286 piracy incidents, 67 hijacked ships and over 1130 seafarers directly impacted by the continued and increasing piracy problem in the world’s oceans and particularly off the Horn of Africa over the past 12 months has resulted in an “completely unacceptable situation” according the the UN Secretary General, General Ban Ki-moon in a recent speech at the IMO [...]
In a relatively lightly published and un-noticed event, the U.S. flagged cargo ship M/V SAGAMORE was attacked and robbed on Aug. 8th by two men with AK-47s near the al-Basrah Oil Terminal, which lies about 19 miles from the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. The SAGAMORE is operated by Sealift Inc., a privately held company [...]
The Coast Guard issued a press release on May 12th stating that it had issued Maritime Security Directive 104-6 (rev. 2). You won’t find the specific Directive anywhere unless you are a ship operator that is being effected by the directive. It is apparently being distributed as a sensitive document directly to U.S. flagged ship [...]
I’ve seen several news articles titled “How could they be so stupid!” “Idiot pirates attack warship” etc. While the liklihood of pirates actually overtaking a warship or even a auxiliary naval vessel and taking the ship hostage are extremely unlikely, the likelihood of them severely damaging a warship or auxiliary ship is significant. Remember the USS Cole? They simply need to get close enough, and any ship could find themselves in serious danger.
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 [...]
The IMO estimates there are 1.5 million seafarers worldwide, and this is the day we pay tribute to them all. The 25th of June has been designated by the IMO and it’s member states as “The Day of the Seafarer” as a means to pay tribute to the world’s estimated 1.5 million seafarers for the unique [...]
The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a Marine Safety Alert reminding operators of barges and tank vessels to ensure tank high velocity vent valves and vacuum valves or combination pressure/vacuum valves are maintained in proper operating condition at all times. This follows a recent marine casualty on board a chemical/oil product tanker in which a cargo tank was over [...]
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