Please donate to Valour-IT. See here.
Team Navy
Look out, I may be forced to show the exciting film, "The Kingsbury Thrust Bearing" down the road.
VertRep
Monday, July 04, 2011
"Destroyermen" - 1970's style
Please donate to Valour-IT. See here.
Team Navy
Look out, I may be forced to show the exciting film, "The Kingsbury Thrust Bearing" down the road.
Recent Attacks on Shipping (to 4 July 11)
Rough sea conditions in their main operating areas, along with the presence of naval forces and armed security guards on some merchant ships, have slowed the Somali pirates somewhat, however, there is still a whole lot of pirate-like activity around the world, as seen in the reports below.From IMB's Live Piracy Reports
From Maritime Safety Information:
and more information from the Anti-Shipping Activity MessagesA. (U) GULF OF GUINEA: A chemical tanker was hijacked 26 June off of Cotonou, Benin.
Red arrows point to attacks
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B. (U) ARABIAN SEA: Bulk carrier (SAGAR RATAN) experienced an attempted boarding 26 June approximately 72NM southeast of Sur, Oman.
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C. (U) GULF OF GUINEA: A tanker was robbed 24 June while anchored at the Cotonou anchorage, Benin.
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D. (U) GULF OF GUINEA: A chemical tanker was hijacked 24 June approximately 12NM southeast of Cotonou, Benin.
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E. (U) GULF OF GUINEA: A vessel was robbed 23 June approximately 11NM southeast of Cotonou, Benin.
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F. (U) ATLANTIC OCEAN: A refrigerated cargo vessel was robbed 23 June while anchored in the Matadi anchorage, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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G. (U) INDONESIA: A bulk carrier was robbed 22 June while anchored in the Surabaya anchorage, Indonesia.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, ReCAAP is The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, an international agreement (and organization) devoted to fighting piracy in the Malacca Strait and other parts of the South Asian waters. Since its implementation, piracy in the area has decreased. ReCAAP keeps a watchful eye on the South China Sea, too, and recently, in a Special Report dated 29 June 11 (pdf download) that notes an apparent pattern of hijacking ocean going tugs:Date of Occurrence: 06/26/2011 Reference Number: 2011-310 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 21° 42' 00" N 60° 29' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: RAS AL HADD, OMAN: Two skiffs with five pirates in each chased a bulk carrier underway. The pirates fired rpgs at the vessel. The pirates managed to hook on the ladder onto the ships rail however due to evasive maneuvers and using sea and swell to advantage coupled with razor wire and response from coalition navies the pirates aborted the attempt and moved away. A grey hulled mother vessel approximately 40 meters in length was reported in the vicinity.
Oman area attack, all close together and on sea lane
Date of Occurrence: 06/26/2011 Reference Number: 2011-311 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 21° 45' 00" N 60° 31' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: MERCHANT VESSEL Description: ARABIAN SEA: Merchant vessel attacked in vicinity 21-45N 060-31E at 0949z on 26 Jun. Vessels are advised to keep 100 miles clear of this position and to exercise extreme caution.
Date of Occurrence: 06/24/2011 Reference Number: 2011-309 Geographical Subregion: 57 Geographical Location: 6° 08' 35" N 2° 28' 16" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: MERCHANT VESSEL Description: 12 MILES OFF COTONOU, BENIN: Four robbers in a speed boat boarded the vessel. All crew went into the citadel, but robbers managed to capture the 2nd engineer before he could enter the citadel. Seeing this, the Master presented himself to the robbers as well. The robbers took the Master and 2nd engineer and stole ship's and crew's cash. Personal belongings were taken, during this time the Master and the 2nd engineer were also hit by the robbers. Port control was contacted but received no response. At the time of the incident the vessel was undergoing STS operations and had to remove the razor wire to enable smooth operations. The robbers took advantage of this and gained access to the vessel.
Date of Occurrence: 06/24/2011 Reference Number: 2011-307 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 21° 03' 00" N 60° 12' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: 74 MILES EAST OF GHALAT, OMAN: Two skiffs with six pirates in each chased and attempted to attack a chemical tanker underway. Master raised alarm, increased speed and took evasive maneuvers. The onboard security fired warning shots resulting in the pirates aborting the attempted attack and moved towards their mother vessel. The mother vessel was observed picking up the two skiffs.
Date of Occurrence: 06/24/2011 Reference Number: 2011-306 Geographical Subregion: 57 Geographical Location: 6° 09' 35" N 2° 32' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: COTONOU, BENIN: Twelve armed pirates boarded a chemical tanker drifting in preparation for STS operations. They took hostage all crewmembers and hijacked the tanker. The tanker was released after 17 hours. Awaiting further details.
Date of Occurrence: 06/24/2011 Reference Number: 2011-308 Geographical Subregion: 57 Geographical Location: 6° 15' 54" N 2° 33' 24" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: TANKER Description: COTONOU ANCHORAGE, BENIN: About ten robbers armed with guns and knives in a speed boat were seen approaching an anchored tanker with STS fenders alongside. Duty officer raised alarm, activated the SSAS and called port control but received no response. Four robbers boarded the tanker via the STS fenders, entered the bridge and took the Master to his cabin and stole ship's cash and personal belongings. Later the duty officer was taken to his cabin as well as all the other crew cabins and stole crew personal belongings. At this time the crew were threatened. Some crew were also beaten. All the robbers left the tanker at 0330 local time. Port control was called again but there still was no answer.
Benin attacks
DR of Congo Attack
Date of Occurrence: 06/23/2011 Reference Number: 2011-302 Geographical Subregion: 57 Geographical Location: 5° 52' 00" S 13° 24' 43" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: REFRIGERATED CARGO SHIP Description: MATADI ANCHORAGE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Robbers boarded and stole ship stores from an anchored refrigerated cargo vessel on three occasions between 0500 local and 0740 local time. Duty crew spotted the robbers and raised the alarm on each occasion resulting in the robbers jumping overboard and escaping in a waiting boat. No response received from port authority when called on VHF. [Note by E1: Interesting as it appears to be a river attack]
Closer view of DR Congo reported attack area
Date of Occurrence: 06/23/2011 Reference Number: 2011-303 Geographical Subregion: 72 Geographical Location: 7° 11' 30" S 112° 43' 30" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: SURABAYA ANCHORAGE, INDONESIA: Robbers boarded an anchored bulk carrier from the stern as the duty crew was taking routine rounds forward. They stole ship's stores and escaped. When the duty crew reached the stern, he found ship's stores missing and raised the alarm. Port control and local agents informed.
5. A total of 11 incidents of hijacking and missing vessels were reported between
2008 and 2011, comprising two incidents in 2008, one incident in 2009, three incidents in 2010 and five incidents in 2011 (up to June 2011).
6. Except for the incident involving tanker Blue Ocean 7 on 21 May 08, all the other 10 incidents involved tug boats. Tug boats are vulnerable targets as they tend to operate nearer to coast (on coastal voyages), slow moving, with low free board and less crew onboard.
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| Vicinity of 1 July tug attack off Malaysia (click to enlarge) |
The 1 July thwarted attack set out in red above appears to fall into this pattern of criminality.
You may recall the hijacked tug, Atlantic 5, found being renamed in the Philippines as set out in my post here.
Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
What brave men to cast off a king and centuries of history.
Happy 4th!
Friday, July 01, 2011
Voice Activated Laptops for Our Wounded Warriors
Now, imagine that you have lost the use of your hands. Or your eyes. Imagine that all the electronic connectedness that you have grown used to - well, it's still there, but your ability to tap into is suddenly gone.
No emails from family, no exchange of tweets with friends, no - well - nothing like life used to be. No easy internet searches, no fast shifts of music or videos.
Would that have much impact on your life?
A couple of weeks ago I met the parents of a college kid who were happy that their son was back in school and doing well. It seems that while on a trip some place he dove into water that was shallower than he thought and had done severe damage to his spinal cord. Basically paralyzed him except that he was breathing and thinking and trapped in a body that no longer served him as it once did. His parents say that before the accident he was quite the athlete with an academic scholarship to some fine school. Months of recovery have brought him some relief, some hope. But the biggest boost to this young man was that he gained the ability to use a computer by voice control. Now he takes on line college classes and he is back in the world around him - not totally dependent on someone else. It's a little freedom and a little victory for which he and his parents are immensely thankful.
I mentioned to them that some people were actively engaged in trying to do for our injured Soldiers, Marines and Sailors what they had been able to provide for their son - provide voice activated laptops to allow them to rejoin the electronic world - Project Valour-IT is path through which you and I can help some wounded warriors get back a little of the world they were temporarily missing.
Here are some facts about the program (if you want more information about Soldiers' Angels, go here and for more info on Project Valour-IT, go here):
As the number of American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines suffering battlefield wounds continues to grow, today’s economic challenges continue to squeeze military support nonprofits. Project Valour-IT—which has supplied over 6,000 severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines with adaptive laptops and other devices to aid their recovery and reintegration—is addressing that squeeze with a fundraising technique it pioneered: online competition.So, there's the pitch. Over the next couple of weeks the goal is to raise $100,000 and allow Valour-IT to do more of what it has been doing. You can help - just click on the link below and donate a little money to this worthy cause. It may be tax deductible and all that the best part is that you will know that you did a little something for those young men and women who have given something of themselves.
Held July 1-14, the Valour-IT fundraising competition will draw on blogging, Facebook, Twitter and other social media to raise money and awareness for the needs of wounded troops. Divided among four “virtual teams” named in honor of U.S. military service branches, participants will also use flyers, word-of-mouth and traditional media outlets to spread the word. The goal is to raise at least $100,000, which will meet increased demand for Valour-IT services through October 2011.
“Project Valour-IT changes lives,” says Soldiers’ Angels founder Patti Patton-Bader. “Wounded heroes report that being able to use a laptop helps them feel whole again. Physical therapists are actually designing therapy sessions around Wii Sports! And something as normal as a handheld GPS reduces stress and helps a hero cope. It’s just amazing what this project does!”
Each of the devices Valour-IT supplies helps restore confidence and independence for a wounded hero. Voice-activated laptops reconnect the wounded with the world and develop self-confidence by showing soldiers they can continue to be engaged and productive despite their injuries. Servicemembers also use the laptops to research their medical care or prepare for a post-military career. Physical therapists report Wii Sports is extremely motivational and beneficial when used in physical therapy settings, and wounded personnel with short-term memory loss due to TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and severe PTSD use GPS systems to keep from getting lost or disoriented when they move on to more independent living.
Now, you may notice that I am a member of Team Navy (which this year also includes the Coast Guard) which part of a friendly inter-service competition. There are other teams that you can give to, and you find them linked even at the site below:
Team Navy
Got a maritime oriented business? What better way to say "thanks" to those who are keeping the sea lanes open then making a donation to this cause?
Thanks!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Offshore Drilling: New Tools for Emergency Well Capping
In the wake of the spill, the industry and the wider world has switched on to the possibility of a similar disaster occurring again. Particularly given the increasing depths at which deepwater platforms are now operating, the logistics behind capping a leaking well are mind-boggling.See the home page of the Marine Well Containment Company (source of the illustration above). It is reported the system MWCC has works down to 10,000 feet. There's a video at that site that shows how the system is supposed to work.
As a result, a number of emergency well capping devices are concurrently in development or under construction now. Some are intended and tailored for use in particular offshore regions, while others are being offered to oil companies as a kind of global insurance policy against any future disasters.
MWCC's start up was funded by ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips. Membership today has expanded:
The MWCC member companies are now Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Apache, Anadarko, BHP Billiton, Statoil and Hess. These 10 companies operated approximately 70 percent of deepwater wells drilled in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico between 2007 through 2009.
As full disclosure, I am a former Chevron employee, looking forward to small retirement check from them in the future.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Trinidad: Sea Robbers Attack Fishermen
The bandits boarded the brothers' vessel, Ganga, and stole the engine, gas and fishing gear worth $32,000.The $32,000 dollar figure is, I believe, in Trinidad dollars and is a little less than US $5000.
"We just sailed off the Godineau River and was about 1,000 feet from land when we saw a white fiberglass boat with no name approaching us. There were six men on the boat with masks over their faces. The men told my brother and I to lie on the boat and they tie us up. They then started to throw everything into their boat and speed off," Nazir Hosein, 41, said.
Yes, it's not much, but there is a pattern.
Monday, June 27, 2011
South China Sea: Exercising Open Seas
Three warships from the United States Navy (USN) are dropping anchor in the island province of Palawan on Tuesday for this year’s launching of the joint Philippines-US Naval war exercises aimed at further developing maritime security capabilities of the two nations’ naval forces.The U.S. and the Philippines have Mutual Defense Treaty which has come to the fore as China has been more aggressive in laying claim to large chunks of the South China Sea.
Aside from two missile-guided destroyers – USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) and USS Howard (DDG-83) and a diving and salvage ship USNS Safegurd (T-ARS 50), 800 US sailors are also participating in the 17th joint holding of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT), a naval war games that would be held within the maritime domain of the Philippine Navy’s Naval Forces West.
These US sailors as well as their other military assets that will be participating in the CARAT with their Filipino Navy counterparts, are composed of US Navy Seabees, representatives from the US Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team (MSST), the US Navy Mobile Security Squadron, a US Navy Riverine Force and Medical Support personnel.
CARAT would be held in the nearby waters of the West Philippine Sea where tension has been mounting for weeks now due to China’s aggressiveness in asserting its territorial claim over the entire region which the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan are also claiming in whole or in part.
This has, in turn, caused some in the Philippines to worry about depending too heavily in the U.S. and the MDT, as set out in Aquino gov’t urged not to rely too much on US for Spratlys defense< which reads to me a little like it was written in China:
The Aquino administration has said that the Philippines can invoke its 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the U.S. to defend its territorial claim in the Spratlys. The government said modern military equipment would be purchased in the US. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin even asked for US navy ships’ deployment in the South China Sea to check Chinese aggression.For those unfamiliar with Palawan, it was the site of a horrific slaughter of World War II when American POWs were killed after having been captured in the defense of the Philippines.
The US Embassy in Manila, however, stopped short of promising direct military support amid assurances that the Philippines remained a “strategic ally” and that both countries would continue “to consult and work with each other on all issues including the South China Sea and Spratlys Islands.”
Instead of committing specific military support to defend the Philippines’ claim, the American envoy called for “restraint” in the territorial row.
Tuazon pointed out while American policy on the Spratlys issue has always served its own interests and not the Philippines’, Filipino officials continued to have an “intractable belief” that the country’s national interests would be best enhanced by its special ties with the US.
He noted that the Unclos, approved in 1994, has not yet been ratified by the US. Washington, he said, has been particularly opposed to the provision in the convention pertaining to the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for being unfavorable “to American economic and security interests.”
China, according to Tuazon, will continue to adhere to its foreign policy in ensuring a peaceful environment conducive for steering an economy now considered as the second largest in the world with a global projection that will require a modern maritime and defense system.
“Even as it says it will use military means only as a last resort to defend its territorial claims, China cannot afford a war in the South China Sea at this time. War will not favor China’s growing trade and investments in Southeast Asia,” Tuazon said.
This was the reason why China had backed joint seismic and oil exploration of the waters of the Spratlys and reiterated for bilateral diplomatic talks with other claimant-countries.
Philippine government policy makers have been “ill-informed” in presuming that the country’s territorial claims, even if guided by economic objectives, must be pursued under the protection of the US, Tuazon said.
“The spontaneous choice of invoking the MDT (Mutual Defense Treaty) and the purchase of modern arms vis-Ã -vis allegations of Chinese aggression reveal that unseen hands – both within the Aquino Cabinet and the military institutions – are exerting yet again a strong influence in determining the country’s foreign policy track when negotiation should be the priority,” he added.
“The only winners in a war scenario are arms suppliers – and these are aplenty in the US. They are not just lurking – they have the capability to provoke profit-oriented wars,” he said.
Tuazon questioned whether the territorial dispute might be used to justify huge budgets for the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization, the purchase of military supplies, and the keeping of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement with the US, even if there have been moves in the Philippine Congress to submit it for review or abolish it.
“Is this not therefore playing into the hands of war hawks in the Pentagon to use America’s numerous defense treaties with the Philippines and other countries in East Asia in increasing and realigning its security forces toward the strategic encirclement of China? Can’t this actually be the bigger source of tension and conflict in the South China Sea?” Tuazon asked.
Friday, June 24, 2011
A Couple of Weeks Worth of Anti-Shipping Activity
Date of Occurrence: 06/18/2011 Reference Number: 2011-300 Geographical Subregion: 24 Geographical Location: 10° 17' 18" N 64° 43' 06" W Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CARGO SHIP Description: PUERTO LA CRUZ, VENEZUELA: Master onboard an anchored general cargo vessel noticed a speed boat approaching the vessel. He ordered the duty crew to investigate. Later, one AB entered the bridge in a frightened state and reported that robbers had boarded the vessel and taken hostage the second duty watchman at knife point and had stolen ship stores. Alarm raised and crew mustered. Port control and CSO informed.A couple more from IMB's Live Piracy Report:
Date of Occurrence: 06/18/2011 Reference Number: 2011-299 Geographical Subregion: 63 Geographical Location: 8° 29' 00" N 76° 40' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: AROUND 15 MILES OFF TRIVANDRUM, INDIA: Master onboard a chemical tanker underway noticed a white hulled skiff around three miles ahead. The skiff was noticed to increase speed and approach the vessel at high speed. Vessel increased speed, altered course, sounded alarm and took anti-piracy measures. The skiff continued to chase the vessel for around 10 minutes before stopping. Master reported five to six persons in the boat and also reported noticing some guns in the boat. The skiff was later heard to have attacked another tanker.
Date of Occurrence: 06/18/2011 Reference Number: 2011-298 Geographical Subregion: 63 Geographical Location: 8° 37' 00" N 76° 26' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: AROUND 30 MILES OFF TRIVANDRUM, INDIA: Pirates in a skiff chased a chemical tanker underway. The vessel enforced anti-piracy preventive measures, sent SSAS alert. Later a naval helicopter arrived at location.
Date of Occurrence: 06/17/2011 Reference Number: 2011-301 Geographical Subregion: 24 Geographical Location: 6° 49' 18" N 58° 10' 12" W Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CONTAINER SHIP Description: GEORGETOWN INNER ANCHORAGE, GUYANA: Four robbers armed with knives boarded an anchored container ship. They took the bosun as hostage and stole ship's properties and escaped. The alarm raised and crew mustered. Authorties informed.
Date of Occurrence: 06/15/2011 Reference Number: 2011-292 Geographical Subregion: 61 Geographical Location: 9° 18' 00" N 51° 15' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CARGO SHIP Description: AROUND 26 MILES OFF THE COAST OF SOMALIA: Four pirates in a skiff chased and fired upon a general cargo ship underway. One pirate managed to board the vessel but had to jump overboard after the crew successfully confronted him. All crew safe.
Date of Occurrence: 06/14/2011 Reference Number: 2011-297 Geographical Subregion: 57 Geographical Location: 5° 52' 00" N 2° 36' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: COTONOU ANCHORAGE, BENIN: Armed robbers boarded and hijacked an anchored chemical tanker. They forced the captain to sail the vessel to an unknown location. The pirates stole ship's properties and left the vessel.
Date of Occurrence: 06/13/2011 Reference Number: 2011-291 Geographical Subregion: 24 Geographical Location: 10° 18' 30" N 75° 32' 36" W Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: CARTAGENA TANKER ANCHORAGE, COLOMBIA: Duty AB onboard a bulk carrier at anchor spotted robbers trying to gain access via the hawse pipe. The AB alerted other crew members who rushed forward resulting in the robbers aborting the attempt and moving away. Later as the AB moved aft during his rounds he observed barefoot marks on the deck and noticed that the ship's stores were stolen.
Date of Occurrence: 06/12/2011 Reference Number: 2011-294 Geographical Subregion: 56 Geographical Location: 30° 42' 18" N 32° 20' 39" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CONTAINER SHIP Description: SUEZ CANAL ANCHORAGE, EGYPT: Robbers boarded and stole ship property from an anchored container vessel. The incident was reported to the local authorities who managed to track down the robbers and reclaim the stolen property.
Date of Occurrence: 06/12/2011 Reference Number: 2011-290 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 12° 33' 00" N 61° 46' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: AROUND 420 MILES EAST OF SOCOTRA ISLAND: Four pirates in a skiff chased and fired upon a bulk carrier underway. The skiff closed to around five meters from the ship. Effective anti-piracy measures including fire hoses and electric wire around vessel prevented the pirates from gaining access.
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-286 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 12° 17' 00" N 61° 27' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: AROUND 400 MILES EAST OF SOCOTRA: Four pirates in a skiff approached and fired upon a bulk carrier underway. Onboard security team fired warning shots resulting in the pirates moving away.
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-287 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 12° 19' 00" N 61° 30' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: CHEMICAL TANKER Description: AROUND 405 MILES EAST OF SOCOTRA: Four pirates in a skiff chased a chemical tanker underway. Weapons sighted in the skiff but not used. Security team onboard fired warning shots and the skiff moved away.
Not a Somali Pirate!
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-288 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 13° 42' 06" N 42° 35' 48" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: TANKER Description: 40 MILES NORTH OF ASSAB, ERITREA, RED SEA: Five pirates in a skiff chased a tanker underway. Small arms and ladder observed in the skiff. All crew except master and OOW were mustered at safe point. Security guard onboard fired warning shots and pirates moved away.
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-295 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 12° 10' 00" N 61° 45' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: ARABIAN SEA: Bulk carrier (EMPEROR) was fired upon by one skiff with four pirates onboard 11 June at 0315 UTC while underway in position 12-10N 061-45E, approximately 426NM southeast of Socotra Island, Yemen. Onboard security team fired warning shots and the pirates aborted the attack. (IMB, UKMTO)
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-289 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 13° 29' 00" N 42° 43' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: TANKER Description: AROUND 27 MILES NORTH OF ASSAB, ERITREA, RED SEA: While underway the duty officer onboard a tanker spotted a skiff on radar. When the skiff approached closer, seven pirates were observed in the skiff. The pirates could not board the vessel due to high freeboard. Later the skiff moved away.
Date of Occurrence: 06/11/2011 Reference Number: 2011-296 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 13° 32' 00" N 42° 41' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: TANKER Description: RED SEA: Chemical/oil products tanker (EMMA VICTORY) experienced an attempted boarding 11 June at 0451 UTC while underway in position 13-32N 042-41E, approximately 31NM northwest of Assab, Eritrea. Vessel spotted five skiffs but was only attacked by one. Skiff attempted to put on a ladder on the vessel, but could not due to razor wire and evasive maneuvers. (UKMTO, Operator, Commercial Sources)
Date of Occurrence: 06/10/2011 Reference Number: 2011-285 Geographical Subregion: 62 Geographical Location: 13° 29' 00" N 42° 37' 00" E Aggressor: PIRATES Victim: BULK CARRIER Description: AROUND 30 MILES NORTH OF ASSAB, ERITREA, RED SEA: Six pirates in one skiff chased and fired upon a bulk carrier underway. Vessel took all anti-piracy measueres and contacted the coalition forces resulting in the pirates aborting the attempt.
23.06.2011: 0531 LT: Posn: 05:52S – 013:24.72E, Matadi anchorage, Democratic Republic of Congo. Robbers boarded and stole ship stores from an anchored refrigerated cargo vessel on three occasions between 0500lt and 0740lt. Duty crew spotted the robbers and raised the alarm on each occasion resulting in the robbers jumping overboard and escaping in a waiting boat. No response received from port authority when called on VHF.
23.06.2011: 0240 LT: Posn: 7:11.5S – 112:43.5E, Surabaya anchorage, Indonesia.
Robbers boarded an anchored bulk carrier from the stern as the duty crew was taking routine rounds forward. They stole ship's stores and escaped. When the duty crew reached the stern, he found ship's stores missing and raised the alarm. Port control and local agents informed.
18.06.2011: 0210 LT: Posn: 05:51.9S – 013:2.57E, Boma anchorage, Dem. Rep. of Congo.
A vigilant deck watchman onboard an anchored refrigerated cargo vessel noticed a robber with a long knife hiding on the forecastle deck. The robber jumped overboard when the deck watchman illuminated the area with his flashlight. Nothing reported stolen.
16.06.2011: 0800 UTC: Posn: 13:43.8N – 042:56.8E, around 42nm NxE of Assab, Eritrea, Red Sea. A skiff with five pirates approached a general cargo ship underway at a speed of 25 knots. As the skiff closed a pirate with a gun was observed. When the skiff closed to 100 meters the onboard armed security team fired warning shots resulting in the skiff moving away.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Australia Looks North and Thinks Defense
Reported as Australia Plans Deploying Assault Ships to Protect its NW Shelf Oil and Gas Assets:
Australia is looking to boost its military power in the northwest to protect its booming offshore oil and gas sector and counter new challenges from China and the Indian Ocean, Defence Minister Stephen Smith said on Wednesday.
The shift, being considered in a defence posture review, could see new amphibious assault ships and the planned Joint Strike Fighters based across Australia’s sprawling north and western coastlines, where resource companies have invested billions in offshore oil and gas projects.
Carnarvon Basin OIl Field Off Western Australia Map from Oil and Gas Journal
The posture review would also consider strategic challenges from the Indian Ocean rim and reflect the growth of military power in the Asia Pacific, although Smith said the shift was not focused on China’s rising muscle.
“We are confident China will emerge as … a responsible stakeholder. As the Chinese would say, into a harmonious environment. We are confident of that,” Smith said. “There is more than one country in the Asia Pacific.”
RAN Hobart Class Destroyer
The United States, Australia’s top strategic ally, also plans to increase its Asia Pacific presence. Smith said Australia’s review would complement a similar review under way in Washington.
***
Australia is considering building up to 12 new long-range submarines and has committed $7.6 billion for three powerful air warfare destroyers, due in service from 2015.
Australia is also aiming to buy 100 Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, to complement the fleet of
F-35A
F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets, currently based in Queensland, New South Wales and the remote Northern Territory.
The boom resource state of Western Australia has a major navy base near the capital Perth, and is home to the country’s elite Special Air Service forces, but there are no major military bases in the state’s north, facing Asia.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Somali Pirates: Freed Ship Now Sinking Off Oman
The Panama flagged Egyptian merchant ship MV Suez has started sinking about 80miles off Oman's southern port of Salalah, Kutaiba Al Hatmy, Corporate Communications Manager at the Salalah Port Services, told Gulf News on Monday.The escort duties fell to the Pakistani Navy after some sort of disagreement with an Indian naval vessel. See here:
"The crew were transferred to Pakistan naval frigate PNS Babur before MV Suez began tilting," the Salalah Port Services official said.
He said that there was no further news from the owners of the shi, Red Sea Navigation Co, who seemed to have abandoned the 17,300 DWT vessel.
He informed that efforts to send a tug boat, Hasik, from Salalah did not work out after MV Suez, released by Somali pirates after ten-month in captivity, ran out of fuel on its way to the Omani port in the south.
All 22 crew abandoned MV Suez on Sunday evening and boarded the Pakistani naval frigate PNS Babur from where they were due to be picked by F-22P class frigate PNS Zulfiquar.
The diplomatic squabble over the “brush-off” between an Indian and a Pakistani warship in the Indian Ocean this week — with both countries lodging protests against each other — appears to have been triggered by the actions of an unsure Indian government that possibly reacted to shrill news TV reports.Pakistan assert the Indian naval vessel was at fault and have filed their own protest.
The unseemly row has the potential of becoming an irritant in the upcoming foreign secretary level talks.
India pulled the INS Godavari, which was in the region on a routine international anti-piracy mission, off its regular duty to the aid of the MV Suez, which had six Indian crew on board, leading to a mid-ocean scrap with the Pakistani PNS Babur, with the two warships brushing past each other.
Pictures and videos of the encounter — which have been shared with Pakistan — show that Babur was deliberately tailing the Godavari so close that it brushed past the Indian warship’s aft. As the Pakistani warship — which was described by government sources as a “history-sheeter” with two earlier incidents of risky behaviour at sea — tangled with the INS Godavari, its crew shouted anti-India slogans.
I have not yet seen the videos allegedly passed to Pakistan by the Indians.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Israel's Blockade of Gaza and the Battle of Media Coverage
Let's start with this - Code Pink stages pro-Gaza rally at State Dept. (highlighting and blue comments are mine):
The American ship Audacity of Hope, part of the Freedom Flotilla II, will depart from Greece with 50 passengers in late June headed for Gaza. In total, the flotilla will include roughly ten boats carrying 1,000 passengers, and will set sail on June 25. They are billing their voyage as a sequel to the Freedom Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israeli authorities on its way to Gaza last May in an incident that resulted in nine deaths.Just a reminder, it's my view that Israel has a perfectly legal right to blockade Gaza under the conditions that exist between the Gazans and Israel.
Code Pink staged a small press conference on Thursday morning outside the State Department's C Street entrance that featured speeches by Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who will be a passenger on the flotilla, former CIA analyst and passenger Ray McGovern , activist and flotilla passenger Missy Lane, Palestinian-American lawyer Noura Erekat, and Gazan activist Amer Shurrab.[Got to get those names spelled correctly - it's all about them]
This year's flotilla occurs in a drastically altered atmosphere as compared to last year's. The Israelis have eased restrictions on some goods and Egypt has opened up the Rafah Crossing. Regardless, the activists at the State Department stressed that the people of Gaza still live under harsh conditions and need international advocacy.[This trip is totally unnecessary but we still want the publicity]
Benjamin, naturally dressed all in pink, said she is hoping that the American presence aboard the flotilla will lessen the risk of a violent encounter with the Israel Defense Forces, and called on the State Department to express its support. [Oh Bulls***, Ms. Benjamin is really hoping for a media rich "confrontation" with the IDF - otherwise, why bother?]
"We, as Americans, who are going on the boat that is a U.S. flag ship, that is carrying U.S. passengers...this is the time for our State Department to come forward and say ‘we recognize our responsibility to U.S. citizens and we will put pressure on the Israeli government to make sure that no harm comes to our citizens,'" she said.[Last time I looked, the U.S. government has virtually no responsibility to do anything for citizens who are stupid enough to put themselves in harm's way intentionally or bail them out once they are deep into it. I'd be more impressed if the "flotilla" was sailing into Somali pirate waters to protest the treatment of women in Somalia. More impressed, but not any more inclined to suggest that the U.S. government do a damn thing about it.]
In support of my view, I offer some information on blockades from part of an earlier post:
There is that the magic word "blockade."
As you may recall, Israel has interdicted ships attempting to carry supplies into Gaza. As noted in an earlier post, this seems to be a legal blockade of Gaza. There is an interesting piece by a Israeli legal scholar Ruth Lapidoth, The Legal Basis of Israel's Naval Blockade of Gaza, which lays out the argument that the blockade of Gaza is perfectly legal under international law.The piece cites the San Remo Manual as setting out the appropriate rules for parties to an armed conflict:
SECTION II : METHODS OF WARFAREProfessor Lapidoth finds that these rules applied to a blockade of Gaza.
Blockade
93. A blockade shall be declared and notified to all belligerents and neutral States. 94. The declaration shall specify the commencement, duration, location, and extent of the blockade and the period within which vessels of neutral States may leave the blockaded coastline. 95. A blockade must be effective. The question whether a blockade is effective is a question of fact. 96. The force maintaining the blockade may be stationed at a distance determined by military requirements.97. A blockade may be enforced and maintained by a combination of legitimate methods and means of warfare provided this combination does not result in acts inconsistent with the rules set out in this document. 98. Merchant vessels believed on reasonable grounds to be breaching a blockade may be captured. Merchant vessels which, after prior warning, clearly resist capture may be attacked. 99. A blockade must not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral States. 100. A blockade must be applied impartially to the vessels of all States. 101. The cessation, temporary lifting, re-establishment, extension or other alteration of a blockade must be declared and notified as in paragraphs 93 and 94. 102. The declaration or establishment of a blockade is prohibited if: (a) it has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival; or(b) the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade. 103. If the civilian population of the blockaded territory is inadequately provided with food and other objects essential for its survival, the blockading party must provide for free passage of such foodstuffs and other essential supplies, subject to: (a) the right to prescribe the technical arrangements, including search, under which such passage is permitted; and(b) the condition that the distribution of such supplies shall be made under the local supervision of a Protecting Power or a humanitarian organization which offers guarantees of impartiality, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. 104. The blockading belligerent shall allow the passage of medical supplies for the civilian population or for the wounded and sick members of armed forces, subject to the right to prescribe technical arrangements, including search, under which such passage is permitted.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Brazil: Now Fighting RIver Pirates
Authorities in the Brazilian Amazon are to create an anti-piracy taskforce following a spate of attacks on riverboats in the northern state of Pará.As we've seen in the past, it is necessary to jump on such problems quickly.
The rapid-response unit was unveiled by officials after an attack in which 11 heavily armed thieves stormed a passenger boat heading for the state capital, Belém.
Joao Bosco Rodrigues, head of Pará's specialist police divisions, said the unit was "another instrument to combat and prevent" the actions of pirates in the Amazon region. "This group will be there to react to any kind of demand on our rivers," he said.
Witnesses to the latest attack said that thieves in small motorboats approached the passenger vessel, firing into the air, on Tuesday afternoon.
Once aboard, the men reportedly threatened to execute some of the estimated 140 adult and child passengers.
"They humiliated everybody," passenger Artur Cesar told the local Diário do Pará newspaper. "They put guns to the children's heads and even said they would cut the fingers off those who didn't hand over their rings. There were pistols, revolvers – lots of weapons."
Amazon river boat photo from here by Gail Gillis, 2001.
Somali Pirates: Armed Guards on Merchant Ships - Things Lawyers Worry About
 |
| Barney Fife - Shipboard Security Expert? |
He concludes by recognising the possible need for armed guards, but stresses that owners and masters to ensure that they are legally protected. A very difficult balancing act.It's all about control and accountability. You know - having someone to arrest or sue.
Meanwhile in the West Philippine Sea, China deploys ship to disputed islands
China on Thursday said that it had sent a maritime patrol vessel to disputed islands and surrounding waters of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) but insisted that it remains committed to peace in the region despite tensions with its neighbors.
Beijing had pledged that it would not resort to force to resolve lingering maritime territorial rows over the contested islands and waters, after the Philippines this week sought help from the United States and Vietnam staged live-fire military exercises in contrasting moves to assert their claims to the territories.
****
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia have competing claims to the Spratlys.
Beijing and Hanoi are at odds over the Paracels.
The area has commercial shipping lanes that are vital for global trade.
Tensions between China and other rival claimants escalated in recent weeks, with the Philippines and Vietnam in particular expressing alarm at what they say are increasingly aggressive actions by China in the disputed islands and waters.
A day before Beijing deployed the Haixun 31 to the West Philippine Sea, Manila announced that it had removed foreign markers in the Spratlys in an apparent muscle-flexing of its own.
The Philippine Navy on Wednesday said that it took out the markers, whose ownerships it did not establish, in May this year.
On Thursday, it called the removal of the markers a form of active defense on the part of the Philippines.
Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, Navy flag officer-in-command, said that they have responsibilities to protect the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
The Philippine Navy, together with the Philippine Coast Guard, according to Pama, would continue patrolling the contested islands round the clock.
A good deal of background at China: "The Cow's Tongue" and the links therein.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Heh. Hail to the TROTUS!
From an evil genius at Castle Argghhh!!! The reason unemployment is so high -- according to TROTUS*
The evil ATM Dalek:
The evil ATM Dalek:
Somali Pirates: Captive Ship Burns. Pirates "Rescue" Hostages
 |
| MV Orna |
Somali pirates say they have evacuated 19 crew members from a hijacked ship that caught fire Wednesday.This will raise some interesting questions about whether the ship owner's insurance (if there is insurance) covers the ship alone or the crew as far as any ransom goes, whether the ship owner has coverage for a burning ship not within his custody and control and what the pirates will do with the hulk of a burned out cargo ship (if it comes to that)?
The Panama-flagged cargo ship MV Orna caught fire in the pirate stronghold of Harardhere, on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.
VOA's Somali service talked to a regional piracy expert, Andrew Mwangura, who says the ship was still on fire Thursday afternoon local time.
A pirate said he and his colleagues were trying to put out the fire. No cause had been determined.
The ship's crew remains held by the pirates.
Original report of MV Orna's capture here.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
"What is NATO for?"
What is NATO for? Not for fighting wars. It proved in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Libya that NATO is not an effective fighting alliance. The wars it fights are fought by committee: or, worse, by bureaucracy. They are clumsy, inefficient, and violate the unity of command, one of the basic principles of war-fighting. Kosovo ended when the Kosovo Liberation Army began to make progress in ground combat and President Clinton appeared to be rethinking his no-ground-forces rule. Afghanistan has only turned around (barely) since the United States effectively re-Americanized the war starting in 2009 (Americans did not make up a majority of international military forces in Afghanistan until then). And Libya is likely to remain stalemated until NATO changes its approach or the United States takes over.As noted in the piece, the U.S. spends a lot of money on defense and some portion of that is to allow us to defend our NATO allies under Article 5.
Our guest on the Midrats show argues that Article 5 (which requires all NATO nations to come to the defense of any NATO member that comes under attack) ought to be done away with while NATO shifts its mission - something about whether it makes sense for us to commit to "we will fight to the death of the last American for Estonian boundaries."
Some of us question whether or not NATO is needed at all - having successfully completed its mission, let's fold its flag and move on.
More at CDR Salamander's place where he has some nice graphics on European defense spending liberated from The Economist:
As I tried to pose in a question on the show, after 60+ years, haven't the European countries of post war activity grown economically sound enough to shoulder more of the financial burden of providing the military cover that allows parts of the world to be made safe for democracy?They end up with a phrase right off the front porch.... why should outsiders bother to protect countries that won’t take their own defence seriously?
Mr. Miller and Dr. Fedyszyn sort of reach the same point - let NATO morph into what is good at, but let's take a hard look at what Article 5 costs the U.S. in terms of the military benefits we get out of it.
UPDATE: This kind of highlights one of the issues addressed during the radio show about how slow the NATO decision processes can be:
"Nato decisions are very slow and very complicated. Nato send aircraft for reconnaissance, they take a picture, they take time to analyse the picture, then take time to take the decision to send the fighter to attack the target. Then the target moved.Deliberate is okay unless you are the guy on the ground getting his ass shot off.
Things to Read
Richard Clarke: China's Cyberassault on America - WSJ.com:
Senior U.S. officials know well that the government of China is systematically attacking the computer networks of the U.S. government and American corporations. Beijing is successfully stealing research and development, software source code, manufacturing know-how and government plans. In a global competition among knowledge-based economies, Chinese cyberoperations are eroding America's advantage.Spengler's Zombie Economy:
***
In 2009, this newspaper reported that the control systems for the U.S. electric power grid had been hacked and secret openings created so that the attacker could get back in with ease. Far from denying the story, President Obama publicly stated that "cyber intruders have probed our electrical grid."
There is no money to steal on the electrical grid, nor is there any intelligence value that would justify cyber espionage: The only point to penetrating the grid's controls is to counter American military superiority by threatening to damage the underpinning of the U.S. economy. Chinese military strategists have written about how in this way a nation like China could gain an equal footing with the militarily superior United States.
Nobody has taken any risks, so there is no risk to liquidate. There isn't much money to make, either. Welcome to the monetary equivalent of the Night of the Living Dead.From Investors Business Daily Big Corn Eats the GOP, where the Republicans won't kill the ethanol monster that eats $6billion+ in tax payer money to enrich a few in a program that ought to shot, hung, electrocuted and have a stake driven through its heart:
Ending this madness should be a no-brainer. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find another public policy that has so utterly and completely failed to live up to any of its promises . . .
Expanding ethanol use was supposed to lead to greater energy independence. But oil imports have climbed right along with the sevenfold increase in ethanol production.
It was supposed to help the environment. But various studies have found that it does little, if anything, to reduce smog or greenhouse gas emissions.
It was supposed to keep gasoline prices down. Anyone filling up these days can see how well that's worked out.
What it has done is raise food prices. As demand for corn goes up, so does its price, along with the price of every other food that relies on corn. The Congressional Budget Office calculated that up to 15% of the rise in food prices from 2007-2008 was due to the increased use of ethanol.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sea Lines of Communication or Sea Lanes
Back in the beginning days of this blog, I had a couple of posts about "sea lanes" and their importance. For example, from 2005, there was a post cleverly titled "Sea Lanes". I wrote then:
However, what is important to know about sea lanes or SLOCs is that they exist and that they are a major reason that nations interested in international commerce have navies - to keep the sea lanes open. In discussing maritime security, keeping sea lanes open is a major topic.
We hear a lot about how many things travel by sea. From crude oil to grain to large screen TVs to cars and much more, cheaper shipping has allowed the entire world to benefit from global product distribution (see here and here). Where do these products travel? Sea lanes. An excellent example of these sea lanes is shown on this Naval War College slide (which I have borrowed without shame):
There it is, a picture of world commerce. Those are not war ships wending their way across oceans, those are merchant ships moving the goods that make the world go. You might note that there are places where the traffic converges to pass through narrow areas. These are referred to as "chokepoints", "Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes . . ."
Large ships sail on rigid schedules, carrying parts from Japan to the U.S. or to Europe in such a reliable manner that warehouse costs are reduced by planning for "just in time" deliveries of products.
So, when there is a disruption in the smooth flow of goods, say from the recent earthquake in Japan, there are ripple effects that impact more than the Japanese part manufacturers.
A similar effect is caused by things that interfere with sea lanes. These might be something like a catastrophe that strikes a chokepoint like a closure of the Suez Canal.
Taking the map above, I added some blue arrows to point at a few chokepoints, like the Suez Canal, Strait of Malacca, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Bab el-Mandab, Strait of Gibraltar, and the general area of straits leading from the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico (see below).
Want to look at Caribbean chokepoints? I added some destroyer images to make the point - most of the oil imported into the U.S. by ship has to pass through these straits. In turn, these straits need to be protected if our economy is to work.
Finally, let me again refer to an older post about the Somali pirates and how cleverly they've been in moving out into the major sea lanes of the Indian Ocean area as they ply their trade. See Where the Somali Pirates Operate and Why where I put up this consolidated image of the Indian Ocean sea lanes and pirates strikes:
While there seem to be logistical limits on the Somali pirates as to the number of captive ships and hostages they can host at any given time and this limits their impact on the sea lane flow of commerce, they are certainly well-versed in the exploitation of the known sea lanes. Even this relatively minor bump in the flow of traffic, though, has been enough to get 20 or more naval vessels from many different countries out into the Indian Ocean attempting to thwart interference by the pirates of these vital sea lanes.
The greater lesson of the Somali pirates is how relatively easy it may be to cause trouble on sea lanes or at chokepoints and why it is vital to have in place assets to counter any such attempted trouble making.
We have now reviewed sea lanes, sea lines of communication and choke points and their importance to the global flow of commerce on the highway of the sea.
I suppose we also have covered why we, a nation dependent on maritime commerce, have a Navy and a Coast Guard out there keeping the sea lanes open. As noted here:
I keep posting about sea lanes. What are these things? Sea lanes are trade routes - almost like highways in the sea, where due to geography, ocean going vessels follow certain paths to avoid islands, shallows and other impediments to their travel. They are also generally the most efficient routes to get from Point A to Point B - as close to straight line travel as a ship can accomplish given the number of obstacles in its path.Since then, there have been hundreds of posts here in which I refer to either "sea lanes" or "sea lines of communication" (see, e.g. Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs)). There can be a difference between the two terms, since SLOC can have a military meaning that I have generally ignored here.
However, what is important to know about sea lanes or SLOCs is that they exist and that they are a major reason that nations interested in international commerce have navies - to keep the sea lanes open. In discussing maritime security, keeping sea lanes open is a major topic.
We hear a lot about how many things travel by sea. From crude oil to grain to large screen TVs to cars and much more, cheaper shipping has allowed the entire world to benefit from global product distribution (see here and here). Where do these products travel? Sea lanes. An excellent example of these sea lanes is shown on this Naval War College slide (which I have borrowed without shame):
There it is, a picture of world commerce. Those are not war ships wending their way across oceans, those are merchant ships moving the goods that make the world go. You might note that there are places where the traffic converges to pass through narrow areas. These are referred to as "chokepoints", "Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes . . ."
Large ships sail on rigid schedules, carrying parts from Japan to the U.S. or to Europe in such a reliable manner that warehouse costs are reduced by planning for "just in time" deliveries of products.
So, when there is a disruption in the smooth flow of goods, say from the recent earthquake in Japan, there are ripple effects that impact more than the Japanese part manufacturers.
A similar effect is caused by things that interfere with sea lanes. These might be something like a catastrophe that strikes a chokepoint like a closure of the Suez Canal.
Taking the map above, I added some blue arrows to point at a few chokepoints, like the Suez Canal, Strait of Malacca, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Bab el-Mandab, Strait of Gibraltar, and the general area of straits leading from the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico (see below).
Want to look at Caribbean chokepoints? I added some destroyer images to make the point - most of the oil imported into the U.S. by ship has to pass through these straits. In turn, these straits need to be protected if our economy is to work.
Finally, let me again refer to an older post about the Somali pirates and how cleverly they've been in moving out into the major sea lanes of the Indian Ocean area as they ply their trade. See Where the Somali Pirates Operate and Why where I put up this consolidated image of the Indian Ocean sea lanes and pirates strikes:
While there seem to be logistical limits on the Somali pirates as to the number of captive ships and hostages they can host at any given time and this limits their impact on the sea lane flow of commerce, they are certainly well-versed in the exploitation of the known sea lanes. Even this relatively minor bump in the flow of traffic, though, has been enough to get 20 or more naval vessels from many different countries out into the Indian Ocean attempting to thwart interference by the pirates of these vital sea lanes.
The greater lesson of the Somali pirates is how relatively easy it may be to cause trouble on sea lanes or at chokepoints and why it is vital to have in place assets to counter any such attempted trouble making.
We have now reviewed sea lanes, sea lines of communication and choke points and their importance to the global flow of commerce on the highway of the sea.
I suppose we also have covered why we, a nation dependent on maritime commerce, have a Navy and a Coast Guard out there keeping the sea lanes open. As noted here:
70% of the world is water, 80% of the world lives on or near the coastline and 90% of our commerce sails across it. Any disruption in that chain caused by instability has a direct impact on American quality of life.
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