Indonesia says not to blame for missing WWII shipwrecks

Yahoo – AFP, Dessy Sagita, November 17, 2016

The Dutch and Indonesian naval commanders laid a wreath during a 2014 ceremony
 to commemorate the 1150 sailors who died in the Battle of the Java Sea in
1942 (AFP Photo)

Jakarta (AFP) - Indonesia refused to take the blame Thursday for the disappearance of at least six British and Dutch World War II shipwrecks -- considered war graves -- that investigators believe could have been salvaged for scrap.

Former colonial ruler The Netherlands has launched a probe into how three Dutch navy ships seemingly vanished from the bed of the Java Sea, while Britain has urged Indonesia to investigate what has happened to three of its vessels.

It is believed the military wrecks -- lost in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea -- were removed by illegal scavengers looking for scrap metal, an effort that could have taken years.

More than 900 Dutch and 250 Indo-Dutch sailors died during the battle in which the Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Indonesian authorities have sought to distance themselves from the mystery, saying they could not be expected to protect the sites without assistance.

"The Dutch government cannot blame the Indonesian government because they never asked us to protect those ships," said Bambang Budi Utomo, head of the National Archeological Centre under the Ministry of Education and Culture.

"As there was no agreement or announcement, when the ships go missing, it is not our responsibility."

Amateur divers in 2002 discovered the long-lost wrecks of three Dutch ships, 60 years after they sank while in action against Japanese forces.

But an international expedition that sailed to the wreck site ahead of next year's 75th anniversary of the battle was shocked to discover the wrecks had vanished.

Britain expressed its distress at the disappearance of its own warships and asked Indonesia to "take appropriate action" to protect the sites from further disturbance.

But Utomo said Indonesia did not have the resources to maintain a constant patrol over its vast archipelago, a hotspot for other criminal enterprises like illegal fishing and people smuggling.

Row over naval war graves (AFP Photo)

'Looters are fearless'

Treasure hunters and scrap collectors are lured to Indonesia's relic-rich seas, experts say, where countless vessels have gone to a watery grave over centuries of trade, colonial conquest and war.

"Looting is really huge, not only on these World War II shipwrecks, but also on ancient shipwrecks," said Veronique Degroot, a Jakarta-based archaeologist.

The prize find for scavengers targeting the warships would be the huge bronze propellers used to power these juggernauts -- a far more lucrative find than iron or other scrap, according to Utomo.

"The looting must have been going on for years for such a huge ship to disappear," he said.

"Looters are fearless," he added, saying that divers risked death and injury sucking air through tubes to retrieve valuable scrap and antiquities, taking the wreck apart piece by piece.

While some larger, commercial operations use cranes and platforms to wrench heavy loads from the seabed, smaller ventures keep a low profile as they ship metal to scrapyards along Indonesia's thousands of kilometres of coastline.

Australia has been working closely with Indonesia to protect HMAS Perth -- which sunk off Java in World War II, claiming hundreds of lives -- after discovering in 2013 that the warship was being plundered for brass.

A spokesman for the Indonesian navy said the missing ships should not have been disturbed as they were war graves.

"However, the Indonesian navy cannot monitor all areas all the time," spokesman Gig Jonias Mozes Sipasulta told AFP.

"If they ask why the ships are missing, I'm going to ask them back, why didn't they guard the ships? They should have been more proactive."

Naval warships and war graves are protected under international law that makes the desecration of such shipwrecks illegal.

The HNLMS Kortenaer in the 1930s

Related Articles:

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British second world war shipwrecks in Java Sea destroyed by illegal scavenging

Ocean warriors unveil new high-speed ship against Japan whalers

Yahoo – AFP, Sophie Mignon, October 2, 2016

Stretching some 54 metres, Ocean Warrior is equipped with hybrid propulsion to
 extend its range, four powerful engines and a helicopter landing pad (AFP
Photo/Emmuel Dunand)

With its distinctive pirate-like flag flying from the mast, the sleek, high-speed concrete grey Ocean Warrior is the latest weapon in a bitter war between marine conservationists and Japan's whaling fleet.

"The one thing that we were missing in our fleet was a vessel with speed and endurance," said Alex Cornelissen, chief executive of Sea Shepherd Global.

"With the Ocean Warrior, we have a ship that can outmatch any poaching vessel on the high seas," said Cornelissen, also the captain, giving AFP a tour of the ship before its departure from the Netherlands this weekend bound for Australia.

"We are now able to follow them anywhere they go and even run away if they become too aggressive."

Bought at a cost of 8.3 million euros($9.3 million) funded by public lotteries in Britain, The Netherlands and Sweden, Sea Shepherd Global is counting on the vessel in its upcoming battle to save the whales in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean.

The new vessel, designed by a Dutch shipbuilder, took 18 months to build. Stretching some 54 metres (yards), it is a state-of-the-art ship, equipped with hybrid propulsion to extend its range, four powerful engines and a helicopter landing pad.

But it also has a secret weapon -- on the bridge a red cannon can eject a powerful plume of water to obstruct the views of the whalers, or block them from boarding.

For almost four decades, Sea Shepherd has fought to "defend, conserve and protect" marine life in the vast expanses of the planet's oceans.

"With the Ocean Warrior, we have a ship that can outmatch any poaching vessel 

on the high seas," said Alex Cornelissen, chief executive of Sea Shepherd

Global (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

Masquerading as science

And for 30 years they have been playing cat-and-mouse on the high seas with determined and at times ruthless whaling fleets.

"The minute you actually find them, you get very excited and the whole crew is excited because that's what you came down here for," said Cornelissen, sitting at the controls which resembles the helm of a spaceship.

"And then you just go into this high energy mode. You don't get tired anymore. You can stay up for 24 hours without interruption," he added.

"All the sacrifices you made to be down in the Antarctic, you know, missing Christmas, missing your family, it's all become worth it when you find the whalers."

Despite a global moratorium imposed in 1986, Japan has continued to hunt whales using a loophole in the ban, but makes no secret the giant mammals end up on dinner plates.

Tokyo was forced to call off its 2014-15 hunt after the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, ruled its annual Antarctic foray was commercial, and only masquerading as science.

But the hunt resumed in late 2015, with the fleet returning to Japan in March this year after having killed some 333 Minke whales.

Tokyo has sought to close down the anti-whaling campaigns in court saying the activists ram their ships, snare propellers with ropes and harass crews with paint and stink bombs.

The conservationists in turn complain that the whalers have thrown stun grenades at them, and tried to sabotage their boats.

Ocean Warrior will be leaving Amsterdam on Sunday to head to Melbourne as 

Sea Shepherd readies its 11th campaign in the Southern Ocean (AFP Photo/

Emmunuel Dunand)

Vengeance

Sea Shepherd USA and its renowned founder Paul Watson are now prevented by a legal injunction from leading whale defence campaigns against the Japanese.

But Cornelissen and Sea Shepherd Global, based in Amsterdam, have taken up the battle. They estimate that in the past 10 years they have saved some 5,000 whales from Japanese harpoons.

"The international community has failed to enforce the ICJ's rulings in the Southern Ocean, so it's once again up to Sea Shepherd to take action," the group says.

With Ocean Warrior leaving Amsterdam on Sunday to head to Melbourne, Sea Shepherd is readying to launch in December its 11th campaign in the Southern Ocean, dubbed Operation Nemesis.

Named after the Greek goddess of vengeance and justice, the conservationists hope this year the tide could turn in their favour.

"We've had campaigns where we've been following illegal whaling ships and because they had a superior speed, they could simply outrun us ... and we would lose valuable weeks during which they could chase whales," said the captain.

Now this warrior of the oceans, with its four engines can reach speeds of 55 kilometres an hour, around 25 knots, compared to its ocean enemies which only reach up to 20 knots.

"We asked for the biggest engines they had," smiled Cornelissen, shouting above the noise of the motors.

"I'm hopeful, because we've seen the whalers go down and they'll continue to go down, because we’ll continue to make their lives miserable down there."

A handout image supplied by Sea Shepherd Australia in January 2013 shows
 three minke whales on the deck of the Japanese Ship Nisshin Maru.
Photograph: Tim Watters/EPA

Related Article:

Experts reject Japan's new whaling plan

Jokowi Wants Military to Pursue More Humanitarian Operations

Jakarta Globe, Eko Prasetyo, April 12, 2016

President Joko Widodo on board Indonesian battleship Frans Kaisiepo-368 during
 the opening of Komodo Exercise 2016, a multi-country naval exercise in Padang,
West Sumatra, Tuesday (12/04). (State Palace Press Photo/Rusman)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo attended the opening of the five-day multi-country Komodo naval exercise, at the Indonesian Naval Base II in Padang, West Sumatra, on Tuesday (12/04).

In his speech, Joko stressed the importance of military operations other than war (MOOTW), including for humanitarian purposes.

“Improve health services. Build better public facilities. Help out in search and rescue missions. The real battle is to improve our humanity,” Joko said in his statement.

A total of 47 vessels from 16 countries will take part in the exercises until Saturday.

US family make million-dollar gold find from Spanish fleet off Florida

A treasure-hunting family has found more than $1m worth of gold artefacts from the wreckage of a sunken 1715 Spanish ship in the Atlantic Ocean

The Guardian, Reuters in Orlando, 28 July 2015

Gold coins and gold chain that were found in the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet
that sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. Photograph: 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC/Reuters

A Florida family has been rewarded for years of treasure hunting after finding gold artefacts worth $1m or more from the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet that sank in the Atlantic, according to a salvage company.

The find included 51 gold coins of various denominations and 40ft (12m) of ornate gold chain, said Brent Brisben, whose company, 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC, owns the rights to the wreckage.

The Schmitt family, who hunt for treasure off their salvage vessel Aarrr Booty, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Brisben said he timed the announcement to coincide with Friday’s 300th anniversary of the sinking of 11 galleons brought down by a hurricane off the coast of Florida, as the convoy was sailing from Havana to Spain.

Eric Schmitt found the artefacts in 15ft (4.5m) of water off Fort Pierce, approximately 130 miles (210km) north of Miami.

The Spanish convoy’s manifests indicated the ships carried cargo valued today at about $400m (£257m), of which $175m had been recovered, Brisben said.

His company bought the rights to the site in 2010 from heirs of treasure hunter Mel Fisher. The firm allows others, including the Schmitts, to search under subcontract agreements.

The centrepiece of the Schmitts’ latest find is a perfect specimen of a coin called a royal, made for Spain’s King Phillip V and dated 1715. Only a few royals were known to exist, according to a news release from Brisben’s company.

The gold chains are made of small, handcrafted, two-sided links of six-petalled olive blossoms. They were called money chains and are believed to have been used as a tax-free coinage, the news release said.

Under federal and state law, Florida will take possession of up to 20% of the find for display in a state museum. Brisben’s company and the Schmitt family would split the remainder, Brisben said.

Shell hits a snag in Arctic oil drilling

DutchNews.nl, July 8, 2015

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has a hit a snag in its latest attempt to drill for oil in the Arctic waters off Alaska. 

The Fennica, one of the ice-breakers it was planning to use, has been holed in the ballast tank and returned to port. 

The company said systems on board the ship warned there was a leak, and the crew found a one-metre long tear in the hull. It did not say how the damage occurred, the Volkskrant reports. 

The company does not expect the set-back to delay drilling, but cannot be sure until it receives a damage report. 

Shell was granted a licence to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic in May, despite warnings by protestors it could lead to an environmental disaster.

The licence for up to six exploratory wells was granted by the US government’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management which said it had taken a ‘thoughtful approach to potential exploration’.

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Thai crackdown on rogue fishing as fears grow over EU ban

Yahoo – AFP, Preeti Jha, 1 July 2015

Migrant workers sort fish in a port in Mahachai on the outskirts of Bangkok (AFP

Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

Mahachai (Thailand) (AFP) - A belated Thai clampdown on illegal fishing is forcing unlicensed vessels ashore, threatening to paralyse a key industry as the kingdom desperately tries to avoid a European Union ban on exports worth $1 billion a year.

Barrels of fish packed in ice are usually rolled off boats at a bustling port in Samut Sakhon, a coastal province near Bangkok, by Myanmar and Cambodia migrant workers who prop up the world's third largest seafood producer.

A migrant worker sits on a fishing boat

 in a port in Mahachai on the outskirts of

Bangkok (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

But many will sit idle from Wednesday, say their Thai employers, who have failed to obtain necessary fishing permits under a raft of new government rules aimed at cleaning up the shadowy industry.

Next to buckets of red snapper destined to become fish balls for the local market and fishmeal to rear shrimp marked for Europe, a Thai vessel owner says there are "too many rules and too little time".

"We will have to keep paying bills with no income," said the worried 59-year-old, who withheld his name, as he prepares to cease operations until he can meet the conditions for a new permit.

The Wednesday deadline to register boats with authorities and acquire permits under revised standards, including installing equipment such as tracking devices, comes after the European Union threatened to ban fish imports from the kingdom unless it combats illegal fishing.

In April Brussels issued Thailand with a "yellow card" for inadequate fisheries monitoring, controls and punishment, warning that a "red card" and eventual import ban would follow if it failed to improve within six months.

The spectre of losing $1 billion in European sales is a shortfall the ruling military can ill-afford in an already sluggish economy.

Thailand saw only 0.3 percent growth in the first quarter and exports have been slowing in part, says the World Bank, due to an erosion in competitiveness.

Aphisit Techanitisawad, president of The Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, estimates around 3,000 fishing vessels nationwide will forsake the seas from Wednesday.

A worker checks canned fish at the 

Anusorn Group factory in Tasai, on the

 outskirts of Bangkok (AFP Photo/

Nicolas Asfouri)

"About 80 percent of all the fishermen, they're coming back to shore" to seek permits, he told AFP at his fisheries factory in Samut Sakhon.

Thailand's image battered

A recent shortage in fresh fish has already seen his workers stop processing crab sticks for French export, instead focussing on canning sardines and mackerel from frozen supplies for the Myanmar and Cambodian markets.

A labour ministry spokeswoman said around 80,000 migrants were working in Thai fisheries since the deadline for compulsory migrant registrations closed Tuesday.

Aphisit thinks the government could have imposed a more lenient timeframe for changes.

But premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha has remained adamant the industry has been left unchecked for too long.

"Don't put any more pressure on government," he said when asked about rising anger within the fishing industry.

"If we don't pass these measures a 200 billion baht ($6 billion) industry could be wiped out so everybody should cooperate," he said.

Thailand's image has been battered in recent years by a series of fishing abuse allegations from prominent rights groups of ships using slave and child labour as well as trafficking victims.

Migrant workers at work in a port in 

Mahachai, on the outskirts of Bangkok

(AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

And last year the US downgraded the kingdom to its lowest ranking on human trafficking, a designation that can trigger sanctions.

Bangkok is desperate to improve its standing, while sanctions have not yet been imposed, laying out new measures including a ban on fishing workers under 18 in the months since. The latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report is due for imminent publication.

Observers say that while the latest threat of an EU ban has triggered a renewed sense of urgency in authorities, rushed actions will fail to combat illegal fishing in the long-term.

Improving "monitoring, control and surveillance" will help to tackle longstanding problems of pirate fishing, slavery and trafficking in Thailand's fisheries industry, said Daniel Murphy, a Bangkok-based campaigner for the Environmental Justice Foundation.

But by rapidly regulating the neglected sector the government "risks regularising more vessels than Thailand's exhausted waters can support as well a significant number of vessels which have spent years openly flouting fishing laws", he said.

In this handout photograph released by Indonesia’s Ministry of Fishery on

 April 8, 2015, hundreds of rescued foreign fishermen mostly from Myanmar and

Thailand are gathered during an operation at the private Indonesian fishing firm

 Pusaka Benjina Resources located in remote Benjina island of Maluku

province. (AFP Photo/Ugeng Nugroho/Ministry of Fishery)

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Joko praises Minister Susi’s Work on Combating Illegal Fishing

A fisherman formerly held in slave-like conditions by a Thai-owned fishing firm in

Benjina, Maluku, shows evidence of abuse. (Antara Foto/Humas Kementerian

Kelautan)

Fears for migrants as S.E. Asia refuses safe haven

Yahoo – AFP, M Jegathesan, 13 May 2015

A Malaysian sailor stands guard as a truck carrying Bangladeshi and Rohingya

 migrants from a temporary detention centre arrives at a naval base in Langkawi, 

on May 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)

Malaysia joined Indonesia on Wednesday in vowing to turn back vessels bearing a wave of migrants, drawing warnings that the hardline policy could be a death sentence for boatloads of people at risk of starvation and disease.

As the UN's refugee agency accused regional authorities of playing with lives, more grim accounts emerged from among hundreds of migrants who endured weeks of torment at sea before being dumped by human-traffickers.

Mizanur Rahman, a 14-year-old Bangladeshi boy, said he and a friend spent two agonising months crammed aboard a boat with an estimated 600 other people.

A rescued migrant receives medical 

treatment at a temporary shelter in a 

government sports auditorium in 

Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh 

province, on May 12, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

They subsisted on a single plate of rice per day, but were given nothing to eat the final two weeks, Rahman told AFP.

He spoke in the northern Indonesian region of Aceh, where the two friends washed up this week after traffickers told them to "swim to shore if we wanted to stay alive".

"We wanted to go to Malaysia, dreaming of a better future of our families. After everything that happened to us, I would now prefer to die here rather than go back home," Rahman said.

Migrant groups are warning that thousands more men, women and children are believed stuck at sea or at risk of abandonment by smugglers since a Thai police crackdown disrupted people-smuggling routes.

Thailand has called for a May 29 regional summit to address what it called an "unprecedented increase" in arrivals of ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and impoverished Bangladeshi migrants.

But Malaysia -- where more than 1,100 migrants came ashore this week -- said it would turn away boats entering its waters unless they were about to sink.

"The policy has always been to escort them out of Malaysian waters after giving them the necessary provisions" including fuel, water and food, First Admiral Tan Kok Kwee of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told AFP.

The Indonesian navy already has turned away at least one vessel packed with hundreds of abandoned migrants.

'Maritime ping-pong'

Vivian Tan, Bangkok-based spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the policy was "really worrying".

"We continue to appeal for countries in the region to share responsibility and avert a humanitarian crisis," she said.

"The first priority should be to save lives and provide humanitarian aid."

A group of rescued mostly Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh,

 rest at a government sports auditorium in Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh 

province, on May 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Joe Lowry, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bangkok, said authorities were playing "maritime ping-pong".

"What we want is for governments to allow people to disembark so they can be treated and policy can be worked out later," he said.

Otherwise, "people are going to die in the hundreds and thousands on the sea".

The UNHCR agency says 25,000 people embarked from Bay of Bengal ports in January-March, double last year's rate.

Thousands of them are feared left in the lurch by the crackdown in Thailand, which began after the discovery of dozens of dead migrants in jungle graves earlier this month.

Bangladeshi authorities said they seized a fishing trawler filled with 116 of its nationals in the Bay of Bengal near Myanmar on Tuesday.

"They have been on the boat from 15 days to three months," coastguard station commander Dickson Chowdhury said, adding some had not eaten in a week.

Thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group denied citizenship by Buddhist-majority Myanmar, flee annually to escape discrimination and sectarian violence that has targeted them in recent years.

Muhammad Shorif, a 16-year-old Rohingya, fled the squalor of a refugee camp back home in hopes of reaching relatively prosperous Malaysia.

He said he spent a month aboard a smuggling ship jammed with hundreds of others who survived on meagre rations and faced beatings from armed smugglers.

"Six people on our boat died due to illness and hunger, and the captain ordered that their bodies be thrown to the sea," he said, in Aceh.

The IOM has called for search-and-rescue operations to find stricken migrant boats.

The inter-governmental group has also demanded a coordinated and sympathetic response by Europe as the continent grapples with its own migration crisis originating in North Africa.

Dozens dead after fishing trawler sinks off Russia's far east

At least 56 people have died and 13 are missing after a fishing trawler sank in the Western Pacific Ocean off Russia's east coast. More than sixty have been rescued from the freezing waters.

Deutsche Welle, 2 April 2015

Representative photo of a fishing trawler

At least 56 people died when a Russian fishing vessel went down late on Wednesday in the Western Pacific Ocean in the Sea of Okhotsk near the Kamchatka Peninsula.

There were 132 crew on board the Dalniy Vostok trawler, according to Russia's state-run TASS news agency and 63 have been rescued from the freezing waters, says a maritime rescue coordination center in the area.

The vessel is reported to have sunk quickly after its engine room was flooded. "The ship did not send a distress signal," according to an official at the rescue center. One of the possible causes of the sinking may have been an extreme impact of ice on its hull.

Survivors have been taken to medical centers in Magadan, on Russia's main coast, by helicopter.

According to preliminary data, 78 of the ship's crew members were Russian while 54 were from Myanmar, Ukraine, Lithuania and Vanuatu. The Dalniy Vostok is assigned to the port of Nevelsk and reportedly belongs to a company called Magellan.

The 103-meter-long and 16-meter-wide refrigerated trawler Dalniy Vostok was designed to process, refrigerate and deliver fish to the nearest port.

The trawler was built in 1989 in Ukraine and until 2014 operated in the Baltic Sea off Riga, Latvia, under the name 'Stende.' Last year, it was acquired by Magellan and transferred to Russia's far east where it was renamed and assigned to a new port.

jm/gsw (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Russia to use Chinese engines for Grachonok anti-terror boats

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-01

A Russian Navy Type 21980 Grachonok anti-terror boat. (Internet photo)

Russia has decided to introduce diesel engines from China for its Type 21980 Grachonok anti-terror boats after the Motor and Turbine Union based in Germany declared that it will no longer provide engines, according to Military Parade, a website covering global defense news based in Moscow.

China signed a contract with Russia last week for engines for the two Type 21980 Grachonok anti-terror boats with the serial numbers 01221 and 01222. Both vessels are currently being build by Vympel Shipyard. The vessels will be equipped with TBD620V12 main engines produced in China.

In addition, China has promised to supply two decelerators and two couplings for the vessels.

The Russian Navy placed an order for six Grachonok anti-terror boats from Vympel Shipyard in January 2014. Two shipyards located at Zelenodolsk are also responsible for the construction of the Type 21980 boats. It is unclear whether all the boats will use Chinese engines.

Costa Concordia captain Schettino sentenced to 16 years

Yahoo – AFP, 11 Feb 2015

Costa Concordia's captain Francesco Schettino arrives in the courthouse for his
 final declaration on the last day of his trial on February 11, 2015 in Grosseto, Italy
(AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)

Grosseto (Italy) (AFP) - An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia, to 16 years and one month in prison for his role in the shipwreck that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino, 54, was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the January 2012 disaster, which occurred after the huge cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. His conviction is subject to appeal.

An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia, to 16 years and one month in prison for his role in the shipwreck that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino, 54, was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the January 2012 disaster, which occurred after the huge cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. His conviction is subject to appeal.

The disgraced skipper, who had earlier tearfully appealed to the court for mercy, had been charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship with passengers and crew still on board.

It was not immediately clear which of the various counts he was convicted on.

Prosecutors had sought a total sentence of 26 years and three months.

Schettino was accused during the trial of recklessly steering the giant cruise ship onto the rocks with more than 4,000 people on board, negligently delaying an order to abandon ship and then leaving the ship himself in a cowardly and unprofessional manner.

In his defence, Schettino said his crew was to blame for the collision, that the delayed evacuation might have saved lives and insisted he fell off the tilting boat rather than fleeing in fear.

Schettino had also claimed he was being made a scapegoat for the disaster and had been the victim of a media witch-hunt.

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped (AFP)

Related Article:

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped

World’s biggest ship, named after Dutch nazi, to be renamed after all

DutchNews.nl, February 7, 2015

The Dutch company which owns what is said to be the biggest ship in the world has agreed to change its name because of links to a Nazi war criminal.

The Pieter Schelte, owned by maritime services groups Allseas, is named after the company’s founder, who joined Waffen SS during World War II and was later convicted of war crimes. 

Allseas had refused to change the ship’s name, despite a 10-year campaign by Jewish groups, but has now bowed in to pressure, the Financial Times reported. 

The paper says the change of heart came after British energy secretary Ed Davey said the naming of the ship was ‘wholly inappropriate and offensive’.

Allseas which is based in Switzerland, said in a statement: ‘As a result of widespread reactions which have emerged over the past few days, Edward Heerema, president of Allseas Group, has announced that the name of the vessel ‘Pieter Schelte’ will be changed. It has never been the intention to offend anyone. The new name will be announced within a few days.’ 

Esther Voet, director of the Dutch Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (Cidi) told the FT she was delighted. ‘It was the right thing to do and it is only a pity that it took 10 years for the owner to see that the name really was not appropriate,’ she said. 

Shell, which is planning to use the ship to decommission North Sea oil platforms, also welcomed the decision. ‘We have made our feelings clear to Allseas and are pleased they have decided to change the name of the vessel,’ the Anglo Dutch oil giant is quoted as saying by the FT.

Related Article:

Jewish groups furious over SS name for world’s biggest ship

Over 20 people dead after tug boat capsize on China's Yangtze River

At least 21 people have died and one is missing after a tugboat capsized whilst undergoing sea trials in the Yangtze River. Rapid currents have hampered the rescue effort.

Deutsche Welle, 17 Jan 2015

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that the 30-meter (98-feet) vessel had had 25 people on board, including eight foreign nationals, when it sank on Thursday.

Rescuers dragged the 368-tonne ship Saturday to shallow water before searching it for those still unaccounted for.

Three people, all Chinese, were rescued, with one person still missing as authorities continue to search the vessel's cockpit and nearby areas of the Yangtze River in the Jiangsu province, Xinhua reported.

The newly built, Wanshenzhou 67, was making its maiden test voyage Thursday in the Fubei Channel when it capsized.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd, a Singapore-based shipbuilder, said Friday the tugboat sank during a sea trial. The ship's owner, parts suppliers and engineers were among those on board.

Rapid currents hampered the rescue effort, and it was not until Saturday morning when rescue teams were able to surface the vessel and tow it to shallow waters to undertake a more thorough search.

jlw/sb (AP, Reuters)