Last Global Commons

CTF 151 counter piracy ops off Somalia

Captains,

The United Nations Security Council adopted aResolution 1897 (2009) extending for twelve months authorization for States and regional organizations cooperating with the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to enter Somalia's territorial waters and use all necessary means to fight piracy and armed robbery at sea off Somalia's coast. The resolution also invites States and regional organizations to conclude special agreements with countries willing to take custody of and to prosecute suspected pirates.

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GULF OF ADEN - Coast Guard MST3 Sean Eversole, a member of the Maritime Safety and Security Team out of Miami Fla., practices boarding procedures with the USS Chosin (CG 65) visit, board, search and seizure team Dec. 16, 2009, in the Gulf of Aden. Chosin is the flagship of Combined Joint Task Force 151, a multinational task force established to conduct counterpiracy operations off the coast of Somalia. (U.S. Navy photo/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel Edgington)

Four ways to be located

Captains,

Today's rescue reports include four different ways to be located: EPIRB, cell phone, distress signal, and marine radio. Smart mariners carry all four.

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EPIRB leads Coast Guard to distressed mariner

SABINE, Texas — Following a distress from an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) onboard a 34-foot sailing vessel, the Coast Guard found a missing 80-year-old man Tuesday who had departed Houston ten days ago. The Eighth Coast Guard District command center received the distress alert located approximately 115 miles south of Sabine at 9:30 a.m. The Coast Guard contacted the owner of the EPIRB and was notified by a family member that the 80-year-old owner of the sailing vessel, Enchantress, departed Houston approximately ten days ago and was headed toward Kemah, Texas. Coast Guard locates overdue boater in Chesapeake Bay BALTIMORE – The Coast Guard rescued a man aboard a disabled 21-foot recreational boat approximately three miles northeast of Thomas Point Park in the Chesapeake Bay, Wednesday. The boater’s friend contacted Coast Guard Sector Baltimore watchstanders at 10 p.m., Tuesday, reporting that he did not report to work. In a phone conversation between the boater and his friend earlier that day, he indicated he was going fishing. Sector Baltimore watchstanders contacted the boater’s cellular phone provider to try and triangulate his position and was able to determine that the last known call was at 7:56 a.m., Tuesday, and his approximate position was five miles from Thomas Point Shoal Light. Coast Guard responds to distress signal NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard responded to a distress signal from a 26-foot sailing vessel, 30 miles south of Venice, La., Tuesday. An MH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans was diverted from a training mission and arrived at the vessel's location at 8:36 p.m. A radio was lowered to the vessel and the 26-year-old man onboard. Coast Guard en route to disabled Gloucester boat 200 miles offshore BOSTON — A Coast Guard cutter is en route to help five Gloucester, Mass., fishermen on a disabled lobster boat more than 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass., Wednesday night. The owner of the 77-foot boat, suspecting contaminated fuel, radioed for help when the boat’s engines would not start at about 3:30 p.m. Initial communications with the boat were spotty, so a C-130 Hercules plane from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., already nearby for another mission, guided the vessel to an area where Sector Southeastern New England command center staff in Woods Hole, Mass., could maintain radio communication.

Icebreaking season begins in the Great Lakes

Captains,

An additional 140 ft ice breaker, USCGC Penobscot Bay, is making way to Lake Erie from Bayonne NJ to assist with this year's ice season (which has already begun). I'm following officially at our morning briefs and unofficially on facebook.

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Coast Guard prepares for 2009-2010 icebreaking season

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

The Ninth Coast Guard District is preparing for the 2009-2010 icebreaking season in the Great Lakes.

Coast Guard icebreaking operations are designed to facilitate the movement of commercial vessels to meet the reasonable demands of commerce on the Great Lakes and to assist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with flood mitigation.

The Coast Guard conducts two major operations: Taconite and Coal Shovel. These operations ensure the most efficient movement of vessels through the entire Great Lakes region.

Operation Taconite, under the control of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., encompasses Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, the Straits of Mackinac, Lake Michigan and northern Lake Huron.

Coal Shovel, under the control of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Detroit, encompasses southern Lake Huron, St. Clair/Detroit River systems, and Lakes Erie and Ontario, and includes the St. Lawrence Seaway.

To ensure the highest state of readiness and the Coast Guard’s ability to complete this critical mission, an additional icebreaker from the First Coast Guard District, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Penobscot Bay, a 140-foot icebreaking tug, homeported in Bayonne, N.J., will be temporarily assigned to the Great Lakes region. Penobscot Bay will augment the other eight Coast Guard icebreakers that call the Great Lakes home.

A bit of important maritime history

Captains,

On August 4, 1791 the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in his letter of instruction to the commanding officers of the first 10 cutters of the fledgling Revenue Marine, (precursor of today’s U.S. Coast Guard) wrote:

“They will always keep in mind that their countrymen are freemen, and, as such, are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. If obstacles occur, they will remember that they are under the particular protection of the laws and that they can meet with nothing disagreeable in the execution of their duty which these will not severely reprehend. They will endeavor to overcome difficulties, if any are experienced, by a cool and temperate perseverance in their duty--by address and moderation, rather than by vehemence or violence.”

U.S. Revenue Marine cutter

The officers of the Revenue Marine were authorized to board any vessel at sea without probable cause, to enforce customs laws and collect taxes. Hamilton’s words defined these commanding officers as servants of the people; the very people over whom they would exercise broad enforcement authority. Although entrusted with great authority under U.S. law, the commanding officers would adhere to a policy of restraint and the utmost level of professionalism.

Being servants of the people was a radical departure for sea captains in those days. The Revenue Marine and today’s U.S. Coat Guard would reverse the norms of the old world’s sea services by applying restraint, not domination.

In 1772, the year Alexander Hamilton arrived to New England from St. Croix, the old world was about to be taught a lesson and Hamilton absorbed it all. On June 9^th of that year, Rhode Island colonists set fire to the HMS Gaspee, a revenue schooner for the British crown. The Gaspee’s captain, Lieutenant William Dudingston had exercised his authority with

ruthless efficiency and distain. The Rhode Islanders had had enough. So when the Gaspee ran aground on the evening of June 9, they set her afire and pledged to resist all future government efforts to police them without their consent.

HMS Gaspee

Today we still keep in mind that our countrymen are freemen. We endeavor to overcome difficulties with a cool and temperate perseverance of duty. Thanks to Alexander Hamilton’s letter of instruction to the commanding officers of the first 10 cutters.

3 sailors rescued 600 NM east of Bermuda

Captains,

Yesterday's successful rescue at sea involved two rescue coordination centers, a 406mHZ EPIRB, a Coast Guard C-130 and AMVER. The Amver participating vessel, M/V Wellington Star, answered the call for assistance. With support from a USCG C-130 aircraft from Air Station Elizabeth City, three sailors were rescued after their yacht flipped over 600 miles northeast of Bermuda. Fortunately the sailors were wearing their survival suits.

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Coast Guard coordinates rescue of 3 people east of Bermuda

PORTSMOUTH VA - Saturday Coast Guard watchstanders in Portsmouth received an inmarsat satellite phone distress signal from a french sailing yacht at 4:45 p.m. Ten minutes later Rescue Coordination Center Gris Nez, in northern France, called reporting they had received a 406mHz radio beacon distress signal from the same yacht. Watchstanders attempted to call their satellite phone, began broadcasting an Inmarsat C SafetyNET Enhanced Group Call to all ships in the area and contacted nearby ships participating in the Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System. After multiple calls, the Coast Guard made contact with the sailing yacht's crew and found that their yacht had flipped over from a wave and another flipped it back. The crew also reported they were wearing their survival suits. The watchstanders maintained regular contact while an Air Station Elizabeth City HC-130J Hercules aircraft crew took flight to search for the yacht and provide communications and support as two AMVER vessels were en route to provide assistance. The AMVER vessel Wellington Star arrived and the last person was safely transferred aboard at 12:37 a.m. Sunday. They are now en route to New Bedford, Mass.

Understanding Coast Guard 6505

Captains

RADM Manson Brown announced the release of the Coast Guard's investigation of the loss of CG 6505 of Air Station Barbers Point Hawaii during rescue basket training. Being "Always Ready" is dangerous work in itself.

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“We do very dangerous work, often in harsh environments,” said Brown. “Our training procedures must appropriately challenge our crews to a degree necessary to maximize mission success for actual cases. Mariners rely on us to be there when they encounter the perils of the sea.”

Rescue basket hoist training involves a helicopter lowering a rescue basket to the deck of a Coast Guard boat and then hoisting the basket back to the right side door of the helicopter.

The detailed results and recommendations from the investigation are issued to the public through the Commandant’s Final Action Memo on the Administrative Investigation and through the Final Decision Letter on the Mishap Investigation. Both documents are available in the Coast Guard’s FOIA Reading Room at www.uscg.mil/foia/reading-room.asp or can be downloaded here.