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THE STATION IDENTIFICATION AND NOTICE BOARD APPEARS AT THE TOP OF THE SCROLL CONTAINING OUR BLOG POSTS IN DAY TIME ORDER.  JUST SCROLL PAST TO READ THE DAILY BLOG POSTS. THE SPECIAL INTEREST PAGE LISTINGS TO YOU RIGHT ARE LIVE LINKS, A CLICK ON THE SUBJECT LINE WILL BRING YOU TO THAT PARTICULAR SPECIAL INTEREST PAGE. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WHAT THIS SITE IS ABOUT TRY VIEWING THE VIDEO LINKED BELOW OR CLICKING ON OUR INTRODUCTION SECTION IN THE RIGHT HAND MARGIN.  

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TO VIEW OUR DAILY BLOG POSTS ON AN ECLECTIC MIX OF MARITIME SUBJECTS SIMPLY SCROLL PAST THIS STATION IDENTIFICATION. OUR POSTS APPEAR ON THIS SCROLL IN DAY TIME ORDER. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A PARTICULAR POSTING BY TITLE OR DATE THE LISTS OF POSTS ARE ALSO LIVE LINKS TO YOUR RIGHT. FOR ADDITIONAL HELP IN FINDING A PARTICULAR BLOG CLICK HERE  OR ON THE "SITE GUIDE AND INDEXES" LINE IN THE RIGHT HAND MARGIN.

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OR OTHER LINK TO A VENDOR TO PURCHASE THE TITLE. THE BOOK COVER ICONS SEEN IN EACH SPECIAL INTEREST SECTION ARE LIVE LINKS TO BOOK VENDORS.                 

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OUR MISSION:

 IS TO HELP OUR VISITORS FIND ALL MANNER OF MARITIME RELATED INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL OR SPORT, AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH INCLUDING LINKS, VIDEOS, AND BOOKS.  WE STRIVE TO CONSTANTLY INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE AND TO MAKE THE DISCOVERY AND RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION ON YOUR PARTICULAR SUBJECT OF INTEREST EASIER.         

OUR PHILOSOPHY:   We  are an encyclopedic treatment of all things maritime from professional advancement in the naval or Merchant Marine Professions to recreational sailing and paddle sports. Each of our "special interest sections" starts with a basic introduction to the subject then provides you with links to expert sites, reviews of books and videos of interest, links to free pertinent videos that can be viewed on line. While our staff consists of maritime professionals we don't try to duplicate or compete with older more comprehensive special interest sites. We try to help you find them and link to them instantly.  Links to free videos are for videos you can view on line via hyper link providing easy return to this site. While there are links to specialty sites all over this site, we provide below our BIG LINKS LOCKER in case you only came here looking for a link, THE  BIG LINKS LOCKER WILL TAKE YOU TO SPECIALIZED MARITIME SUBJECT MATTER LINKS ALL OVER THE INTERNET:

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UNLOCKING THE MARITIME WORLD: Our mission is literally to  unlock the maritime world by making all English language maritime data easy to find,  available, evaluated when possible, and affordable. We suggest checking our subject pages to your right first, by clicking on the subject section most like your particular interest.  If that doesn't answer your question come back here and click any of the "super links" below that appear most appropriate, the broadest and most general is hyper linked just below. This is an entire web site of nothing but links to maritime websites and blogs of every description.

"The Mother of All Maritime Links": 

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If you don't find the book you need among those we have reviewed so far or linked to click into the Amazon general search engine via the link below or as provided within our special interest sections.  

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We think the following links to major sites aligned with our "Special Interest Pages" can often provide answers to commonly asked questions:

ADMIRALTY or MARITIME LAW:

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http://law.onecle.com/constitution/article-3/25-admiralty-maritime-jurisdiction.html

A NAVAL NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE: NOSI Naval Open Source Intelligence:

http://www.nosi.org/ 

OCEANOGRAPHY: The Scripts Institute

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

SHIP RESEARCH: 

SHIPINDEX.ORG Find publications that mention a particular ship recently or deep into recorded history:  http://www.shipindex.org/  limited free service very reasonable short and long term subscriptions.

Boating and Water Safety:

Mario Vittone-BE SAFE- http://mariovittone.com/

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Beijing Expands Its Maritime Militia of Armed Commercial Fishing Boats In South China Sea

THE DRAGON EXPANDS ITS  MARITIME MILITIA 

US Coast Guard cutter Rush escorting the illegal fishing boat Da Cheng back to China.

Photo Credit : USCG

 Now That China's Commercial Fishing Fleet Is Armed And Labeled A "Maritime Militia" Will They Leave American, Japanese Or Philippine Waters As Peacefully Ever Again? Given China's Naval Inexperience This Seems A Surefire Way to Start A Naval Shooting War. 

Not long ago we carried the news that China was organizing its commercial fishing fleet into an armed naval militia. The Dragon is now starting to arm that maritime militia and with that new muscle, will continue to aggressively expand its thieving activity against the maritime exclusive economic zones of its neighbors. The concept of naval militias is not new, indeed the United States had a number of state naval militias almost since the Revolution. New York has one today and a portion of the Texas State Guard is considered maritime in character and mission assignments.  Characterized by armed civilian commercial fishing boats China's maritime militia is the Dragon's newest and least studied force for maritime territorial theft. The maritime militia is usually deployed by the Chinese government to carry out various types of missions in disputed waters, from rescuing stranded vessels to conducting controversial island landings. But the boats are armed and the crews not well trained. This could lead to unintended trouble. China ridiculously claims the entire South China Seas practically right up to the beach line of the Philippine main Islands. The Dragon knows that no matter how little the world may protest their island and reef grabbing antics beyond their neighbor's 12 mile territorial limit, armed incursions inside anyone's 12 mile limit could be interpreted as an act of war, especially if shots are fired. China's fishing fleet is already excessively aggressively encouraged as it is by the Chinese navy and coast guard. But arming the fishermen themselves looks like a big mistake. If some ill trained fisherman shoots at a Philippine naval or coast guard vessel , especially in close in waters it will be promptly blown out of the water. 


 When the inevitable exchange of fire between one of these armed fishermen and a Philippine, Vietnam, Singaporean coast guard vessel occurs will the Chinese claim that a "war ship" of their flag was attacked, or an errant and well meaning fisherman? China says the militarization of their fishing fleet will boost production. The only way arming fishing boats increases production is if you intend to rob the protected fishing grounds of another nation state. Once armed what will keep the fishermen from assuming that their "jurisdiction" and "sovereign immunity" don't extend to offshore Guam or Wake Island. Will they surrender peacefully when arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard. 

 The maritime militia is pretty rag tag now but China is trying to build its first state owned commercial fishing fleet and first rank of the armed fishing vessel militia.  We would suspect that the state owned and organized vessels might more closely respond to naval controls. But right now the Dragon has created Dodge City out there in the south China Sea. THis is not going to end well.

Read more in the CHINA TIMES 

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FISHING FLEET MANNED BY SLAVES IN THE 21st CENTURY

Stowage plan, British Slav Ship of the early 1800s

Hunt Is On For 33 Slave Ships Off Coast Of Papua New Guinea  As Reported in The GUARDIAN http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/01/slave-ships-papua-new-guinea-hunt-burmese-men-trawler

Immigration officials seek trawler fleet crewed by 1,000 trafficked Burmese men that is thought likely to be supplying the UK with seafood. 

ACCORDING TO AN ACCOUNT PUBLISHED IN THE GUARDIAN 

 "A fleet of at least 30 fishing trawlers crewed by slaves is being hunted off the coast of Papua New Guinea as the true extent becomes apparent of the trafficking of Burmese men by a massive Thai-run criminal syndicate operating throughout the East Indies.

Immigration officials have so far intercepted one of the fishing vessels, called the Blissful Reefer, and rescued its trafficked crew. Another 33 Thai trawlers thought to be crewed by slaves are being tracked in fishing grounds off the south coast of Papua New Guinea, known locally as the Dog Leg.

The trawlers are thought to be linked to a huge trafficking operation that was disrupted on the isolated Indonesian island of Benjina in March, liberating hundreds of enslaved fishermen � although a large number of boats loaded with slaves managed to escape."

Read More @ THE GUARDIAN

AND NOW A WORD FROM THE GREAT CATFISH ON SLAVERY AND PIRACY IN THE 21st CENTURY

NAMAZU GIANT JAPANESE CATFISH AND FORMER DEMIGOD, NOW MARITIME ANALYST

Greetings Bipeds:

Being 3,000 years old and living in the sea I have a long memory of the ills of piracy and the slave trade. American bipeds are very fixated on their own period of the "peculiar institution" which ended more than 150 years ago. Americans seem to think slavery was uniquely American, uniquely black, and that some how America was late abolishing the noxious trade. In fact slavery has touched every race on earth and every inhabited place except Iceland and Greenland. Slavery went on for thousands of years before it reached America and didn't disappear as a legal institution in the Americas all together until the 1880s. 

 In the United States it ended after a bloody civil war in the 1860s. It continued as a legal institution in parts of the world until banned by the UN charter in the middle of the 20th century. Romans enslaved other Europeans.  North Africans also enslaved Europeans and later even Americans, that is why we fought the Barbary pirates.  The Chinese enslaved captive peoples. When it first appeared slavery was considered a humane improvement in the treatment of prisoners of war. Warriors could surrender and become slaves vice being executed. This encouraged armies to surrender rather than endure total slaughter. Over time even laws providing some very minimal protections against violent brutal slave conditions were passed in many nations though rarely enforced. Today in Sub Saharan Africa, Africans hold nearly 27 million people in slavery. Most of the slave holders are Black or Arab and most of the slaves are black and Christian or follow native religions. Most of the slave holders are Muslim, Islam to this day condones slavery. During the American experience Africans and Arabs sold "slaves" claiming they were military captives but in fact Islamic slave traders simply made raids on weak villages whenever new "stock" was needed. The slave traders on the African shore simply kept up the subterfuge to ease European consciences which were determined to see the slaves as part of a more humane treatment of prisoners of war. 

 Europeans and Americans however were already coming to new terms in dealing with prisoners of war at about the same time that  the American slave trade was starting. Surrendering soldiers could be "paroled" between "civilized nations". A paroled soldier could not legally reenter combat against the capturing nation and thus could be repatriated with the same effect as what we would now call a "mission kill". The individual soldier wasn't killed but his ability to fight against the capturing state was legally nullified. In more belligerent circumstances surrendering soldiers and sailors were held in prison camps until the end of hostilities or until traded for the capturing state's own prisoners. By the mid 1800s no one believed that slaves were descended from prisoners of war and a growing number of people of European descent in both Europe and the Americas were coming to believe that people should not be treated like livestock. Slavery disappeared from Europe first followed by the Americas. In the Americas most slaves were black and most slave holders white, with notable exceptions especially in Louisiana where one of the largest slave holders was actually a black woman  Black Slave Owners In America. 

 It took until the ratification of the UN Charter in the mid 20th century for slavery to be prohibited by codified international law. And yet it has continued in many Islamic nations including those signatory to the UN Charter. It continues today. The ancient scourge of slavery, now usually referred to as "human trafficking", by the American news media so as not of offend the politically correct  continues to this day. Considering the fact that slavery has such a long and universal history on this planet it is probable that if anyone's ancestry is traced back about 800 years hardly any of you bipeds regardless of race would not have a slave ancestor except Royals. 

 The second ancient  scourge of the human race is piracy which in the popular mind ended in the late 1800s until revived off of Africa and in the Strait of Malacca . In fact like slavery it never fully disappeared not even in the 20th century but it was greatly suppressed. Piracy often included piracy against slave traders and the capture and subsequent sale of slaves. Some of this is reemerging in the 21st century. Why are the twin scourges reemerging? My 3,000 years of observation of maritime trade and events tells me there is a direct relationship between the shrinkage of the American and British navies in the second half of the 20th century and continuing at break neck speed today, and the growth in the boldness of the pirates and slave traders.  The massive Chinese navy is busy attempting to wrest territory from its neighbors. The Russian navy is involved in rebuilding and asserting power in the Black Sea, Baltic, and Arctic Oceans. The world is simply no longer patrolled. 

Piracy was rare in the first three quarters of the 20th century and is rampant today. As the article linked to above illustrates, the slave trade is flourishing once again , not just in ISIS sex slave markets and in the Coca trade in Sub Saharan Africa, but all over Asia and Africa. Of course today we call it "human trafficking". Slavery after all was declared internationally illegal by the UN Charter in the middle of the last century. But these twin evils will continue until somebody enforces international law against violating Islamic states and we find some substitute for the U.S. and British navies. 

 I'd like to made a modest suggestion to all those American liberals who advocate "reparations" for black Americans who have never personally been slaves, to be paid by millions of Americans of all races most of whom have a slave ancestor or two themselves, and 99% of whom have no slave owning ancestor; that instead we do something to end modern slavery and piracy. Why don't you put the "reparations" into the U.S. Navy? 

Namazu

          

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AUGUST 4, 2015 THE 225th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD AND 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE NAME "U.S. COAST GUARD"

ON AUGUST 4,1790 THE ANCESTRAL SERVICE OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD WAS FOUNDED IT WOULD NOT TAKE THE NAME "U.S. COAST GUARD HOWEVER UNTIL 1915.

U.S. Revenue Cutter MASSACHUSETTS entered service 1791 Image USCG, (USCG notes one historic inaccuracy Revenue Ensign and commissioning pennant were not adopted until 1799 after the first MASSACHUSETTS left the service.)

"In 1790, the First Congress of the United States established a small maritime law enforcement component within the Treasury Department to assist in collecting the new Nation�s customs duties. For the next eight years, this Revenue Marine (later called the Revenue Cutter Service) was the Nation�s only naval force and was soon assigned military duties. Over time, the Revenue Cutter Service merged with or absorbed other federal agencies. The Service acquired new responsibilities based upon its ability to perform them with existing assets and minimal disruption to its other duties. In some cases, the Service absorbed other agencies because their maritime responsibilities were seen as intersecting with or complementing its own. The result is today�s U.S. Coast Guard�a unique force that carries out an array of civil and military responsibilities touching every facet of the maritime environment of the United States." From Coast Guard Publication 1   Feb. 2014. http://www.uscg.mil/doctrine/CGPub/Pub_1.pdf

 The modern day Coast Guard evolved and continues to evolve by the absorption of unique maritime security related missions. In its earliest days some missions were actually assigned to other federal agencies often organized along para-naval lines. The most notable among these predecessor agencies were the U.S. Life Saving Service and the U.S. Light House Service. From its first founding the Revenue Marine was statutorily a part of the Navy in war time but at the moment of its founding there was no standing Navy the Revolutionary Navy having been disbanded. Despite the constitutional requirement for Congress to "maintain a navy", the new navy would not come into existence until some time after the founding of the "Revenue Marine". For a time the ten armed cutters of the "RMS" were the only armed public vessels of the United States. But while the RMS officers held naval rank and the crews held naval ratings, the service could only function under naval direction in war time because it was primarily a law enforcement agency. There early on was a reluctance to utilize military personnel in law enforcement in the United States and eventually it would become a statutory prohibition called the Posse Comitatus Act. So the "Revenue Marine" would continue as a naval auxiliary military service but would be housed in the Treasury Department vice the War or Navy Departments. The entire service or any component within it could be transferred to naval control in war or upon order of the President of the United States. 

Parallel with the development of the military / law enforcement agency known as the "Revenue Marine" other federal maritime agencies of a quasi naval character were evolving. The U.S. Light House Service evolved from the United States Lighthouse Establishment (USLHE) also serving under the treasury department and founded in 1789. Officers of the Revenue Marine served on the Light House Board.  The highly disciplined U.S. Life Saving Service was also evolving parallel with the Revenue Marine. On 28 January 1915, the service was merged by an act of Congress with the United States Life-Saving Service to form the United States Coast Guard. The U.S. Coast Guard would then go on to absorb several other federal marine safety and security related agencies including the U.S. Light House Service. 

 Many of the civil missions of these "predecessor agencies" once brought under the administration of the newly formed "U.S. Coast Guard" became not only domestic waters civil missions but also naval combat support missions. The institutional experience of the Coast Guard in saving lives through heavy surf was translated in World War Two into amphibious warfare roles involving the use of landing craft through surf. In Vietnam not only was the U.S. Coast Guard's expertise in board and search operations honed on its domestic law enforcement missions brought into play, but also the Guard provided aids to navigation services within the combat zone, again a domestic civil mission with military utility.  January 28, 2015 was the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard name , Today August 4th, 2015 is the 225 anniversary of the founding of the Revenue Marine , considered the primary predecessor agency and long celebrated as the "Birthday" of the U.S. Coast Guard, now a 100 year old brand. 

                                            HAPPY BIRTH DAY COAST GUARD! 

  

Photos :USCG

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