Say A Prayer For Our Guardians

Today a United States Coast Guard C-130 crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a search and rescue mission. A Marine Corps helicopter was also lost. The two aircraft reportedly collided.

Nine crew members are missing and the search is on in earnest. Coast Guard C-130 aircraft often work closely with Amver ships, helping direct them to distress locations.

Nine families will not have someone come home tonight. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.




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Hostage Britsh Couple Contacted By Reporters

The British couple recently captured by Somali pirates were recently interviewed and gave a first hand account of their capture. They are currently being held on a Singapore container ship. It is unclear if that ship is an Amver participant.

Fake Ship?

The Off Course section of the October 23 edition of Tradewinds reported Canadian authorities had detained a ship with a false International Maritime Organization Number.

The ship, Oceanlady, was boarded by Canadian authorities off the coast of British Columbia the paper reported. It is believed there are 76 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard. Authorities do not know where the ship came from.

The IMO number is supposedly 7732349 but that number doesn't exist.

Are counterfeit IMO numbers common? Have any readers or Amver participants heard of this before?

We are trying a new feature where we can blog using our mobile phone. We will update links as soon as we can.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Welcome Wednesday!

39 ships enrolled in Amver in the past week. That's the good news. But take a look at t his chart and you can see that Amver enrollment is actually down this year compared to last year. There is a chance that it will pick up and at least meet last year's record of 1,596 enrollments. Is it a symptom of the declining economy? Perhaps.

Maybe the data shows the run up of ships during the shipping boom. Amver data may not be the correct set to show the rise and decline of the economy but we thought it was interesting to take a look at.

Regardless of how Amver stacks up to previous years we want to be sure to recognize our latest participants. So here they are. Welcome to Amver!

• UASC DOHA
• NORD LUNA
• BEACON SW BULKER
• PORGY
• MARAN PENELOPE
• SUN BIRD
• CMA CGM MOLIERE
• JPO VELA
• VENERE
• JNOS
• PHILLINE SCHULTE
• SKANDI OLYMPIA
• BOW SINGAPORE
• HOW ASIA
• ALPINE MYSTERY
• BAY ISLANDER
• CMA CGM OPAL
  
• NARODNY BRIDGE
• ARSOS
• MSC STELLA
• SKANDI FALCON
• SHIRARA
• AOM JULIA
• PLEIADES DREAM
• CAPE VIOLET
• KESARIA
• TSURUGA
• GAN-VALOUR
• PISCES
• GULF DEFFI
• HIGH EFFICIENCY
• IKAN TERBANG
• CMB CORALIE
• ORIENT HOPE
• UASC JUBAIL
• ALPINE EMMA
• UNI-PROBITY

You could see your ship's name here. Enroll today and be part of something greater, something global, something dedicated to safety at sea.

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Last Titanic Survivor Laid To Rest

Image via Wikipedia

The BBC reports Millvina Dean, the youngest survivor of the Titanic tragedy and last living survivor, had her ashes scattered at berth 43/44 where the liner left Southampton on its maiden voyage. Dean passed away earlier this year. She was only 9 weeks old when she set sail on the ill fated liner and 97 when she passed away.

It was the Titanic disaster that was the driving force behind the formation of the Amver search and rescue system. Originally designed to track vessels in the North Atlantic, today Amver has over 19,000 ships enrolled and provides search and rescue services around the world. Over 3,700 ships report each day to the Amver system ensuring no call for help goes unanswered.

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Amver Awards In Hong Kong

On October 13, U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong Economic/Political Chief Martin Murphy presented awards to Hong Kong ship owners and ship managers on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard for their continued participation in Amver. 325 Hong Kong ships earned Amver awards and over 60 members of Hong Kong's maritime industry attended this Hong Kong Ship Owners Association (HKSOA)-sponsored awards ceremony. Enjoy these photos of the event. Our thanks to Jose Sandoval, Economic Officer, for sending the pictures.


ConGen Hong Kong EP Chief Martin Murphy Delivers Amver Remarks.


HKSOA Chairman and Anglo-Eastern Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter Cremers, presents a gift to U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong Economic/Political Chief Martin Murphy at the Amver awards ceremony.



Wallem Shipmanagement Ltd. received a pewter plate for the 20-year participation of one of its vessels, Lysaker; award accepted by Wallem's Capt. C.P. Subramanian.


Anglo-Eastern Ship Management Ltd. received a globe for the 25-year Amver participation of its box-ship Endurance; award accepted by Anglo-Eastern's Mr. V.K. Gupta.

Your vessel can earn Amver awards once you are enrolled. How do you do that? Read this, that's how.

Photo credit: U.S. Consulate Hong Kong

B-52 Bombers At Sea?

Image via Wikipedia

National Defense Magazine recently reported that the United States Air Force is using B-52 bombers to monitor suspicious vessels approaching U.S. ports. According to the June 2009 report, the planes have flown several missions to take pictures of ships approaching U.S. waters.

The article also described the debate over LRIT and AIS. The Government Accountability Office questioned (link to pdf) whether these two systems were redundant. One thing most mariners can agree on is that you can't have too many systems in place when it comes to safety at sea. That is why Amver, despite being 51 years old, continues to see record numbers of vessels on plot.

What do you think? Is too much attention being placed on maritime surveillance and too little on safety?