MarineBuzz.com

Samsung has introduced a marine model B 2100 phone. The specifications indicate that this model is India specific to withstand monsoon, dust and heat. The price is around INR 7000.

Some interesting features of Samsung Marine B 2100 are:

• Waterproof & Dust Resistant
  • Complies with the IP57 (Ingress Protection) standard
  • Submersible up to 1 metre for 30 minutes
• Compliant with US Department of Defence with Military Standard 810F (MIL-STD-810F).
• Rated to withstand blowing rain, dust, shock, salt, sand, fog, humidity, water, immersion, solar radiation, vibration, and extreme temperature.
• Outdoor-friendly Features
  • Extremely loud external speakers
  • Noise cancellation feature optimized for noisy condition
  • Incandescent embedded flashlight
  • Temperature resistant – (-20 to +60 degree Celsius )
• Network: GSM/GPRS
• Weight : 102.8g
• Dimension : 113 mm X 48.9 mm X 17.4 mm

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MV Antisana Jorf, a Norwegian flagged vessel developed engine problems in the Gulf of Aden. As the vessel was a likely target for Somali pirates, Pakistan Naval Ship (PNS) Badr operating as part of Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 rendered necessary assistance. PNS Badr safely escorted the vessel for almost 36 hours till the vessel reached Yemeni territorial waters to reach Aden port.

PNS Badr:

• Former HMS Alacrity (F-174)) Type 21 frigate.
• Joined Pakistan Navy on March 01, 1994.

MV Antisana Jorf:

• Chemical Tanker with a total cargo capacity of 8,459 m3.
• Operated by OSM Ship Management Pte. Ltd.

View a photograph of PNS Badr:

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MV Ganga Vihar is the floating restaurant now operating on the River Ganga from Gandhi Ghat, Patna in the state of Bihar.
Some interesting features of MV Ganga Vihar are:

• Chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the restaurant on July 20.
• 48 persons can dine at a time.
• Non vegetarian food will be available at INR 500 and Vegetarian food will be available at INR 350.
• Also a bar and recreation room is available.
• To be operated by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation twice a day.
• The floating restaurant will also be available on rent at INR 20,000 for four hours to celebrate as social and family gatherings like birthday, marriage.
• Cabinet meetings are also planned to be held in the floating restaurant to promote public awareness about the restaurant.
• As an inaugural offer, the floating restaurant was permitted to the public to view solar eclipse from 0400 hours on July 22 with an entry ticket of INR 100.

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On the morning of July 17, MV Asian Forest left New Mangalore Port with 13,000 tonnes of iron ore to China. Within two hours of leaving harbour, due to bad weather, the ship started listing dangerously and finally the all Chinese crew had to abandon the vessel. In response to the distress call made by the vessel, Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Sankalp rendered all necessary assistance to the vessel and her crew.

Some interesting features of the rescue and ICGS Sankalp are:
MV Asian Forest crew rescue (Image credit – P & F Marine Co., Ltd):

• 13 crew members out of 18 of the vessel could manage to reach the shore by lifeboat as the incident occurred about 15 nautical miles from shore.
• The five officers including the captain, abandoned the vessel finally when the vessel listed around 50 degrees to port, and were brought to shore by ICGS Sankalp.
• All necessary medical assistance was provided.
• The vessel is operated by P & F Marine Co., Ltd.

ICGS Sankalp:

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Tata Communications has partnerships with a consortium of cable operators, including SEA-ME-WE 4, C2C, SAFE, EAC, APCN-2, Americas 2, CANTAT 3, 121 and others. The Company has alliances with BT, C&W, France Telecom, T-System, Telecom Italia, AT&T, Verizon Business, Sprint, SingTel, NTT, Telstra, KDDI, Telecom Malaysia and many more. Presently, Tata Communications has total lit capacity of over 2 terabyte and is the world’s largest carrier of voice traffic.

Subsidiaries of Tata Communications include:

• Tyco: Acquired in 2005, the company was one of the largest owners of submarine cable bandwidth.
• Teleglobe: Acquired in 2006, this global wholesale provider helped Tata Communications become the owner of a Tier-1 IP network.
• Neotel: The second largest service provider in South Africa.

By year end, Tata Communications will be the first to have undersea cable network around the world in the form of a ring.

Here is a sketch from Tata Communications showing worldwide presence.

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India launched her first indigenous nuclear powered submarine Arihant on July 26. The submarine designed and constructed in India as Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project since 1970’s has become a reality. ‘Arihant’ means ‘Destroyer of Enemies’.
Some interesting features of indigenous nuclear powered submarine Arihant are:

• was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Ship Building Center, Vishakapatnam naval dockyard.
• is among the five in the class approved by the government for construction.
• the other countries having capabilities to operate nuclear powered submarines are: U.S, Russia, U.K, France and China.
• is jointly developed by Indian Navy, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Russian assistance.
• the nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN)
  • is about 110 metres long, 6000 tons, 22 knots speed, 11 metre-wide with complement of around 23 officers and 72 men
  • the 80 MW mini-nuclear reactor to power the submarine has been installed
  • the K-15 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) for the submarine was tested successfully from an under sea platform on February 26, 2008
  • can launch 12 SLBMs, even under ice-cap
  • the necessary crew training to operate the submarine, is planned through Russian Akula II submarine expected to join Indian Navy on lease by year end
• the ATV project started making significant progress only after the land-based reactor became fully operational in December 2004 at Kalpakkam, near Chennai.

Arihant is expected to be available for deployment to the Indian Navy after harbour trials and sea trials by 2011.

Here is a photograph from Press Information Bureau.

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U.S. Navy Seal, Cmdr Christopher Cassidy is presently in space shuttle Endeavour as mission specialist on STS-127 mission since July 15. He is NASA’s 500^th astronaut.

View a photograph from NASA:
Astronaut Christopher Cassidy, pictured during the Endeavour crew’s third space walk, works near the Japanese Exposed Facility (JEF). Astronaut Dave Wolf, Cassidy’s colleague for the spacewalk, is out of frame.
Image Credit: NASA

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India with a vast coastline of about 7500 kilo metres, has to protect the beaches to ensure safe environment. The citizens also have the responsibility to protect the beaches along with the government.

Some important contributions required from the citizens:

• Do not pollute the beaches by throwing wastes like plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts, paper …… endless to list.
• Discourage/advise fellow citizens when you see them polluting the beaches.

Some of the actions required from the government:

• Stop unauthorised structures closer to the beach.
• Carryout regular maintenance of beaches.
• Carryout regular patrols on the beaches to stop pollution, any unlawful activity.

Here are some interesting video clips from NDTV, on Indian Beaches:

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It is amazing to know that a multi specialty hospital called ‘The Turtle Hospital’ is available to treat sea turtles. This hospital on July 04, released a loggerhead sea turtle named after President Barack Obama in the Atlantic Ocean off Key West after treatment.

Some interesting features of the Turtle Hospital are:

• was opened in 1986 as a charitable corporation.
• located at Marathon, Florida in the heart of the Florida Keys.
• aims to
  • treat injured sea turtles and release them to the wild after treatment
  • impart knowledge about sea turtles through outreach programs to local schools
  • conduct and assist research to aid sea turtles in conjunction with state universities
  • work toward environmental legislation to make the beaches and water safe and clean for sea turtles
• provides Guided Educational Experiences to public everyday.
• has necessary infrastructure to treat sea turtles including the latest equipment to perform a variety of surgeries on different species and sizes of sea turtles.
• type of treatment given to turtles
  • flipper amputations caused by fishing line and trap rope entanglements
  • shell damage caused by boat collisions
  • intestinal impactions caused by ingestion of foreign materials such as plastic bags, balloons, and fishing line and/or hooks
  • removal of debilitating viral tumors that affect over 50% of the sea turtles in the Keys and around the world
• carries out research in coordination with University of Florida into the causes of fibropapilloma, the devastating viral tumors which affect sea turtles.
• achievement: has successfully treated and released over 750 Sea Turtles since its founding in 1986.

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Bermuda celebrates 400th Anniversary of Sea Venture wreckage as a celebration of Bermuda and her people. The wrecking of Sea Venture is believed to be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Some interesting features of Sea Venture and 400th anniversary of Bermuda are:

• In June 1609, Virginia Company’s Admiral, Sir George Somers sailed in ‘Sea Venture’ with a flotilla of ships from Plymouth (then London) to Virginia.
• On July 25, 1609 Sea Venture was caught in a storm (a fierce tempest) and the flotilla was disintegrated.
• After struggling in the storm for three days, the flagship Sea Venture, was wrecked off the reefs of Bermuda’s Discovery Bay, with no loss of life.
• On July 28, 1609 the survivors including Sir George Somers landed in Bermuda.
• Sir George Somers explored, mapped Bermuda and as a mark of respect, Bermuda’s official alternate name is Somers Islands.
• This year, the 400th anniversary started with ‘2009 Bermuda Day Half-Marathon Derby’ on January 01 and the celebrations were launched on January 03.

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Malaysia’s first submarine KD Tunku Abdul Rahman has left Toulon, France on July 09 to operate in Malaysian waters.
Some interesting features of submarine KD Tunku Abdul Rahman of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) are:

• The Scorpene, a diesel-electric propulsion submarine (SSK) built by French military shipyard DCNS at Cherbourg, in partnership with Spanish naval shipyard Navantia.
• Has 35 crew members and is commanded Commander Zulhelmy bin Ithnain (RMN).
• The submarine project to acquire two Scorpene submarines at a cost of 1.04 billion Euro (about RM3.4 million) was signed in 2002.
  • KD Tunku Abdul Rahman – named after the country’s first prime minister
  • KD Tun Abdul Razak – named after the country’s second prime minister
• The first submarine was launched on October 23, 2007 with a mixture of ‘Air Yassin‘ and water from the holy Zam-Zam well in Mecca instead of the customary breaking of champagne bottle.
• The sea trials including firings of Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes and missiles were completed in December 2008.
• The submarine was handed over to Malaysia on January 24 this year at the French naval base in Toulon, France.
• The submarine is expected to reach Malaysian waters by early September after transiting through Jeddah, Djibouti and Kochi (Cochin).
• The submarine is expected to be at Lumut and Port Klang for a few days and then reach Sepanggar Naval Base in Sabah.
• The Scorpene (image credit-DCNS)

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The Deep Siren Tactical Paging (DSTP) system being developed by Raytheon, allows a command station to communicate with a  submarine in real-time regardless of the submarine’s operating speed or depth.

Presently submarines have to come closer to the sea surface to communicate by using Electro Magnetic (EM) waves in ELF band (Extremely Low Frequency; 30 Hz – 300 Hz), in VLF band (Very low frequency; 3 kHz – 30 kHz), in HF band (High Frequency; 3 MHz – 30 MHz).

Some interesting features of DSTP are:

• Comprises of
  • a command station
  • one or more EM to acoustic gateway expendable buoys
  • an acoustic receive station on board the submarine
• The vital Deep Siren acoustic gateway buoy
  • can be launched
    • from a submarine through the trash disposal unit
    • from a maritime patrol aircraft through the sonobuoy launch tube
    • by a surface craft
  • has worldwide connectivity with the command station through a commercial satellite data link.
  • translates satellite communication messages into a reliable low data rate underwater acoustic signal that is received and decoded by the acoustic receiving station onboard the submarine.
• Communication range is in excess of 150 nautical miles from the buoy.
• November 2007: Raytheon was awarded a U.S. Navy contract valued at $5.2 million for development of DSTP system.
• August 2008: U.S Navy successfully completed a series of tests of DSTP system at the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) deep water range in the Bahamas.
• Further evaluation by the Royal Navy was conducted this year during TAURUS 09 deployment.
• Raytheon leads the team by providing Mission Systems Integration along with partners
  • RRK Technologies, Ltd (U.K) for Deep Siren long range acoustic transmit and receive algorithms
  • Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems (Canada) for building the expendable buoy and launch vehicle
• Raytheon is further working on airborne certification of Deep Siren, which will allow the system’s buoys to be deployed by aircraft.

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Whale watching is a tourist attraction at Mirissa Beach of south Sri Lanka. As terrorism is wiped out successfully in Sri Lanka, tourism is picking up.

Mirissa

• is located in between the towns of Welligama and Matara.
• is about 35 km south of the port city of Galle.
• is about 150 km south-east of Colombo.
• is also closer to Hambantota, a port being developed with massive Chinese assistance.

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Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband 150 (FB 150) took only 15 minutes to install in tug Miclyn Enterprise on July 10. The installation was done by Thrane & Thrane’s Certified Partner, Jason Electronics, at the Jalan Brigjen Katamso shipyard in Batam, Indonesia. Miclyn Enterprise is the first vessel to switch on to high-speed connectivity using Inmarsat’s new FleetBroadband 150 service. The first email from the vessel was sent and telephone call made within an hour of installation.

FB 150 is highly suitable for smaller vessels that handle lesser data rate. Inmarsat has already FB 250 and FB 500 for larger merchant ships to handle higher data rate.

Some interesting features of new entry-level FB 150 are:

• Combination of a high-quality telephone connection with simultaneous IP data at up to 150 kbps and SMS texting.
• Affordable and reliable global communications system using the advanced Inmarsat-4 satellites, with assured service up to 2020s.
• Provides better connectivity with improved efficiency by ensuring smooth, uninterrupted operations at sea.
• Ideal for small to medium-sized merchant vessels, leisure crafts, fishing vessels, government vessels requiring single-user internet access and email.
• Now even smaller vessels can easily be in touch with their shore units, access real time data like weather reports, weather updates and charts.
• Compact and can be easily installed by one experienced person in installing marine equipment without any heavy machinery or tools.
• Sailor 150 FleetBroadband: Above Deck Unit weighs 3.9 kg; Below Deck Unit weighs 2.0 kg

Here is the sketch of Sailor 150 FleetBroadband.

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Exercise Transglobe, by three yachts manned by Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force of U.K commenced on July 11.

Some interesting features of Exercise Transglobe are:

• A major Tri-Service adventurous training expedition, participated by members of all three Armed Forces personnel (regular and reserve) of U.K.
• Duration: from July 2009 to July 2010.
• The Yachts: All the three Services are provided with one Yacht Challenge 67 each, for the duration of the Exercise.
  • Yachts are owned by the MOD, U.K.
  • Operated by Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) at Gosport, Hampshire.
  • Steel-hulled yacht.
  • 67 ft in length from bow to stern.
  • Built by Devonport Management Ltd.
  • The Royal Navy yacht is: Her Majesty’s Sail Training Vessel (HMSTV) Adventure
  • Army yacht is: HMSTV Challenger
  • Royal Air Force yacht is: HMSTV Discoverer
• Crew:
  • Each yacht has a crew of 14 from the respective Service with a mix of abilities and gender.
  • Crews will be changed at each destination.
  • Over 500 sailors, soldiers and airmen will participate.
• Selected crews will represent their respective Service in both the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the 2010 Antigua Race Week.
• Route: to be completed in 13 legs.

Here is the route in Google Maps

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