Category: MARITIME

A cargo ship sank off the coast of Greece near the island of Lesbos Sunday, November 26. One person was rescued, one body was recovered but twelve crewmembers were still missing according to Greek authorities. The ship was en route from Alexandria, Egypt, to Istanbul with a 6,000-ton load of salt. The ship reported mechanical issues Sunday morning and later sent a distress signal. A group of merchant ships, helicopters and a Greek navy ship were searching for the crew. The dead crewmember was retrieved Sunday afternoon and was taken to Lesbos. The body arrived but has not been identified, a coast guard spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

Houthi rebels from Yemen seized what they referred to as an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea. The group then warned that all vessels connected to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces.” The Houthi rebels released a video showing what they say is the attack and seizure of the vessel. The released video showed masked, armed men exiting a helicopter onto the deck of the ship while it was still moving. The video showed crewmembers with their arms up being threatened at gunpoint. Palestinian and Yemeni flags were raised on board. The authenticity of the video has not been verified. Israel said the vessel, the Galaxy Leader, is a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship and described the incident as an “Iranian act of terrorism” with consequences for international maritime security. Israel’s military said on X (formerly Twitter): “The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence.” Houthi forces said they would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop,” said Yahya Sare’e, a spokesperson for the group in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

The captain of a dive boat has been convicted of criminal negligence after 34 people were killed on board the boat. Jerry Boylan, the captain, was found guilty of misconduct/neglect of a ship officer in a trial in Los Angeles, Calif. The fire occurred in 2019 on the commercial scuba diving vessel, the Conception. The boat caught fire near Santa Cruz Island, Calif. on the morning of Sept. 2, 2019. All passengers were sleeping below deck. Boylan and four members of the crew escaped but it is maintained that they did not attempt to help the passengers. Boylan was convicted of “failing to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities whatsoever at the time of the fire, even though he was uninjured,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a press release that announced the conviction.

One person died and four others went missing after two cargo ships collided in an incident that took place in the North Sea off the coast of Germany. An additional two crewmembers were rescued, according to German officials. The British-flagged Verity is said to have collided with the Bahamian-registered Polesie. Reports say the Verity sank. The Polesie remained afloat. The Verity was traveling from Bremen to Immingham in the U.K. when it collided with the Polesie, which had departed from Hamburg on its way to La Coruña in Spain. The incident happened off the coast of Heligoland. Rescue ships from the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS), a German navy helicopter and a water police boat are aiding in the search efforts, the DGzRS said. No word as yet on the cause of the collision.

The cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was pulled free three days after running aground in Greenland. The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle in Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the northernmost national park in the world. The ship had 206 people on board at the time of the incident, according to authorities and the ship’s owner. A fisheries research was able to pull the vessel at high tide, pulling it free, said SunStone Ships, the Copenhagen-based owner of the cruise ship. The Joint Arctic Command coordinated the operation. “There have not been any injuries to anybody on board, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull,” SunStone Ships said in a statement. The research vessel which pulled the cruise ship belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a government agency, it said. Those aboard were taken to a location and were flown home. The Danish Maritime Authority asked police in Greenland to investigate the reason the ship ran aground and whether any laws had been violated, a police statement said. No one has been charged or arrested. An officer has been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” the statement said.

Early on September 12, a group of unseaworthy, overcrowded iron boats came into Italian island Lampedusa, a fishing and tourist hub south of Sicily. 6,800 migrants came in about 24 hours, more people than the full-time population of Lampedusa. The boats and migrants launched from Tunisia. The flotilla taxed the Italian coast guard’s ability to intercept the smugglers’ vessels and testing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s commitment to end irregular migration.

Marine interdiction agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO) intercepted a vessel with three men from the Dominican Republic transporting 723 pounds (328 kilos) of cocaine, north of Loiza, Puerto Rico. The estimated value of the seized narcotics is approximately $7.9 million. A CAMB Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) crew detected a Yola-type vessel with two outboard engines travelling south towards Puerto Rico, with visible bales and three occupants on board. The MEA maintained surveillance of the vessel coordinating with the crews of two Coastal Interceptor vessels to intercept. The marine interdiction agents stopped a gray and blue, 24’ Eduardoño-type homemade yola, with three occupants on board. The agents boarded the vessel approximately 10 nautical miles north of Loiza, arresting three adult males, who claimed to be from the Dominican Republic, and found ten (10) bales of suspected cocaine. The tested contraband was positive to the properties of cocaine.

A P&O Cruise vessel broke free from moorings in a storm in Mallorca and collided with another ship. Inspections showed one of the lifeboats was damaged and could not be repaired on board, according to the cruise company. Some passengers were told they’d have to fly home. A total of 321 passengers were told they’d have to return to Southampton, or their starting point, by flight and transfer. A technical assessment was carried out on the cruise ship in Palma, where experts found “structural issues” with one of the lifeboats. P&O said the ship was “close to capacity” at the time of the collision and asked guests to “kindly volunteer to disembark.” The ship, named the Britannia, can carry 3,647 passengers.

An investigation ensued after a boat exploded at a marina at Lake of the Ozarks. It is thought that the explosion was caused by a buildup of gas fumes in the engine area and a spark that set off the explosion. A group of 16 people were injured (15 on the boat and one on the dock).

Two U.S. Navy sailors were indicted and arrested for allegedly sending sensitive U.S. military information to Chinese intelligence officers. Jinchao Wei was arrested as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, according to a statement released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. The other sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, who was arrested, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme in California. Wei appeared in federal court, where federal defenders submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement. “The charges demonstrate the (People’s Republic of China’s) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage,” Matt Olson, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference.