Federal, State, and private responders in Savannah

Captains

Liberty, a 625 foot U.S. flag roll on/roll off vessel, sustained a hull puncture while attempting to depart the Ocean Terminal in Savannah, GA yesterday. Over 5,000 feet of boom was deployed and skimmers are attempting to recover the spilled fuel oil.

The National Contingency Plan requires an "all hands" response, which includes federal, state, and private sector coordination. Looks like the unified command system is up and running for this case.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. – A unified command has been established and is continuing to respond Monday to approximately 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel released into the Savannah River by the motor vessel Liberty Sunday morning at the Ocean terminal.

The unified command consists of representatives from the Coast Guard, Georgia Port Authority, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, National Park Service, O’Briens Response Management Group, Marine Spill Response Corps, and Crowley Maritime Corporation.

Ohio River holds mystery of tragic sinking

Captains,

The 40' towboat Ceredo went down fast taking one of the crew with her in the fast 45 degree waters of the Ohio River. Salvage will be difficult while the water remains high on the river. Let's hope the investigation provides some valuable safety recommendations. Safety regulations are currently being drafted for commercial towing vessels like Ceredo. The Coast Guard has already hired about a hundred towing vessel inspectors and opened a towing vessel center of expertise in Paducah , KY.

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CINCINNATI - The Coast Guard re-opens the Ohio River Tuesday after a motor vessel sinks Sunday.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., Sunday, the Coast Guard received a report from the motor vessel Claude R that the motor vessel Ceredo sank on the left bank of the Ohio River near mile marker 480.6. It was reported that there were three persons in the water after the Ceredo sank. Two people were rescued by Good Samaritans.

Man Missing After Tow Boat Sinks In Ohio River Identified

Water units from Cincinnati, Boone County and the Coast Guard searched the river for the third man, Christopher McAllister, of Vevay, who was wearing a life jacket. Their search became a recovery effort Monday afternoon.

The men told police that the boat went down quickly. Search crews using side-scan sonar Monday found the boat submerged in about 50 feet of water about 100 feet from shore.

NOAA and Coast Guard teamwork

Captains,

NOAA and Coast Guard are close partners. NOAA provides weather information critical to safe navigation. Coast Guard sets the buoys. Similar close coordination occurs for charting, EPIRB monitoring and response, protection of marine mammals, and hazmat spill response.

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BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted seasonal buoy replacements Monday in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin, a 175-foot coastal buoy tender homeported in Baltimore, maintains approximately 375 aids to navigation and conducts fall and spring buoy replacements annually.

Weather buoys collect data and report real-time environmental information including wind speed, temperature and wave height. The buoys also serve as interpretive buoys that mark the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historical Trail that runs throughout the Chesapeake Bay.

Honor your cooks

Captains,

We all know how important cooks are. I honored our Coast Guard culinary team Friday by attending the awards ceremony as they took 3rd out of a field of 35 military culinary teams in the "world series" of military culinary competitions at Ft Lee, VA. The CG team's high placing in the competition made a strong statement to the Army about the high quality of food service we enjoy in the sea services.

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Staff report Posted : Friday Mar 12, 2010 17:26:01 EST

The winners of the 35th Culinary Arts Competition at Fort Lee, Va., were announced Friday.

The annual competition drew 629 entries from 229 competitors, according to a release from Fort Lee. Chefs and other culinary artists and teams took home a total of 494 medals, including 133 gold medals.

The winners are:

• Installation of the Year: first place, U.S. Army Team Europe; second place, Fort Bragg, N.C.; third place, Team Coast Guard.

Shore-side ship tracking advances

Captains,

Shipboard Automated Identification System (AIS) transmissions, originally intended to complement radar for navigation safety, are increasingly being combined with vessel database information, distributed via the internet and displayed graphically in shore based command centers. This week's STIRES announcement by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is about a web-based service for Member States to track ships in European waters. (STIRES stands for SafeSeaNet Information Relay and Exchange System.)

The US Coast Guard's equivalent system is called Watchkeeper. However, unlike Europe, which has EMSA as a standards and information service-provider for member states; the United States has the USCG as a single maritime services, standards, information and authority provider. So Watchkeeper is imbedded in a larger project called IOC/Command 21. This is a multiyear project authorized by the Safe Port Act of 2006 to transform USCG Sector Command Centers into Interagency Operations Centers (IOCs). IOC/Command 21 will also include world-wide tracking via the Long-Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system, as well as the Coast Guard's new Rescue 21 system for search and rescue cases.

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11 Mar 2010

EMSA HAS launched a new system allowing EU port authorities, governments and agencies to track all ships in EU waters.

The European Maritime Safety Agency plans in time to roll out the STIRES surveillance system worldwide, the agency told Fairplay today.

The position of any vessel transmitting an AIS signal is indicated by EMSA’s STIRES, which was launched yesterday. It also allows users to determine whether a ship is carrying hazardous cargo, to view all high-risk ships, to track a ship's course to establish where it has been at different times and to find out which port the ship will arrive at and when.

It uses a single-platform, map-based interface and the existing SafetySeaNet, which is based on the AIS information gathered by a network of receiving stations along EU coastlines.

The EU anti-piracy naval force is already using EMSA's satellite-based global Long Range Identification & Tracking system to monitor ships passing through the Gulf of Aden.

EMSA plans soon to integrate this system with STIRES, the agency told Fairplay.

1941 war sacrifices remembered

Captains,

Imagine if the Coast Guard was ordered to give-away one of its precious class of cutters today. WWII required many sacrifices. This must have been particularly tough on the CG at the time.

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1941 - The Lend-Lease Program was inaugurated. All 10 Lake-class cutters were transferred to the Royal Navy under the program. Two were lost in action against German forces. These 250-foot cutters had been designed by the Coast Guard and featured a slightly raked stem and a cruiser stern. Their innovative turbine-electric drive power plant was developed by Coast Guard Captain Quincy B. Newman. These were the first ships to have alternating current, synchronous motor for propulsion--the whole ship ran off the main turbine. The auxiliary generators were tied into the main generator electrically, after sufficient speed was attained. At that point, no steam was required to drive the turbines on the auxiliary generators. The propulsion plant achieved remarkable efficiency.

Marine Casualty Board hearing in Port Arthur

Captains

It's sobering, but informative to follow a formal Coast Guard marine board of investigation. This one began 3 days ago. Key witnesses have already testified. The purpose of the hearing is to determine the facts, identify the cause, and recommend improvements for ship safety, navigation, and the waterway.

RDML W

PORT ARTHUR, Texas – The Coast Guard concluded the second day of formal hearings, Wednesday, concerning the Jan. 23, 2010, incident involving the tank vessel Eagle Otome, the Gull Arrow and the tug Dixie Vengeance. The incident resulted in more than 400,000 gallons of oil being spilled into the Sabine-Neches waterway.

Summary:

• The Coast Guard introduced 16 exhibits.
• The National Transportation Safety Board introduced one exhibit.
• Vessel Traffic Service Training Director Scott Whalen testified and answered questions after an audio recording of ship-to-ship radio communication between the Eagle Otome and the Dixie Vengeance was played.
• Each mariner involved provided sworn statements on their training, experience, position at the time of the incident and rest prior to the incident.
• Pallava Shukla, master of the Eagle Otome, discussed the status of the vessel’s equipment and weather conditions during the transit up to the point of the accident.
• A.T.K.M. Shahjalall, chief engineer of the Eagle Otome, testified concerning the status of the ships machinery before and after the incident. He reported no alarms other than the emergency stop alarm sounded and that the ship’s systems were performing satisfactorily after the incident.
• Captain Charles Bancroft, the Sabine pilot who had control of the ship at the time of the incident, spoke about weather conditions and visibility. The master-to-pilot exchange was also discussed.
• Various media reports have circulated stating that strong winds and poor visibility contributed to the accident. The Coast Guard would like to stress that the “poor visibility” and the “strong winds” mentioned in the testimony occurred prior to the incident and were not present at the time of the incident.
Captain David Borden, a Sabine 2nd pilot, stated that he did not have the conn and made no radio calls to notify other vessels the Eagle Otome was out of control.
Peter Chua, the Eagle Otome’s 3rd officer, stated that the engine order telegraph worked properly and that the vessel’s master took control of the telegraph in the final minutes before the incident.
Captain Lex Wimberley, master of the Dixie Vengeance, stated that he put the vessel into astern propulsion when he heard the danger signal from the Eagle Otome. He also stated that he saw the Eagle Otome’s anchor drop, and that radio calls made to the ship were unanswered.
Drew Cary, the tankerman on the Dixie Vengeance, reported being in the galley and alerted to a problem by the general alarm. He stated that he went outside and heard the danger signal of the Dixie Vengeance, and that he heard the Dixie Vengeance engines switch to astern propulsion while the alarms were sounding.