Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
Alert - Community Build Session 6
Muster up, all Community Build participants!
It's that time again, yes, time for me to start poking, prodding and reminding to you you all that the close of Session 6 of our Community Build is gaining fast!
As per contest rule, all image updates have to be uploaded and in your personal BLOG by the first of December, EST, so mark your calendars, my friends, and take heed!
Feature - USS Iowa BB-61 (1986)
MSW crew-mate Carl Musselman (carlomaha) sends us his latest build story, of the USS Iowa BB-61 (1986).
Feature
U-boat Aces Installment 7
MSW Senior News Editor Kenny Loup (gator) shares a fine portfolio of images, his latest submarine scene focusing on the IJN submarine, I-401, in this "On Display" feature!
U-boat Aces.
MaritimeQuest
Today’s website is MaritimeQuest. This is a wonderful reference site for all types of ships, naval and civilian. Enjoy.
Website
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1852 - Commodore Matthew Perry sails from Norfolk, Va., to negotiate a treaty with Japan for friendship and commerce.
1964 - USS Princeton (LPH 5) completes seven-day humanitarian relief mission to South Vietnam which suffered damage from typhoon and floods.
1969 - HS-4 from USS Hornet (CVS 12) recovers Apollo 12's all-Navy crew of astronauts, Commanders Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad and Alan Bean, after moon landing by Conrad and Bean.
Crew member 'tampered with temperature sensor on Nerpa sub
Source: Russian Navy
The deaths of 20 people on board the Russian nuclear submarine the Nerpa were caused by a crew member entering the wrong data into a temperature sensor, the Kommersant paper said on Monday.
The business daily said, quoting a source close to the investigation, that sailor Dmitry Grobov is suspected of having entered the wrong temperature data for the submarine's living quarters, which caused the fire safety system to release Freon gas.
The source said that according to information obtained from the sub's Rotor data block, similar to an aircraft's black-box, "the temperature...increased sharply all of sudden and the fire safety system reacted as programmed."
The daily said that at the time of the incident Grobov was on a scheduled watch and the access code to the fire safety system was written in pencil on the surface of the equipment.
The tragedy occurred late on November 8 while the Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.
However, former Navy officers have told the paper they doubt that Grobov was solely to blame as it is impossible for one person to activate the system, which is protected from unauthorized activation by multiple levels of confirmation.
The submarine's reactor was not affected by the accident, which took place in the nose of the submarine, and radiation levels on board remained normal.
Investigators earlier announced that they had brought criminal charges against the crew member, and that he faced up to seven years in jail.
"Military investigators have determined the person who activated, without permission or any particular reason, a fire safety system on board the submarine. He is a sailor from the crew, and he has already confessed," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, said on November 13.
The incident is the worst for the Russian Navy since the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000 when all 118 sailors died.
The construction of the Akula II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine started in 1991, but was suspended for over a decade due to a lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of all Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Based in the Russian Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Amur Shipbuilding Plant has built 270 vessels, including the Nerpa and another 55 nuclear submarines since it was established in 1936.
Why do pirates attack?
Danish Navy
War ships in Aden Gulf do whatever they can to prevent pirate attacks. But it is a difficult task, when criminals have safe-conduct in the country.
Almost every day there are new pirate attacks in Aden Gulf off Somalia's north coast. In just the month of November has six times the pirates had managed to hijack commercial, as currently a total of 16 ships in the piracy clubs. And this despite the fact that several countries' warships are in the troubled waters. The Danish-led naval Task Force 150 has several warships in the region - including Danish ship Absalon. There are also individual warships from a NATO force, and several countries - including Russia, India and Malaysia - have sent ships to escort merchant ships, mainly from their own countries or with the crew of their own nationality.
Task Force 150 is working actively to coordinate efforts across alliances and nationalities. However, it is a challenging task because the various warships have different rules on how they can and will take action against pirates. Some of war ships act according to priority, which of course puts merchant from their own country above all. It is the only Task Force 150, which appear loyal impartiality and providing protection to all - regardless of nationality, says Commodore Per Bigum Christensen, commander of the Navy Operational Staff and commander of Task Force 150.
Although the war ships of Task Force 150 does what they can to stop pirates, so in practice it is not possible as long as pirates unhindered and in ever increasing numbers can operate from the coast of Somalia. Pirates traffickers have no problems in recruiting personnel, as long as there is no noticeable impact of their crimes. We know where they live, we know their camps, and we know from the ports and places on the coast they sail out under the pretext of being innocent fishermen and we know where they kaprede ships anchored while negotiating ransom. But if we had enough so many warships in Task Force 150, we can not eliminate the problem inside the country. We can only continue our efforts to provide shipping the best possible protection with the options we have, "said Per Bigum Christensen and continues:
The work we do at sea is only a temporary solution. A more permanent stabilization of the situation can only happen if we have taken initiatives to radical changes in the country, and here the prospects are, after all, unfortunately, not particularly good.
For all you fans of college football, here’s this week’s BCS top 5
1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. USC
Scores from around the country…
No. 1 Alabama was off this week.
No. 2 Texas Tech gets pounded by No. 5 Oklahoma 65-21.
No. 3 Texas was off this week.
Tebow shines in No. 4 Florida's 70-19 romp of Citadel.
No. 5 Oklahoma – see above.
Scores of interest
VMI defeats Presbyterian 49-27.
Senior Newswriter Gator Loup’s alma mater McNeese falls to Central Arkansas 47-30.
Military Academy Scores
Navy's was off this week.
TCU hits 10-win mark again with rout of Air Force 44-10.
Rutgers blows out Army 30-3 to gain eligibility for bowl.
Photo of the Day
The guided-missile submarine USS Ohio (SSGN 726) steams through the water as part of a formation of ships while participating in a photo exercise with the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) at the culmination of ANNUALEX 2008. ANNUALEX is a bilateral exercise between the U.S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Gator
