Hong Kong gets its first female Master Mariner

The first female captain in Hong Kong history

32-year old Carmen Chan Ka-man has become Hong Kong's first female master mariner. Gaining her master's certificate (Seagoing Class 1 Certificate of Competency - Master certificate) last month means Chan can technically command ocean-going vessels. In reality, Chan said she would remain chief officer for another three years to gain more seafaring experience before, hopefully, being made captain.

The Maritime Professional Promotion Federation (MPPF) and the Hong Kong Maritime Forum (HKMF) jointly held a press conference, entitled "A successful maritime professional", on board the passenger vessel "Star Pisces" of Star Cruises on January 3. The first Hong Kong female mariner to qualify as a Captain of ocean-going vessels, Ms Carmen Chan, shared her experiences.

Maritime Services Training Institute of HK boasts some 40-60 cadets on each course nowadays, including three or five women, from about 20 some years earlier, thanks to sea-going training incentive scheme launched in 2002 by the Maritime Professional Promotion Federation.
The International Labour Organisation estimates that only up to 2 per cent of the world's 1.25 million seafarers are women.

Regretfully, HK media didn’t specify the maritime career of Ms Carmen Chan, and the details of her present position.

Carmen Chan on a press-conference on the bridge of Star Cruises’ Star Pisces.

Famous Shipwrecks: American Battleship U.S.S. Maine, 1898

Warships are usually sunk as a result of the outbreak of war; rarely are their sinkings the reason for starting the war in the first place, but that’s exactly what happened when the small but powerful little battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor shortly after dusk on February 15, 1898, killing 261 of her 355-man crew. Though the cause of the explosion—which literally blew the ship in half—remains a source for some debate even to this day (a coal bin fire setting off ammunition in one of the ship’s magazines being considered the most likely reason), within weeks of the disaster investigators announced that the ship appeared to have been destroyed by a mine attached to her hull. Since relations between the United States and Spain were already pretty dicey as a result of Spain’s iron-fisted efforts at putting down a large-scale rebellion in Cuba, most Americans quickly jumped to the conclusion that the Spanish had destroyed the ship (despite the lack of logic in doing so) and demanded retaliation. Buckling to public pressure and spurred-on by the jingoistic flavor of the press of the day, a few weeks later the McKinley administration declared war on Spain, resulting in one of America’s shortest and most successful conflicts (the Persian Gulf War being the other). Fortunately for the largely under-armed United States, Spain was already in decline as a world power and lacked the means to adequately defend its overseas colonies, forcing her to surrender after just three months and cede Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States. The victory marked America’s entrance onto the world stage and her ascension as a genuine colonial power and the rest is, as they say, history. So what became of the demolished battleship? What was left of it was raised from the muck of Havana harbor in 1911 and towed out to open ocean, where she was sunk—again—but this time on purpose and with full military honors. Not much left of her today, of course, other than her legacy and the rarely heard battle-cry “Remember the Maine!”

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Ancient Navigators: Sir Francis Drake and the Second Circumnavigation of the World

 

Map of Drake's route around the world.

With the success of the Panama isthmus raid, in 1577 Elizabeth I of England sent Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. He set out from Plymouth on 15 November 1577, but bad weather threatened him and his fleet. They were forced to take refuge in Falmouth, Cornwall, from where they returned to Plymouth for repair. After this major setback, he set sail again on 13 December, aboard Pelican, with four other ships and 164 men. He soon added a sixth ship, Mary (formerly Santa Maria), a Portuguese merchant ship that had been captured off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands. He also added its captain, Nuno da Silva, a man with considerable experience navigating in South American waters.

Drake's fleet suffered great attrition; he scuttled both Christopher and the flyboat Swan due to loss of men on the Atlantic crossing. He made landfall at the gloomy bay of San Julian, in what is now Argentina. Ferdinand Magellan had called here half a century earlier, where he put to death some mutineers. Drake's men saw weathered and bleached skeletons on the grim Spanish gibbets. They discovered that Mary had rotting timbers, so they burned the ship. Following Magellan's example, Drake tried and executed his own 'mutineer' Thomas Doughty. Drake decided to remain the winter in San Julian before attempting the Strait of Magellan.

Entering the Pacific

The three remaining ships of his convoy departed for the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. A few weeks later (September 1578) Drake made it to the Pacific, but violent storms destroyed one of the three ships in the strait and caused another to return to England, leaving only the Pelican. After this passage, the Pelican was pushed south and discovered an island which Drake called Elizabeth Island. Drake, like navigators before him, probably reached a latitude of 55°S (according to astronomical data quoted in Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation of 1589) along the Chilean coast. Despite popular lore, it seems unlikely that he reached Cape Horn or the eponymous Drake Passage,[15] because his descriptions do not fit the first and his shipmates denied having seen an open sea. The first report of his discovery of an open channel south of Tierra del Fuego was written after the 1618 publication of the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire around Cape Horn in 1616.

He pushed onwards in his lone flagship, now renamed the Golden Hind in honour of Sir Christopher Hatton (after his coat of arms). The Golden Hind sailed north along the Pacific coast of South America, attacking Spanish ports and rifling towns. Some Spanish ships were captured, and Drake used their more accurate charts. Before reaching the coast of Peru, Drake visited Mocha Island, where he was seriously injured by hostile Mapuche. Later he sacked the port of Valparaíso further north in Chile where he also captured a ship full of Chilean wine.

A most consequential action

Near Lima, Drake captured a Spanish ship laden with 25,000 pesos of Peruvian gold, amounting in value to 37,000 ducats of Spanish money (about £7m by modern standards). Drake also discovered news of another ship, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which was sailing west towards Manila. It would come to be called the Cacafuego. Drake gave chase and eventually captured the treasure ship, which proved their most profitable capture. Aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, Drake found 80 lb (36 kg) of gold, a golden crucifix, jewels, 13 chests full of royals of plate and 26 tons of silver.

Nova Albion
Main article: New Albion


On 17 June 1579, Drake landed somewhere north of Spain's northern-most claim at Point Loma, in Alta California. He found a good port, landed, repaired and restocked his vessels, then stayed for a time, keeping friendly relations with the natives. He claimed the land in the name of the Holy Trinity for the English Crown as called Nova Albion—Latin for "New Britain". Assertions that he left some of his men behind as an embryo "colony" are founded on the reduced number who were with him in the Moluccas.

The precise location of the port was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards, and several of Drake's maps may have been altered to this end. All first-hand records from the voyage, including logs, paintings and charts, were lost when Whitehall Palace burned in 1698. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands – Drake's Plate of Brass – fitting the description in his account, was discovered in Marin County, California but was later declared a hoax. Now a National Historic Landmark, the officially recognized location of Drake's New Albion is Drakes Bay, California.

Drake headed westward across the Pacific, and a few months later reached the Moluccas, a group of islands in the south west Pacific, in eastern modern-day Indonesia. While there, Golden Hind became caught on a reef and was almost lost. After the sailors waited three days for expedient tides and dumped cargo, they freed the barque. Befriending a sultan king of the Moluccas, Drake and his men became involved in some intrigues with the Portuguese there. He made multiple stops on his way toward the tip of Africa, eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Sierra Leone by 22 July 1580.

Return to Plymouth

On 26 September, Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth with Drake and 59 remaining crew

aboard, along with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures. The Queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year. Drake was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth (and the second such voyage arriving with at least one ship intact, after Elcano's in 1520). The Queen declared that all written accounts of Drake's voyages were to become the Queen's secrets of the Realm, and Drake and the other participants of his voyages on the pain of death sworn to their secrecy; she intended to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain. Drake presented the Queen with a jewel token commemorating the circumnavigation. Taken as a prize off the Pacific coast of Mexico, it was made of enamelled gold and bore an African diamond and a ship with an ebony hull. For her part, the Queen gave Drake a jewel with her portrait, an unusual gift to bestow upon a commoner, and one that Drake sported proudly in his 1591 portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts now at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. On one side is a state portrait of Elizabeth by the miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, on the other a sardonyx cameo of double portrait busts, a regal woman and an African male. The "Drake Jewel", as it is known today, is a rare documented survivor among sixteenth-century jewels; it is conserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Notorius Somali Pirate Kingpin Retires

Mohamed Abdi Hassan, known as "Big Mouth" in pirate circles, wants to bring an end to what he describes as "this dirty business" despite having made millions of dollars seizing ships in the Indian Ocean. 

A notorious Somali pirate leader has announced his “retirement” from hijacking ships in High-Risk area off Horn of Africa.

“After being in piracy for eight years, I have decided to renounce and quit,”Mohamed Abdi Hassan,also known as ‘Afweyne’ (translated as ‘Big Mouth’ told reporters in Somalia in January, adding: ”From today on, I will not be involved in gang activity.”

Described as “one of the most notorious and influential leaders of the Hobyo-Harardhree   Piracy Network” by the UN in 2012, Afweyne is believed to have been involved in raids that generated millions of dollars in ransoms, reportedly including the highjack of VLCC Sirius Star in 2008.According to Professor Stig Jarle Hansen, an expert in pirate networks, Afweyne has been “an exceptionally good organizer” with a key role in recruiting new pirates across Somalia.

Afweyne is believed to have been offered immunity from prosecution as an incentive to retire, and claims to have persuaded others to quit piracy according a news release.

While he did not give a reason for his decision, it is likely to be result of several factors. “The increased use of Best management Practices by commercial ships to avoid attack, combined with naval patrols and an improving situation on land”, were said to be some of factors which caused pirate leader to step down.

Prison for Fatal Crash Officers

Two Officers have been sentenced in absentia in France for their role in a fatal collision.

 
Yvette Jobard the widow of a sailor killed during the crash between the cargo ship 'Ocean Jasper' and the fishing boat 'Sokalique' with two sailors who survived the crash of the 'Sokalique'.

After putting the matter under advisement, November 15, the High Court of Brest just to give judgment on the case of SOKALIQUE this caseyeur Roscoff hit in August 2007 by a Turkish cargo ship, the Ocean Jasper, a collision that claimed the life skipper Bernard Jobard. The commander and his second of Azerbaijani nationality and tried in their absence, were convicted of manslaughter, hit and run and failure to render assistance to a person in danger. They continued their journey without stopping after the collision.

The court ordered the commander of the Jasper Ocean Rafik Agaev, a mere four years in prison and his deputy, Aziz Mirzoyev to three years in prison. Both defendants, Azerbaijani nationality, were absent during the trial. As for the Turkish owner of the cargo, Mehmet Gõmüc that, he was present during the three days of trial, he will have to pay jointly and severally with the commander and his second with a fine to the widow of the skipper SOKALIQUE and children. Yvette Jobard and will receive 26. 250 euros in respect of pecuniary damage, and each of his three daughters, 11. 250 euros. They must also pay 6. 000 euros to each of the five sailors SOKALIQUE survivors and the son of one of them
The master and first-officer of the Turkish-Operated ,2800dwt general cargo vessel Ocean Jasper were sentenced on 22 January to four and three years in prison, respectively. The Azerbaijanis were found guilty of an accidental killing, fleeing the scene of an accident, and failing to provide aid to endangered people after the fatal collision more than five years ago with 20m French fishing vessel, Sokalique.

The collision took place 60nm  north of the western tip to Brittany in August 2007.Prosecutor Bertrand Leclerc said Ocean Jasper continued on its route after the collision, with its crew ignoring distress rockets and radio calls. Six members  of Sokalique’s crew survived the night- time accident, but the skipper drowned after staying aboard the vessel to send distress messages.

The defendants were also barred for life from working on merchant vessels exceeding 500gt. Neither Ocean Jasper’s master, Rafik Agaev nor its first officer, Aziz Mirzoyev, attended the sentencing in Brest, which followed a three-day hearing in November 2012. They have been missing under international arrest warrants since May 2011.Also along with the ship’s operator,Onurhan Denizcilik,the defendants were ordered to pay Euro 60,000 ($80,000) to the dead skipper’s family.

India Demands Pratibha Crews Be Sent Home

Pratibha Shipping has been ordered to send home the entire crews of its nine tankers.

While investigating the deaths of six seafarers aboard Mumbai based Pratibha’s grounded tanker Pratibha Cauvery in Chennai, the directorate general of shipping inspectors discovered in January that the statutory and mandatory certificates of the Owner’s remaining ships have expired.

It also cited the deterioration continuing of all nine ships, inhabitable conditions on board, non payment of crew’s wages, delays in repatriation, arrests of some of the ships for non-payment of dues, enforcement of maritime liens by creditors, and poor physical and mental health of the crew members.

The directorate has said it had convened an emergency meeting with the group’s stakeholders, and owner agreed to repatriate all crew members by
10 January.

Upto 150 mariners thought to be on Pratibha’s ships in ports, at anchorages, or at shipyards in Indian waters and overseas.

The crew demanded the owner repatriate them now that their contracts in most cases have ended. The two sides have failed to settle the outstanding wages issue. The owner has proposed settling the wages with the proceeds of the vessels being scrapped.

Three ships are being repaired in overseas yards, while the other six are in Indian waters awaiting the owner’s instructions. Pratibha Cauvery was grounded during a tropical storm on 31 October and five were killed when their lifeboat overturned.

Nautical Innovations: Maritime Signal Flares

Martha Coston invented a pyrotechnic signaling system known as maritime signal flares.

1913 advertisement for Coston flares.

Background and Early Life

She was born Martha Jane Hunt in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Philadelphia in the 1830s. At age 14 or 16, she eloped with a Benjamin Franklin Coston, age 21, who had already acquired a reputation as a promising inventor. As a young man, he became director of the U.S. Navy’s scientific laboratory in Washington, D.C. At the Washington Navy Yard, he developed a signaling rocket and a percussion primer for cannons. He also experimented with color-coded night signals to allow communication between ships, which at that time was limited to visual signals such as flags during the day and lanterns at night. After a dispute over payment for his work on the percussion primer, Coston resigned his commission with the Navy in 1847 and became president of the Boston Gas Company. His work with chemical fumes at both the Navy Yard and the Boston Gas Company caused his health to deteriorate, and he died in 1848 as a result of the chemical exposure. His work on the signal flares, while important, was limited to plans and chemical formulas.

Martha Coston continues flare design and builds business

The years following Benjamin Coston's death were filled with more tragedy for Martha Jane Coston; two of her children and her mother died in the next two years, leaving her in poor condition emotionally as well as in difficult financial straits. While searching through her husband's papers, she discovered the notes he had written on night signaling at the Navy Yard. Her husband’s incomplete work needed substantial additional effort before it could be turned into a practical signaling system.

For nearly ten years, Martha Coston worked to develop a system of flare signaling based on her husband's earlier work. With a limited knowledge of chemistry and pyrotechnics, she relied on the advice of hired chemists and fireworks experts, with mixed results. A breakthrough came in 1858, while she was witnessing the fireworks display in New York City celebrating the completion of the transatlantic telegraph cable; she realized that her system needed a bright blue flare, along with the red and white she had already developed. She established the Coston Manufacturing Company to manufacture the signal flares, and entered into a business relationship with a pyrotechnics developer to provide the necessary blue color.

On April 5, 1859, she was granted U.S. Patent number 23,536 for a pyrotechnic night signal and code system. (The patent was granted to her as administratrix for her deceased husband, who is named as inventor.) Using different combinations of colors, it enabled ships to signal to one another, and to signal to shore. Captain C.S. McCauley of the U.S. Navy recommended the use of her flares to Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey in 1859. After extended testing, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the system, the U.S. Navy ordered an initial set of 300 flares, and later placed an order for $6000 worth of the flares.

International Successes and the Civil War

Coston then obtained patents in England, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and sailed to England to begin marketing her invention there and in other parts of Europe. She remained in Europe until 1861, when she returned to the U.S. on the outbreak of the Civil War. She went directly to Washington, where she petitioned Congress to purchase the patent so that the flares could be used in the approaching conflict. After some delay, Congress passed an act on August 5, 1861, authorizing the U.S. Navy to purchase the patent for $20,000, though less than the $40,000 she had originally demanded.

Coston flares were used extensively by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War; they proved particularly effective in the discovery and capture of Confederate blockade runners during the Union blockade of southern ports. Coston flares also played an important role in coordinating naval operations during the battle of Fort Fisher in North Carolina on January 13–15, 1865.

In 1871, Coston obtained a patent in her own name - Patent No. 115,935, Improvement in Pyrotechnic Night Signals. In addition to working on improvements to the signaling system, she continued to press claims for additional compensation from the U.S. government. Due to wartime inflation, the Coston Manufacturing Company supplied flares to the U.S. Navy at less than cost, and Coston estimated that the government owed her $120,000 in compensation. Although she pressed her claims for over ten years, she was offered only $15,000 additional reimbursement.

Use of the Coston flare in the United States Life-Saving Service

Eventually every station of the United States Life-Saving Service was equipped with Coston flares, which were used to signal ships, warn of dangerous coastal conditions, and summon surfmen and other rescuers to a wreck scene. Many accounts of wrecks and rescues describe the use of the Coston flare, which was instrumental in saving thousands of lives. While Martha Jane Coston died in 1904, her company, later called the Coston Signal Company and the Coston Supply Company, remained in business until at least 1985.

U.S. Navy Leaders Announce Plans for Deploying Powerful Laser Technology

Citing a series of technological breakthroughs, Navy leaders announced plans Apr. 8 at the Sea-Air-Space exposition to deploy for the first time a solid-state laser aboard a ship in fiscal year 2014.

"Our directed energy initiatives, and specifically the solid-state laser, are among our highest priority science and technology programs. The solid-state laser program is central to our commitment to quickly deliver advanced capabilities to forward-deployed forces," Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder said. "This capability provides a tremendously affordable answer to the costly problem of defending against asymmetric threats, and that kind of innovative approach is crucial in a fiscally constrained environment."

The announcement to deploy the laser onboars USS Ponce (AFSB[I] 15) comes as Navy researchers continue to make significant progress on directed energy weapons, allowing the service to deploy a laser weapon on a Navy ship two years ahead of schedule. The at-sea demonstration in FY 14 is part of a wider portfolio of near-term Navy directed energy programs that promise rapid fielding, demonstration and prototyping efforts for shipboard, airborne and ground systems.

"Our conservative data tells us a shot of directed energy costs under $1," Klunder said. "Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability."

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command recently performed demonstrations of high-energy lasers aboard a moving surface combatant ship, as well as against remotely piloted aircraft. Through careful planning of such demonstrations and by leveraging investments made through other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, researchers have been able to increase the ruggedness, power and beam quality of lasers, more than doubling the range of the weapons.

"The future is here," said Peter A. Morrision, program officer for ONR's Sold-State Laser Technology Maturation Program. "The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords."

Officials consider the solid-state laser a revolutionary technology that gives the Navy an extremely affordable, multi-mission weapon with a deep magazine and unmatched precision, targeting and control functions. Because lasers run on electricity, they can be fired as long as there is power and provide a measure of safety as they don't require carrying propellants and explosives aboard ships.

Lasers complement kinetic weapons to create a layered ship defense capability, providing improved protection against swarming small boats and unmanned aircraft at a fraction of the cost of traditional weapons.

The advancing technology gives sailors a variety of options they never had before, including the ability to control a laser weapon's output and perform actions ranging from non-lethal disabling and deterrence all the way up to destruction.

"We expect that in the future, a missile will not be able to simply outmaneuver a highly accurate, high-energy laser beam traveling at the speed of light," Klunder said.

Following the USS Ponce demonstration, the Navy and DoD will continue to research ways to integrate affordable laser weapons into the fleet.

Creator of yellow sailor oilskins dies

BREST, France — Guy Cotten, the French businessman known for creating the emblematic yellow oilskin jacket worn by seafarers and fishermen worldwide, died Wednesday aged 77, his company said.

Guy Cotten SA, based near the city of Quimper in Brittany, said he had died in hospital following a long illness.

From a small family-run factory opened in 1964, Cotten built up a world-renowned brand of outdoor wear prized by the fishing industry and yachting enthusiasts.

By the time of his death the company, now run by Cotten's daughter Nadine Bertholom, had 300 employees around the world and sales in 2012 of 12 million euros ($15.4 million).

Survivors of March 6 shipwreck were all but lost at sea Annapolis sea

Captain and his first mate stand by their decisions

 

Pat Schoenberger, 38, and Jim Southward, 40, both professional sea captains, were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter about 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, N.C., during the March 6 winter storm. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun video) 

It started as the kind of delivery Pat Schoenberger, an Annapolis sea captain, had made many times: Pick up a client's motor sailboat, ferry it to Florida and return home in a few weeks' time.

A brilliant morning sky beckoned as Schoenberger and Jim Southward, his friend and first mate, left Severn, Va., for Pensacola, Fla.

Thirty-eight hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter rescued them off Cape Lookout, N.C., amid pounding rain, 55-knot winds, 30-foot waves and the sensation, Southward said, that the ocean was tossing their 15-ton craft, Andante II, "like a cork in a hot tub."


What happened in between was a story of how, even in an era of high-tech sea mapping and navigation, the wisdom of seasoned mariners still can be no match for an angry sea.

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Migrants drowned off Somalia

Fifty five people have drowned or remain missing after an over crowded boat capsized off Somalia.

The boat, which was carrying 60 migrants to Yemen from Northern Somali town Bosaso, capsized just 15 minutes after leaving port on 18 December according to the UN’s refugee agency,UNHCR. The incident represents the worse loss of life in the region since February 2011, when 57 Somalis died attempting a similar voyage.

Spokesperson for UNHCR had explained some of the dangers faced during illegally operated voyages across the Gulf of Aden:” These people are often loaded on to small fishing boats or dhows at double their capacity, and people are often found in engine spaces or otter unsafe areas. ”

UNHCR has reported that 23 bodies were recovered, including those of 14 women, 8 men, and atleast 1 child. UNHCR has further reported that the dead were all Somalis. Normally in these situation they expect atleast 80% Ethiopians or Eritreans. In this case, it was Somalis trying to reach Oman via Yemen to pick frankincense, which we haven’t seen before.

Such incidents are likely to continue UNHCR reported despite Somalia recovering political climate and improved education. The sinking marked the end of a record year for migrant and refugee crossings of the Gulf of Aden, according to UNHCR research suggesting 107,500 people made the journey in 2012.

Casualties down in Asia

 
Fewer people died at sea and there were fewer vessel casualties in Asia last year, IHS Fairplay data revealed.

In total, 187 people lost their lives in 2012, compared with 233 in the previous year. The total number of vessel casualties for the region also fell, from 233 in 2011 to 187 last year. Deaths from accidents caused by collision (92) and fire (32) remained roughly the same as the previous year.

IHS Fairplay casualty analyst Paul Clemenson said there was an increased risk of collisions in the region due to the high volume of traffic in certain Asian waters – particularly in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The second most common cause of casualties in Asia last year was hull and machinery damage, although this figure fell to 73, compared with 98 in the previous year.