Knickers in a twist about Chinese warships in International waters ?

[j.sabourn]

When the British or American Navy do the same thing Des,they call it showing the flag. After WW 2 Britain which had held the world in awe as regards the RN being of such magnitude and strength was soon superceded by the American Navy which was an obvious ploy and accepted politically by a threadbare Nation ( the UK ) politcal ends have a lot to answer to. Like other nations the uk should have taken its time on repaying the lend lease obligations they had with the USA. Other countries never repaid at all, maybe Trump has been reading his history books and now wants recompense for his countries former unpaid debts.? I also think another term of 10 years of the BAOR would have left Europe in a bit better shape today. All political then and shoved under the carpet today., Cheers JS.
Plenty of oil further north on the NW shelf Des , maybe they could get shore leave in Dampier and visit the Mermaid Tavern , and the statue of the famous dog which used to stowaway on ships and probably visited China itself a few times. JS.
PS in my early years at sea I asked an old salt how the numbers of warships of the different fleets were chosen. His reply whether true or not was that for every number of red Ensign vessels one warship was required , when you consider during the war years at various times there were over 3000 vessels flying the Red Ensign and even say for every 10 merchant vessels which if this rule of thumb was authentic , gives some idea of Britains Naval power at the time.
JS

[happy daze john in oz]

OMG came the cry at lunch time, they are now in the Great Australian Bight and look like circling the country.

The Chines ambassador said we do nothing wrong in international waters.

They are currently about 300 nautical miles off the coast.

But with a feral erection not far away something to scare the folks with!!!!!

[j.sabourn]

There is every probability as most countries with the capability’s that the Chinese warships have ,apart from surveying ocean depths and bottom samples also dropped listening devices on the sea bed ,probably much in advance of what I saw 45 years ago . This is or was accepted as the norm in those days , and is probably still practiced today by most maritime countries. Who knows how useful they may be in future years. Apart from wrecks of vessels littering the ocean beds , must be today matched by more modern paraphanalia such as modern surveillance equipment. No doubt all movements of Russian vessels have been monitored and would have been the practice 45 years ago to send out the mine hunters with their acoustic equipment to recover by saturation divers if not too deep or unmanned recovery vessels if was. I was employed with others doing such as part of the duties we were assigned to. A favourite place in the UK was was off the Clyde and the purpose of such was to record the individual propellor noise each nuclear submarine has , and with the advent of computer warfare a particular torpedo could home in on such. War today will be much more advanced than it was 45 years ago and any maritime country is not doing its duty if it doesnt keep up with the times. JS .

[William Bramhill]

You've got me looking now JS ... as a journalist I have no idea about maritime radio calls. Do you mean "sécurité"?

[j.sabourn]

That’s right , it refers to all calls concerning dangers to navigation , such as bad weather reports, or the likes of a vessel towing another unmanned vessel warning other vessels of the length of tow etc. and not to pass between . Many’s the the time is used in fact the recent post of the collision of the unanchoring vessel he could if he thought he was in a busy area could have put out a warning such as Securitay, securitay , securitay this is mv Golden Hind in position lat. and Long, or bearing and distance off a point of land, am at present unmooring all ships please give me a wide berth.and repeated this every couple of minutes until underway , and then cancel the message with another securitay call. JS
This is probably why the owner of the miscreant vessel has got his spoke in quick to lessen the black cloud hanging over the offending vessel. If you have on the Board of Enquiry non seafarers as Ivan says , I.e. non seagoing seafarers who knows what conclusion they will come to ? JS

[j.sabourn]

#14 were you a reporting journalist in about 1980, and if so can you remember if you or whoever you were working for were brought into the loop about the Tornado aircraft which came down in the Irish Sea . I have often wondered if the story of such was ever published and if it was , what was said. Saying that also brings to mind the lost stingray torpedo lost at the bottom of Loch Fyne , and any stories. I never went out of my way to find out if these stories were ever covered by the press. Two seperate stories within months of each other, or did the MOD close the shutters to the media ? JS