The ship in better days
Extraordinary images of the cruise ship by Jonathan Danko Kielkowski from his book Concordia, published by White Press. The German photographer swam out to where the ship – which ran aground off Tuscany in 2012 with the loss of 32 lives – is moored. Francesco Schettino, the ship’s captain, was jailed for 16 years over the accident.
The ship waiting for demolition
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Beeching operation of vessel Ostend Spirit ( Turkey / Aliaga Ship demolishing yards.)
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A prison ship, often more precisely termed prison hulk, is a vessel (usually unseaworthy) salvaged as a prison, often to hold convicts or with the British, often civilian internees, awaiting transportation to a penal colony. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Today there is one prison ship left in the world. The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center is a prison barge operated by the New York City Department of Corrections as an adjunct to Rikers Island, opened in 1992. However, it was built for this purpose rather than repurposed.
It is an 800-bed jail barge used to hold inmates for the New York City Department of Corrections. It was built in New Orleans along the Mississippi River for $161 million in Avondale Shipyard, and brought to New York in 1992 to reduce overcrowding in the island’s land-bound buildings for a lower price. Nicknamed “The Boat” by prison staff and inmates, it is designed to handle inmates from medium- to maximum-security in 16 dormitories and 100 cells.
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Aerial photo of Rikers Island, seen from the North. Bain Correctional Center is seen in the bottom left corner as the docked blue and white ship.
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The 625-foot long by 125-foot wide flatbed barge is equipped with 14 dormitories and 100 cells for inmates. For recreation, there is a full-size gym with basketball court, weight lifting rooms and an outdoor recreation facility on the roof. There are three worship chapels, a modern medical facility and a library open to inmate use. The 47,326-ton facility was on the water, so when it opened, a minimum of three maritime crew was maintained under Coast Guard regulations. According to John Klumpp, the barge’s first captain, in 2002, “the Coast Guard, after years of monitoring the prison barge, finally accepted the reality that that it was, de facto, a jail and not a boat.” The prison ship is located approximately one mile away from SUNY Maritime college.
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(CNN)What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
Don’t put him in charge of a 7,000-ton, 423-foot (129-meter) cargo ship, for starters.
That’s how a Russian mariner who drank half a liter of rum before work, according to investigators, managed to crash into the coast of Scotland last winter — at full speed.
The Lysblink Seaways was on its way from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Skogn in Norway when it slammed into the rocky shoreline near Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsula at about 2:30 a.m. on February 18.
When the ship was salvaged, it was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped.
An investigation into what happened found that the vessel’s 36-year-old chief officer — the sole watchkeeper at the time of the crash — had become “inattentive … due to the effects of alcohol consumption,” the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch said in a report released Thursday.
While off duty in his cabin, the officer made a private phone call which “caused him anxiety, after which he consumed about 0.5 liter of rum,” the report added. Half a liter is about 17 ounces.
He then started his watch at midnight as the sole officer in charge of the vessel.
The amount of alcohol the officer consumed caused him to fail to plot crucial course adjustments, the report said — and the ship’s navigation alarm system, which could have alerted the rest of the crew to his incapacity, had not been switched on.
A breath test taken by the chief officer a few hours after the accident found his breath alcohol at 2.71 mg/ml — almost eight times the UK limit for professional seafarers. (The blood alcohol content would be 0.27 in U.S. terminology.)
A general view of the container ship Lysblink Seaways grounded at Kilchoan, West Ardnamurchan in the West Highlands.
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The ship’s owner, DFDS, has a zero tolerance alcohol policy on board and was supposed to carry out random alcohol and drug testing.
But the investigation found that the Lysblink Seaways carried a bonded store, which included a stock of spirits, beer and wine, and crew members often flouted the zero alcohol rule.
“Records showed that the bonded store was regularly replenished, and empty beer, wine and spirit bottles and cartons found on board after the accident indicated significant levels of alcohol consumption by the crew,” the report said.
There was also no evidence that any random alcohol tests had been carried out on crew members.
But too much rum wasn’t the only thing that contributed to the accident, which caused the ship to leak 25 tons of marine gas oil into coastal waters.
The investigation also discovered poor navigational practices and a lack of control measures — which, had they had been in place, could have prevented the crash.
The report didn’t contain any recommendations as it said the ship’s owner had already taken action, including removing bonded stores from vessels and looking into the random alcohol testing regime.
Gert Jakobsen, a spokesman for DFDS, told CNN: “It’s not a case we have seen before, and there is no excuse for it whatsoever.
“Everyone (in the company) knows the consequences of having alcohol in the blood or being in possession of alcohol on board. …The officer in charge was fired.
“We’re happy that no persons were injured during this quite dangerous situation.”
The Russians are known for their penchant for having a few drinks from time to time. But there are specific situations when the bubbly should be left alone.
I hope the Russian police officers below are not on break, but off-duty. But then who am I to judge?
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Haunted Heat surfing contest in Santa Monica, California. Crazy Californians having fun in the sun.
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Ronald Reagan making an amphibious landing.
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Noah and the Ark.
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The MV Ocean Drover (formerly the MV Becrux), was commissioned in 2002 and is the world’s largest, purpose-built livestock carrier, with advanced ventilation, feed and water systems.
The vessel is capable of transporting 75,000 sheep or 18,000 cattle to major markets around the globe.
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Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Rawhide!
Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Though the streams are swollen
Keep them doggies rollin’
Rawhide!
Through rain and wind and weather
Hell-bent for leather
Wishin’ my gal was by my side.
All the things I’m missin’
Good vittles, love, and kissin’
Are waiting at the end of my ride.
CHORUS
Move ’em on, head ’em up
Head ’em up, move ’em on
Move ’em on, head ’em up
Rawhide
Cut ’em out, ride ’em in,
Ride ’em in, let ’em out,
Cut ’em out, ride ’em in
Rawhide!
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’
Though they’re disapprovin’
Keep them dogies movin’
Rawhide!
Don’t try to understand ’em
Just rope, and throw, and brand ’em
Soon we’ll be living high and wide.
My heart’s calculatin’
My true love will be waitin’
Be waiting at the end of my ride.
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The rivers in Winnipeg this year have been rising, then receding, then another heavy rain and they go up, two days without rain and they go back down. A real teeter totter. They are on the way down again, hopefully this continues and the river walks will get dry soon.
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Another two feet and the Assiniboine walk should re-emerge.
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Water Taxi hauling along
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Some geese decided to stay in southern Manitoba instead of flying up to Hudson Bay to have their broods. A big family of geese.
The red line on the concrete abutment shows the height of the river during the 1950 flood, the yellow line the 1997 flood. Winnipeg is located in the middle of a flood plain.
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The NS Yamal is a Russian Arktika class nuclear-powered icebreaker operated by Atomflot (formerly by the Murmansk Shipping Company). It is named after the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Siberia; the name means End of the Land in Nenets.
Laid down in Leningrad in 1986, and launched in October 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, it never filled its designed role of keeping shipping lanes open. It has always carried passengers on arctic excursions. In July of 1994 Yamal took an excursion to the North Pole, with the NSF (National Science Foundation), to celebrate the Official Maiden Voyage. While at the exact north pole (verified by GPS & Inmarsat satellite coordinates) the crew and passengers celebrated with a barbeque – the ambient temperature was -10 degrees F (wind gusts were measured at -40 degrees F). Because of the ship 90/90 coordinates the ship captain (Smirnov) organized a swimming party with Mr. Will Rountree (USA) being recorded as the 1st person to ever swim there (21 Jul 94) – water temperature was below freezing, ranging from 28 degrees to 31 degrees F. The Yamal is the 12th surface ship ever to reach the north pole.
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The Yamal is equipped with a double hull. The outer hull is 48 mm thick where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere and has a polymer coating to reduce friction. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted in order to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. The Yamal can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards.
Yamal is one of the Russian “Arktika” family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise in cold water to cool their reactors, so they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.
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Yamal docked in Murmansk
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Yamal carries one helicopter and several Zodiac boats. Radio and satellite communications systems are installed which can provide navigation, telephone, fax, and email services. Amenities include a large dining room (capable of holding all 100 passengers in one sitting), a library, passenger lounge, auditorium, volleyball court, gymnasium, heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and an infirmary. She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.
Yamal also played a significant role in creation of annual travel expeditions to the North Pole, being one of the few vessels capable of getting there and bringing tourists with it in safety. Since 1993 the icebreaker was operated by Murmansk Shipping Company and in 2001-2008 the operation was made by Murmansk Shipping Company and Poseidon Expeditions. Yamal has made a total of 47 voyages to the North Pole.
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Sister ship 50 Let Pobedy, biggest icebreaker in the world
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| General characteristics | |
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| Class and type: | Arktika-class icebreaker |
| Displacement: | 23,455 tons |
| Length: | 150 m (490 ft); 136 m (446 ft) at waterline |
| Beam: | 30 m (98 ft); 28 m (92 ft) at waterline |
| Height: | 55 m (180 ft) keel to mast head |
| Draft: | 11.08 m (36.4 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 x OK-900 171 MW nuclear reactors; 2 x steam turbines driving 6 generators, total 75,000 hp (55.3 MW) |
| Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) (max) 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) (cruising) |
| Boats and landing craft carried: |
Zodiac boats |
| Capacity: | Passengers: 100, in 50 cabins and mini-suites |
| Complement: | 150 |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 x Mil Mi-2 or Mil Mi-8 helicopter |
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Amphibex crews began ice-breaking operations in Breezy Point Tuesday afternoon to reduce chances of spring flooding.
Flood officials said the risk of flooding on the Red River seems reduced this year, as compared with last.
“At this point in time, the snow pack is between below-normal and normal. So that bodes well,” said Steve Topping from Manitoba Water Stewardship.
However, there is concern about the thickness of the ice. Flood officials said it is eight to 10 inches thicker than it was last year.
This increases the chances of ice jams. “It’s the ice jams that get us. When we go from 18 inches of ice and up to in certain areas 24 inches of ice, that’s a lot of ice and it accounts for a lot of jamming,” said Larry Johannson, Selkirk mayor.
Crews will be working hard to break up all the ice, and prevent that from happening.
The province is expected to release its first flood outlook of the year late next week.
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Amphibex stands for amphibious excavator.
In all kinds of marine environments, the Amphibex can perform a diverse range of tasks.
The maximum length of an Amphibex is 10.85 meters and they have a total weight of 22 tons. Its hull, moulded into one single piece, is divided into nine sealed compartments.
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The vessel that now holds the title of the world’s biggest ship has taken to the seas for the first time.
Called Pieter Schelte, the behemoth can lift oil rigs right out of the water and move them to new destinations.
It measures a staggering 1,253ft (382 metres) long and 407ft (124 metres) wide, making it almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall and wider than the height of Big Ben.
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Allseas says the Pieter Schelte, which was built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in South Korea, will be able to lift loads of 48,000 tonnes.
However, the company has said it will build an even bigger vessel.
Allseas says it is planning a sister ship measuring 400m (1,312ft) long and 160m (525ft) wide.
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