A Far Departure from Captain Jack Sparrow- The Reality of Pirates.

We all know about pirates of old- the swarthy guy with eye patch, the parrot, and wooden leg. These privateers may have been brigands and cutthroats, but they were known for having a code of honor and strong sense of democracy. The Hollywood pirates like Johnny Depp- prancing around and waving off danger. The movies show pirates in a way that is almost glamorous.



The modern world pirates are none of this. A perfect example would be off the coast of Somalia. These are thugs of the lowest order, mostly money hungry gangs and often connected to larger organized crime. These pirates have been known to kill crews for sport and often take hostages that are beaten severely until they can negotiate a price for their release. There was an excellent article in the Guardian about these Somali pirate gangs and the increase of attacks in the region. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2100605,00.html



Take a look at the story. It is a good read.

Veterans with a sense of humor

I wanted to share a funny picture I got in an email. This is a picture of a WWII veteran - Supposedly at one of Hilary Clinton's speaking engagements.
It would not suprise me if the caption with the picture was true- although I think this man's bullshit protector would be useful around just about any politician these days.

Politically- the Merchant Marine has allies and enemies from both parties. Much of it depends on how much revenue their states see from the seafaring trade. The current debate of House Bill HR23 and Senate Bill 1272 will require us to suffer a great deal of bullshit from many people who do not understand what the Merchant Marine does.

Write to your state representatives to get support for our WWII Merchant Marine Vets.

Polluting the High Seas- another example to learn from

It seems we as a community still have some things to learn. Such as that horrible lesson that we were taught when the Valdez grounded on Bligh reef. Most people who are sailing are well aware of the consequences we face in today's world. Pollution is a hot topic- one that can get Mariners put behind bars.

Now I am about as far from a crazy leftwing environmentalist as you can get- but I do respect the environment and I do care what happens to our world- I personally would not pollute the water on purpose... but I was taught to be that way- so maybe it is a generational thing. Maybe the oldtimers think they can do it and that they might save a buck or two and land a bigger bonus from the home office. Maybe.

I really doubt that though.

In this new case, two Cheif Engineers pleaded guilty to polluting the ocean using 'magic pipes' to bypass the oily water separator and the storage tanks- dumping massive amounts of oil and bilge waste into the water. New reports say that the bypass pipes had been discovered by the Coast Guard during a routine inspection.

PGM (Pacific Gulf Marine) pleaded guilty to charges related to its role in deliberately discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil-contaminated bilge waste from four of its giant car-carrier ships used to transport vehicles, including the Tanabata and Fidelio. The shipping company was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2007, to pay $1 million criminal fines and $500,000 in community service, and serve three years of probation under the terms of an environmental compliance plan which will be audited by a court-appointed monitor.

In the old days, companies put pressure on the crew to 'get rid of it' when it came to the costly disposal of waste. I don't know if Pacific Gulf Marine would encourage that type of behavior even if it would save them money in the long haul. I seriously doubt they would. I really don't know why the Engineers went to so much trouble, illegally dumping and faking log entries unless there was some reward for doing so. However, with the stiff penalities one would think that it would be strongly discouraged behavior. I hope that this serves as another reminder to mariners out there who have thought about trying to save the company a few bucks.

It isn't worth jail time.

British Sailors Captured and No Action Taken

England was once THE greatest military power in the world, and they certainly have the capabilities to fight a large scale conflict. However, watching the news and seeing the capture of British sailors by the Iranians and the lack of response from the English government, you really have to wonder what has happened to this country. The leaders in the British Isles have done nothing, planned nothing- when they could destroy half of Iran with the push of a few buttons. Has the socialist phony Tony Blair totally lost his balls? How can he even call himself a man? The president of Iran should have a tactical nuke dropped on his home at night- yet Blair does nothing. This will only embolden the nutcases in the Middle East.

Now Iran is negotiating the release of their prisoners being held in the U.K. for the British sailors. Will they negotiate with the terrorist lunatics?

What does this have to do with the Merchant Marine you might think? Well, historically the strength of a nation’s Navy is generally a measure of that nation’s power. Navies were created to safeguard our interests abroad. This includes merchant fleets and it affects us greatly. If the Brits are neglecting their Navy personnel what will happen when the Iranians capture merchant vessels?

We have another Hitler emerging and no one wants to say it. Everyone is being politically correct so that we don’t offend the Muslims. Our reaction should be stronger- the west should lash out and show these jackals what we can do. This goes for England and the U.S. because America must defend its allies as well.

So when your merchant vessel is captured- thank your government for strengthening the resolve of our bitter enemies- the evil rotten dictators in the desert. So write your parliament (or congressmen) and tell them to stand up to these schoolyard bullies. I say nuke them and be done with it. Between the U.S. and U.K. we should be able to get rid of this threat- U.N. rules be damned.

International shipping school: Estonia

When I was looking at my site statistics today I saw that American visitors were ranked #1, but the interesting thing to me was that Estonia ranked #2. It made me think back to when I was a cadet and we went to Estonia and visited their maritime academy. I was very impressed with it and the cadets there. I would say that they were actually right up there with my school, Maine and the simulator they had at the time was better than ours. I was very impressed by their strong language skills which is something that we tend to lack in the U.S. It is good to know that some of our foreign counterparts are excellent merchant mariners as well, especially when there are so few American ships in the ocean these days.

So for all the Estonian visitors to my site I wanted to say hello and 'Aitah' (I think that is Thank You) for a great stay at your beautiful country and being so welcoming when we visited your maritime school.

Flagging ships and paying taxes

Today in the News I heard of Haliburton moving to the United Arab Emirates to get out of paying taxes. I am personally not against corporations and I am not opposed to Haliburton per se.. Politically I am an independant that is severely right-wing with a hint of libertarianism. I think that this move will be great for Haliburton, but it sucks for the American people.

I like listening to talk radio. I am a big fan of Micheal Savage. Here is a link to his website http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html and there is also his news source in here- for a few days at least. Haliburton is doing what a lot of shipping companies do. They are going 'foriegn flagged' now- what does this mean? Most US companies that have foriegn flagged ships are still US based companies that pay taxes. But when the company relocates to another country it no longer pays tax. Nothing. NO CORPORATE TAX.

Should they continue to get US contracts? Think about this really hard before you answer. Haliburton is the LARGEST US defense contractor. A large amount of tax dollars go to them to pay for their services. But now they will not pay taxes. The US is going to lose a lot of money because there will be a large outflow of money and nothing is coming back.

Ships that are foriegn flagged are generally excluded from government contracts. So should Haliburton be excluded from government contracts?

What about security? Do you want the radical islamists working for Haliburton making the parachutes for our paratroopers? Putting anthrax inthe MRE's?

Now part of me wants to be good to the corporations because they are the bread and butter that keeps our economy running. BUT- This is bad for America and I am against anything that is bad for you and me. Libertarians generally believe that you can "do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else."

This kind of thing will hurt us.