Publication > Professional Mariner – Page 160

01 Jun

Seaman trying to secure loose line on bulker is washed overboard

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News, Publication > Professional Mariner

An able seaman on a 738-foot bulk carrier was lost overboard when two large waves knocked him off the vessel's aft deck and into the North Atlantic. Aleksander Cieslak, 40, of Poland, was working aboard Elbe Max on Feb. 17 when he lost his balance after being hit by a wave and was then washed into the sea. U.S. Coast…

01 Jun

Towboat master in collision with fishing boat charged with homicide

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News, Publication > Professional Mariner

The master of a Tennessee River towboat has been charged with criminally negligent homicide as a result of a 2010 collision that killed two occupants of a recreational fishing boat. A grand jury indicted Charles Warren Luetke, 39, of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., in February. The Serodino Inc. captain faces two counts of criminally negligent homicide in the June 19, 2010, crash…

01 Jun

Empty bulk carrier breaks away from anchorage and runs aground

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News, Publication > Professional Mariner

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating why an empty 624-foot bulk freighter broke loose from its anchorage and ran aground in strong winds off Long Beach, Calif. The Panamanian-flagged Ocean Sunrise grounded on Island Freeman, a man-made oil facility less than 0.5 nm away from a designated anchorage area inside the San Pedro Bay breakwater. The grounding was reported to…

01 Jun

Shipyard finds its niche in truckable pushboats and smaller workboats

Professional Mariner StaffPublication > Professional Mariner, Tugboats & Towing

From the veranda backing the Marine Inland Fabricators (MIF) offices in Panama City, Fla., four boats gleaming with a fresh coat of paint fronted the view of Fannin Bayou. In February, things could be worse in a Gulf Coast shipyard than having four boats ready for delivery. The boats were truckable workboats, the company's mainstay vessel. Another hull of assembled…

01 Jun

New breed of batteries helps bring green to marine propulsion

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Publication > Professional Mariner

Until now, there have been two significant obstacles to building an efficient electric boat without sacrificing power or performance: the size and weight of traditional lead-acid batteries and attitudes. Corvus Energy's new Titan series battery modules have removed the former, and Ron Burchett, the company's commercial marine manager, has a long list of reasons that might go a long way…

01 Jun

Evolving winch and vessel designs enhance towing safety

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Publication > Professional Mariner, Tugboats & Towing

There have been numerous innovations in winch towing operations over the past few years — render-recover winches, auto-abort systems, independently powered level-wind systems, digital line tension displays in the pilothouse — but all this new technology means that good training is even more important. "Winch manufacturers are designing equipment that we didn't even ask for five years ago," said tug…

01 Jun

Departing ship damages crane it had just delivered to Va. terminal

Professional Mariner StaffCasualty News, Publication > Professional Mariner

A crane on the deck of a Chinese freighter struck another crane on shore as the ship pulled away from a Virginia shipping terminal, damaging the crane on the pier and resulting in the vessel being seized by federal authorities. The incident occurred Feb. 14 after the 800-foot Zhen Hua 24 delivered two new container cranes to the APM Terminals…

01 Jun

Tall sea tales sometimes turn out to be anything but fiction

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Publication > Professional Mariner

At a time when many people still thought the earth was flat, sailors were setting off for distant and exotic lands far beyond the horizon. Mariners are the true explorers of the world's oceans, whose exploits have been passed on for millennia through stories of the sea. Some of these sea stories, such as Homer's Odyssey or the tale of…

01 Jun

New boat gives Fla. city speed and punch needed to fight fires

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News, Publication > Professional Mariner

With 2,100 linear miles of waterway meandering within the 840-square-mile area comprising the city, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department of Florida felt under-equipped. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department's new 70-foot high-speed aluminum fireboat, propelled by four 1,015-hp Cat diesels powering Hamilton water jets, is capable of exceeding 40 knots. (Brian Gauvin photo) "We needed a fast boat to…

01 Jun

Readers offer their solutions to the growing piracy threat

Professional Mariner StaffPublication > Professional Mariner

Editor's note: Professional Mariner recently invited readers to submit their suggestions for ending the growing threat of piracy. What follows is a sampling of those submissions. To see other submissions, visit the Mariners Speak section of our website. Members of a U.S. Coast Guard team check out a suspected pirate vessel. The team, operating from the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg,…