Dumping For Dollars

A Japanese shipping firm has been found guilty of dumping oily sludge into ocean waters in violation of US environmental standards.

Prosecutors say chief engineers falsified an oil record book kept aboard the Balsa-62, a 9,000-gross-ton bulk cargo vessel registered under the flag of Panama. Federal and international law requires ships pass the sludge through filtering equipment aboard the vessel or burn it in the ship's incinerator.

Federal law also requires ships to record every disposal and to make those records available for the U.S. Coast Guard when the vessel is within U.S. waters, prosecutors said.

On Oct. 14, the Balsa-62's former chief engineers pleaded guilty to federal charges, admitting they rigged the ship to bypass pollution controls and discharged the sludge into the ocean.

From June 2007 to February 2008, Francisco Bagatela was the ship's chief engineer. He and other senior engineering officers and crew installed a "magic pipe" to bypass the pollution prevention equipment, according to a plea agreement Bagatela signed.

The pipe consisted of a length of plastic hose with flanges at either end and was used to transfer oily sludge and mixtures from a holding tank through a valve in the side of the ship and overboard.

The firm is facing a $1.75M fine and is submitting to fleetwide monitoring for three years.

One Of Our Submarines

Thomas Dolby is likely getting a bump in radio play in the the UK this week after the recent announcement from the British Ministry of Defense.

Nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France collided deep under the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, causing damage to both vessels but releasing no radioactivity, a British official said Monday.

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The HMS Vanguard, Britain's first Trident class nuclear-armed submarine, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was also carrying nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage.

The French are more reticent:

France's Defense Ministry said in a brief statement Feb. 6 that the Le Triomphant had struck "a submerged object (probably a container)" during a return from a patrol, damaging the sonar dome on the front of the submarine.

The French ministry did not confirm the date of the collision, nor did it make any mention of a British submarine.

Appropriate watching/listening, while thinking of the sailors on the two boats and thanking Providence for disaster averted, is below.

HMS Victory Found

No, not that one. This one.

Sea explorers probing the depths of the English Channel have discovered what they say is a legendary British warship that sank in a fierce storm in 1744, losing more than 900 men and possibly four tons of gold coins that could be worth $1 billion.

The team found the wreckage of the warship, the H.M.S. Victory, last year and confirmed its identity through a close examination of 41 bronze cannons visible on the sandy bottom, Gregory P. Stemm, head of the discovery team, said Monday at a news conference in London.

This Victory, known to naval historians as "Balchen's Victory" because she bore the pendant of Admiral Sir John Balchen when she sank, was a 100-gun First Rate ship of the line. Launched in 1737, she was still new at the time of her loss. Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar was named for this ship.

The find is the work of Odyssey Marine Exploration, a business here in Tampa. The site was discovered in May of last year, but confirmation was only given at a press conference last week.

Congratulations to the team on their historic find.