Merchant Ships

An Indian court on Monday ordered two Italian marines held in jail while officials investigate last month's killing of two Indian fishermen at sea. In an incident that has tested India's relations with Italy, the marines are accused of shooting the fishermen Feb. 15 after mistaking them for pirates off India's southwest coast. The marines had been providing security on a cargo ship. A court in the southern state of Kerala on Monday remanded the Italians to custody for another two weeks and ordered they be moved to jail from a guest house in the southern city of Kochi, where...

An Indian court on Monday ordered two Italian marines held in jail while officials investigate last month's killing of two Indian fishermen at sea. In an incident that has tested India's relations with Italy, the marines are accused of shooting the fishermen Feb. 15 after mistaking them for pirates off India's southwest coast. The marines had been providing security on a cargo ship. A court in the southern state of Kerala on Monday remanded the Italians to custody for another two weeks and ordered they be moved to jail from a guest house in the southern city of Kochi, where...

FRANKFURT - Two German merchant ships have traversed the fabled Northeast Passage after global warming and melting ice opened a route from South Korea along Russia’s Arctic coast to Siberia. The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived this week in Yamburg, Siberia, their owner Beluga Shipping GmbH said yesterday. They traveled from Ulsan, South Korea, in late July to Siberia by way of the Northeast Passage, a sea lane that, in years past, was avoided because of its heavy ice floes.

LONDON — The queen named a luxury British cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth in a lavish ceremony yesterday, blessing the vessel to launch it on its maiden voyage. Hundreds of guests gathered by the quayside in southern England’s port city Southampton, the home port of Cunard’s 92,000-ton ocean liner. Patriotic tunes like “Land of Hope and Glory’’ were played, and the ceremony was completed as a large bottle of white wine was smashed against the bow of the ship. “May God bless her and all who sail in her,’’ Queen Elizabeth II said.

NAIROBI - The US military is once again tangling with pirates, intervening in waters off Somalia twice last week to help ships seized by hijackers and bringing to mind another century's battles off the coasts of Africa. Pirates may have swapped muskets and the Jolly Roger for AK-47s and satellite phones, but the root causes of piracy are unchanged from when Thomas Jefferson contemplated how to handle attacks on American merchant ships two centuries ago. "Instead of swinging from ropes, now it's boarding vessels with automatic weapons," said Cyrus Mody, a senior analyst at the International...

Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah , By Tom Chaffin, Hill and Wang, 432 pp., illustrated, $25 In early 1864, at the height of the Civil War, so successful had Confederate commerce raiders been at destroying Union merchant ships that the Confederacy's agent in London was reporting to the South's navy secretary, "There really seems nothing for our ships to do now upon the open sea. " But within...

LONDON — The queen named a luxury British cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth in a lavish ceremony yesterday, blessing the vessel to launch it on its maiden voyage. Hundreds of guests gathered by the quayside in southern England’s port city Southampton, the home port of Cunard’s 92,000-ton ocean liner. Patriotic tunes like “Land of Hope and Glory’’ were played, and the ceremony was completed as a large bottle of white wine was smashed against the bow of the ship. “May God bless her and all who sail in her,’’ Queen...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A new international naval force under American command will soon begin patrols to confront escalating attacks by Somali pirates after more than 100 ships came under siege in the past year, the US Navy said yesterday. But the mission - expected to begin operations next week - appears more of an attempt to sharpen the military focus against piracy rather than a signal of expanded offensives across one of the world's most crucial shipping lanes. The force will carry no wider authority to strike at pirate vessels at sea or specific mandates to...

RIO DE JANEIRO - A sudden, vertical blast of wind knocked the three-masted SV Concordia onto its side in 15 seconds, forcing the captain, crew, and four dozen students to abandon ship and ride out heavy seas for nearly two days before their rescue off Brazil’s coast, the survivors said yesterday. Disheveled and teary-eyed, wearing navy caps and clothing borrowed from their rescuers, at least 12 of the rescued docked in Rio de Janeiro yesterday morning on a Brazilian navy ship.

An Italian cargo ship fired at an Indian fishing boat that it mistook for a pirate vessel, killing two fishermen, India's navy said Thursday. The ship identified as the Enrica Lexie fired at the fishermen in waters off India's southern Kerala state on Wednesday, a navy statement said. The Indian coast guard and navy vessels escorted the Italian ship to the nearby port city of Kochi and were questioning the captain and crew. The owner of the fishing vessel, who goes by the single name Freddy, said Thursday the firing was unprovoked.

RIO DE JANEIRO - A sudden, vertical blast of wind knocked the three-masted SV Concordia onto its side in 15 seconds, forcing the captain, crew, and four dozen students to abandon ship and ride out heavy seas for nearly two days before their rescue off Brazil’s coast, the survivors said yesterday. Disheveled and teary-eyed, wearing navy caps and clothing borrowed from their rescuers, at least 12 of the rescued docked in Rio de Janeiro yesterday morning on a Brazilian navy ship.

FRANKFURT - Two German merchant ships have traversed the fabled Northeast Passage after global warming and melting ice opened a route from South Korea along Russia’s Arctic coast to Siberia. The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived this week in Yamburg, Siberia, their owner Beluga Shipping GmbH said yesterday. They traveled from Ulsan, South Korea, in late July to Siberia by way of the Northeast Passage, a sea lane that, in years past, was avoided because of its heavy ice floes.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A new international naval force under American command will soon begin patrols to confront escalating attacks by Somali pirates after more than 100 ships came under siege in the past year, the US Navy said yesterday. But the mission - expected to begin operations next week - appears more of an attempt to sharpen the military focus against piracy rather than a signal of expanded offensives across one of the world's most crucial shipping lanes. The force will carry no wider authority to strike at pirate vessels...

NAIROBI - The US military is once again tangling with pirates, intervening in waters off Somalia twice last week to help ships seized by hijackers and bringing to mind another century's battles off the coasts of Africa. Pirates may have swapped muskets and the Jolly Roger for AK-47s and satellite phones, but the root causes of piracy are unchanged from when Thomas Jefferson contemplated how to handle attacks on American merchant ships two centuries ago. "Instead of swinging from ropes, now it's boarding vessels with automatic weapons," said Cyrus Mody, a...

Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah , By Tom Chaffin, Hill and Wang, 432 pp., illustrated, $25 In early 1864, at the height of the Civil War, so successful had Confederate commerce raiders been at destroying Union merchant ships that the Confederacy's agent in London was reporting to the South's navy secretary, "There really seems nothing for our ships to do now upon the open sea. " But within...

Greece's coast guard rescued 92 people, believed to be illegal immigrants, on Friday from a disabled trawler in rough seas off southern Greece, authorities said. The coast guard said the trawler was believed to be heading from the Egyptian port of Alexandria to Italy and suffered engine failure in near-gale conditions. It was located 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the island of Kythera, after patrol boats, passing merchant ships, a rescue helicopter and a military transport aircraft were involved in the rescue operation.

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - An air and sea search continued today for more than 120 people still missing in the sea off Papua New Guinea's east coast after a ferry sank with 362 people on board, officials said. The owners of MV Rabaul Queen, the Papua New Guinea Rabaul Shipping Company, said yesterday that there had been 350 passengers and 12 crew aboard the 22-year-old Japanese-built ferry when it went down yesterday morning while traveling from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to the coastal city of Lae on the main island.