Tramp Steamers

[Tiki Tom]

On the occasion of “day of the seafarer”, three experienced merchant marine veterans talk about the state of the industry:

https://www.agcs.allianz.com/news-a...-articles/marine-risk-consulting-changes.html

 

[Tiki Tom]

Every once in a while, I trip over a story that is so impractical and so romantic and so absurd that my faith in humanity is rekindled. I want to sign-on to this crazy endeavor. What? Transport small shipments of “bio” wine to New York from France on a “green” sailing schooner!? Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
I love it.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/supply-chain-problems-try-a-cargo-schooner

 

[Tiki Tom]

How modern pirates use GPS to evade the law.
Not really new, but an interesting read, nonetheless.
Remember a few years back, when the evil empire (that cannot be named on FL) was using electronic techniques to give foreign naval vessels (aka, not their own) the wrong GPS coordinates? This article is not as scary as that, but still shines a light on modern maritime criminality.

https://dnyuz.com/2022/09/03/high-seas-deception-how-shady-ships-use-gps-to-evade-international-law/

 

[Tiki Tom]

Holy preventable disasters, Batman!
As we speak, an ancient super tanker is slowly falling apart… and it’s filled with more crude oil than the Exxon Valdez. Not good.

BTW, hat tip to the Netherlands on this one.

https://gcaptain.com/brink-of-catas...additional-funds-for-fso-safer-rescue-effort/

https://www.un.org/StopRedSeaSpill

And (if earlier stories in this thread are correct) this may not be an isolated case.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Gun running freighter up to no good as it docks in South Africa?

This could be straight out of a spy novel or adventure movie.
The Russian owned (but Dagestan registered) “Lady R” slipped into South Africa under cover of darkness with its transponder turned off. The Lady R is already under American sanctions for gun smuggling. Speculation is that South Africa is selling a load of armaments to Russia for use in Ukraine. Like a ghost, the Lady R unloaded, reloaded, and then disappeared again.

https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-mps-worried-government-165600910.html

Will the Lady R be intercepted at sea? Stay tuned.

Not saying they are guilty, but arms sales are big business in South Africa.

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/sa-exported-r3-3-billion-worth-of-military-hardware-in-2021/

The whole affair is Reminiscent of a Tom Clancy novel.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Anyone interested in a good, salty, ghost ship story?

https://www.iflscience.com/are-ghos...-oceans-with-no-one-aboard-to-crew-them-67071

 

[Tiki Tom]

I’ve heard of ghost ships…. But a real life ghost aircraft carrier? A bizarre story.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/americas/brazil-ghost-aircraft-carrier-sinking-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

 

[galopede]

My favourite steamer stories are the various tales of Para Handy, written as newspaper columns in the 1920's by Glasgow man Neil Munro about the captain and crew of the Vital Spark. Humorous tales of the Clyde Puffers that plied their trade along the Clyde and to the island such as Arran etc. At the time, they were the only way some islands got supplies. The boats were flat bottomed and often ran onto the beach to unload, floating off on the next tide.

There are several collections of stories. They can be quite hard going though, as they were written in dialect!

 

[Haversack]

My favourite steamer stories are the various tales of Para Handy, written as newspaper columns in the 1920's by Glasgow man Neil Munro about the captain and crew of the Vital Spark. Humorous tales of the Clyde Puffers that plied their trade along the Clyde and to the island such as Arran etc. At the time, they were the only way some islands got supplies. The boats were flat bottomed and often ran onto the beach to unload, floating off on the next tide.

There are several collections of stories. They can be quite hard going though, as they were written in dialect!

You have seen The Maggie? A 1954 Ealing Studio comedy based on the Para Handy stories. Alex Mackenzie plays Captain MacTaggart. Filmed on the Clyde and the Islands. A bonus is a Dragon Rapide.

 

[galopede]

You have seen The Maggie? A 1954 Ealing Studio comedy based on the Para Handy stories. Alex Mackenzie plays Captain MacTaggart. Filmed on the Clyde and the Islands. A bonus is a Dragon Rapide.

I have seen The Maggie. Some years ago now and can't remember much of it. Last TV version was from 1994 with Gregor Fisher as Para Handy. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155450/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

[Tiki Tom]

Pirates raid a Danish oil tanker off of Congo. Before the French Navy arrived, the pirates kidnapped some of the crew and fled.

https://www.news24.com/news24/afric...rew-from-danish-ship-off-west-africa-20230331

 

[fireman]

Time to send in the Marines.

 

[Tiki Tom]

FYI: Book review re Tramp Steamers…

https://www.newportthisweek.com/articles/the-rich-tale-of-life-on-a-tramp-steamer/

 

[Tiki Tom]

Gun running freighter up to no good as it docks in South Africa?

This could be straight out of a spy novel or adventure movie.
The Russian owned (but Dagestan registered) “Lady R” slipped into South Africa under cover of darkness with its transponder turned off. The Lady R is already under American sanctions for gun smuggling. Speculation is that South Africa is selling a load of armaments to Russia for use in Ukraine. Like a ghost, the Lady R unloaded, reloaded, and then disappeared again.

https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-mps-worried-government-165600910.html

Will the Lady R be intercepted at sea? Stay tuned.

Not saying they are guilty, but arms sales are big business in South Africa.

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/sa-exported-r3-3-billion-worth-of-military-hardware-in-2021/

The whole affair is Reminiscent of a Tom Clancy novel.

Update on this story. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-says-south-africa-supplied-weapons-ammunition-to-russia-c2489d54

 

[Tiki Tom]

200 ship traffic jam/backlog at the Panama Canal.
Caused By low water levels due to drought.
I had no idea the canal was so fresh water/rainfall dependent.
Seems like a major vulnerability in this day and age.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/panama-canal-pileup

46% of trade between Northern Asia and the U.S. East Coast goes through the Panama Canal. Could current jam factor into inflation?

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/panama-market-overview

 

[fireman]

I had no idea that fresh water was a part of the Panama canal. WOW!

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Ships using the Panama canal used to stay in the freshwater lake for a week or two to take the "freshwater cure": in the fresh water the saltwater barnacles would die and fall away from the hull. Much cheaper and more convenient than going into drydock to have the hull scraped.

I had no idea that fresh water was a part of the Panama canal. WOW!

 

[Tiki Tom]

Pirates infest San Francisco Bay.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...marauding-crime-ridden-San-Francisco-Bay.html

Truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[Woodtroll]

I think California may be beginning to learn that's its better for society when criminals are held accountable for their actions. More specifically, they're seeing what happens when you don't. Recovery from all this will be difficult, I believe.

 

[Zombie_61]

I think California may be beginning to learn that's its better for society when criminals are held accountable for their actions. More specifically, they're seeing what happens when you don't. Recovery from all this will be difficult, I believe.

I don't think so. For a while the morning news would report on the criminals being released from prison by Governor Nuisance for one weak reason or another, and a percentage of those criminals seemingly couldn't wait to commit another crime so they could get arrested and go back to prison. So now they don't mention anything about the releases, just the arrests. No, the people running this state are about as sharp as a crate of bowling balls.