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thewayneMy original post title based on the CNN article: A Venezuelan Navy ship rams a German cruise ship and sinks itself
Original post: The German ship had no passengers on it, just a crew of 32. It was in international waters undergoing replenishment or refit/repairs. This Venezuelan ship came up and said it was violating Venezuelan waters and tried to nudge its bow towards Venezuelan waters, I'm assuming so they could generate probable cause to board it and seize it.
One problem. The German ship was designed to operate in icy waters and had a reinforced ice-breaker bow. The navy ship was damaged, took on water, and sank.
The Venezuelan Navy was able to launch a sea/air rescue operation and recovered the entire crew. No mention of whether or not the Germans helped or just stood on the rails and drank beer and laughed.
The Venezuelans claim that the Germans were transporting commandos to overthrow the Venezuelan government. I think the Germans just shook their head and sighed.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/americas/venezuela-navy-cruise-liner-incident-intl/index.html
Aside from the navy crew being idiots, encounters like this - usually not quite this extreme - aren't that uncommon. International maritime law says that international waters begins at X miles off the coast. Everybody (as far as I know) is signatory to that. Several nations claim that 'our waters extend to X+Y off our coast!', so this might have been one of those issue.
I really hope that the Venezuelans sue the Germans in court, I'd love to see the transcripts of that one. The Germans should counter-sue for the cost of repainting the bow.
EDIT: So this gets really weird. CNN apparently didn't look very deep, as this is quite complicated. The company that originally owned the ship - I'm not entirely certain that they still do - has/had a problem with debt payment. They bought this ship with its reinforced bow for doing tours in the Antarctic oceans, which would be pretty awesome. Their premiere cruise failed miserably with them unable to source enough fuel for the voyage, they're either short cash or they have a reputation for not paying bills in a timely fashion. They definitely don't pay their people in a timely fashion, but they stick around because the concept of cruising in Antarctic waters is pretty awesome!
Well, in this case, the ship was NW of La Tortuga island, which is a part of Venezuela. So they may have been in Venezuelan territorial waters. The Navy vessel ordered them to stop and be inspected. They didn't stop, the Navy ship performed a blocking maneuver, and the Resolute stayed true to its name and rammed and sank the Naiguata on March 30. And sped away, making no effort to rescue the 40some crew. In violation of international law and all things good and humane.
Very different cast than the CNN article.
https://www.portandterminal.com/hit-run-cruise-ship-rams-sinks-venezuelan-navy-ship-flees-story-gets-crazier/
Some of the history of the ship:
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/business/local-business/shipping-news-one-ocean-expeditions-sails-into-troubled-waters-370614/
Thanks tograydon for pointing me to Charles Stross' Twitter feed and the subsequent articles.
Original post: The German ship had no passengers on it, just a crew of 32. It was in international waters undergoing replenishment or refit/repairs. This Venezuelan ship came up and said it was violating Venezuelan waters and tried to nudge its bow towards Venezuelan waters, I'm assuming so they could generate probable cause to board it and seize it.
One problem. The German ship was designed to operate in icy waters and had a reinforced ice-breaker bow. The navy ship was damaged, took on water, and sank.
The Venezuelan Navy was able to launch a sea/air rescue operation and recovered the entire crew. No mention of whether or not the Germans helped or just stood on the rails and drank beer and laughed.
The Venezuelans claim that the Germans were transporting commandos to overthrow the Venezuelan government. I think the Germans just shook their head and sighed.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/americas/venezuela-navy-cruise-liner-incident-intl/index.html
I really hope that the Venezuelans sue the Germans in court, I'd love to see the transcripts of that one. The Germans should counter-sue for the cost of repainting the bow.
EDIT: So this gets really weird. CNN apparently didn't look very deep, as this is quite complicated. The company that originally owned the ship - I'm not entirely certain that they still do - has/had a problem with debt payment. They bought this ship with its reinforced bow for doing tours in the Antarctic oceans, which would be pretty awesome. Their premiere cruise failed miserably with them unable to source enough fuel for the voyage, they're either short cash or they have a reputation for not paying bills in a timely fashion. They definitely don't pay their people in a timely fashion, but they stick around because the concept of cruising in Antarctic waters is pretty awesome!
Well, in this case, the ship was NW of La Tortuga island, which is a part of Venezuela. So they may have been in Venezuelan territorial waters. The Navy vessel ordered them to stop and be inspected. They didn't stop, the Navy ship performed a blocking maneuver, and the Resolute stayed true to its name and rammed and sank the Naiguata on March 30. And sped away, making no effort to rescue the 40some crew. In violation of international law and all things good and humane.
Very different cast than the CNN article.
https://www.portandterminal.com/hit-run-cruise-ship-rams-sinks-venezuelan-navy-ship-flees-story-gets-crazier/
Some of the history of the ship:
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/business/local-business/shipping-news-one-ocean-expeditions-sails-into-troubled-waters-370614/
Thanks to
graydon for pointing me to Charles Stross' Twitter feed and the subsequent articles.
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Date: 2020-04-04 02:49 am (UTC)interesting.
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Date: 2020-04-04 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-04 03:16 am (UTC)https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/business/local-business/shipping-news-one-ocean-expeditions-sails-into-troubled-waters-370614/
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Date: 2020-04-04 03:22 am (UTC)WOW! Thanks for the link, that really complicates the story!
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Date: 2020-04-04 03:56 am (UTC)There's a lot of "all these stories have one source" problems with media in general, and it's worse than usual with the plague going on. I thought "that sounds implausible" about the first version of the story but had no idea all that financial irregularity was lurking in the background.
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Date: 2020-04-04 06:25 am (UTC)Maritime chicanery has a long and glorious history….
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Date: 2020-04-04 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-05 03:06 am (UTC)CNN: not quite so far right as to appear to be neutral :(
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Date: 2020-04-05 05:21 pm (UTC)And sadly, not researching as well as they used to.