Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Slowly, some of the details are coming out of the five-day hostage situation of Capt. Richard Phillips and the crew of the Maersk Alabama. The Wall Street Journal reports On the Maersk and worth reading if you are looking for details of how the rescue of Capt. Phillips evolved.
I’ve been curious about the sea conditions and the article hints at an answer:
The three remaining pirates later asked to be towed, apparently out of fuel. Bainbridge hooked up a line. After sunset, winds and seas picked up, jostling the lifeboat uncomfortably. The pirates’ mood see-sawed, said Cmdr. Castellano. One minute they were terse and vindictive on the radio, the next smiling and laughing.
Not as much detail of the conditions as I would like but it is interesting that the pirates “asked to be towed”, suggesting it was uncomfortable enough that they hoped a tow would smooth out their ride.
Still many other questions remain. Some of which are asked over at Information Dissemination, a great blog if you follow naval topics. Today’s Maersk Alabama Lifeboat – Photo Edition poises some interesting possibilities.
I eat this stuff up!
Tags: Information Dissemination, Maersk Alabama, navy, Pirates, rescue, SEALS, Somalia, WSJ
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Saturday, April 11th, 2009
I have a terrible habit of opening tabs in my browser with the intention of reading them in the evening and perhaps commenting on them if I have something to contribute to the discussion or wish to pass on a tip or trick. Well, it’s been pretty busy this week and I haven’t had a chance to blog. Currently, there are 18 open tabs, some related to each other, that I intended to blog about.
For now, I’m just going to post some quick comments for I fear I won’t get back to this list soon.
(more…)
Tags: Easter, EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, iFolder, law, Maine, Medal of Honor, Misc, navy, Obama, open source, Pirates, Radical Parenting, Russel Dunham, Security, Snowe, Somalia, USA, Vanessa Van Petten
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
I love this story! Pirates off the coast of Somalia engaged what they thought was a cargo ship. Turned out to be a German Navy supply ship. The pirates were surprised when the Germans defended themselves. I bet they were shocked when the ship turnd and began pursuit!
According to an AP article entitled “Pirates attacking German ship captured off Somalia”
In the attack on the German ship, pirates apparently mistook German FGS Spessart supply vessel for a commercial ship when they opened fire on it on Sunday afternoon, U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said.
The German sailors returned fire and pursued the skiff while also calling in for support. Several naval ships — including a Greek and a Dutch frigate, a Spanish warship and the USS Boxer — sped to the area while a Spanish marine aircraft and two U.S. Marine Cobra helicopters joined the pursuit.
Five hours later, Greek sailors reached the pirate skiff, boarded it and seized the seven suspects and their weapons, including assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the Greek navy said.
Pirates have had it easy attacking unarmed merchant ships. This is not what they expected at all. German Navy FTW!
Head over and read the entire article for all the details:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gB7YMEDuCwwY9ncDOtPAkEI4-H2wD978EB703
Tags: Germany, Military, navy, Pirates, Somalia
Posted in Military | 1 Comment »
