Shots fired at Iranian boat

[seemslikeadream]

MSNBC


U.S military-contracted ship fires on Iranian boat, U.S. defense official tells Reuters


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[fishwax]

1. just saw it on MSNBC too--they said it was a "US Contracted" ship that fired

[truebrit71]

4. WTF is a "US contracted" ship that is armed? Did you outsource the fucking Navy as well??

:wtf:

[fishwax]

10. now they're saying it was a ship that delivers supplies to military installments in the region

[truebrit71]

12. But that still begs the question about why it was armed?

...and who gave them the authorization to fire on an Iranian vessel?

Gulf of Tonkin much?

[fishwax]

13. I'm not sure, but I suspect that most ships in the gulf would be armed

in some way--as to what they'd be equipped with, I'm not sure. And as for authorization to fire ...

[bdamomma]

16. like Blackwater

US Contracted??

[guyanakoolaid]

2. Every time I see the word "Iran", another word beginning with "I" keeps coming to mind...

[AndyA]

11. IMPEACH is right. And RIGHT NOW!

Bush and Cheney need to be removed from their positions. No one has ever done more to deserve impeachment than they have.

And yet, Congress does...nothing...

Remember this when you vote in November, America!

[NightWatcher]

3. didnt this same thing happen two weeks ago...on a friday morning too?

we are trying so hard to start some shit over there

[mcctatas]

5. ...

:wtf:
Shots fired at US-military contracted boat?
contractors might set off the war bush wants?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22610649/

[Ian David]

8. Now, we're even outsourcing our Gulfs of Tonkins. n/t

[Ian David]

6. We also fired on an Egyptian ship in the suez canal a few weeks ago. n/t

[Subdivisions]

7. What kind of ship does the US "contract" which has weapons?

Is this the new Blackwater Navy?

[seemslikeadream]

9. ship contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WAT009399.htm

US-contracted ship fires toward Iranian boat 25 Apr 2008 14:54:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - A ship contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command has fired at least one shot toward an Iranian boat, a U.S. defense official said on Friday.

"It was an MSC vessel," the official said, confirming the ship fired on an Iranian boat

[seemslikeadream]

14. ............

Westwad Venture fires on Iranian boat more than one Iranian fast boat approaching at a high rate of speed

[Ian David]

15. Cargo ship "Westward Venture" fired 50 cal rounds at Iranian "fast boat" approached within 100 yards

[Ian David]

17. SS WESTWARD VENTURE (callsign KHJB)

SS WESTWARD VENTURE (callsign KHJB)

More information available from US FCC via Universal Licensing System and Coast Guard Vessel Documentation Center.

Last reported at 2008-Apr-22 18:00 UTC. Time now 2008-Apr-25 15:17 UTC.
Position N 25°06', E 057°36'.
Warning: this ship's position is 2 days out of date.

Wind from 260 at 5 knots

Barometer 1008.9 mb
Air temperature 26.5 ° C
Dewpoint 24.4 ° C
Water temperature 25.5 ° C



More:
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=KHJB



Also:

Ponce Class

The S.S. Great Land, S.S. Westward Venture, and S.S. Northern Lights, of the Ponce Class have served TOTE and the Alaska community faithfully over the past 25 years.

S. S. Westward Venture


The S. S. Westward Venture, the second Ponce Class ship owned by TOTE, entered the Alaska trade in 1977. When the new Orca Class vessels went into service in 2003, the Venture was chartered by the Military Sealift Command to aid in Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom. In early 2006, after three years of outstanding service, her military charter ended. She is currently standing ready to serve wherever TOTE needs her next.

More:
http://www.totemocean.com/ts-ships.htm




SS/Westward Venture Returns to the Delaware River


The SS/Westward Venture was delivered on April 20, 1977 and departed from Sun Ship for Tacoma, Washington. The 790 foot, 24 knot trailership was operated by TOTE, an Alaskan corporation offering a shipping service between Tacoma, Washington and Anchorage, Alaska. (The aforementioned was a press release from Sun Ship dated April 22, 1977 for immediate release). After 28 years, she returns to the Delaware River, for the first time, under charter to the Military Sealift Command and berthed at the Philadelphia Packer Ave. Terminal. She arrived on April 24th and departed on April 27th, 2005. We were made aware of her arrival and schedule by communications with both Patt (Bersky) Nowland and Rich Griffith. John Curdy, a friend of the Sun Ship Historical Society, was able to get to Fox Point Park, off of 495 in Delaware for her arrival on April 24th and took some pictures. In addition to John's photographs, I was able to get some pictures of her while at the Packer Ave Terminal from Glouster Park, NJ on the 25th and then again on the 27th from Fox Point Park while heading down river to the bay. Seeing one of our ships going down the river brought back many pleasant memories and I am grateful for those who helped document her return to the Delaware River. Dave Kavanagh




This is a copy of the original launching invititation and you may notice something interesting in that the hull number is 674 not 675. Thanks to Rich Griffith, we now know the rest of the story.
Sun Hull 674 was launched as the Westward Venture, but prior to delivery, she was being chartered to the Middle East and her name was changed to the Atlantic Bear. Hull No. 675 was launched and delivered as the Westward Venture as shown on the Builder's plate in the above picture.

More:
http://sunshiporg.homestead.com/westwardventure/westwardventure.html


The USNS WESTWARD VENTURE made a stop over in Cape Town
Photo : Ian Shiffman ©
The SS WESTWARD VENTURE is built in 1977 at the Pennsylvania shipyard under number 675
and is having a length of 241 mtr. The 31515 gross vessel is at present owned by Totem Ocean
Trailer Express (TOTE) and on charter to the Military Sealift Command to transport military
materials from and towards the Middle East, the WESTWARD VENTURE departed from Fujairah
Anchorage March 27th and arrived at Cape Town April 4
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:PhV5k8ABjRUJ:www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2005/april/087-07-04-2005b.PDF+westward+venture&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us



Totem Resources Corporation

Get 50 expert sample business plans and put your great idea down on paper!


Address:
1100 Olive Way
Suite 1100
Seattle, Washington 98124
U.S.A.

Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]


Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1982
Employees: 1,153
Sales: $200 million
SICs: 6719 Holding Companies Nec; 4424 Deep Sea Domestic Transportation of Freight


Company History:

Totem Resources Corporation is the holding company of Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Inc. (TOTE), Foss Maritime Co., and Interocean Management Corp. Operating with almost no infrastructure, Totem Resources was formed in 1982 to enable the purchase of TOTE, a steamship company operating oceangoing containerships between Washington and Alaska. Subsequent acquisitions garnered the corporation a shipyard, tugboat bases along the West Coast, cargo terminals in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, and entrance into the business of vessel maintenance management. During its short history, Totem Resources has evolved into a dominant force in the Northwest's maritime industry.

<snip>

TOTE's first few years were difficult, as the fledgling company grappled with problems associated with its youth. It upgraded its trailer fleet, provided better training for its maintenance personnel, and established sales offices away from the Seattle-Anchorage shipping route to cultivate additional business. During the peak summer months, however, business was brisk, prompting the company to lease an additional carrier, El Taino, as a temporary response to increased demand in 1976. That year, contract negotiations with the Port of Seattle soured, and TOTE relocated its docking facilities to the Port of Tacoma, approximately 30 miles south of Seattle. By the following year, Sun Shipbuilding had constructed an exact copy of the Great Land, the S. S. Westward Venture, which was added to TOTE's Tacoma-Anchorage shipping run. Now with two sailings per week, TOTE had readied itself for the expected continuation of growth in Alaska. The addition of the Westward Venture also affirmed the esteem TOTE's clients had for the RO/RO concept. The only other oceangoing carrier fleet operating between Washington and Alaska, Sea-Land Services, transported its cargo in containers adapted to trailer chassis, requiring deck personnel to hitch and unhitch containers before loading and unloading. Given a choice, many had opted for the greater flexibility and speed offered by the RO/RO method, earning TOTE additional business during these early years it would have otherwise missed.

TOTE's estimate of Alaska's future growth, however, fell short of expectations. The boom created by the oil pipeline began to wane by 1977, and Alaska's economy consequently began to suffer. TOTE, whose success was so closely tied to the fate of Alaska's economy, felt the effects of the decline, and business for the shipper also dipped. The other two major shippers operating between Washington State and Alaska, Sea-Land Services and Alaska Hydro-Train, also incurred a drop in business, and the ensuing struggle to maintain their diminished market share touched off a rate war between the three shippers in 1978. Prior to 1978, the three companies charged the same rate for their services, but in a bid to increase its business, Sea-Land proposed to lower its rates. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) halted the attempt, however, and Sea-Land withdrew its proposal. Alaska Hydro-Train, which transported its shipments by tugboat-towed barges, responded by offering an "incentive rate" for large shipments, to which the ICC gave approval. Next, Sea-Land, feeling the pressures of a drop in revenues, asked the ICC to allow it to raise its rates. The ICC allowed the company to raise its rates by eight percent, and TOTE followed suit. But Alaska Hydro-Train surprised the other two shippers by not raising its rates in kind. Consequently, Sea-Land and TOTE were forced to roll back their prices, causing their revenues to fall. While each of the companies suffered as a result of this fracas, Sea-Land and TOTE incurred the greater damage. Each controlled 40 percent of the market, by far outdistancing the smaller Alaska Hydro-Train, but meeting the costs of securing that lead demanded the higher revenues thwarted by Alaska Hydro-Train. Sea-Land's aging fleet required extensive maintenance expenditures, and TOTE needed the additional cash to pay for its two new vessels. Alaska Hydro-Train, on the other hand, was less troubled by the curtailment of rate increases and emerged from the dispute with a small, if somewhat costly, victory.

Although revenues dropped, and some of TOTE's shipping runs left the docks only 50 percent full, the rollback of rates helped sustain its share of the market. The question of TOTE's future solvency lay not so much in the outcome of the rate war, but in the recovery of the Alaskan market. As always, the success of TOTE hinged on the growth of consumer and industrial demand for goods in Alaska. Fortunately for TOTE and its anxious competitors, the Alaskan economy rebounded in 1981. An upsurge in housing construction and an increase in the demand for consumer goods invigorated shipping to the region, as oil revenues once again helped lift the state's economy. TOTE's business activity had once again reached the levels that had initially encouraged Sun Oil to enter the market six years earlier. Sailings continued into the winter months, usually a slow period of the year, with both the Great Land and the Westward Venture delivering shipments of automobiles, building materials, oil-field equipment, groceries, and other merchandise. According to TOTE's management, now led by Robert B. McMillen, prospects for the future looked encouraging. The vitality of Alaska's economy was expected to continue into the future, a forecast that, if true, would fill the coffers of not only TOTE's two ships, but TOTE itself.

<snip>

The volume of cargo shipped to Alaska continued to decline from the early 1980s levels after the acquisition, but the addition of Foss Maritime's interests outside the shipping route assuaged what would have otherwise been a bleak period for Totem Resources. Although the corporation preferred not to divulge financial figures, it maintained that both of its companies were profitable ventures, with revenues evenly divided between the two. TOTE still held a commanding control of the Alaskan market, and Foss Maritime profited from its diverse capabilities, such as its contribution to the clean-up of the Alaskan shore after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

<snip>

That year, Totem Resources made another move toward diversification by purchasing, for an undisclosed sum, Interocean Management Corp., a Philadelphia-based company that managed the maintenance and operation of ships. Interocean fit well with the other two companies; the Great Land and the Westward Venture were both client vessels of Interocean before the acquisition, and Foss Maritime's ability to move and repair ships provided services to Interocean it had previously hired other companies to supply.

More:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Totem-Resources-Corporation-Company-History.html

[RogueOne]

18. Military Sealift Command 101

US Navy - War ships, vessels that carry guns and planes
Military Sealift Command (MSC)- Branch of US Navy, carries the supplies US Marines, US Army and Air Force.

MSC has its own vessels has it own officers and command structure. However does not have enough mariners/officers to run their ships. MSC contracts the operation of these military cargo ships to US Steam Ship companies to operate these ships on the behalf of MSC. They also contract with US Steam Ship companies for additional vessels to carry specific types of cargo. In this case the SS Westward Venture a Roll on Roll off vessel to carry rolling stock, think hummers and tanks. They are manned by US mariners who must be US Citizens. Sometimes the crew is supplemented by the National Guard to provide security.

Since the USS Cole incident, the entire US Maritime Industry is very weary of small fast moving "boats" approaching a US Flagged vessel, especially when the identity and intentions of this boat is not unknown or announced.

This is not a secret these fast moving boats were in the wrong here. My guess is the Iranians are probing the security measures on the US Flag Cargo ships contracted by MSC.

- Rogue One

[seemslikeadream]

19. THANK YOU VERY MUCH RogueOne

:hi:

[seemslikeadream]

20. Thanks IanDB1

:hi: