SeaWaves Today in History March 31, 2010 1713 - Treaty of Utrecht returns Nova Scotia to Britain; France keeps Ile Royale (Cape Breton) and Ile St-Jean (PEI) 1792 - The Henrik Gerner medal is instituted by counselor Von Schack. The medal is awarded to the Naval Cadet graduating the officer's degree with distinction. (The Medal was awarded for the first time on December 27, 1792) 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry negotiates Treaty of Kanagawa to open trade between US and Japan 1854 - John Rae 1813-1893 sets out across Rae Isthmus for Pelly Bay; meets Inuit who saw Europeans on the west coast of King William Island, and found graves on the mainland near mouth of Back River; he buys silver spoons belonging to the Franklin expedition 1903 - Submarine depot ship HMS Ambrose launched 1910 - Submarine HMS C37 completed 1910 - Submarine HMS C38 completed 1914 - Seventy-eight hunters die, many crippled by frostbite, in a two day long storm when their sealing steamer, the Newfoundland, fails to pick them up due to mistaken orders 1915 - Submarine HMS F1 launched 1917 - The Danish West Indies, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. Jan, are handed over to the USA by temporary governor, Captain Henri Konow, commanding officer of the cruiser Valkyrien, the last Danish guard ship at the West Indies. (The Colonies were acquired in 1666) 1919 - The naval partly mobilized force is dismissed, as the mine sweeping of Danish coastal waters are regarded as completed 1919 - Destroyer USS Southard launched 1919 - Submarine HMS R3 completed 1919 - Submarine HMS H48 launched 1919 - Submarine HMS H52 launched 1920 - Patrol vessels HMCS Stadacona & Malaspina paid off Esquimalt BC 1923 - Submarine USS S-43 launched 1925 - Submarine USS S-45 commissioned 1930 - Heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis laid down 1932 - Sloop HMS Rochester commissioned 1932 - United States signs Whaling Convention at Geneva with 21 other countries 1933 - Sloop HMS Dundee commissioned 1938 - Destroyer FS Le Corsaire laid down 1938 - Light cruisers HMS Mauritius laid down 1938 - Minesweeper HMS Gossamer commissioned 1938 - Soviet submarine S-6 launched 1938 - Light cruiser HMS Edinburgh launched 1938 - U-120 laid down 1939 - U-99, U-101 laid down 1939 - Japan annexed the Sinnan Islands, including the Spratly Islands claimed by France 1939 - Prime Minister Chamberlain announced that Britain and France would defend Poland with all the power at their command 1940 - U-43 lost a man overboard in the Atlantic. [I WO Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Wilhelm Behrens] 1940 - Luftwaffe a/c attacked the Orkneys, Shetland and shipping in the North Sea. A/c driven off by fighters; 1 German a/c severely damaged. No damage on land 1940 - U-boats start withdrawing from the Western Approaches in preparation for the German invasion of Norway 1940 - German surface raider Atlantis sets sail for operations against Allied shipping 1940 - Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine returned to Halifax from Caribbean patrol duties 1941 - At 1033, the Castor was torpedoed by U-46, caught fire and was abandoned by her crew. The still burning tanker was last seen in 57.58N/30.31W 1941 - Submarine HMS Rorqual torpedoed & sank the Italian submarine Pier Capponi south of Stromboli, Italy 1941 - Minesweeper HMAS Cairns laid down 1941 - In the mid-Atlantic, U-106 received 12 torpedoes & some food and fuel from support ship Nordmark 1941 - Submarine USS Mackerel commissioned 1941 - Submarine USS Haddock laid down 1941 - Corvette FS Aconit launched 1941 - Boom defense vessel HMS Barsing launched 1941 - Destroyer HMS Onslow launched 1941 - U-331 commissioned 1941 - U-663, U-708 laid down 1941 - Blenheims of RAF 82 Squadron attack six ships off Le Havre, leaving two 3,000-ton tankers ablaze. Eight aircraft of 21 Sqn attack ships off the Dutch Frisians. One destroyer is damaged. They then attack troops, gun emplacements and guns along the Dutch coast. One aircraft is lost 1941 - The new King George V-class battleship HMS Prince of Wales is completed 1941 - The RAF sent 109 bombers to attack the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the port of Brest last night; no hits were scored 1941 - Motor gunboats are entering service to combat E-boat attacks on East Coast convoys. Improved MTBs are also being built to attack German coastal shipping. This marks the first step in the building up of Coastal Forces 1941 - 875 German and Italian sailors, in the US, are arrested and charged with sabotage 1941 - HMS Bonaventure with a Mediterranean Fleet cruiser force escorts a convoy from Greece to Egypt and is sunk to the SE of Crete by Italian submarine Ambra 1941 - HMS Upright torpedoes and damages the transport Galilea off Tripoli, Libya 1941 - AMC HMCS Prince Henry attempts to intercept 2 suspicious vessels off Peru. Two large explosions ensued as the crews of both ships scuttled their vessels. Interrogation obtained revealed the ships to have been the German merchantmen Hermonthis & Meunchen 1942 - Corvette HMCS Malbaie renamed La Malbaie 1942 - At 2222, the unescorted San Gerardo was hit by two torpedoes from U-71 & sank by the stern SE of New York. The master, 47 crewmembers, two gunners and one passenger (DBS) were lost. Three crewmembers and three gunners were picked up by the British tanker Regent Panther and landed at Halifax 1942 - At 0808, the unarmed tug Menominee towing three barges at 5 knots, was attacked by U-754 with gunfire about 9.5 miles ESE Metopkin Inlet, Virginia near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The U-boat was spotted coming from the port bow and fired three rounds at the tug from about 50 feet. One entered the cabin of the master through a window, destroyed the radio equipment and passed through the starboard bulkhead without exploding. The tug immediately cut loose the barges and tried to escape at 11 knots. The U-boat came along the port side of the barges and fired three or four rounds at each barge, then went up the starboard side and down to port side, again firing as it went. The tug was then chased by U-754 and sank immediately after being hit four times. Seven of the five officers and 13 crewmen managed to leave the vessel, but only the master and the chief engineer reached two rafts and were later rescued by the American motor tanker Northern Sun, transferred to the motorboat USCGC 4345 near Brown Shoal and landed at Lewes, Delaware. The U-boat then returned to the barges and fired about a dozen more shells, sinking the Allegheny and the Barnegat and damaged the Ontario, which stayed afloat on her load of lumber. The three crewmen from the latter barge had abandoned the vessel and were picked up one mile offshore by the motor lifeboat USCGC 4063 from the Metopkin Inlet Lifeboat Station. In the meantime, the six men from the other two barges boarded the anchored Ontario and were taken off the by the same motorboat about eleven hours after the attack. All survivors were taken first to the US Coast Guard station at Metopkin Inlet, before going on to the Naval Operating Base at Norfolk, arriving on 1 April 1942 - Submarine USS Devilfish laid down 1942 - Monitor HMS Abercrombie launched 1942 - Destroyer USS Laffey commissioned 1942 - U-279, U-394 laid down 1942 - U-188, U-357, U-623, and U-624 launched 1942 - U-353 commissioned 1943 - The shipyards at Rotterdam are bombed by the US 8th Air Force. Seventy-eight B-17s and 24 B-24s were dispatched but because of clouds, only 33 B-17s of the 303d and 305th Bombardment Groups (Heavy) bombed the target at 1225 hours local 1943 - US High Command orders the invasion of Attu, in the Aleutian Islands 1943 - Minesweeper HMCS Daerwood launched Vancouver BC 1944 - Aircraft of Task Group 58.1 (TG 58.1) attack Yap Islands NE of the Palau Islands. Aircraft of TG 50.15, TG 58.2 and TG 58.3 continue their attacks in the Palau Islands that began the previous day. The ships and air group participating in this raid were - TG 50.15 Carrier Division Twenty Two (CarDiv 22) USS Chenango with Escort Carrier Air Group Thirty Five (CVEG-35), USS Sangamon with CVEG-37, USS Santee with CVEG-26, USS Suwannee with CVEG-60. Typically, the CVEGs listed above had two squadrons both using the same number as the CVEG number, e.g., CVEG-60 had VC-60 and VF-60. One squadron was a composite squadron (VC) with nine Douglas SBD Dauntlesses and nine Grumman TBF Avengers and the second was a fighting squadron (VF) with 12 Grumman F6F Hellcats. TG 58.1 (CarDiv-4) USS Belleau Wood with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Four (CVLG-24), USS Cowpens with CVLG-25, USS Enterprise with Carrier Air Group Ten (CVG-10) TG 58.2 (CarDiv-3) USS Bunker Hill with CVG-8, USS Cabot with CVLG-31, USS Hornet with CVG-2, USS Monterey with CVLG-30. TG 58.3 (CarDiv-11) USS Langley with CVLG-32, USS Lexington with CVG-16, USS Princeton with CVLG-23, USS Yorktown with CVG-5 1943 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Caulonia ran aground & foundered off Rye Bay, Sussex 1943 - At 1230, U-24 fired a spread of two torpedoes at a tanker, escorted by two destroyers and one coastal-minesweeper off Poti and observed one hit in the stern of the tanker, which caught fire. The sinking of the Soviet motor tanker Sovetskaja Neft (8228 tons) was claimed, but this is not confirmed by Soviet reports, the actual target was the Kreml, which was damaged 1943 - Destroyers USS Frankford & McKee commissioned 1943 - Destroyer USS Hunt laid down 1943 - Destroyer USS Lewis Hancock laid down 1943 - Corvette USS Intensity commissioned 1943 - Submarine USS Seahorse commissioned 1943 - Light fleet carrier USS Belleau Wood commissioned 1943 - U-1231 laid down 1943 - U-977 launched 1943 - U-283 commissioned 1944 - Admiral Koga, Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet is kill in an air crash. Due to political differences, his successor will not be named immediately 1944 - Destroyers HMCS Algonquin & Sioux departed Scapa Flow as carrier escort for attack on German battleship Tirpitz 1944 - Corvette HMCS Sorel completed refit Dartmouth NS 1944 - Corvette HMCS Pictou completed forecastle extension refit New York City 1944 - U-214 laid 15 mines off Casablanca, but without any result 1944 - Frigate USS Casper commissioned 1944 - Minesweeper USS Penetrate commissioned 1944 - Destroyers USS De Haven & Smalley commissioned 1944 - Destroyer escorts USS Corbesier, John C Butler & McNulty commissioned 1944 - HMS Sportsman torpedoes and sinks the German sailing vessel Grauer Ort off Cape Maleas, Greece 1945 - De Tassigny's French First Army crosses the Rhine near Speyer 1945 - Destroyer HMCS Qu'Appelle completed refit Pictou NS 1945 - Frigate HMCS Montreal arrived Shelburne NS 1945 - Frigate HMCS Meon departed Halifax with Convoy HX-347 1945 - HMCS Malaspina, tender to HMCS Royal Roads, paid off. Planned replacement by destroyer HMCS Gatineau was cancelled after VJ Day 1945 - Heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis damaged by Japanese aircraft off Okinawa 1945 - Destroyers USS Floyd B Parks & McKean launched 1945 - Destroyers USS Rowan & Beatty commissioned 1945 - Submarine USS Diablo commissioned 1945 - U-3034 commissioned 1945 - U-2551, U-2552 launched 1945 - HMS Spark sinks a Japanese coaster with gunfire in the Flores Sea 1946 - Aircraft carriers HMCS Warrior arrives Halifax for first time 1949 - Newfoundland joins Confederation as Canada's 10th province; oldest Dominion in the British Commonwealth joins 82 years after Confederation; Joey Smallwood first Premier 1954 - Minesweepers HMCS Chignecto, Cowichan, Fundy, Thunder paid off & transferred to France as La Bayonnaise, La Molouine, La Dunkerquoise & La Paimpolaise for South Pacific patrol duties 1958 - Minesweepers HMCS Comox, Gaspe, Trinity & Ungava paid off & transferred to Turkey as Tirebolu, Trabzon, Terme & Tekirdag respectively 1959 - RCNR Air Sqns paid off - VC 921 Cataraqui, VC 923 Montcalm & VC 924 Tecumseh 1964 - RCNR Air Sqns paid off - VC 920 York & VC 922 Malahat 1967 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1970 - USS Hancock port call Subic Bay 1971 - Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles 1972 - USS Constellation port call Yokosuka 1991 - Warsaw Pact spent the last day of its existence as a military alliance 1991 - Naval forces continue counter air-defensive, combat air patrols, minesweeping and maritime interception operations 1991 - USS Kalamazoo transits Suez Canal enroute CONUS 1992 - USS Missouri, the last active American battleship is decommissioned 1993 - RSS Mercury (ex-USS Thrasher) decommissioned 1994 - Frigate HMCS Halifax returned to Halifax from Haiti blockade duties 1995 - Coast Guard Communication Area Master Station Atlantic sends a final message by Morse Code and then signs off, officially ending more than 100 years of telegraph communications 1996 - Gate vessels HMCS Porte St Louis & Porte St Jean paid off Halifax NS. Became floating breakwater at Dartmouth Yacht Club but later resold for mercantile service in Caribbean due to high maintenance costs 2000 - Training ship HMCS Anticosti paid off Halifax NS 2003 - SS Cape Alexander & Cape Avinoff transferred from RRF to Maritime Reserve 2004 - USNS Bold transferred to Environmental Protection Agency 2004 - OM Ships International purchased the Norrona I from Smyril Line at a cost of 3.6 million Euros. The ship will be renamed Logos Hope and is expected to begin active service during 2005. Humanly speaking, it seemed impossible for OM Ships International, a non-profit Christian service and aid organization, to purchase Norrona I. The owners were already negotiating with another buyer. Bernd Guelker from Germany, OM Ships International's Managing Director, said: "Despite this setback, we still believed this was the right ship. Then Friday, March 26, the other buyer defaulted on a deadline to sign the contract, and the ship was back on the market - now with two other potential purchasers bidding for it. "In order to stay in the running, we had to place our bid urgently. We informed Norrona I's owners, Smyril Line, that we needed to honor our prior commitment to holding a day of prayer on Monday, March 29, before signing any agreement." Guelker explained: "Hundreds of thousands of Christians, in more than 85 nations, have also been praying for the purchase of OM's new ship. On Monday, March 29, at 5:15 PM, after prayer at our head office in Germany, a memorandum of agreement was signed for the purchase of Norrona I for 3.6 million Euros. The Norrona I will become the LOGOS HOPE!" The Norrona I was in Copenhagen, Denmark. For the past 20 years, the 12,000-ton ferry has sailed between the Faeroe Islands and Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Shetland Islands. The Faeroese, many with a strong Christian faith, have expressed their support, and their delight that 'their ship' will now be bringing knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world. After the signing, the Director of the LOGOS HOPE Project, Lloyd Nicholas, from Australia, said: "This is the culmination of two years' planning for the replacement of our present ship LOGOS II. With more than one million visitors every year to OM's ships, the vessel has simply outlived her ability to meet the increasing needs and opportunities we face every day in ports around the world." HIV/AIDS seminars onboard, and teams visiting schools, prisons and orphanages, are some of the many activities in the different ports we visit. Daily, thousands of people queue to visit the floating book fair. "LOGOS HOPE, a much bigger ship, will allow us to do so much more," Nicholas said. OM Ships International plans to launch LOGOS HOPE in 2005. Significant renovation and refitting to equip her for her new role, will take place in a shipyard over the coming months. Conference facilities for 500 people will be equipped with specially designed sound, lighting and projection systems. The newly designed indoor book fair will be the largest floating bookshop in the world. Quality cabins will be fitted for 350 crew and 150 guests. Air-conditioning, IT, telephone, fire alarm and sprinkler systems will be fitted or upgraded. OM Denmark Director, Bitten Schriver, said: "We've been overwhelmed by the generosity of people worldwide who have given financially so that we could now commit to the purchase of Norrona I. Of the total LOGOS HOPE budget, 60% has already been given. To complete the project, a further 8.7 million Euros - and many more bold steps of faith - will be required." Since launching the LOGOS in 1970, more than 33 million people have visited OM's ships in over 140 nations. OM Ships International's successful bid for Norrona I signals an exciting step forward for what has been described as one of today's most innovative and effective Christian ministries 2004 - 800 Sqn RNAS Sea Harriers decommissioned 2005 - Destroyer HMCS Huron decommissioned at Esquimalt 2005 - USNR Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAW-78 decommissioned at Norfolk. Complement of four E-2C Hawkeye aircraft transferred to VAW-77 in Atlanta 2005 - Three crewmembers of a tugboat have been taken hostage by armed pirates in waters off the Malaysian State of Sabah. Malaysia's Star newspaper reports that a group fired on the Malaysian-owned "Bonggaya 91" and the barge it was towing, before boarding the vessel in the Sulawesi Sea near the Sabah district of Semporna. The gunmen fled with three of the six Indonesian crew and the tug's radio communication set. There's been no demand for ransom. It's the second kidnapping in Malaysian waters in two weeks. Last week, pirates freed a captain and two crew taken from a Japanese tugboat in the Strait of Malacca 2005 - Substantial fines and legal costs totaling £7,350 for large-scale fisheries offences are to be paid by the Owner and both Masters of the Fleetwood trawler Resolute, registration A127, a UK registered fishing vessel, Liverpool Magistrates Court ruled. The case was brought by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and culminated in sentencing today. It followed a routine inspection of one of Fleetwood's fish selling agencies by officers from the Sea Fisheries Inspectorate. This revealed the Resolute had caught and landed quantities of fish not recorded in the vessel's fishing logbook and that statutory landing declarations and sales notes submitted to Defra had excluded details of this fish. Documentary evidence gathered during the inspection had been forensically examined and had linked the vessel with the undeclared catches and subsequent sales. The documents also showed that each of the accused had received proceeds from the undeclared sales 2005 - Odfjell has decided to acquire four of the eight 5,870 dwt. chemical tankers operated by the joint-venture company Odfjell Ahrenkiel, Hamburg. The four ships are currently controlled by the Ahrenkiel Group in Germany and will be delivered to Odfjell during the second quarter 2005. The purchase price for the four sister-ships is about USD 54 million enbloc. The four ships; M/T Multitank Bahia (built 1996), M/T Multitank Bracaria and M/T Multitank Brasilia (both 1997), and M/T Multitank Balearia (1998), will be renamed M/T Bow Bahia, M/T Bow Bracaria, M/T Bow Brasilia and M/T Bow Balearia after the take-over. All ships are built at the Viana Do Castelo yard in Portugal to high specifications with regard to cargo handling capabilities. The ships have 20 stainless steel cargo tanks and ice-class. The ships will continue to be operated by Odfjell Ahrenkiel in the inter-European trade based out of Hamburg. Crewing and technical management will continue to be carried out by Ahrenkiel 2005 - Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd announced that it has taken physical delivery of MV Birthday, a Panamax bulk carrier, which the Company agreed to acquire in February 2005. As previously announced, the vessel will immediately be deployed on a two-year charter at US $28,250.00 per day. The vessel is a Panamax bulk carrier of approximately 71,500 dwt, built in 1993 by Hitachi Maizuzu in Japan. MV Birthday is the twelfth vessel the company has agreed to acquire and also the fifth to be deployed in the fixed term employment markets 2005 - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz won confirmation as the 10th president of the World Bank and will assume his new post June 1, World Bank officials announced 2005 - Shipping Minister David Jamieson opened a new £3.5m Coastguard Search and Rescue Flight Hangar in Portland UK and unveiled a plaque marking the event. The white, curved structure of the new hangar will house the Coastguard helicopter as well as new office facilities 2005 - A man was medevaced early this morning 30-miles off the coast of Manasquan NJ after suffering from chest pains and trouble breathing. Fred Dagistino, 50, was hoisted off of the Karen Nicole, a 71-foot fishing vessel homeported in Cape May NJ by a Coast Guard rescue helicopter from Air Station Atlantic City at 0043. Dagistino was transferred to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune NJ 2005 - The LST-325, a World War II ship, is closer to being permanently placed along the Ohio River after the Vanderburgh County Council approved $1.2 million to build the dock 2005 - The Joint Panel reviewing the Whites Point Quarry and Marine Terminal project in Digby County, today released the final Guidelines for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The final EIS Guidelines will provide direction to the proponent, Bilcon of Nova Scotia, Corporation, in preparing a statement of the anticipated effects of the project on the environment. In transmitting the Guidelines to the proponent, the Panel has asked Bilcon to provide a schedule indicating the anticipated timeframe to produce the EIS. The draft EIS Guidelines were the subject of a public consultation, which began in November 2004. After thoroughly considering the written submissions and the transcripts from the public meetings held in January 2005, the Panel restructured the EIS Guidelines to reflect comments received, and to make them more specific to the proposed project 2005 - The frigate HMNZS Canterbury decommissioned in Auckland after 34 years of service 2005 - A car carrier is on fire off the coast of Greece, with the crew preparing to abandon the ship. A spokeswoman for Wallenius Lines in Stockholm confirmed that the 1978-built Aniara was ablaze, but knew little more about the incident at this stage. The ship, which had come from Chennai, is owned by Wallenius Lines Singapore and is thought to have 24 people onboard. The Piraeus coast guard said the vessel was awaiting tug assistance. Lloyd's Register classed the 12,178 dwt Aniara which is covered for liabilities by the Swedish Club 2005 - Two men were found guilty of assaulting Coast Guard officers by a federal jury after a two day trial presided over by Judge Michael K. Moore in US District Court in Key West, Fla. Jose Cartaya-Acosta and Jorge Cartaya-Acosta were arrested Feb. 8 after they were spotted that evening in the Florida Straits, between Cuba and the US, heading north in a 25-foot boat and refused to stop when lawfully ordered by Coast Guard officers from the cutter Valiant, based in Miami Beach. The fleeing suspects initiated a high-speed pursuit that included several attempts by the suspected smugglers to ram the Coast Guard boat, causing damage to the vessel and endangering the safety of the Coast Guard crew. The Coast Guard officers were able to employ minimum and safe force to stop the vessel. When they attempted to go on board, Mr. Jorge Cartaya-Acosta picked up a three-foot metal tire iron and threatened the boarding team while also trying to puncture the Coast Guard boat’s inflatable sponsons. Upon boarding the Florida registered boat, one of the men charged the boarding team, which used appropriate and legal force to protect themselves and to prevent the assailant from attempting further harm 2005 - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wrapped up a visit to Venezuela by signing a series of defense and energy deals. Prime Minister Zapatero and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Wednesday signed the agreements, which include sales of Spanish CN-235 military transport planes and coastal patrol vessels to Venezuela. Both Chavez and Zapatero said the defense equipment will be used for peaceful purposes. Chavez also stated Venezuela would use the aircraft and vessels to patrol land and sea borders to prevent drug trafficking. The two leaders also signed an accord that calls for Spain's Repsol oil company to invest in Venezuela. Another deal calls for Spain to build three ships, including an oil tanker, for Venezuela 2005 - The shipyard that built Nova Scotia's famous schooner is closing. For more than 100 years, the shipyard in Lunenburg built schooners like the Bluenose and wooden trawlers that were the backbone of the Atlantic fishery. Today only 16 workers are employed repairing the Bluenose II. But when that job is finished in June, the Smith and Rhuland shipyard, now called Scotia Trawlers, will shut down for good 2006 - The names of the seven new naval vessels to enter service over the next two years were announced by Defense Minister Phil Goff. "The government has decided to follow naval tradition in naming the ships after earlier vessels that have served in the Royal New Zealand Navy. "The four Inshore Patrol ships will carry lake names - Taupo, Rotoiti, Pukaki, and Hawea, which were the names of New Zealand's Loch Class frigates that fought in the Korean War between 1951 and 1953. "Each ship will therefore carry the honor board of its predecessor, and the heritage so represented. "The two patrol vessels and the Multi Role Vessel (MRV) will carry the names of provincial areas with which they will be affiliated. "They will follow in the tradition of the Leander Class frigates that served between 1966 and 2005. The MRV will be named the Canterbury and the Offshore Patrol ships will be the Otago and the Wellington. "All seven ships will have regional affiliations, with the Taupo associated with Northland, the Rotoiti with Hawke's Bay, the Pukaki with Nelson/Marlborough, and the Hawea with Westland. The Otago will also be associated with Southland." The MRV is nearing completion in Rotterdam, while the two offshore vessels are being built in Melbourne, and the four inshore craft in Whangarei. "All seven ships being built under the $500 million Project Protector are due to be commissioned by the Navy over the next two years," Mr Goff said. "The Canterbury is scheduled to be the first to begin service, next January, while the fourth and final Inshore Patrol Vessel should start in early 2008. The MRV gives the Navy the new capabilities of military sealift and amphibious operation 2006 - Lockheed Martin today delivered to the US Navy the first new-production MH-60R helicopter fully integrated for its anti-submarine and surface warfare missions 2006 - The 174-foot catcher/processor Blue North under tow by the tug James Dunlap west of Spray Cape, Unalaska Island. They are headed to Dutch Harbor at a speed of 8 knots. Estimated time of arrival in Dutch Harbor is 2200. The Coast Guard received notification from the captain of the Blue North at 0435 that the vessel's propeller was fouled by a line and reported being disabled and adrift about 25 miles west of Spray Cape. The vessel was drifting toward Unalaska Island at a speed of 1.5 - 2.5 knots on a heading of 150 degrees true. The Coast Guard launched two HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and a C-130 from Air Station Kodiak to assist with on scene communications and crew evacuation if needed. One HH-60 acted as the eyes on scene during the James Dunlap's arrival and the hook up of the tow. All aircraft have since been released from the scene and are returning to Kodiak. The captain of the Blue North, with assistance from the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau, immediately directed the launch of the tug James Dunlap from Dutch Harbor to respond. The tug arrived on scene at about 1300. The James Dunlap is 94 feet long and has 4,000 horsepower. Weather conditions in the area are west north west winds at 15 knots, six foot swells and visibility of 10 - 12 miles. Blue North has 11 crew and about 33,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board. A unified command was quickly established to monitor the situation and posture resources in the event the tow was unsuccessful. Representatives include the Coast Guard, State of Alaska, Blue North Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA scientific support, the City of Unalaska and various response entities. Close monitoring will continue until the vessel is safely in Dutch Harbor 2006 - USS Tortuga arrives at new homeport of Sasebo, Japan 2006 - The fourth Visby-class corvette, HMS Nyköping, has now embarked on her sea trials. There is naturally always something special about the moment when a ship casts off from the dock for the first time. Many Kockums employees, who have been working flat out right up to the very last, to ensure that everything is in place, were there to wave her off. Project Manager Kenneth Helander is satisfied, as is project veteran Karl-Erik Hallsten 2007 - VS-24 decommissioned. Deactivation ceremony held 23 March 2007 at NAS Jacksonville 2008 - Destroyer USS Arleigh Burke suffers leak at Naval Station Norfolk 2008 - Russian trawler “Kapitan Naumov” detained by a Norwegian coast guard vessel after it failed to report catch results in the Norwegian economic zone. The Norwegian Coast Guard argues that the “Kapitan Naumov” was about to exit Norwegian waters without having registered catch results. The arrest comes just two days after the incident with the trawler “Koralnes”, detained of the same reason 2008 - Anzac-class frigate HMAS Stuart and her ship’s company of 185 personnel depart Fleet Base East for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf 2008 - VS-31 deactivated at NAS Jacksonville. Ceremony held 27 March 2008 - VMFA-212 at MCAS Iwakuni deactivated to cadre status. It is being replaced in Iwakuni by VMFA(AW)-242. VMFA-212 is slated to be reactivated as an F-35B Lightning II squadron 2008 - Commander George Murray won an appeal against his dismissal by the South African Navy in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein 2008 - A Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and a ship steered by animal rights activists opposed to Canada's annual seal hunt collided in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 2009 - Polish Navy plane crashed with four people on board in northern Poland 2009 - Workers were evacuated as firefighters battled a fire on Barrow’s second Astute class nuclear submarine Ambush Copyright 2010 Shirlaw News Group ISSN 1710-6966 To contact us: 418-145 West Keith Rd North Vancouver BC V7M 1L3 Canada Phone: 778-968-7447