Tuesday Reading: Pirates and more

Fred Fry's Maritime Monday 160 over at gCaptain.com, featuring timely nautical topic linkage outnumbering the military ships trying to stop the Somali pirates. Photo links this week to "laid up" ships in various corners of the world.

At his home blog, Fred has pictures and video of the French taking down some pirates, including the error prone bunch that attacked a French warship. The photo shows some of the pirate fishing supplies.

As noted here earlier, the Somali pirate awaiting trial in New York has a defense lawyer "wannabe". he may want to travel to France, too, where there will be several more trials... that would demonstrate something in addition to publicity seeking...

The Turkish Navy has assumed command of CTF-151, the pirate-fighting task force off Somalia:

The U.S. Navy transferred command of the Combined Maritime Forces' (CMF) counterpiracy task force to the Turkish Navy May 3 in a ceremony held aboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

During the ceremony, Rear Adm. Caner Bener relieved Rear Adm. Michelle Howard as commander, Combined Task Force (CTF) 151. Howard was not able to attend the ceremony as she was conducting operations at sea.

Established in January, CTF 151 was initially commanded by the U.S. Navy. Turkey is the second nation to command the counterpiracy task force.

"As I take command, I would like to emphasize that CTF 151 will continue its critical contribution to regional maritime security and lawful maritime order," said Bener.

"Obviously, it will take time, passion and perseverance, but I believe that during my command our sincere efforts will aide in achieving the goals and objectives of the task force and will bring more stability and peace to the region."

Steeljaw Scribe takes to the movies and whaling. From the relevant to the old guys standing around the bar talking about the "good old days," sorta.

What do you do with a drunken sailor? Send the Coast Guard, then call the sheriff, as set out here. Save the drinking for the beach. By the way, May 16 kicks off National Safe Boating Week.

Some fixable issues with Marine V-22 tilt rotor aircraft on some Navy ships here:

Sustained shipboard deployment of the V-22 also has posed a slight challenge to the service. It was discovered that on smaller deck amphibious ships, heat from the downward-pointing nacelles could potentially warp the stringers underneath the deck plates. “We’re concerned with heat on the LPD and LSD decks because the steel is so thin,” Trautman said, adding that the service has “worked through that challenge.”

One solution is to tilt the nacelles forward slightly, which gives 35 minutes of operational time on deck.

The other option is deck plates that provide protection up to 90 minutes. The Marine Corps is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research to find coatings for the deck, particularly in light of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The exhaust from the JSF’s auxiliary power unit has the potential to cause similar heating problems, so the joint program office is working on the issue now, Trautman said.