Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
MSW Word of the Day
Have you always wanted to talk like a sailor? Well then, here’s your chance. Associate editor Jim Adams broadens our vocabulary each morning with a new naval term. This week highlights the events surrounding Pearl Harbor.
World War II Cruisers
Today’s website is World War II Cruisers. This English based website features a wealth of knowledge on cruisers from all navies that participated during the war. Enjoy.
Website
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1775 - Lt. John Paul Jones raises the Grand Union flag on the Continental Navy ship Alfred. It is the first American flag raised over an American Naval vessel.
1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarks on USS Tuscaloosa (CA 37) to inspect bases acquired from Great Britain under the Destroyer-for-Bases agreement.
1983 - Two F-14s flying over Lebanon were fired upon by Syrian antiaircraft artillery.
Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Source: Associated Press
Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official said Tuesday.
The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden on Sunday when it encountered six bandits in two speedboats, said Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates' vessels, Choong said.
"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," he said, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it was aware of the failed hijacking but did not have further details.
Ship owner Oceania Cruises Inc. identified the vessel as the M/S Nautica.
In a statement on its Web site, the company said pirates fired eight rifle shots at the liner, but that the ship's captain increased speed and managed to outrun the skiffs.
All passengers and crew are safe and there was no damage to the vessel, it said.
The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, the Web site said. Based on that schedule, the liner was headed from Egypt to Oman when it was attacked.
The liner arrived in the southern Oman port city of Salalah on Monday morning, and the passengers toured the city before leaving for the capital, Muscat, Monday evening, an official of the Oman Tourism Ministry said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The head of a shipping agency branch in Salalah had contact with the liner there.
"They talked about pirates opening fire at their ship off the Somalian shores," Khalil Shaker told The Associated Press by telephone. He said he had no details of the attack.
It is not the first time a cruise liner has been attacked. In 2005, pirates opened fire on the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape, and used a long-range acoustic device — which blasts a painful wave of sound — to distract the pirates.
International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but the attacks have not abated.
In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked, Choong said. Fourteen remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members.
In two if the most daring attacks, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks in September, and on Nov. 15, a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said Monday that negotiations with Somali pirates holding the cargo ship MV Faina are nearly completed, the Interfax news agency reported.
A spokesman for the Faina's owner said Sunday that the Somali pirates had agreed on a ransom for the ship and it could be released within days.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast. Around 100 ships have been attacked so far this year.
Somali prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein said Tuesday that his country has been torn apart by 18 years of civil war and cannot stop piracy alone.
"This needs a tremendous effort," Hussein told The Associated Press. He has appealed for international troops, as his government's Ethiopian allies have said they would pull out their forces by the end of the year.
Ethiopia, the region's military powerhouse, has been integral in boosting the government. But Islamic insurgents have now seized control of all of southern Somalia except for the capital and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa.
Russian naval task force to leave for Indian Ocean on Dec. 9
Source: Russian Navy
A task force from Russia's Pacific Fleet will leave its main base in Vladivostok on December 9 to take part in joint naval drills with the Indian navy in the Indian Ocean, a fleet official said on Thursday.
According to the official, the task force will comprise the Admiral Vinogradov, an Udaloy class missile destroyer, a tugboat, and two tankers.
"The task force will participate in the joint naval exercises INDRA-2009 with the Indian navy in January," the source said.
INDRA is a biennial Russian-Indian exercise aimed at practicing cooperation in enforcing maritime law and countering piracy, terrorism, and drug smuggling. INDRA-2009 is the fourth such exercise since 2003.
"The exercises will involve a number of artillery and missile live-firing drills," the official said.
The task force will also conduct joint exercises with a task force from Russia's Northern Fleet, led by the Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered missile cruiser, which will arrive in the Indian Ocean after joint drills with the Venezuelan Navy scheduled for December 1.
Following the exercises, the Russian warships will pay visits to several ports in Indonesia and China.
Vice Admiral Konstantin Sidenko, commander of the Pacific Fleet, earlier said that Russian warships from the fleet would make several long-range training sorties in the South Pacific and Indian oceans in 2009, and participate in a number of exercises involving live-firing drills.
Russia announced last year that its navy had resumed and would build up a constant presence in different regions of the world's oceans.
Photo of the Day
The Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1) conducts a replenishment at sea with the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7).
Gator
