Oct/Nov Editorial Highlights

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The following excerpts are from Professional Mariner’s October/November edition.  If you haven’t already, we hope you will sign up for upcoming Newsletters which will include Blog Highlights, Nav Problems, Expert Q & A, Ship Building News and next week’s Rules of the Road edition.

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Your Current Issue (107)

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October/November Issue Highlights (108)


Industry Signals

MANSLAUGHTER Galvanized by the jailing of Capt. Wolfgang Schroder, whose ship was involved in a fatal collision with a crane in Alabama, U.S. maritime organizations are initiating a lobbying effort to change the Seaman’s Manslaughter Statute. Under the law mariners can face criminal prosecution for accidents that in any other setting would not be treated as crimes.
By Dom Yanchunas
 

RULINGS Congress is looking into allegations that the Coast Guard’s administrative hearing process is unfairly stacked against mariners. The Baltimore Sun broke the news in an article based in part on an affidavit by an administrative law judge, who said she had been improperly pressured by the Coast Guard to make rulings that resulted in mariners undergoing suspensions or loss of their licenses.
By Dom Yanchunas

 

INNOCENT PASSAGE Two U.S. companies are seeking federal approval to build liquefied natural gas terminals along the shores of Maine’s Passamaquoddy Bay. But to reach the proposed terminals the ships will have to pass through Head Harbor Passage, which is in Canada. Since Canada objects to the tankers using its waters, the fate of the project depends on how the traditional right of innocent passage will be applied in this case.
By Dom Yanchunas

 

DEEPWATER Promising to develop in-house acquisitions expertise, the Coast Guard has tapped a former “Engineer of the Year” to take over leadership of its troubled Deepwater program.
By Dom Yanchunas

 

POLLUTION All of Long Island Sound has been designated a no-discharge zone. With that addition, much of New England’s coastal waters are now no-discharge zones. The region is setting a trend that is likely to spread to much of the rest of the country.
By Laura Carlson

Casualties

BARGE FIRE The failure of Athena Construction to require its crews to pin spuds securely in place on its barges before getting underway was the cause of an Oct. 12, 2006, explosion that killed six, the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded.
By David Tyler

GROUNDING Investigators blame the grounding of a containership last year near Bayonne, N.J., on a docking pilot’s failure to use his radar, personnel and tugboats properly.
By Dom Yanchunas

Correspondence
MYTH One of the persistent myths of World War II is that the pay of merchant mariners stopped when their ships were sunk or they were taken prisoner. Not so, according to a historian who served in the Merchant Marine.

By Charles Dana Gibson

Features
FLAME BOATS Jerry Petrunia drives a 1,000-hp 1970 Chevelle with flames painted on the hood. He also drives a flame-painted Harley. When he is not driving either of those, he may be on one of his powerful little black tugboats that have matching flamed paint jobs.

By Alan Haig-Brown

 

RIGDON A profile of Larry Rigdon, the man behind the company that has been creating new standards for offshore supply vessels in the United States and around the world.
By John Gormley

 
Trends and Currents
FIREFIGHTING Deep-water drilling and the growth of the LNG industry have increased the need for vessels normally used as support vessels to have significant firefighting capabilities. As a result, anchor-handling vessels, supply vessels and different types of tugs are now outfitted with firefighting capabilities that allow them to perform the role of early responders.
By Richard Aichele
SALVAGE A challenge facing vessel owners and salvage contractors is the removal of fuel oil, petroleum cargo and other marine pollutants from the tanks of sunken vessels. Many salvage contractors are requiring that potential pollutants be removed before any other salvage efforts are begun.
By John Snyder

 

Photo Centerspread

LONG-LIVED TUG On Dec. 11, 1962, the steel 1,000-hp tug Thomas J. Brown was delivered to Thomas J. Brown & Sons, New York, from Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding in Somerset, Mass. The tug belongs to a family-owned company that has been operating in New York since 1929.
By Brian Gauvin

You will find all the articles listed above and more in the next edition of Professional Mariner Magazine, your journal to the maritime industry.

By Professional Mariner Staff