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The world’s merchant shipping en- CQuntered in 1985 problems as well publicized as the Persian Gulf tanker war and as obscure as the trial of a Greek captain on charges that he forced stowaways overboard in shark-infested waters. The United States opened a major section of inland waterway in 1985, while, for the second year in a row, vessels found passage blocked on the St. Lawrence Seaway. An American racing yacht was dismasted after leading for much of the first
The Liberian-fiag freighter Furia makes her way out of Welland Canal lock number seven on 6 November 1985. The ship became stuck in the lock on 14 October when part of the wall collapsed, stopping traffic in this section of the canal for 24 days.
leg of a celebrated around-the-world yacht race; and a questionable British effort to reclaim the Blue Riband failed.
Hurricanes battered American coasts with record-setting fury; an American merchant marine officer was convicted of the ancient charge of barratry; on Capitol Hill, tough new laws for American shipowners went into effect after the sinking of two American merchant vessels, the Poet in 1980 and the Marine Electric in 1983; Jacques Cousteau crossed the Atlantic in a wind-powered vessel; losses of merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf rose to levels that exceeded any war since World War II; piracy increased, with one American vessel boarded and 11 officers and crew killed on board a Colombian freighter; the families of three lobstermen won a suit against the U. S. Weather Service after the men were lost at sea in a
fierce storm that the service did not pre' diet; Marine Transport Lines, the owners of the lost American ship Marine Electric settled with most of the relatives of the 3 who died on the ship; and in Moscow, Soviet merchant officials said they wu build nuclear-powered, ice-strengthene merchant vessels.
AP/WIDE WORLD
Investigation and Court Results________
A number of investigations and settlements dealing with casualties of earlier years were concluded in 1985. Marine Transport Lines, the owner of the bui carrier Marine Electric, settled with tnos of the families of the 31 American crew and officers who died in the sinking 0 the ship in February 1983. (See Nava Review 1985, pages 84-85.) Jeffrey A- Breit, an attorney for one survivor an the families of 14 victims, said the ship owners paid $5.12 million in an out-o court settlement. He speculated that one reason the company agreed to settle was
the U. S. Coast Guard’s recommendation
that the ship’s captain and the port cap tain of Marine Transport Lines should ® criminally prosecuted because they knew, or should have known, that vessel was in poor condition.
At year’s end, the U. S. Justice partment had not announced any decisi
to follow that year-old recommendation-
The company also had not settled w* Robert Cusick, of Scituate, Massacin^ setts, the Marine Electric's former thir mate, who survived the wreck and was key witness against Marine Transpo ■ The Wickboldt family of Great Nec • New York, whose son was a cadet on t Marine Electric, also refused to sett e Another Wickboldt son died earlier in a explosion on board the Golden Dolp 1
U. S. Representative Walter B. J°^e ’ the chairman of the House Merc Marine and Fisheries Committee, a
nounced in September that Congr® placed into effect legislation that Journal of Commerce described as
most comprehensive legislation in ina years to protect the lives of U. S. sea ers” in the wake of the sinking o ^ Poet and the Marine Electric. * e
men lost their lives in those two mariti
£acSv0CTHmng “ 1980 and 1983 re-
taiied ||. 'he new laws provide for dewith off 'nspect'on procedures along inform-£rin® Protect'on ar|d anonymity to ihoriti 3ntS Wbo report ship defects to au- Prison?' F‘neS 0f UP t0 S 10,000 and vided fCrmS UP t0 i've years were pro- resii|., °r dlose who violate inspection
ously ‘0nS~Where a fine of $50° Prev‘-
exno<ieXlSted' 3 new 'aws also required Atlant'16 SU*tS sfi‘Ps operating in the and v1C ?ordl °* 32 degrees north latitude Anv ,°Uta 32 degrees south latitude. Coast pSe^owner wl’° does not notify the t° (-,e|j Uafd °f a ship that he has reason fines <!fVe may be in peril is subject to lation Th t0 ^' 3100 for each day of vio- specjai • 1C Coast Guard also assigned
still in lnsPectors to World War II ships 11 ln service.
board .......... u 1 ransportation Naiety
both a L°nc*uded that hull failure sank Island v ar®e anti *fie tug Celtic in Long erewm °U,nd on November 1984. Six bleCaen d'ed- The board said, “Proba- ovvnerSf °f sinking was failure of the ^equat" i ^ ba|Te to maintain the barge structur6^' Wb’c^ allowed the internal until th^ t,nd sbed Plating to deteriorate The MC,barge sustained hull failure.” barpn ' ‘ Rudolph Company was the owner.
People d°ard a*so concluded that two the Sen °n h°ard a passenger ship, °n 2n lnav‘an Sun- docked at Miami failed t U®ust 10^4 because the crew a lubrie' V^hten a threaded pipe fitting on in WhicV08 °d *'ne- The result was a fire niernber i°ne Passenger and one crew crew a| led from smoke inhalation. The Screen ° *adet* t0 c*ose properly the engineerCy watertight doors between ship. lng spaces and the rest of the 0 watch was maintained in the pilothouse on the Bahamian registered vessel, so officers did not stop the ventilation system or close emergency fire doors when fire alarms sounded in the pilothouse.
The board also stated that another passenger ship, the Scandinavian Sea, owned by the same company as the Scandinavian Sun, burned on 9 March 1984 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, because someone purposely, or accidentally, ignited combustible fluid in Room 414. No one was injured; the ship was a total loss.
In another report, the board concluded that the U. S. tankship American Eagle, en route from Savannah, Georgia, to Orange, Texas, exploded on 26 February 1984 because the crew used a tank cleaning process that produced a steam- induced electrostatic discharge. Three men died in that incident. The vessel sank 130 miles southwest of New Orleans the next day, and four men died then, in part because a lifeboat mechanism failed to lower the craft into the water.
Merchant Ship Losses in 1985
The fully loaded Turkish supertanker M. Vatan was attacked by Iraqi jets and missiles on 9 July. Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence reported that the ultra-large crude oil carrier was the largest vessel damaged in the Iraq-Iran war “and possibly the largest marine casualty ever in tonnage.” The 392,799 deadweight ton vessel was insured for $10 million, her cargo of crude oil for another $70 million.
The tactics of the Persian Gulf tanker war shifted slightly in 1985, and the number of vessels damaged is believed to have decreased from 1984. Yet even at mid-year, the conflict had resulted in the loss of more merchant vessel tonnage than any other conflict since World War II. Drewery Shipping Consultants, Ltd., of London stated that more than two million gross tons of shipping had been sunk in 1984 and the first few months of 1985. Between September 1939 and September 1945, some 14.5 million gross tons of merchant shipping were sunk.
At year’s end, there was no sign of the end of hostilities between the two countries, but there were some indications that the attacks on ships were decreasing. Part of the reason for this was that Iran at midyear devised a shuttle service from Kharg Island to Sirri Island 300 miles to the southeast, out of the range of Iraq’s Super-Etendard aircraft. The supertankers hired by Iran to carry the cargo were exposed to attack, but international shippers and ships then were spared attacks at Sirri. By September, traders estimated that one-half to two-thirds of all Iranian exports were transshipped that way.
Simultaneously, Iraq stepped up its raids on the Kharg Island terminal, battering the heavily defended facility but not closing it. When Iraqi officials claimed that Iranian oil exports had dropped 80%, oil traders expressed disbelief, placing the figure closer to 25%. “Liberian flag ships certainly have had fewer attacks in 1985 than in 1984,” said Captain William Chadwick, head of investigations of the Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs based in Arlington, Virginia. “This year the Iraqis appear to be focusing on Kharg Island and not on ships.”
The Iraqis remained on the offensive. Chadwick estimated a two-to-one ratio of Iraqi to Iranian ship attacks. Those Iranian attacks that do take place most frequently occur south of Lavan Island, he said, where shipping must pass through a slot between Cable Bank and Shah Allum Shoal. “It is not a choke point; it is convenient,” he said. “The Iranians have an airfield nearby.”
The employment of weaponry remained the same as before, Captain Chadwick said, with Iraq continuing to fire Exocet missiles from Super Eten- dards, while Iran relied on aging F-4 jets and U. S.-made Maverick anti-tank missiles. The Exocets, he said, have proven to be effective ship-killers. Most frequently, he said, they strike ships near
the engine room, and explode 12 feet after entering the vessel. The blasts break oil and steam lines and set fires, all of which help disable the ship. The Maverick, as might be expected of a weapon designed more for tanks than tankers, is less effective. “It can be deadly if directed at the bridge,” Captain Chadwick said. “Otherwise, it explodes and leaves a big black residue and a big hole above the waterline and its energy is spent.” The huge toll of tankers has not, as some had predicted, turned the Gulf into one large oil spill, or used degradation of the environment as a weapon of war. “It would take one Amoco Cadiz incident in the Gulf to cause an economic and environmental disaster,” said Richard Golob, editor of the Oil Spill Intelligence Report. “The desalinization plants, the industries taking in water for cooling purposes, would come to a halt because they cannot tolerate oil intake.”
Pollution has occurred, but not on such a disastrous scale as originally feared. The choice of weaponry is one reason. Radar-guided Exocets home on the aft- mounted superstructures of tankers, according to Intertanko, an Oslo-based association of independent tanker owners. Thus, the cargo-carrying sections of the ships often are spared direct hits. Many modem vessels also carry inert gas sys
tems, which make the volatile oil less explosive. Captain Chadwick stated that salvage efforts by such internationally known firms as Smit International of Rotterdam have played an extraordinary role in cutting down pollution by pumping oil from burning ships. The combination of weaponry, technology, and salvage operations means that most ships attacked in the Gulf War meet their end at a scrap yard rather than sinking. They are total losses but still able to be towed.
Despite the continuing dangers of navigating the Persian Gulf area, commercial vessels were drawn to it as the shipping world continued to experience a severe depression in shipping rates. At midyear, 25 crew members had been killed in the war and another 25 seriously injured, according to Intertanko. Yet seamen, signing on at double and sometimes triple their regular pay, were in good supply. Intertanko reported $1 billion in losses in 1984, but tanker owners, who faced losses on most runs elsewhere in the world, made $1 million or more per trip to Kharg Island. Captain Chadwick reported that anti-missile defense systems were discussed at tanker owner conferences this year, but at a price tag of about $650,000 for radar jamming and warning devices, there were no known buyers. For just a little more money on today’s depressed markets, a ship owner could buy a second-hand tanker that cost millions to build just a few years ago.
There were other notable merchant ship casualties during 1985. A Liberian Marine Board of Investigation concluded that the Radiant Med sank in a storm on
- January in the English Channel southwest of Guernsey because the ship s hatches were not properly locked. Sixteen members of the 25-person crew died.
The Polish Freighter Busko Zdroj rolled over and sank off the coast of West Germany on 8 February, killing 24 of her
- crew members and officers. Investigating Polish maritime officials later said that the ship was overloaded and carried substandard life rafts. An improperly positioned cargo of steel shifted, helping to cause the sinking.
A broken toilet pipe caused the sinking of the Alliance, a 60-foot training boat used by Cornell University’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, on 5 Aprn in the Genesee River at Irondequoit, New York. The boat was refloated using airbags.
The Soviet freighter Abakanks rammed the Finnish freighter Salla on the coast of Finland on 6 April. Finnish crew members stated that their vessel was unable to avoid the Soviet ship because o
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and asserted that the Soviet ship
Ah i ^Ve tUmed but did not- The t0 her b ^ rece*ve<J only minor damage
Two tankers exploded near La Linea,
other ’ n Umg 21 and iniurin8 37 • An- dPQa t rema'ned missing and feared pef after 'he 26 May disaster. The ®ne' a Japanese-chartered Gih^u W3S un*°ading naphtha at the town3 ,ar Retinery m San Roque, a small Gihr ,across 'he Bay of Algeciras from of f? tar dbc vesse' erupted into a ball wiriparIleS hundreds of yards high and Cnm * 31 en8uded the Spanish tanker eaJon°«°. which was loading with Th'11^ directly across the wharf. fjjDe, oa'*ng American oil rig Tonkawa e over in a Louisiana bayou on 21 in/i Morgan City, Louisiana, kill- onprat i 22 men on hoard. The rig was of i, 6 hy Temple Drilling Company, ^ Houston, Texas. The 200-foot-long, three °'Wlde r'8 was being towed by Chen UtS wben *' capsized in Bayou hours*2 n ° men Were rescued a'ter five 'hrniioh d'vers with torches cut had h • a bud to pree them. Searchers Invesf3™ tbem taPP‘n8 inside the hull. CauserI^rf°rS bad not concluded what crewmpn6 capsizinS by year’s end, but last rn,Said the vessel had shifted bal- Th^°n y bef0re the indent. crew% Coast Guard credited the 4Ce . ? ^aPanese car carrier, the Coral she hp sav'n8 their own vessel after near 1 rCarne engulfed in fire on 6 August ntemh ni,na^ ^iand in Alaska. The crew Pfepa^i' 'aunched life rafts and were cided fC l° abandon ship when they deo make a last effort to save the ves
Sevgau'°mobiles survived the fire.
°n ij nty-one persons were evacuated °ff Uji. u§ust from a party fishing boat after th ,°u ^Cad isiand, South Carolina, and be *>■ °at deve'°Ped engine problems gers 'ahing on water. The passen-
ie v,, , ,,1C11 me vessel capsized in
HeilunpkhUa R'Ver in Harbin City, said the7ang Province> China. Officials broke our8^ 0ccurred after a fistfight °ne side fat!d llle Passengers rushed to ryboat w°‘ the boat to watch it. The fer- |argere'urning from Sun Island, a in the r, rL'at,10nal and convalescent haven DuriJ ;d.dlc of ‘he river, sifieq as^t ^ tbe number of ships clas- dr°Pped .°ta 'osses on a worldwide basis five year ° cr *owest level in 'he past s- >gures provided by Lloyd’s
pr«ce(
Intelligence Service for losses of ships of 500 gross tons or more are as follows:
Maritime Administration
Admiral Harold Shear resigned his position as U. S. Maritime Administrator on short notice effective 1 June after two big ships defaulted on $128 million in payments under government programs. The ships, the Golden Phoenix and Jade Phoenix, were built in the late 1970s as liquefied natural gas carriers, but cracks in their cargo tanks made them useless for such duty. The Phoenix Companies headed by C. C. Wei converted them in 1981 to big bulk carriers with the help of the Maritime Administration’s construction loan and mortgage guarantee program known as the Title XI program. The companies were unable to make debt payments as of 1 May and the government was called on to make good the payments to the City Bank of New York. The default was the largest in the Maritime Administration’s history and all but bankrupted the Title XI fund.
Shear, who took office in 1981, said in his resignation letter that he had “worked hard to achieve improvements” and noted that “a significant number of obsolete ships have been scrapped and new, highly competitive, modern U. S.-flag ships are now appearing in modest numbers.” Shear retired from the Navy in 1980 as a four-star admiral.
Maritime Crimes and Piracy in 1985
Maritime fraud and other crimes on the high seas received increasing attention from ship companies and government agencies in 1985, as one United Nations official warned that the fraud problem now has reached “colossal proportions” with losses exceeding $1 billion a year.
Ricardo Vigil, head of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development’s Maritime Legislation Division, voiced this warning in London at an April meeting concerning the problem. Most of the bank-oriented audience agreed with his assessment of the trend of increased fraud, even though law enforcement officials recently had scored some triumphs in combatting the crime. In April, for example, some of those connected with the notorious ship Salem, involved in one of the most famous modern fraud cases, were sentenced to jail terms of up to 11 years. The Liberian registered super-
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Jacques Cousteau’s experimental vessel L’Alcyone is powered by turbo sails, a microcomputer-controlled combination of diesel engines and towers which catch the wind.
tanker sank in 1980 off the coast of Senegal, West Africa, after Captain Dimitrios Georgoulis reported a series of mysterious explosions. Insurance interests became suspicious, however, when a rescue ship reported that the crew and officers were standing with their bags neatly packed as the ship was settling gently into the water. The crew had salvaged everything, in fact, except the ship’s log. Further inquiries demonstrated that a true log would have shown that the ship had surreptitiously unloaded her cargo of Shell Oil-owned crude oil at Durban, South Africa, and sold it on the black market. The ship then was filled with sea water, so that she appeared still to carry her cargo, and later was scuttled so that the ship’s owners could collect both hull and cargo insurance on the vessel totaling $80 million.
On 1 April 1985, eight members of the crew and officers were convicted by a criminal court in Piraeus, Greece. Crew agent Nickolaos Mytakis received 11 years for “direct complicity in embezzling a cargo, scuttling a ship and attempting an insurance fraud.” However, Frederick E. Soudan, the 40-year-old Lebanese-American owner of the Salem, and Captain Georgoulis received only three-year sentences for insurance fraud. They and several others were convicted in absentia. There was no word from Greece when, or if, any of those convicted would serve their prison terms.
Meanwhile, in New York on 25 April 1985, a New York-based shipping executive pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act. The
Justice Department said that Peter D. Yatrakis chartered ships between April 1981 and February 1983 to companies controlled by the Cuban Government. The incidents came to light when one of Yatrakis’s vessels, the Ragnar, sank while en route to Libya. Civil litigation then exposed his involvement. (The United States has embargoed trade with Cuba since 8 July 1963.)
There was an abundance of other crime on the high seas, much of it sounding as if it had occurred in a previous century. In early September 1985, a court in Piraeus, Greece, convicted a Greek freighter captain and nine other members of his crew from the Garifalia after they reportedly forced 11 African stowaways into shark-infested waters.
The sentences of Captain Antnis Plyt- zanopoulos, 44, came after the ship’s cook told a grisly story to harbor authorities in Greece. The stowaways, aged between 17 and 25, slipped aboard the Garifalia at Mombasa, Kenya, as the ship prepared to leave for Karachi, Pakistan. Wearing life-vests from which the ship’s name had been erased, the men were forced overboard at gunpoint on 17 March 1984 as the ship steamed between four and eight miles off the Somalian coast at 12 knots. The captain testified that he believed the stowaways would survive because “in my experience sharks don’t eat Blacks.” The stretch of the Indian Ocean where the men were dumped is notorious for dangerous sharks, the court was told by prosecutors. The defense argued that there was no proof the men died; however, the International Red Cross in Kenya reported that none of the men survived.
In a much tamer case, an American merchant marine master lost his license in a non-criminal proceeding on 13 November 1985 after the U. S. Coast Guard charged him with the ancient crime of barratry—the use of a ship against an owner’s interest. Captain Paul Giachetti of Springfield, Pennsylvania, denied the charge and appealed the conviction, stating that he was caught in the middle of a labor dispute in which the Coast Guard had no jurisdiction. Giachetti was master on the Mormacstar, a civilian-manned
tanker serving as fresh water carrier for the Military Sealift Command’s nearterm prepositioning force off Diego Garcia in October 1984 when his union, the Masters, Mates & Pilots, and his company, Moore McCormack Bulk Transport, failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. The company, citing court labor law decisions, said that officers are supervisory personnel and that the company therefore was no longer recognizing the union. Giachetti was offered a company contract that was considerably less advantageous to him than the union contract. The union told Giachetti to go °n strike, and when asked, told him that the Coast Guard historically steers clear 0 moving against licenses for issues arising during labor disputes. Giachetti told the Military Sealift Command that he worn sail in a national emergency and woul maintain the safety of the ship. He re fused to sail when ordered out on routine maneuvers.
A Coast Guard administrative judge hearing the case later ruled that Giachetti endangered national security by sacrum ing the readiness of the near-term prep0 sitioning force. He also sacrificed com pany interests because the ship vv‘lS placed off charter. Giachetti, 68, said t e trip was to have been his last before re tirement. He sailed merchant ships during World War II, and participated as a mer^ chant marine officer in the landing Inchon during the Korean War. A mer chant vessel he commanded was dam^ aged in Vietnam by enemy saboteurs, am going to keep appealing this whether am retired or not,” he said. “This is matter of honor. ’ ’
At least one other U. S.-flag comme cial ship on charter to the Military Sea • Command experienced problems 1985. The tanker Falcon Countess w under way at night in the Strait ^ Malacca on 29 January when a group ^ six pirates motored their small cratt rectly astern of the vessel. Using 1° bamboo poles with hooks at the end, t ^ looped the hooks over the railing a° deck of the ship and climbed over stern. The pirates held crew members knife point and tied up the master, boarders then rifled the ship’s safe, s $19,500, and escaped via speedboat-
This was one example of the contirljn ing and profound problem of piracy ^ modem times, according to the Inte
THIS QUIZ IS A BREEZE!
S' ^antime Bureau. a British-based Com ° tbe International Chamber of frflii,|lnCI<ie Pormedt0 help fight maritime tionc 311 !beB' bl tbe Far East, indica- Dnrf ffC tbat aber on*y three attacks re- conim't'Hj 1984, the number of attacks once ' • a^a’nst merchant vessels is tarifc a§am 0n tbe increase, with 13 at- the ! reported in *e first half of 1985,” InoiHrSan,Zation,s Third Report into the fro,,, T Piracy and Armed Robbery West *rerC ant Ships stated. Attacks in chant tv'03’■ tbe °ther hot spot for mer- the S 'P Pttntes, appeared to be about There"116 aS 'n *^4’ when there were 20. Piracv WaS a t0tal reported cases of 1984yf(!ga'n^ merchant ships during her I,', ,he flrst haIf 1985, that num-
De totaled 28 worldwide.
Germ°ne CaSe.’ tbc MV Vanellus, a West Sana nf c?nta'nership, was attacked by a vessel • Pl[ates’ wh° threw stones at the then sw S they aPProached in a boat, and cover red aboard when the crew took vessel leiTa i"eone troops on board the °ns but°',Cned Bre wdb automatic weap- Pirates 0?°° r3n °Ut op ammunition. The with™,, , en broke open the containers "°ut hindrance.
centratpi^1"^ i" the Far East were con- strait of o 'n tbe Strait of Malacca, the Unhke I,'S‘n8apore, and Phillip Channel, on care ”est African attacks centering t° favorTh’ t^IC Bar Fast pirates appeared sions f 1 |E sbip’s safe, personal posses- cases' th deck stores- In many of the stem b C S^'PS were hoarded from the apparemi pirates in speedboats, which dUckin„ u ,Can av°id radar detection by
The8 beh'nd buoys.
d°es not ntCmational Maritime Bureau Earibbe SeneraUy include drug-related hut in s" P'rate attacks on smaller craft. Mister fi pternber 1985 the small freighter to drift' U aPPr°ached four men clinging
Eolombia8 Ti?bnS ‘n the Caribbean off
S°°n to k k 6 men boarded the ship and ^dmink? . 1Cr over, according to the Eolombj ^Ti? Security Department of and ten ,L tben killed the captain boy ancrs’ saving only a 12-year-old °f fue| °ne crewman. The ship ran out the crewCUr Bonduras- Both the boy and depari,,,i *?'an were spared as the pirates
Thaed by launch.
by piratpUmber °* “boat people" attacked tied to de 'r tbe ob Thailand continuous hut the attacks are still a
the lMB>riaiern *n according to
*^>482 n , % of 538 boats carrying °nly 27 7% were a«acked. By 1985, Pe°ple „ C °* 33 2 boats carrying 6,345
The 7rC attacked-
also notedTtional Maritime Bureau have “antbat United Nations officials
appealed to all ships’ captains in
the South China Sea to be on the lookout for small boats in distress which might have refugees aboard, and to uphold maritime traditions and international law by going to their rescue. It has been noted with concern that many of the small refugee boats which have arrived in Southeast Asian coastal states with dead or dying refugees on board reported being passed by commercial vessels who ignored their distress signals.”
The anti-piracy bureau also noted that piracy off Nigeria has decreased greatly following crackdowns by that nation on piracy and smuggling. In July 1985, six Nigerians were executed by firing squad at Lagos maximum security Kirikiri prison after a military court found them guilty of attacking a Lagos-bound vessel at the town of Agbowa earlier in the year. Several passengers drowned while attempting to swim from the vessel.
Ocean Racing in 1985
West Germany, led by its big boat, the Diva G., won the Admiral’s Cup trophy last year on 14 August, after gales lashed the 18-nation field of entries in the Fastnet Yacht Race off the coast of England. Of 52 boats starting the race, 24 failed to finish, having been dismasted, damaged, or capsized. There were no serious injuries, but the event stood as the roughest Fastnet race since 1979 when 15 persons perished after storms swept the fleet.
The British team, reduced to two boats, finished second to the West Germans, who finished with three boats. The third boat home in the race was High Roler, an American entry owned by San Franciscan Bill Power. The American team finished poorly overall, with two other U. S. cup boats, Randy Short’s Sidewinder and Lowell North’s Sleeper, having been forced to retire during the course of the 605-mile race, which runs from the Isle of Wight off Portsmouth harbor to Plymouth.
High Roler finished in seventh position overall on handicap. ‘‘It is always disappointing to see the United States slip so badly because the Admiral’s Cup has to be a real team effort,” Power said. “But the team just did not have good luck this time. The boats were the wrong size for the series. The smaller yachts, especially the one-tonners, were very hard to beat.”
The Australians finished the race with a complete team, finishing fourth behind New Zealand, which had been given little chance of winning the cup series at the start. A side note: Simon Le Bon, lead
(Continued on page 313)
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The Maritime World in 1985 (Continued from page 65)
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singer of th
Was resciif>HCi,r0C'C grouP Duran Duran, after his 77 3 RoyaI Navy helicopter
American °0t -^ac^ltDrum capsized. ^red anrit. yacht racing interests suf- P°natan Setback in 1985 when the >itbreadhe U- S. entry in the . her maJOUnud"tbe'worlcl yacht race> ^ds on^heavy seas anc* gale-force ^aPe Town Tct°ber> ^ miles out of ^sition on m he boat was !yln§ *n l*rst handicar,,e Water and in fourth place d,wiss Va P el°re being dismasted. The *able g Switzerland cruised into °n 1 Novpmk ^0wn’ South Africa, cCe- The , 6r t0 w'n tke first leg of the , n8land, eai*el bad left Portsmouth, e? of jjle ° September. The second ’,'l’en the v,ra,Ce be§an on 4 December, frn Indian n *S beacted across the south- y. Thev ,6an t0 Auckland, New Zea- n ^ebruan, Cre scbeduled to set out on ^St Cane across the southern Pacific f hi, °m t0 punte del Este, Uru- ^1 the iast .m°nth, they are scheduled to iouth e^?Cross tke Atlantic back to ; fror
N. ran^" t^axis, including the Por-
C '"Id-sized h°m 77 ‘° 82 feet long:
fee8; and four b°atS °f 57’8t065'5 feet
1>8. '
. nnother •
■1 r0ck sin!,lde note: theDrum, owned JiHffj "ger Simon Le Bon, also ran Jdf bow b‘ es ln this race. The hull near ‘°f Can8arn c°ming apart 550 miles f A spokf Town-
j?!*r Vears sjn'an ^or the race, held every ? the ySf^ fi^t 1973-1974 race,
gale r strongbeen PushinS hard ne'force black south-easterly,” a
Tak,etl for th 'n tbe South Atlantic ,* Mounta- lack cloud it creates over 1Ub, the O ” U,C 1>ICW IUIK record . 6 8an Diego Yacht Club,
c°untrie0t,a^ ^4 challengers from
day. T, s coking toward the 1987 >asein p? ^ew A°rk club established 'Cf^'an ^CUtlon to get a feel for the ne„ ,an AtJl„rUrse- h was the first time ed to leayCan challenging yacht ever Ve D. S. shores in prepara-
tion for the cup races. The New York Yacht Club faces strong competition from other U. S. entries, including the strong San Diego effort.
America’s Cup was first won in a challenge match with England in 1851, and was defended successfully by the United States 24 times between 1870 and 1980. In 1983, the Australia II came back from a 3 to 1 deficit to win the seventh and deciding race off Newport, Rhode Island.
The Blue Riband and Hales Trophy for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a pas-
The keel-less, overturned yacht Drum, owned by rock singer Simon Le Bon, floats off the English coast after capsizing in a gale during the Fastnet yacht race in August 1985.
senger line has rested with the United States since 7 July 1952 when the United States passed Bishop’s Rock Light off England’s Scilly Isles on her maiden voyage between New York and Southampton. The trip was accomplished in three days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes for an average speed of 34.51 knots.
A British group of challengers hoped to beat that record in 1985, using a small, double-hulled aluminum catamaran powered by twin 1,960-horsepower Mercedes-Benz turbocharged diesel engines, capable of carrying one passenger at 45 knots for the journey. Officials of the American Merchant Marine Museum, where the Hales Trophy is housed, and the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, were critical of the challenge and suggested that a fast cross-
ing might not gain a trophy at all.
“So what if the British speedboat breaks the SS United States record?” asked Frank O. Braynard, curator of the museum. “Comparing the two vessels is absurd. The ‘Big U’ is 990 feet long, carried 2,000 passengers, and was built for regular passenger service. The British boat is a fraction of that size, carries a half-dozen people, and was designed specifically to make a fast Atlantic crossing. Let the British group invent their own speedboat trophy—if they can even break the Big U’s record.”
They could not. The British speedboat experienced difficulty near the end of the crossing and did not complete the Blue Riband course, which runs from Ambrose Light tower at New York’s harbor entrance to Bishop’s Rock Light.
The world’s first yacht race for a South-North Pacific crossing has been scheduled between Melbourne, Australia, and Osaka, in western Japan in 1987. The 10,200-mile Yamaha Osaka Cup Yacht Race will start in Australia on 21 March 1987. It is expected to last 30 to 40 days.
American yachtsman William Mathers was released in April by Vietnamese officials after being held nearly nine months incommunicado. The release occurred after Mathers “acknowledged” that he had “illegally intruded” into Vietnam’s waters. Mathers said he was 36 miles off the coast of Vietnam when he was taken into custody on 21 July 1984, while traveling from Bangkok to Hong Kong. Most territorial waters extend only 20 miles from a coastline, but Mathers said the Vietnamese claimed they had a new law extending their territorial line. Math- ers’s parents paid the Vietnamese a $10,000 fine.
Titanic Discovery
A team of French and U. S. scientists on board the oceanographic research ship Knorr (AGOR-15) found the 46,328-ton, 882-foot ocean liner Titanic in September 1985, ending seven decades of searches for the famous ship. The research expedition discovered the liner in 13,000 feet of water about 550 miles off Newfoundland using sophisticated new technology designed for future scientific research and military missions.
pose bulk and container carr tech;
employing the latest cargo-han _r tt.jl nologies. The new fleet feature diesel power plants °P' t
cheap fuel, better use of ex ^ use from main and auxiliary engl,^nt’r0llab,e'
of exhaust turbochargers pitch propellers and shaft gene
contro
■rators
■flag
across the Piscataqua Rij®r. , desc mouth. A Coast Guard ofticlf(
bloc ships rarely slip 1 ®d t0 screens. The other ports c n(/.. bloc ships are New London, ariesta Hampton Roads, Virgin13; . Fa^ South Carolina; Port Cana joe>f City, Pensacola, and Port _0e, C ida; San Diego and Port fomia; and Honolulu, Ha
The Inland Waterways__
Research vessels Knorr (U. S.) and Suroit (French) located and photographed the sunken liner Titanic in 13,000 feet of water at the position marked (top), during a joint scientific exploration conducted in September 1985. Operated by the Woods Hole Institute for the Office of Naval Research, the Knorr is shown returning to home port afterward.
The French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said the area was searched by French sonar and the ship was identified by the American ARGO underwater camera system. The U. S. Navy sponsored the American participation. The Knorr is operated by the Woods Hole Institute for the Office of Naval Research.
“It really demonstrates the power of new technology,” said Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole group. The scientists used the ARGO, a car-sized, unmanned submersible vessel to identify the Titanic. The liner was reported to be sitting upright on the ocean floor. The scientists said they would not disturb the ship in which 1,500 passengers (of the 2,208 on
board) died in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912.
Soviet Eastern Bloc Shipping
The Soviet Union plans to add two nuclear-powered vessels with ice-breaking capabilities to its merchant marine, according to a report from that nation’s shipping ministry. The construction of a lighter carrier capable of breaking ice is proceeding at the Kerch Shipyards on the Black Sea. The 780-foot ship will be able to carry 74 lighters or barges. The nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya also was undergoing trials late in 1985, and Finnish sources told the Journal of Commerce that the Soviet Union is planning to build another large nuclear-powered icebreaker during the next five-year plan. Two shallow-draft nuclear-powered icebreakers now are under construction by the Wartsila shipyard in Finland. Five ice-strengthened, conventionally powered vessels of 15,000 deadweight tons each have been ordered by the Soviets from the Finnish firm Valmet, according to the Journal of Commerce, and all five were said to be planned for use in arctic regions. The nuclear icebreakers, the report said, enable year-round operations from Murmansk and other major Soviet arctic ports. The Finnish sources told the Journal of Commerce that the Soviets plan a multibillion-dollar program for intensified arctic navigation under the next five-year plan beginning in 1986. Soviet Shipping Minister Timofei Guzhenko said the merchant marine had reached its most recent five-year goals ahead of time, with a 5.2-million-ton increase in coastal cargoes. The emphasis in the present five-year plan is on increasing the throughput capacity of Soviet ports through the modernization of port loading facilities and the construction of new transshipment complexes and ship repair yards.
Meanwhile, an official ^oV1fflercial time survey forecast that the co ^ear fleet will decline in numbers y m0(|. 1990 as a part of a Soviet e ° ,on- emize its merchant marine. ,wejgtit
nage is about 19.4 million -g^ly
tons. The report did not state sp^^ tha' how tonnage would decrease pUb-
it would. Soviet Shipping, a J° winjstry, lished by the Merchant Ma"near plan said the coming years of a lve,jjpUrpose
will see the construction ot m ^ put- dry cargo ships combining^®runctions ' ‘ “ tecb
addi^
The
puvu ... — -- - .nag v'C^
journal also noted that f°re'* aJ1goinS sels now carry 40% of Sovie tj for- international cargoes. (By c0 90x
eign-flag carriers handle moe coH>' of U. S. international water merce.) fun- i
In the United States, t 1eionals °n bulk carrier with 16 Polish p0,is- board as crew, was forced to ^efore mouth, New Hampshire, M \yarsa'v unloading her cargo becau Pact nationals are barred fr°nfe suc
one of 11 in the United States ^.Navaj
restrictions apply. The PorSI ^ajne. 1 Shipyard, located at Kttt«?- JWj
—- arWthe
the order as “routine.’ fpj. S- ship to leave came from t ujtj-ag^n L Security Committee, a Washington group, whose -d So'1
classified. The Coast Gu^ h seC^ - Sovi‘
----------------- ■ n lbe ■
mishaps slowed traffic °d# ,ce Seaway for t e XotseJ
On 14 October, a
rete wall in lock sev pipe , dp Canal collapsed; *d t0 ' in the lock wal1, anic plan1' ^ o a small hydroelec concjflg
nd pushed a sect'°"uria,
; hull of the vessel r ' th»s * s.
pin the lock. Traffic
the seaway was halte pd
i, shortly after traffic
As of 1 March the privately oW"e^ne
draft fleet of the U. S. Merchant M
totaled 622 vessels with a carr^ ^weigh‘ ity of about 23.9 milli°n oceang0'
tons. The total comprised W )n
ing ships and 129 Great Lakes . rf> \yei®
their
carriers-
——- t
American President LmeS''' .^ide
profit margins squeezed as trend of many ships chasing analyst drove rates lower. Sally Snut ’gaitimofe’.
carg
roe*
for Alex Brown & Sonsj ?,■^journa‘ based brokerage house, tol t ves-
of Commerce in late Decern [5 t°
the
iark6t
pacity.
On the international tanke nCour3-
iies
:in?
three-and-a-half-year
:o&P'
as aanxo, me ^ bn1'
operator, faltered under debt. Japan Line, the sec0”ef a shaT
&
UCUl. japan muv,
announced in late December
sumed, the Indian freighter Jalagodavari strayed off course on 30 November and crashed into the fixed span of a liftbridge at St. Louis de Gonzague, 35 miles southwest of Montreal. The ship was pulled away from the bridge on 5 December. There were 19 waiting upbound vessels and 33 waiting downbound vessels when traffic resumed. In December, seaway officials said shipments were about 38% down from 1984.
“If there is anything to be said on the positive side, one more foot and the whole bridge could have been in the Beauhamois Canal,” said Norman Fall, president of the Dominion Marine Association. “What bothers us is the concern we are gathering about the unreliability of the seaway, which is pushing more cargo to the West Coast and down the Mississippi,” said Jim Moore, secretary of the Canadian Shippers Council.
On the Mississippi River, about 200 barges were trapped in the upper parts of the river by late November freezes. Normally, operators move their equipment from the Mississippi around Minneap- olis-St. Paul by Thanksgiving. In 1985, however, heavy ice developed in the third week of November. The operators could lose millions. And near Pittsburgh, on the Monongahela River, floods jammed 19 barges into the Maxwell Locks near Maxwell, Pennsylvania, on 5 November, closing the heavily used river to traffic until 19 November.
The $2 billion, 234-mile Tennessee- Tombigbee Waterway was opened to barge traffic on 17 January. It is seen by proponents as an economic boost to the depressed southeast. Critics say it is an environmental disaster. The waterway connects the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama, via the Tombigbee and the Black Warrior river systems. It provides a new route to the eastern Gulf of Mexico for 16,000 miles of inland rivers. Officials of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, who moved 308 million cubic yards of soil to construct the system, estimated that it would carry about 14 million tons of cargo in its first full year of commercial operation. The project was authorized by Congress in 1946, but construction did not begin until 1972.
Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
The toll of hurricanes on the coastlines and ports of the United States— particularly the central Gulf of Mexico coast—was heavy last year. There were more storms striking the U. S. coast than in any year since 1916. There was also the largest evacuation in history during
1985. During the hurricane season, which runs from 1 June through 30 November, 11 tropical storms formed, including seven hurricanes, six of which hit land.
Preliminary estimates showed that the hurricanes striking U. S. shores caused about $4 billion in damages, led by Hurricane Kate, which caused $1 billion damage alone. Kate was the first November storm to reach the U. S. coast in half a century and the first to push inland at hurricane strength through the northwest Florida panhandle. Born 15 November in the Atlantic north of Puerto Rico, the storm swept over Cuba, touched the Florida Keys, and then hit the panhandle, where it came ashore between Panama City and Apalachicola, Florida. More than 70,000 persons fled the panhandle. Some of them were among those who were drenched by Juan, which hit Louisiana as a hurricane and then rained down on the panhandle as a tropical storm on 1 November.
Earlier in the year, one million persons in the northeast Gulf region were ordered to get out of the way of Elena from 28 August to 2 September. That hurricane evacuation was the largest in U. S. history. Hurricane Gloria placed the U. S. Atlantic Coast on alert as the storm reached hurricane strength on 16 September. It touched land along the mid-Atlantic Coast and swept north, battering Long Island before dissipating through New England and Canada by 27 September. More than 200,000 were evacuated in the face of Gloria.
Other hurricanes included Bob, Claudette, and Danny. Bob was quickly nicknamed the “wimp” as it dumped rain on south Florida as a tropical storm and then landed uneventfully near Charleston, South Carolina, before disappearing on 25 July. Claudette spent her force in the open Atlantic Ocean before dying in mid-August. Danny, also a midAugust storm, struck Louisiana with 90 mile per hour winds, but caused only moderate damage. Tropical storms included Ana, Fabian, Henri, and Isabel. Officials at the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida, warned that 1986 may be no better, that in fact 1985 represented a more typical season than other recent years because of three years of light hurricane activity. This in part was caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon dealing with ocean currents and temperatures.
The World Ship Market________________
The United States Merchant Marine continued to decline in numbers in 1985.
mg snips anu —
the active oceangoing fleet’ , carg0 two passenger ships; 45 gen st,ips;
ships; 125 intermodal (contai ' for a 22 bulk carriers; and 196 tanke ^ total of 390 vessels. A year ear ^^jng were 51 more vessels with a ^ad- capacity of about 709,000 m weight tons. . container
The three large American and -Sea-Land; U. S. L>neS’
the wof
rfd - that ves-
oj commerce in iaic oWn 1- h
sel container capacity had g ato^
17% in 1985, with cargo volum ° three not keeping pace. She exP®cs jn the,r major U. S. firms to Post'oS ® gr, ^ fourth quarter earnings *1S ^
possibly the first quarter o
Nevertheless, worldwide _ ^ finally some encouraging sl» a gre3 shipping slump, caused PaI”Y overcapacity of ships, nug reache
The volume of ship scrappi :„s of, record levels in 1985; 930 s ijto1*1 million deadweight tons were the k0? breakers in 1985, according jjj0n.
don ship brokers firm Hatley ^jth
1984, 766 vessels were scrapp ^eP
capacity of 29.9 million l° nntei ^ and combination carriers svere b
243 of the ships in 1985. T e tons c dry cargo ships on 11.6 it"
un me international a*— e(lCoU
year’s closing months showe rai"' fug signs after a ***£&£ London ship broker E. A. ear tanker market was closing ,, pre'S ■
- time. ii\v
me mgiicsi nine ^j vetnPi
rates increased during 1 fell December as laid-up tonnag .u j low.
anu-u nun j ~— CUJ* * . *.
news came too late for sorn . a taF^1 as Sanko, the world’s ea ^ billi°^jso
structuring program. tanKef %
Prices on the second-han ket remained bargain bas(L cember Ad- Maritime Enterprises in 000 ,es- about $5 million for th® . ’ The> ^
weight-ton supertanker &<■ , jn 1 ,c
sel cost $75 million to j b.V Greek interests were rep
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Ship Catalog and Model TVain Price
PRESTON HOBBY M0DELLE 0HG
P. O. Box 2280—8600 Bamberg, West Germany Telephone: 0951-1 2222
tnree loosiermen iusi u, ■■— - . v
storm were owed $1.25 mil1011
because
U. S. Weather Service
xpeIT
Jacques Cousteau sailed a nC%' ^ jsjeW lental sailing ship from ^ranCf:ve.year- ’ork City at the start of a ,eSt the
hnique is called the sySteiH :hiney Turbosail System- cc0rdin-
idaptable to merchant ships. ^ j00- its developers. Early in 1 '. turbo
i tanker will be outfitted qqqOt0
tanker will be outfitted qqq t
s. The sails cost between $3 ’
million. . ^td-, 0
deanwhile, Showa Line. sis" an is building a non-sail P° ^ i ship to its sail-assisted
er to test the sail vessel
for
ve need to have two veS""oUtes - .j- ime size, sailing the sanr .j said- ng the same weather,
:sts prove satisfactory,
build a sail-assisted tan ea O
10 deadweight tons. T
,000 tons.
Robert R. F~r"oPfiN?^
til *'• f INI,'- . J,
Newswire ^
te"
for the Rh tr,„
the University 1969 with a B.S- nalism and University ,n
,siep
NAVAL, MARITIME MILITARY & AVIATION BOOKS
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Journal of Commerce to be buying more tankers on the second-hand market in anticipation of increased business.
Whaling and Fishing_________
The U. S. Government moved to cut back both Japanese and Soviet fishing rights in American territorial waters after charges were leveled that both countries had violated anti-whaling agreements.
The Commerce Department moved against the Soviets on 3 April by cutting in half the amount of fish the Soviet Union will be able to harvest from U. S. waters. The move marked the first time the U. S. Government imposed sanctions against a country for violating quotas established by the International Whaling Commission; a U. S. law requires that the administration take such action. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said the Soviets harvested 2,403 minke whales in waters off Antarctica, when it had a quota of 1,941. The ban, affecting the second half of the year, was expected to involve 18,000 metric tons of fish worth $9 million.
Soviet fishing was banned in U. S. waters in 1979 after the invasion of Afghanistan, but Russian fishing boats were allowed to resume in the fall of 1984. The official news agency Tass said the United States was using the sanction as a political weapon and that “rational whaling” was justified and did not threaten whales with extinction.
The move against Japan was more complex. Conservationists contended that Baldrige was required to move against any country that exceeded the whaling quotas, but the Reagan Administration declined to do so in Japan’s case, choosing instead to negotiate an agreement that allowed Japan to take up to 1,200 sperm whales in 1986 and 1987, if it stopped all whaling by 1988. The International Whaling Commission had called for a ban on whaling by 1986 but Japan has objected to that deadline.
Conservationists sued, winning at the U. S. District Court level with an opinion that said the Reagan Administration had no choice but to enforce the fishing sanctions. The administration appealed, and on 7 August a U. S. Court of Appeals ordered that the United States must impose sanctions for violating whaling quotas. Japan’s whaling industry is a $50- million-a-year segment of the economy. However, fishing in U. S. waters comprises a larger segment. Nevertheless, U. S. officials say Japan may choose to cut its purchases of U. S. fish products— estimated at $600 million a year—rather than stop whaling.
. RnStOfl
A U. S. District Court judge m flf ruled on 13 August that the ant ^ ^aj three lobstermen lost at sea dun rhv t|ie
the
agency had not repaired a fau ty sajj buoy for three months. The JJ* ^vjce that device would have helped t ^otjs predict the storm of 100-rrn e-P ^ winds and 60-foot waves that caug^ lobstermen by surprise on 22 1980.
ailing Ships
irk City at the start ot ateSt the )und-the-world trip designe ^ thL’ to 35% fuel savings clainjeered ssel. The 103-foot Alcyone tsP jntef.
a microcomputer-synchrony [ota]jng
ay between two rounded tower tv,o 12 square feet of surface area£S The i-horsepower diesel enSiasteau- mique is called the -m
l iu icai uu, oui. ------------- ervice • ,
Aqua City has been m s ^ e than a year now as a g . ja Shj- /een Japan and British Co ()|1 stu polypropelene sails m°un L„sts car?
ts on her forecastle. Twtn mas0ls|lg,
5 square feet of sail. ‘ ueen3'* ' ident of Showa, said it ha -ept t 1 to gather data about how e da Ol, really is.
i ' :omPa'd
PR
writer for the ^ted^, quirer. He was g«| 1|linob ,he University ^ 1969 with North«
1970 '',‘>P
crslty V
M.S.injoumah 0eof Lr was given island U1. Award by L°ngserieS <*pl sityin 1984 fo “ he titf^ cie^n the loss n ..uir, Marine bieL