VERBOO0M!
Where had it been?
Where was it going?
Would you think about that if you were in any way whatsoever concerned with the presence of of a sea-going tanker loaded with around three million gallons of ethanol on board?.
Wouldn't you want to know where it was at the moment and where it was headed? How about where it had been in last few days?
The Singapore registered, Philippine manned Oil tanker which blew up last week about fifty miles off Virginia an took the lives of all the crew except a half-dozen or so who were found adrift on a raft shortly after the explosion and sinking of the impressively large vessel was traveling more or less incognito.
News releases concerning fire and explosion conflicted in regards to where the vessel had been during the past week or so and of its intended destination. The second day after the sinking, some some papers where, if they said anything at all about that bit of information, said it was going from New York to Houston. Other papers were saying it was going from New Orleans to New York City with a full load of Ethanol.
That means that the explosive craft which shook a large chunk of the North Atlantic last week, had either been in New York harbor within the past few days or was due to dock there within a few days. It is important that we note the vessel was registered in Singapore.
All this takes on more serious meaning when you find such vessels flying the flag of a small African, Asian, of South American nations. Or, closer offshore islands are also in the business of selling such authorizations. The ship owners do so for economic reasons and much of the savings found through foreign registry comes about largely by minimizing or ignoring safety and fire regulations. Such rules are less stringent.
Imagine what would be if that tanker had blown up in New York Harbor!. It was either going there, or had been there – depending on which paper you read. Either way, don't you think we should know when such a potential time bomb is in our urban centers? Worse yet, suppose it were a suicide bomb rather than a regular hazard potential.
It is time to take new look a our law books concerning the use of our harbors by ships of questionable foreign registry. Do we have any restrictions concerning port entry of ships – especially those with flammable or explosive cargo which does not meet our basic standards of maritime safety?
Let's not wait until we hear a strange boom.
A.L.M. March 2, 2004 [c449wds]
