September 2025
SEA NEWS
If you have not spent too much time on the computer tracking ships on www.marinetraffic.com then you are in for a treat because every single vessel from a pleasure craft to the largest cruise liner or freighter is shown exactly where it is according to their AIS, and if you touch on the ship you will be informed of the destination logged for the ship, the speed, and even a photo of the it. For example, as this is written (1630 on 10 August 2025) the DISNEY DREAM is between Great Abaco and Fort Lauderdale, it is expected to arrive tomorrow at 1730, it is moving at 10.3 knots.
Disney Dream
Meanwhile the HENRIK IBSEN, a small Norwegian passenger ship is heading toward Skien, Norway at 11.6 knots and will arrive in about two hours. It is 58 degrees with 6 knot winds at sea.
INLAND WATERWAYS
The NTSB released the report on the allision between the mv JOE B. WYATT and the Mississippi bridge at Ft. Madison, IA. The tow was moving downstream with 13 hopper barges and a pair of empty tank barges at about 8 knots when she came near Dutchman Island just a mile up from the city. Her pilot moved the tow about 65 feet to the right because the river divides around the island creating a strong current drawing vessels to the left. Unfortunately, in this case, the current was unusually weak and by the time the pilot realized his predicament, the barge was heading toward the right and hit the protected cell at the base of the pylon. The NTSB noted that the pilot was correct in his assumptions about the current and found him not-guilty of wrong doing.
Towboats can come in a variety of sizes from massive boats that push 30 or more barges to trackable tugs; however, the problem in backwaters and small rivers is low bridges which most tows cannot pass. The answer is easy—a boat that lowers its own pilothouse. Such a vessel is the new mv EUNICE
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SEA GOING
If you are unfamiliar with the phrase “Bucked in the Yarn Rather Than in the Piece”, you are among most sailors of the modern age but quite well-known to old time Salts. Coker Canvas was considered the best and most reliable sail canvas in the world and was on the yards and masts of the finest ships including several America’s Cup contestants.
East Coker, West Coker, and North Coker are three Somerset villages in Southern England which produced large quantities of flax that was laid out to “ret” (rot) so the fibers could be extracted. Someone discovered that laying the flax in running stream water that was heated to increase the rate of rot and then the yarn was “bucked” with alkaline lye before being laid in fields to dry (two to three weeks). The bucking was repeated four or five times before souring it with milk for three weeks. This process done to the yarns rather than a whole bolt of cloth created a cloth that would repel seawater and prevent rot or mildew.
The canvas was the desired sailcloth for the Royal Navy and became the standard in 1806. By 1851, the racing world became attracted to such excellent cloth and it was used in the sundry America’s Cup races from 1899 to 1930.
After last month’s edition of BEYOND THE HORIZON, this writer wonders if Coker Canvas would also keep mice away.
COAST GUARD
The Coast Guard commissioned its first icebreaker since 1990. USCGS STORIS was purchased from Edison Chouset Offshore for $125 million and will refurbish it for another $25 million. The service now has 4 icebreakers but POLAR STAR is laid up and probably will be used for parts. Meanwhile, Russia has 40 icebreakers and is building 12 more. China is also building icebreakers as they prowl north of Canada. Both countries would like to mine minerals in the Artic.
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USCGS STORIS
Chinese Icebreaker
SEA NEWS
The Chinese have harassed Filipino fishing ships for several years to the point of alarming behavior. A recent video shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship dangerously close to a Patrol Boat, almost ramming it from the rear, when a Chinese destroyer cuts between the two ship ironically severing the bow of the Coast Guard cutter rendering it unseaworthy. The distance between the Philippine boat and the cutter was about 20 feet when the destroyer attempted to slip between the ships. The images are profoundly disturbing because they show how hard is trying to find an excuse to start a war with the Philippines Islands.
The incident raised political heat to new levels around Scarborough Shoals which China claims is theirs while the remainder of the world sees it as international waters. Filipino government officials claim that these actions are tantamount to war. The Philippines and Japan signed a defense pact between the two nations immediately after this incident.
When the U.S. was spying on North Korea, it disingenuously disguised the USS PUEBLO (AGER-2) as a research ship that, of course, fooled no one. China has sent an “unusual” ship through the Philippine Islands that doesn’t even pretend to be doing anything other than electronic surveillance.
CHINESE SPY SHIP in the Philippines.
GREY FLEET
President Trump tapped Admiral Daryl Caudle as the new Chief of Naval Operations after he fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to head a U.S. military service and her successor, acting CBO James Kilby resigned. Caudle is an impressive figure who mesmerized attendees of the USS IOWA (SSN-797) Commissioning. He has been critical of ship shortages and lack of shipbuilding facilities that seem aligned to Trump’s attitude.
USS DEFIANT an uncrewed ship
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued his housecleaning of top military officials by firing VADM Nancy Vacore, Chief of the Naval Reserve, and RADM Milton Sands, Commander of Naval Special Forces, without comment or prior notification. This comes days after he fired General Jeff Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Earlier, Hegseth fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations. GEN Tim Haugh, Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command was fired earlier. The Coast Guard Commandant. ADM Linda Fagen was fired soon after Hegseth took office.
The overall command structure of the U.S. military is in chaos while Congress refuses to name new people to these positions forcing people to assume command as temporary replacements. The top civilian staff of the Navy Department are all “Acting” secretaries, Under Secretaries, and Assistant Secretaries. Frankly, if this does not scare the hell out of Americans, we are doomed. The Administration wants only “Yes” military who swears totally to the President of the U.S. (see officer’s oath). Does this sound familiar in history? When do we have a new military unit sworn to only follow the President?
YES, I am frightened.
POV
I do not dislike Conservative politics; I simply do not agree with it. What I do abhor is the intolerant authoritarianism of the extreme far-right. Dept. of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U. Naval Academy to pull 831 books from the Academy Library (including Why the Caged Bird Sings, studies of the Holocaust, and anything derogatory of the South before the Civil War). He canceled lectures by Ruth Ben-Giht (scholar on authoritarianism), Susan Solomon (expert on atmospheric science) because she “wasn’t aligned with Executive Orders, canceled the final lecture on philosophy by Ryan Holiday, on Admiral James Stockdale and his stoicism as a 7-year POW during the Viet Nam War, and canceled the Ken Burns showing the program on the American Revolution (Burns is critical of Mr. Trump). Hegseth closed all groups oriented around gender including the Society of Women Engineers, Black Studies Club, and Moms in Flight Suits.
MARITIME DISASTER
The worst maritime disaster came during the later months of World War II when the USSR was pressing into Eastern Germany and about to strand thousands Nazi Party faithful in Prussia and what is now Poland. The cruise mv WILHELM GUSTLOFF, a 680’ x 77’ 26,000 ton built specifically for entertaining the Good Nazis on short Baltic Sea voyages, was sent to rescue 10,500 civilians plus a smattering of 916 military officers, 373 Women’s Naval Auxiliary personnel, wounded soldiers, and crew in a plan called Operation Hannibal.
The ship left Gotenhafen shortly after noon accompanied by a pair of Torpedo Boats and a transport, HANSA. Not surprisingly, the torpedo boats had engine failure and were unable to continue protecting WILHELM GUSTLOFF, and worse, the HANSA also had mechanical failure and was unable to comply with the rescue efforts.
On board the ship were 4 ship captains comprised of 2 merchant skippers and 2 Navy captains as well as a submarine commander who suggested that they sail in shallower waters closer to shore to evade potential submarine attack. The WILHELM GUSTLOFF’s own captain decried this idea as silly because he feared collision with other vessels in the area. So, out to sea they floated with their navigational lights fully lit.
On the evening of 30 January 1945, the USSR submarine S-13, under command of Alexander Marinesko, quickly picked up signals from the German ship and maneuvered to the Starboard side but later decided on a Port attack by slipping behind the prey and surfacing to stare down the victim before launching 4 torpedoes. Three struck. One hit the bow and automatically caused the watertight doors to seal. The second slammed into the women’s naval auxiliary berthing area with such force that only 3 survived. The last scored a direct hit in the engine room disabling all power and communications.
Sundry studies of the sinking ran from immediately after the war until well into the 21st. century. The data suggests that many passengers died in the stampede aboard the ship if they were not killed during the attack itself. WILHELM GUSTLOFF took on a heavy list creating havoc as life boats could not be freed quickly. Like the TITANIC, survivors found the 39-degree winter water unbearable and quickly succumbed to hyperthermia. While 1,252 passengers were saved, a staggering 9,343 died in the worst maritime single-ship catastrophe in history.
Ironic sidenotes to this story are that the German Naval officers were never held responsible because the war ended before proceeding could commence. The Soviet submarine commander followed his attack by sinking GENERAL von STUBEN 11 days later killing 4,500 passengers. Marinesko was not considered a hero of Russia and was court martialed for his drinking and visitation of brothels. He was awarded a minor award but given a dishonorable discharge. In 1960 he was reinstated and given a full pension as deserving of a retired captain. In 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously named his Hero of the Soviet Union.
ALLISIONS AND COLLISIONS
ALVEI, a three-masted tall ship, suffered an allision with a quay wall on the Baltic in Germany.
SEA RANGER experienced a fatal engine room fire causing her to sink. The four crew were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter in the Gulf of Alabama.
In tragic news, Ethiopian immigrants over-packed a small boat causing it to sink off Japan leaving 96 dead, 29 missing, and 32 rescued. Pathetically, every week people seeking a better life risk everything on leaky, rickety, and unseaworthy boats. The constant sinkings and death have almost reached the point of being mundane.
DAS BUG, an American coal barge sank off Newport with the loss of 1 crew member but 3 were saved by Coast Guard helicopter.
A Russian cargo ship was destroyed by Ukraine rockets in the Caspian Sea as the Russian attempt to conquer her neighbor continues unabated.
DA VINCI, an Italian motor yacht sank but all 14 passengers were saved.
An unidentified Nigerian boat sank on the way to market. 25 people were saved but 25 were killed.
HUMOR
One response to “BEYOND THE HORIZON”
l share your feeling about our country. The conditions that the writers of the Declaration of Independence once again inflicted by our Der Trumper who has also ignored most of the Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act. Congress and the Supreme Court are his lackeys. Who will be our Thomas Paine?