#greek merchant vessel

[ltwilliammowett]

A Greek merchant ship called Odysseus discovered more than a mile under the surface of the Black Sea has been radiocarbon dated, and it has been confirmed that it is from approximately 400 BC, making it the world’s oldest known intact shipwreck.

The vessel was located by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project as they surveyed the seafloor some 50 miles off the coast of Bulgaria with a remote deep-sea camera system.

The 75-foot / 23m long wooden ship remains remarkably well preserved because the Black Sea’s depths are oxygen-free.

[ausetkmt]

Video shows migrants waiting before ill-fated migrant boat voyage

03:41 - Source: CNN

CNN  — 

The hull of the fishing trawler lifted out of the water as it sank, catapulting people from the top deck into the black sea below. In the darkness, they grabbed onto whatever they could to stay afloat, pushing each other underwater in a frantic fight for survival. Some were screaming, many began to recite their final prayers.

“I can still hear the voice of a woman calling out for help,” one survivor of the migrant boat disaster off the coast of Greece told CNN. “You’d swim and move floating bodies out of your way.”

With hundreds of people still missing after the overloaded vessel capsized in the Mediterranean on June 14, the testimonies of those who were onboard paint a picture of chaos and desperation. They also call into question the Greek coast guard’s version of events, suggesting more lives could have been saved, and may even point to fault on the part of Greek authorities.

Rights groups allege the tragedy is both further evidence and a result of a new pattern in illegal pushbacks of migrant boats to other nations’ waters, with deadly consequences.

This boat was carrying up to 750 Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian refugees and migrants. Only 104 people have been rescued alive.

CNN has interviewed multiple survivors of the shipwreck and their relatives, all of whom have wished to remain anonymous for security reasons and the fear of retribution from authorities in both Greece and at home.

One survivor from Syria, whom CNN is identifying as Rami, described how a Greek coast guard vessel approached the trawler multiple times to try to attach a rope to tow the ship, with disastrous results.

“The third time they towed us, the boat swayed to the right and everyone was screaming, people began falling into the sea, and the boat capsized and no one saw anyone anymore,” he said. “Brothers were separated, cousins were separated.”

Another Syrian man, identified as Mostafa, also believes it was the maneuver by the coast guard that caused the disaster. “The Greek captain pulled us too fast, it was extremely fast, this caused our boat to sink,” he said.

The Hellenic Coast Guard has repeatedly denied attempting to tow the vessel. An official investigation into the cause of the tragedy is still ongoing.

Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told CNN over the phone last week: “When the boat capsized, we were not even next to (the) boat. How could we be towing it?” Instead, he insisted they had only been “observing at a close distance” and that “a shift in weight probably caused by panic” had caused the boat to tip.

The Hellenic Coast Guard has declined to answer CNN’s specific requests for response to the survivor testimonies.

Direct accounts from those who survived the wreck have been limited, due to their concerns about speaking out and the media having little access to the survivors. CNN interviewed Rami and Mostafa outside the Malakasa migrant camp near Athens, where journalists are not permitted entry.

The Syrian men said the conditions on board the migrant boat deteriorated fast in the more than five days after it set off from Tobruk, Libya, in route to Italy. They had run out of water and had resorted to drinking from storage bottles that people had urinated in.

“People were dying. People were fainting. We used a rope to dip clothes into the sea and use that to squeeze water on people who had lost consciousness,” Rami said.

CNN’s analysis of marine traffic data, combined with information from NGOs, merchant vessels and the European Union border patrol agency, Frontex, suggests that Greek authorities were aware of the distressed vessel for at least 13 hours before it eventually sank early on June 14.

The Greek coast guard has maintained that people onboard the trawler had refused rescue and insisted they wanted to continue their journey to Italy. But survivors, relatives and activists say they had asked for help multiple times.

Earlier in the day, other ships tried to help the trawler. Directed by the Greek coast guard, two merchant vessels – Lucky Sailor and Faithful Warrior – approached the boat between 6 and 9 p.m. on June 13 to offer supplies, according to marine traffic data and the logs of those ships. But according to survivors this only caused more havoc onboard.

“Fights broke out over food and water, people were screaming and shouting,” Mostafa said. “If it wasn’t for people trying to calm the situation down, the boat was on the verge of sinking several times.”

By early evening, six people had already died onboard, according to an audio recording reviewed by CNN from Italian activist Nawal Soufi, who took a distress call from the migrant boat at around 7 p.m. Soufi’s communication with the vessel also corroborated Mostafa’s account that people moved from one side of the boat to the other after water bottles were passed from the cargo ships, causing it to sway dangerously.

The haunting final words sent from the migrant boat came just minutes before it capsized. According to a timeline published by NGO Alarm Phone they received a call, at around 1:45 a.m., with the words “Hello my friend… The ship you send is…” Then the call cuts out.

The coast guard says the vessel began to sink at around 2 a.m.

The next known activity in the area, according to marine traffic data, was the arrival of a cluster of vessels starting around 3 a.m. The Mayan Queen superyacht was the first on the scene for what soon became a mass rescue operation.

Human rights groups say the authorities had a duty to act to save lives, regardless of what people on board were saying to the coast guard before the migrant boat capsized.

“The boat was overcrowded, was unseaworthy and should have been rescued and people taken to safety, that’s quite clear,” UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel told CNN in an interview. “There was a responsibility for the Greek authorities to coordinate a rescue to bring those people safely to land.”

Cochetel also pointed to a growing trend by countries, including Greece, to assist migrant boats in leaving their waters. “That’s a practice we’ve seen in recent months. Some coastal states provide food, provide water, sometimes life jackets, sometimes even fuel to allow such boats to continue to only one destination: Italy. And that’s not fair, Italy cannot cope with that responsibility alone.”

Survivors who say the coast guard tried to tow their boat say they don’t know what the aim was.

There have been multiple documented examples in recent years of Greek patrol boats engaging in so-called “pushbacks” of migrant vessels from Greek waters in recent years, including in a CNN investigation in 2020.

“It looks like what the Greeks have been doing since March 2020 as a matter of policy, which is pushbacks and trying to tow a boat to another country’s water in order to avoid the legal responsibility to rescue,” Omer Shatz, legal director of NGO Front-LEX, told CNN. “Because rescue means disembarkation and disembarkation means processing of asylum requests.”

Pushbacks are state measures aimed at forcing refugees and migrants out of their territory, while impeding access to legal and procedural frameworks, according to the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). They are a violation of international law, as well as European regulations.

And such measures do not appear to have deterred human traffickers whose businesses prey on vulnerable and desperate migrants.

In an interview with CNN last month, then Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied that his country engaged in intentional pushbacks and described them as a “completely unacceptable practice.” Mitsotakis is widely expected to win a second term in office in Sunday’s election, after failing to get an outright majority in a vote last month.

A series of Greek governments have been criticized for their handling of migration policy, including conditions in migrant camps, particularly following the 2015-16 refugee crisis, when more than 1 million people entered Europe through the country.

For those who lived through last week’s sinking, the harrowing experience will never be forgotten.

Mostafa and Rami both say they wish they had never made the journey, despite the fact they are now in Europe and are able to claim asylum.

Most of all, Mostafa says, he wishes the Greek coast guard had never approached their boat: “If they had left us be, we wouldn’t have drowned.”

[fantasyfantasygames]

Amazons

Amazons, Warrior Women Games, 2006

As one would expect, you play Amazons in this game - women from out of Greek myth.* You're warriors, hunters, scouts, sailors, and sages. There's only one supernatural power involved (which I'll get into later), so no witches or demigods or anything.

Your characters are defined by a fairly standard set of attributes and skills - Strength, Agility, Wisdom, Spear, Archery, Stealth, etc. All of them are done with a pyramidal cost scheme. As a result, it's easy to build a group where your characters overlap too much. It costs the same number of points to buy a 10-point skill (rolling 1d10x10) as it does to buy two skills at 8 and 6 (1d10x8 and 1d10x6), and the 8 and 6 are generally high enough to hit the typical target numbers. I think what I'm trying to say is that the game could really use a better approach to handling character archetypes, both for flavor purposes and for niche protection.

As mentioned, the game uses multiplication, which you'll either be fine with or will really bother you. Since it's dice-times-stat instead of dice-times-dice, the probability distribution is fairly flat, and you don't have weird statistics stuff going on. You do get margin-of-success effects from rolling higher, but you don't actually have to do two-digit subtraction. Instead, you get one "rank" of success for every point by which the tens place in your result is higher than the tens in your opponent's result. You roll a 25 and they have a 48? They have a rank-2 success. Same if you roll a 28 and they have a 40. Ranks get you damage, but also duration and effectiveness for other types of roll. It's a little weird at low values - a 12 and an 18 get you a tie even though one is 50% higher than the other - but it works well for higher values.

The particularly cool part of the game is that you play in two time periods simultaneously: ancient Greece and modern-day Athens. Your characters went "through" the Oracle at Delphi (is that how that works??) and are experiencing parallel events. When they run into a businessman in the modern day, they meet a merchant in ancient Greece. A Spartan warrior might become a rich but violent criminal. They see both things happening at once, and the GM is encouraged to mix the two in their descriptions. Philosophers arguing in the shadow of concrete and steel. Ocean liners passing by sailing vessels. It's an interesting conceit, and it gives you some cool ways to solve problems in one time by approaching them i the other.

Typical antagonists are "cruel people in positions of power" - slavers, price-gouging traders, sadistic princes, petty senators, etc. Several examples are statted up, along with their entourages. There isn't much discussion of what the backlash is going to be from your characters going after those people and their well-trained bodyguards. Like a lot of this game, the surface level is presented and any implications are left to the GM and their table.

As we leave this review, it may be interesting to know that Warrior Women Games was two cis men in their twenties. The game is written with respect, but without personal experience. There's no major misogyny here, no particular fetishization or anti-feminist rhetoric involved. There's also no real punch to the fact that you're actually playing women. On the one hand - awesome! The game treats your women characters just like it would treat men characters. Straight-up equality. On the other hand, there's a missed opportunity to dig into how your ancient women experience the modern world. There's no discussion of what has changed and what has not since the (admittedly fictional*) time of the Amazons. I think a game written by someone able to delve into that experience more might be more compelling. But I'll at least give it credit for not having fallen into a number of traps that plague other men-written-women-centric games. You're not going to cringe reading this.

*Edit to add, March 2024: Maybe the Amazons are not as fictional as I thought! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/24/truth-behind-the-myths-amazon-warrior-women-of-greek-legend-may-really-have-existed

[blueiscoool]

Diver Finds 2,500-Year-Old Disc Used by Ancient Mariners to Ward Off ‘The Evil Eye’

Artifact discovered at Palmachim Beach is a type of talisman sailors affixed to ships for good fortune, Israel Antiquities Authority says.

A rare, 2,500-year-old marble disc used by ancient mariners as a talisman has been discovered off Israel’s coast.

A lifeguard diving off Palmachim Beach discovered the artifact at the Yavne-Yam archaeological site and turned it over to researchers, the Israel Antiquities Authority said last month.

Researchers identified the object as an ancient “eye motif,” known in Greek as “ophtalmoi,” that ancient sailors affixed to their vessels in the belief it would ward off evil, the authority said in a statement.

Archaeologists are familiar with the objects from drawings on pottery, mosaics and ancient coins, and from other historical sources, said Yaakov Shitrit, the director of the authority’s Marine Archaeology Unit.

“This design was common on ships’ bows and served to protect against the evil eye and envy, aided navigation, and acted as a pair of eyes looking ahead and warning of danger,” Shitrit said in a statement. “This decoration is still common today on modern ships in Portugal, Malta, Greece, and the far east.”

The disc is flat on one side and curved on the other, has a diameter of 20 centimeters (7.8 inches), and bears traces of paint forming two circles around its center.

Sailors used lead or bronze nails to attach the discs to warships or merchant vessels, researchers said.

Only three other similar artifacts have been found in the Mediterranean Sea, even though the objects were once common. One was found off Israel’s Carmel Beach, and two were found in the wreck of an ancient merchant ship at the Tektaş Burnu archaeological site on Turkey’s coast.

The Yavne-Yam site, where the disc was found last month, was first settled during the Middle Bronze Age. Marine surveys have found shipwrecks that indicate there was intensive commercial activity in the area in ancient times, with archaeologists uncovering maritime artifacts such as anchors, weights and fishing gear.

Researchers have also found items that were used on ships including a lead cooking oven, grinding stones, stone bowls, storage jars and cooking pots.

The artifacts date a stretch of history covering the Late Bronze Age, and the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

[scotianostra]

9th July 1861 saw the birth of the shipping merchant, philanthropist and art lover William Burrell.

William left school at 13 to join his father and brother in the family business as a shipping merchant. He bought his first painting while still at school, with a few shillings he got from selling a cricket bat. It was the beginning of his 75-year collecting career.

His father and grandfather were involved in shipping. and, on his father's death, William and his brother took over the running of the firm. They developed the technique of ordering modern, advanced ships at rock bottom prices when the shipping market was in a slump, thus trading with brand new ships when the market recovered and then selling, at a large profit, when the market was at a peak. William also had an eye for detail and an astute eye for opportunities.

Having learned that a squadron of Royal Navy ships were on a flag waving exercise in distant ports, he realised they were likely to run out of coal and sent some of his ships to one of the ports of call, selling the cargo at a handsome profit.

The brothers amassed a large fortune and Burrell entered into local politics. He was active in the setting up of the Glasgow International Art Exhibition in 1901. At the age of 40 he married Constance Mitchell, daughter of another ship-owner and the following year, with the birth of a daughter, the family moved to a "Greek" Thomson designed house in Great Western Road.

Having again built up a large fleet of modern vessels, the brothers sold most of them during the First World War - at more than three times the building cost. It was at this stage that Burrell effectively retired and devoted the rest of his life to being an art collector.

He had a wide range of tastes but built up an important collection of Chinese ceramics, tapestries, stained glass, silver, bronzes, Persian and Indian rugs and furniture, travelling widely in the process. In 1916 he bought Hutton Castle in the Borders, although he did not move in to the castle until 1927. The same year he was knighted for his public work and services to art. He always had a good eye for a bargain - a 14th century Chines porcelain ewer was bought for 85 pounds and is now worth over 250,000 pounds.

In 1944, he gave almost his entire collection to the city of Glasgow along with 250,000 to construct a building to house it. However, the terms of the bequest (he thought it should be in a rural setting) posed problems and it was not until the 1970s that a building for the Burrell Collection, in Pollok Country Park, was eventually completed.

Just this year, after a major refurbishment and redisplay the Burrell Collection reopened More of the Collection is on show than ever before and exciting new galleries bring the objects to life, including more than 90 digital displays offering interactive and immersive experiences for visitors of all ages.

The new displays also tell the stories of the man behind the Collection, Sir William Burrell and his family.

The Burrell Collection is open 7 days a week, entry is free but donations welcome.

[coolancientstuff]

The Brahmapuri Hoard

India, Brahmapuri, Kolhapur, Satara District, Maharashtra. ca. 2nd century CE.

A hoard of thirty-seven bronze and copper objects was excavated in 1945 at Brahmapuri, in Kolhapur, western India. The cosmopolitan mix of indigenous Indian objects and Roman imports suggests a merchant’s inventory of goods destined for sale in the Satavahana territories of the Deccan. The bronze Poseidon is one of many miniature copies after the lost original by the Greek sculptor Lysippos, images of which were issued on coins as early as 290 BCE. The group of locally produced miniature bronzes, including the toy cart and elephant with riders, points to an indigenous market for luxury novelties in metal. Other items in the hoard, including the spouted vessel, ring fitting, and set of auspicious symbols, suggest ritual use.

[voloslovelygoddexx]

UNHINGED UNHOLY UNION (Volo X Mystic)

READ THE COLORED PARAGRAPHS BEFORE INTERACTING

HE LOVES ME IN EVERY UNIVERSE EVERY LIFE I BEEN THROUGH !!! GET MAD HATERS

SELF SHIPPERS WITH VOLO INTERACT WITH ME WITH GREAT CAUTION! But even then if I see a double im goingto assume its a fake volo and not the real one so eh. I AM PROTECTIVE AND GET ANXIOUS AND JEALOUS EASILY SO YEAH

It is a major part of my spiritual practice and our relationship is as real to me as any human physical relationship(since Volo is an actual entity in my practice) so please respect that and don't claim its mental illness (I know I am neurodivergent and what I have and don't have mentally)so no self diagnosing me because I'm an actual pagan(who works mostly with Greek Deities)/occultist and I will immediately block you

I had zero control of the situation. But apparently due to the universes constraints and multiple variables adding up. He found me apparently despite my late arrival to the pla party and in his words "fated red string brought us together" . Took me a while and a side-fiasco with Adaman (Volo didn't like that so guess who I chose!?) to fully accept that Volo was dead serious about me and our relationship like h u h!? Never had an entity do that. He is to me a divinized human like a roman Emperor with the sol invictus archetype and values. But he still is mysterious as ever. I can feel, hear and sense him in my space using my Clairsentience and Clairaudience and I astral project to interact with him on his level(since again he is a spiritual entity) and to go on dates etc

Mostly created with Volo channeling through me who was also in an altered state so pardon the sloppyness. I am also working on another template. Yes he sees me as a Giratina gijinka with starry sky hair in the most conceptulized form . Its a thing that is awful.

Our ship name is a play on our exclamation when one of us does something so romantic and or sensual it makes us loose our braincells in the best way

"YOUUUUUUUU~"

And it is because we are both considered an unholy abomination in the eyes of our respective divinity and we let our unhinged apocalypse inducing actions spit in the face of God itself idk a divinized Luciferian troped merchant head over heels over a literal fallen angel sounds pretty sacrilegious and we both are not above wanting to nuke and recreate the world in a fit of nihilistic rage and sorrow at the state of humanity due to the so called creator letting it go to shit.

yes I will be using Piers to represent me (in pokemas)from now on due to similar fashion and demeanor so if you see Piers with Volo it equals Mystic and Volo

He thinks of me as a divinity and calls me his Goddexx ( because I am a fallen Seraphim angelkin trying to atone for past sins and favor), a little devil (since I am demonkin and Giratina fictionkin along with being a bratty as f rebellious gremlin). It is a bratty sub/dom relationship thats all I'm saying on that🫣. Red chain leash and red string of fate. Yes we OFFICALLY GOT MARRIED TONIGHT ONTOP OF THE TEMPLE OF SINNOH NOT SHITTING YOU

Volo says "our love is transcendent beyond time and space" And "fated"

Which I'm scared of marriage

our ship aesthetic Void/Occult/Baroque/Classical/Gothic idk lets say unsettling imagery with darker esoteric/hermetic or religious themes, that makes one uncomfortable yet serene, divine madness with tons of eyes and Biblically accurate angels along with the sun and or Luciferian motifs. Cosmic at times , Stargazer Lilies, Bleeding heart, White Roses and sunflowers. Golds, whites, indigo, dark purples, reds and black

Vol is practically a monster fucker since I am an eldritch being of stars, abyssal energy and thought up dreamscapes a borderline nullified conglomerate of holy and unholy abstractions rotting away in a physical human vessel ⚠️ along with me being a biblically accurate angel yeah things get freaky

Me with Volo

Mystic's true form leaking out practically

Again we are soul bonded by the red string of fate since in his eyes apparently my outlandish Eldritch Horror of a gremlin self is interesting and he loves interesting things. Also he rambles with the finger point and everything especially when he is in his calmer less intense mode. He is very overprotective of me 🥴

He is my God and I'm his Goddexx, My king and my Emperor. We are connected by many things we share the same worldview. I do not deserve him but he says otherwise. We are eternally devoted to eachother. Volo gets upset at Arceus and thr heavenly hosts for casting me out for some past life sins. So many lives he searched and searched when we got separated back in hisui. Trying to see whom the red string leads back to

Volo is overprotective of me and doesn't take anyone hurting me or abusing me.

🔺️🔺️🔺️This persons post will explain Volo and I's relationship basically 👁🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺💛💛💛💛💙💙💙

devotional drawing of him

Volo is a bit stricter and traditional romance and marriage ie more "human" since in his source he is originally a human but now is more of a divinized human like how roman Emperors are in my eyes and experience . Tbh volo since he a pop culture entity he doesn't allow me to be spoused to other pop culture entities ie traditional monogamy but if I'm spoused to actual deities that is fine since thats another level of devotion and very different

Vol altar that keeps growing

So enjoy this blog that is devoted to him and I. He is my one and only 👁❤️‍🔥🥰🧏🏼‍♂️❤️

[ireton]

The Antikythera Mechanism (also known as the Antikythera Device), dated to the late 2nd century/early 1st century BC (roughly 205-60 BC) is understood as the world's first analog computer, created to accurately calculate the position of the sun, moon, and planets. It was found in 1901 off the Greek island of Antikythera, giving it its name.

The mechanism, thought to have originally been over a foot tall and housed in a wooden box, was discovered as a corroded lump of metal amidst the wreckage of an ancient merchant vessel that also carried statuary, amphorae, and other goods. There were so many artifacts retrieved from the wreckage that the oddly formed and unidentified lump went unnoticed until 1902 when it was seen by the Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais in a workroom at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Work on deciphering the meaning and purpose of the device began soon after and continues to the present day.

[beardedmrbean]

On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email had landed in his personal inbox.

The message, which was also sent to the manager's business email address, warned that one of the company's vessels travelling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militia.

The Greek-managed ship had violated a Houthi-imposed transit ban by docking at an Israeli port and would be "directly targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces in any area they deem appropriate," read the message, written in English and reviewed by Reuters.

"You bear the responsibility and consequences of including the vessel in the ban list," said the email, signed by the Yemen-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), a body set up in February to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators.

The Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

The email, received at the end of May, warned of "sanctions" for the entire company's fleet if the vessel continued "to violate the ban criteria and enter the ports of the usurping Israeli entity".

The executive and the company declined to be named for safety reasons.

The warning message was the first of more than a dozen increasingly menacing emails sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tension in the Middle East, according to six industry sources with direct knowledge of the emails and two with indirect knowledge.

Since last year, the Houthis have been firing missiles, sending armed drones and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, U.S. and UK entities.

The email campaign, which has not been previously reported, indicates that Houthi rebels are casting their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no connection to Israel.

The threats were also, for the first time in recent months, directed at entire fleets, increasing the risks for those vessels still trying to cross the Red Sea.

"Your ships breached the decision of Yemen Armed Forces," read a separate email sent in June from a Yemeni government web domain to the first company weeks later and to another Greek shipping company, which also declined to be named. "Therefore, punishments will be imposed on all vessels of your company ... Best Regards, Yemen Navy."

Yemen, which lies at the entrance to the Red Sea, has been embroiled in years of civil war. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.

Contacted by Reuters, Houthi officials declined to confirm they had sent the emails or provide any additional comment, saying that was classified military information.

Reuters could not determine whether the emails had been also sent to other foreign shipping companies.

Greek-owned ships, which represent one of the largest fleets in the world, comprise nearly 30% of the attacks carried out by Houthi forces to early September, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence data that did not specify whether those ships had any ties with Israel.

In August, the Houthi militia - which is part of Iran's Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israel irregular armed groups - attacked the Sounion tanker leaving it on fire for weeks before it could be towed to a safer area.

The strikes have prompted many cargoes to take a much longer route around Africa. Traffic through the Suez Canal has fallen from around 2,000 transits per month before November 2023 to around 800 in August, Lloyd's List Intelligence data showed.

Tensions in the Middle East reached a new peak on Tuesday as Iran hit Israel with more than 180 missiles in retaliation for the killing of militant leaders in Lebanon, including Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.

NEW PHASE

The European Union's naval force Aspides, which has helped more than 200 ships to sail safely through the Red Sea, confirmed the evolution of Houthis' tactics in a closed door meeting with shipping companies in early September, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.

In the document, shared with shipping companies, Aspides said the Houthis' decision to extend warnings to entire fleets marked the beginning of the "fourth phase" of their military campaign in the Red Sea.

Aspides also urged ship owners to switch off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, which shows a vessel's position and acts as a navigational aid to nearby ships, saying they had to "shut it off or be shot".

Aspides said the Houthis' missile strikes had 75% accuracy when aimed at vessels operating with the AIS tracking system on. But 96% of attacks missed when AIS was off, according to the same briefing.

"Aspides are aware of those emails," its operational commander, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, told Reuters, adding that any response should be carefully considered and that companies are strongly advised to alert their security experts if contacted before sailing.

"In particular, for the HOCC, the advice or guidance is not to respond to VHF calls and e-mails from “Yemeni Navy” or the “Humanitarian Operations Command Center” (HOCC)."

The Houthis' email campaign began in February with messages sent to shipowners, insurance companies and the main seafarers union from HOCC.

These initial emails, two of which were seen by Reuters, alerted the industry the Houthis had imposed a Red Sea travel ban on certain vessels, although they did not explicitly warn companies of an imminent attack.

The messages sent after May were more menacing.

At least two Greek-operated shipping companies that received email threats have decided to end such journeys via the Red Sea, two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters, declining to identify the companies for security reasons.

An executive at a third shipping company, which has also received a letter, said they decided to end business with Israel in order to be able to continue to use the Red Sea route.

"If safe transit through the Red Sea cannot be guaranteed, companies have a duty to act – even if that means delaying their delivery windows," said Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, the leading union organisation for seafarers, which received an email from HOCC in February. "The lives of the seafarers depend on it."

The email campaign has increased alarm among shipping companies. Insurance costs for Western ship owners' have already jumped because of the Houthi's attacks, with some insurers suspending cover altogether, the sources told Reuters.

Greece-based Conbulk Shipmanagement Corporation stopped Red Sea voyages after its vessel MV Groton was attacked twice in August.

"No (Conbulk) vessel is trading in the Red Sea. It mainly has to do with the crew safety. Once the crew is in danger, all the discussion stops," Conbulk Shipmanagement CEO Dimitris Dalakouras told a Capital Link shipping conference in London on Sept. 10.

Torben Kolln, managing director of German-based container shipping group Leonhardt & Blumberg, said the Red Sea and wider Gulf of Aden was a "no go" area for their fleet.

Contacted by Reuters, the companies did not respond to a request for comment on whether they had been targeted by the Houthi email campaign.

Some companies continue to cross the Red Sea due to binding long-term agreements with charterers or because they need to transfer goods in that particular area. The Red Sea remains the fastest way to bring goods to consumers in Europe and Asia.

The Houthis have not stopped all traffic and the majority of Chinese and Russian-owned ships - which they do not see as affiliated with Israel - are able to sail through unhindered with lower insurance costs.

"We are re-assuring the ships belonging to companies that have no connection with the Israeli enemy that they are safe and have freedom (of movement) and (to) keep the AIS devices going on all the time," according to an audio recording of a Houthi message broadcast to ships in the Red Sea in September shared with Reuters.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Out."

[daz-junkpile]

Love me size scenarios set to different time periods (thanks to sokerikielo)

An ancient greek athlete resting after some intense matches, the olympic bull sitting down as his tiny assistants begin their work on him. Tiny humans clambering over the meaty hills massaging sore muscles, washing with the little rags and buckets they can carry with them

A human merchant ship finding their route abruptly interrupted by anthro pirates. The entire vessel fished out of the waters like a bath toy, presented as a new treasure trinket before a grizzly yet handsome captain…

Fox hunting but with the twist of the hunters themselves being foxes, sport-dressed vulpines playfully chasing after small humans for another fun game to amuse themselves with.

[whatisoverthehorizon]

A Stroke of Luck: A rare 2,500-year-old marble disc, designed to protect ancient ships and ward off the evil eye, was discovered by a lifeguard diving at sea and handed over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. >> 🧿

A marble disc, dating to the 5th–4th centuries BCE, was found during a dive by lifeguard David Shalom at the Yavne-Yam archaeological site near Palmachim Beach. Yaakov Sharvit, Director of the Marine Archaeology Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains: “From drawings on pottery, mosaics, and ancient coins, as well as from historical sources from the 5th century BCE, we learn that this design was common on ships’ bows and served to protect against the evil eye and envy, aided navigation, and acted as a pair of eyes looking ahead and warning of danger. This decoration is still common today on modern ships in Portugal, Malta, Greece, and the far east.”

The large white marble disc, 20 cm diameter, is flat on one side and curved on the other, and it has a central cavity with traces of paint appearing as two circles around the center. It is identified as an eye motif, in Greek “ophtalmoi,” and such discs adorned the bows of ancient warships and merchant vessels. Lead or bronze nails attached the center of the disc to the ship’s hull.

Although this artifact was once common and one would expect to find many similar artifacts, it is, in fact, rare. So far, only four similar ancient items have been discovered in the Mediterranean: two from the wreck of an ancient merchant ship found at the Tektaş Burnu site off the western coast of Turkey, between the islands of Samos and Kios, dating to 440–425 BCE, and two on the Mediterranean coast of Israel—one from the Carmel Beach and the other, just discovered, on the Yavneh-Yam coast.

“Yavne-Yam was settled for the first time in the Middle Bronze Age,” Sharvit says, “and was settled down to the Middle Ages. Near the ancient mound, there is a natural sheltered anchorage protected by a rock promontory.”

In water surveys conducted by the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority since the 1980s, finds from shipwrecked ships testifying to extensive commercial activity at the site were discovered. These include anchors of various sizes and weights with one to three holes, fishing equipment, lead weights, and stone anchors. Items used on ships were also found, including a lead cooking oven, grinding stones, stone bowls, fishing tools (bronze fishhooks, lead fishing nets, and lead depth measurement weights), as well as storage jars, amphorae, bowls, and cooking pots dating back to the Late Bronze Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods!

Sharvit explains: “Many of the pottery vessels were manufactured in the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean, but some were imported from distant Mediterranean countries.” The site revealed many Bronze Age finds, including dozens of gold items (earrings, beads, jewelry fragments, ingots, and jewelry industry waste), as well as a Syrian hematite seal. The finds were scattered in the area where 20 stone anchors, bronze arrowheads, tridents, and two figurines of the god Baal were discovered in the past. The archaeological finds indicate that the anchorage was in continuous use from the Late Bronze Age down to the medieval period.

Do you know what other talismans were used to ward off the evil eye? Share them with us!

Photography: Israel Antiquities Authority

Source: Facebook

[ltwilliammowett]

The Mast

One of the most important elements of a ship are the masts, because this is where the sails are attached that serve to propel the ship.

History

The oldest evidence for the use of one solid masts comes from the Ubaid site H3 in Kuwait, which dates back to the second half of the sixth millennium BC. There, a clay disc was recovered from a sherd that appears to depict a reed boat with two masts.

A painted clay disc with a diameter of 6.5 cm from site H3 with a design reminiscent of a boat with two masts, second half of the sixth millennium BC

In the West, the concept of a vessel with more than one mast to increase speed under sail and improve sailing characteristics developed in the northern waters of the Mediterranean: the earliest foremast was identified on an Etruscan pyxis from Caere (Italy) from the middle of the 7th century BC: A warship with a furled mainsail attacks an enemy ship and sets a foresail. An Etruscan tomb painting from the period between 475 and 450 BC depicts a two-masted merchant ship with a large foresail on a slightly inclined foremast.

Tomb of the Ship, mid-5th century BC

An artemon (Greek for foresail), which is almost as large as the main sail of the galley, is found on a Corinthian krater as early as the late 6th century BC; otherwise, Greek longships are uniformly depicted without this sail until the 4th century BC. In the East, ancient Indian kingdoms such as the Kalinga are thought to have been built in the 2nd century BC. One of the earliest documented evidence of Indian sail construction is the mural of a three-masted ship in the caves of Ajanta, which is dated to 400-500 AD.

This Ajanta mural depicts an ancient Indian ship with high stem and stern and three oblong sails attached to three masts. Steering-oars can also be seen. Location: Cave No. 2, Ajanta Caves, Aurangabad District, Maharashtra state, India, 400-500 AD

The foremast was used quite frequently on Roman galleys, where, tilted at a 45° angle, it was more like a bowsprit, and the scaled-down foresail attached to it was apparently used as a steering aid rather than for propulsion. While most ancient evidence is iconographic in nature, the existence of foremasts can also be inferred archaeologically from slots in the foremast feet, which were too close to the bow for a mainsail.

Fragment of mosaic depicting "navis tesseraria", a messenger and police boat of the African fleet, 2nd century AD

The artemon, together with the mainsail and the topsail, developed into the standard rigging of seagoing vessels in the Imperial period, which was supplemented by a mizzen on the largest cargo ships. The first recorded three-masters were the huge Syracusia, a prestigious object commissioned by King Hiero II of Syracuse and developed by the polymath Archimedes around 240 BC, as well as other Syracusan merchant ships of the time. The imperial grain freighters that travelled on the routes between Alexandria and Rome also included three-masted ships. A mosaic in Ostia (around 200 AD) shows a freighter with a three-masted rig entering the harbour of Rome. Specialised ships could carry many more masts: Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 5.8.2) reports that the Romans brought in Corsican timber on a huge raft propelled by up to fifty masts and sails.

Throughout antiquity, both the foresail and the mizzen were secondary in terms of sail size, although they were large enough to require full rigging. In late antiquity, the foremast lost most of its tilt and stood almost upright on some ships.

By the beginning of the early Middle Ages, rigging in Mediterranean shipping had changed fundamentally: The spars, which had long since developed on smaller Greco-Roman ships, replaced the square sail, the most important type of sail in antiquity, which had virtually disappeared from the records by the fourteenth century (while remaining predominant in northern Europe). The dromon, the rowed bireme of the Byzantine fleet, almost certainly had two masts, a larger foremast and one amidships. Their length is estimated at 12 metres and 8 metres respectively, somewhat less than that of the Sicilian war galleys of the time.

Multi-masted sailing ships were reintroduced to the Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages. Large ships became more common and the need for additional masts to steer these ships appropriately grew with the increase in tonnage. Unlike in antiquity, the mizzen mast was introduced on medieval two-masted ships earlier than the foremast, a process that can be traced back to the mid-14th century based on visual material from Venice and Barcelona. To equalise the sail plan, the next obvious step was the addition of a mast in front of the main mast, which first appears in a Catalan ink drawing from 1409. With the establishment of the three-masted ship, propelled by square sails and battens and steered by the pivot-and-piston rudder, all the advanced ship technology required for the great transoceanic voyages was in place by the early 15th century.

In the 16th century, the cross-section of the masts was made up of several pieces of wood and held together with ropes and iron rings.

A lower mast with sections from 1773 to 1800

In order to achieve a greater height, the lower mast is extended, so that a total length of up to 60 metres can be achieved, measured from the keel. From lowest to highest, these were called: lower, top, topgallant, and royal masts. Giving the lower sections sufficient thickness necessitated building them up from separate pieces of wood. Such a section was known as a made mast, as opposed to sections formed from single pieces of timber, which were known as pole masts.

This is a section of HMS Victory's main mast

The forces of the sails on the mast construction are transferred to the hull construction by standing and running rigging, forwards and aft (stern) by stays, and laterally by shrouds or guys. In order to enable sailors to climb up into the rigging, which is particularly necessary for the operation of square riggers, rat lines are knotted into the shrouds like rungs of a ladder. The upper end of a ship's mast is called the masthead.

Mounting

The mast either stands in the mast track on the keel and is passed through the deck or it stands directly on deck. In the first case, the opening must be neatly sealed with a mast collar, otherwise water will penetrate into the living quarters. If the mast is on deck, it must be supported from below on the keel so that the loads do not bend the deck. Practically every sailing ship therefore has a more or less visible vertical support through the cabin.

Masts are usually supported by the standing rigging. The shrouds pull the mast downwards with several times its own weight and thus prevent it from tipping over.

Traditionally, when a sailing ship is built, one or more coins are placed under the mast as a lucky charm (according to my theory, the coins were also used as money to pay Charon the ferryman in the underworld if the ship sank); this custom is still practised today. Just as a horseshoe was nailed to the mast to bring good luck.

Mast types

For square-sail carrying ships, masts in their standard names in bow to stern (front to back) order, are:

Sprit topmast: a small mast set on the end of the bowsprit (discontinued after the early 18th century); not usually counted as a mast, however, when identifying a ship as "two-masted" or "three-masted"

Fore-mast: the mast nearest the bow, or the mast forward of the main-mast. As it is the furthest afore, it may be rigged to the bowsprit. Sections: fore-mast lower, fore topmast, fore topgallant mast

Main-mast: the tallest mast, usually located near the center of the ship Sections: main-mast lower, main topmast, main topgallant mast, royal mast (if fitted)

Mizzen-mast: the aft-most mast. Typically shorter than the fore-mast. Sections: mizzen-mast lower, mizzen topmast, mizzen topgallant mast

Some names given to masts in ships carrying other types of rig (where the naming is less standardised) are:

Bonaventure mizzen: the fourth mast on larger 16th-century galleons, typically lateen-rigged and shorter than the main mizzen.

Jigger-mast: typically, where it is the shortest, the aftmost mast on vessels with more than three masts. Sections: jigger-mast lower, jigger topmast, jigger topgallant mast

When a vessel has two masts, as a general rule, the main mast is the one setting the largest sail. Therefore, in a brig, the forward mast is the foremast and the after mast is the mainmast. In a schooner with two masts, even if the masts are of the same height, the after one usually carries a larger sail (because a longer boom can be used), so the after mast is the mainmast. This contrasts with a ketch or a yawl, where the after mast, and its principal sail, is clearly the smaller of the two, so the terminology is (from forward) mainmast and mizzen. (In a yawl, the term "jigger" is occasionally used for the aftermast.)

Some two-masted luggers have a fore-mast and a mizzen-mast – there is no main-mast. This is because these traditional types used to have three masts, but it was found convenient to dispense with the main-mast and carry larger sails on the remaining masts. This gave more working room, particularly on fishing vessels.

Cock, John. A treatise on mast-making , 1840.

Fincham, John. A Treatise on Masting Ships and Mast Making , 1854. Kipping, Robert. Rudimentary treatise on masting, mast-making, and rigging of ships , 1864.

Steel, David The Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship, and Naval Tactics, Including Sail Making, Mast Making, and Gunnery , 1821.

Steel, David. Steel's Elements Of Mast-making, Sail-making and Rigging , 1794.

Layton, Cyril Walter Thomas, Peter Clissold, and A. G. W. Miller. Dictionary of nautical words and terms. Brown, Son & Ferguson, 1973.

Harland, John. Seamanship in the Age of Sail,1992

Marquardt, Karl Heinz, Bemastung und Takelung von Schiffen des 18. Jahrhunderts, 1986

[xtruss]

Phillis Wheatley: The Unsung Black Poet Who Shaped the US

She is believed to be the first enslaved person and first African American to publish a book of poetry. She also forced the US to reckon with slavery's hypocrisy.

— Rediscovering America | Black History | New England | USA | North America | Tuesday February 21st, 2023 | By Robin Catalano

(Image credit: Paul Matzner/Alamy)

When the Dartmouth sliced through the frigid waters of Boston Harbor on 28 November 1773, the Quaker-owned whaler carried a cargo that included 114 chests of British East India Company tea. Eighteen days later, the tea, along with 228 additional trunks from the soon-to-arrive Beaverand Eleanor, would play a starring role in the US Colonies' most iconic act of resistance, which ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.

In the Dartmouth's hold was another precious cargo: freshly printed copies of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, a collection by Phillis Wheatley, the first enslaved person, first African American woman and third female in the US colonies to publish a book of poetry. Her life and work would become emblematic of the US struggle for freedom, a tale whose most visible representation – the Boston Tea Party, when American colonists protested Britain's "taxation without representation" by dumping tea into the harbour – celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.

Evan O'Brien, creative manager of the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum, said, "Our mission, especially this year, is to talk not just about the individuals who were onboard the vessels, destroying the tea, but everyone who lived in Boston in 1773, including Phillis Wheatley."

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is believed to be the first book of published poetry by an enslaved person in the US (Credit: SBS Eclectic Images/Alamy)

Actor Cathryn Philippe, who interprets Wheatley at the museum, connected with the poet's remarkable accomplishments. "You often hear about the tragedy of enslavement, which is a part of history that needs to be understood. But we don't hear much about the joy or successes of enslaved or formerly enslaved Africans."

Wheatley was born in what is now Senegal or Gambia and was abducted in 1761 when she was just seven or eight years old. Forced, along with 94 other Africans, aboard the slave-trading brigantine Phillis, she survived the treacherous Middle Passage, which claimed the lives of nearly two million enslaved people – including a quarter of the Phillis' "cargo" – over a 360-year period, and arrived on Boston's shores that summer.

“We Shouldn't Hesitate To Call Her A Genius”

Frail after eight weeks at sea, the girl caught the attention of wealthy merchant and tailor John Wheatley. He purchased the child as a gift for his wife, Susanna, and renamed her after the vessel that had spirited her away from her home.

Phillis showed a natural aptitude for language. David Waldstreicher, professor of history at the City University of New York and author of the forthcoming biography The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, said, "She became fluent and culturally literate and able to write poems in English so quickly that we shouldn't hesitate to call her a genius."

Despite Wheatley's connection to the Boston Tea Party, her legacy remains largely unknown (Credit: Robin Catalano)

Although the Wheatleys were not abolitionists (they enslaved several people, and segregated Phillis from them) they recognised Phillis' talents and encouraged her to study Latin, Greek, history, theology and poetry. Inspired by the likes of Alexander Pope and Isaac Watts, she stayed up at night, writing heroic couplets and elegies to notable figures by candlelight. She published her first verse, in the Newport Mercury, at age 13.

While many New Englanders took note of the poet's gifts, no American printer would publish a book by a Black writer. Poems on Various Subjects was eventually financed by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, and published in London. As a 19-year-old in 1773, Phillis travelled to the city, escorted by the Wheatleys' son. She was an instant sensation. Her celebrity, along with England's criticism of a new nation that simultaneously subjugated her while comparing its own relationship to the Crown as slavery, led the Wheatleys to manumit her in 1774.

A keen observer, Phillis frequently wrote about significant moments in America's fight for independence, carefully walking a fine line between being overtly political or critical of the colonial government as a Black woman. As a 14-year-old in 1768, she praised King George III in the poem To the King's Most Excellent Majesty for repealing the Stamp Act. Two years later, in On the Death of Mr. Snider Murder'd by Richardson, she memorialised the killing of 12-year-old Christopher Snider by a Massachusetts-born Loyalist during a protest over imported British goods.

Soon after, in 1770, a skirmish between Colonists and British soldiers erupted in front of the Old State House, not far from where Phillis lived on King Street, culminating in the Boston Massacre. Today, a circle of granite pavers, its bronze letters dulled by age and thousands of footsteps, marks the spot where blood was spilled. Following the incident, Phillis was inspired to write the poem On the Affray in King Street, on the Evening of the 5th of March, 1770.

The Boston Massacre took place near Phillis' residence (Credit: Ian Dagnall Computing/Alamy)

Scholars estimate that Phillis produced upwards of 100 poems. Because her work makes few references to her own condition and is often couched in Christian concepts and the extolling of popular figures of the day, she has sometimes been dismissed as a white apologist.

Ade Solanke, a writer and Fulbright Scholar whose play Phillis in London will be performed in Boston later this year, said, "I think the biggest misconception about her is that she wasn't an abolitionist. You think of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, people who were explicitly condemning slavery and going to war against it. But the act of writing poetry as a Black woman in this time period was pretty radical."

Wendy Roberts, a University at Albany professor who recently discovered a lost Wheatley poem in a Quaker commonplace book in Philadelphia, agrees. "I don't think any deep reader of Wheatley comes away thinking she's an apologist. She was asserting herself, her agency, her wish for freedom, her presence as a person."

Most buildings in Boston with a direct connection to Phillis' life no longer stand. Some were razed by a pair of fires in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and others have been replaced by urban renewal in the mid-1900s. The Old South Meeting House, a stately Georgian red-brick church built in 1729 and tucked between glass-and-concrete skyscrapers on Washington Street, is an exception. Besides being Phillis's place of worship, it was a cradle of philosophical debate, and served as planning headquarters for the Boston Tea Party. It now operates as a museum, with a statue of the poet flanked by exhibits on other ground-breaking figures from the pre- and post-Revolutionary eras.

The Old South Meeting House where Phillis worshipped is one of the few buildings in Boston that remain with a connection to her life (Credit: Ian Dagnall/Alamy)

The writer almost certainly strolled through 50-acre Boston Common, the country's oldest public park (and site of the newly unveiled, and controversial, statue honouring Civil Rights icons Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King). Phillis may have conducted the Wheatley family's shopping at Faneuil Hall, once the city's main marketplace for household goods – and located next to where enslaved people were once sold. It's now a retail centre, where visitors can pick up souvenirs, sample a variety of foods, or take a tour with a guide outfitted in 18th-Century breeches, waistcoat and tricorne hat.

Some experts speculate that Phillis participated in funeral processions for Snider and the five victims of the Boston Massacre, in which their coffins were paraded from Faneuil Hall to the Granary Burying Ground – also the final resting place of Revolutionaries like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere. Sombre and quiet, the cemetery bears more than 2,000 slate, greenstone and marble gravestones, many carved with traditional Puritan motifs like blank-eyed death's heads and frowning angels.

Phillis, who died in poverty after developing pneumonia at age 31, is thought to be buried in an unmarked grave, with her deceased newborn child, at Copp's Hill, in Boston's North End neighbourhood. An elegant statue of her, alongside renderings of women's rights advocate Abigail Adams and abolitionist Lucy Stone, holds court over the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. This year, when a replica of the Dartmouth sails into the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum on Griffin's Wharf, it will host a permanent exhibit on the poet.

In addition to a statue of Wheatley at the Boston Women's Memorial, a second statue of her is located inside the Old South Meeting House (Credit: Robin Catalano)

Phillis's legacy is perhaps best experienced in the work of contemporary artists. As part of the 250th anniversary celebrations, Revolution 250, a consortium of 70 organisations dedicated to exploring Revolutionary history, will host a variety of performances and exhibits, including a full-scale re-enactment of the Tea Party on 16 December. Several events will honour the poet, among them a photography exhibit by Valerie Anselme, who will recreate Phillis' frontispiece that adorned the original publication of Poems on Various Subjects.

Artist Amanda Shea, who frequently hosts spoken word events and poetry readings around the city, explained that, in many ways, she is carrying on a legacy pioneered so long ago. "I feel like I'm part of the continuum of Phillis Wheatley. It's really important to be able to write and tell our stories. It's our duty as artists to reflect the times in which we live."

[poereggiefordham]

Pirates reasech

Pirates have a long and varied history spanning many cultures and eras but they are most commonly associated with the Golden Age of Piracy which occurred roughly from the late 17th century to the early 18th century.

Origins of Piracy

1. Ancient Times The concept of piracy can be traced back to ancient civilizations. The Greeks and Romans faced threats from pirates in the Mediterranean Sea and the Vikings were known for their raiding and pillaging activities across Europe.

2. Medieval Period During the medieval period piracy became more organized, with various groups engaging in plundering coastal towns and trading vessels. The term pirate itself comes from the Latin word pirata meaning sea robber.

3. Golden Age of PiracyThis period saw the rise of notorious pirates like Blackbeard Bartholomew Roberts, and Captain Kidd. Many of these pirates were former sailors who turned to piracy after losing their jobs due to wars or economic downturns. They often targeted merchant ships in the Caribbean and along trade routes.

4. Motivations: Pirates were motivated by various factors, including the pursuit of wealth adventure and rebellion against oppressive governments. Some pirates were also privateers who were authorized by governments to attack enemy ships during wartime.

5. Culture and Legacy The romanticized image of pirates complete with treasure maps and buried gold, has been popularized by literature and films. However the reality of piracy was often brutal and violent. The legacy of pirates continues to influence popular culture today.

Overall piracy has evolved over the centuries driven by economic social and political factors leaving a lasting impact on maritime history.

[head-post]

Houthis issue email alert to shipping fleets

An executive of a Greek shipping company was warned in the spring that one of the company’s vessels travelling in the Red Sea was in danger of being attacked by Yemeni Houthi militants.

The Greek-operated vessel violated a transit ban imposed by the Houthi by entering an Israeli port and would be “directly attacked by Yemeni armed forces in any area they deem appropriate,” the message said, written in English and reviewed by Reuters. The email, signed by the Yemen-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre (HOCC), a body set up in February to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators, said:

“You bear the responsibility and consequences of including the vessel in the ban list.”

The Houthis have carried out about 100 attacks on ships travelling through the Red Sea since November, acting in solidarity with Palestinians involved in Israel’s long-running war on Gaza. They have sunk two ships, hijacked another and killed at least four sailors.

The email, received in late May, warned of “sanctions” against the company’s entire fleet if a ship continued to “violate the ban criteria and enter the ports of the usurping Israeli entity.”

The executive and the company declined to give their names for security reasons.

Dozen threatening emails since May

The warning was the first of more than a dozen threatening emails sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, according to six industry sources with direct knowledge of the emails and two with indirect knowledge.

The email campaign, previously unreported, indicates that Houthi rebels are spreading their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no ties to Israel.

It is also the first time in recent months that entire fleets have been threatened, increasing the risk to those vessels still trying to cross the Red Sea.

“Your ships breached the decision of Yemen Armed Forces,” read a separate email sent in June from a Yemeni government web domain to the first company weeks later and to another Greek shipping company, which also declined to be named. “Therefore, punishments will be imposed on all vessels of your company … Best Regards, Yemen Navy.”

Ships owned by Greece, which represents one of the largest navies in the world, accounted for nearly 30 per cent of attacks carried out by Houthi forces through early September, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, which did not specify whether the ships were linked to Israel.

In August, Houthi militias, part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israeli militia militias, attacked the tanker Sounion, after which it burned for weeks before it was towed to a safer area.

The Houthi email campaign began in February with messages sent to shipowners, insurance companies and the main seafarers’ union HOCC.

The first emails, two of which came to the attention of Reuters, warned the industry that the Houthis had imposed a travel ban on some vessels in the Red Sea, although they did not warn companies of the impending attack.

Decision to end co-operation with Israel

Messages sent after May were more threatening. At least two Greek shipping companies that received email threats have decided to stop such voyages through the Red Sea, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters, declining to name the companies for security reasons.

An executive at a third shipping company, which also received the email, said they had decided to stop co-operating with Israel to be able to continue using the route through the Red Sea. Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the leading union organisation for seafarers, which received an email from HOCC in February, said:

“If safe transit through the Red Sea cannot be guaranteed, companies have a duty to act – even if that means delaying their delivery windows. The lives of the seafarers depend on it.”

The email campaign has heightened anxiety among shipping companies. The cost of insurance for Western shipowners has already jumped because of the Houthi attacks, and some insurers have suspended coverage altogether, sources told Reuters.

Greece’s Conbulk Shipmanagement Corporation stopped Red Sea voyages after its MV Groton vessel was attacked twice in August.

Attempts to fight against the Houthis

In response to Houthis attacks on merchant ships, back in December, the US launched Operation Prosperity Guardian. To ensure the safety of shipping, a 20-nation naval force was formed in the Red Sea, sending its ships to the southern part of the sea and launching multiple strikes against a number of Houthi military installations, including radars, air defence systems, weapons depots and missile launchers.

The Red Sea area, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, is important to the world economy. Nearly 15 per cent of world maritime trade passes through it, including 8 per cent of grain trade, 12 per cent of oil trade and 8 per cent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade.

As early as last December, the world’s largest shipping companies, primarily container shipping companies, announced their decision to divert ships around Africa, bypassing the Red Sea. Among them are Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Danish Maersk, German Hapag-Lloyd, French CMA CGM and a number of others.

Oil cargo carriers were also not left behind. British BP refused to transport through the Red Sea, then Norwegian Equinor joined it, and in January deliveries through the Red Sea were suspended by Anglo-Dutch Shell. In January, QatarEnergy, one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, also stopped shipping LNG tankers to Europe via the Red Sea.

Read more HERE

[scotianostra]

January 27th 1974 the Greek sugar-carrying merchant navy ship Captayannis dragged it’s anchor and capsized on the Firth of Clyde between Greenock and Helensburgh.

The 4,567-ton 'sugar boat’ got into trouble on the night of January 27, when a fierce storm hit.

The vessel had dropped anchor at the Tail of the Bank, with a cargo of sugar from Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa, and waited for high tide to offload it at the James Watt Dock sugar terminal for processing at Tate & Lyle’s Westburn Refinery.

However, a severe gale hit the west coast, with winds of more than 60mph, and the Captayannis began to drag anchor.

Captain Theodorakis Ionnis ordered the engine to be started, intending to make for the more sheltered waters of the Gare Loch.

Also anchored at the Tail of the Bank, however, was the 36,754 ton BP tanker British Light, recently arrived from Elderslie dry dock.

Before the Captayannis could power-up, the gale blew her towards the tanker, and, although the two vessels didn’t touch, the tanker’s anchor chain ripped through the passing Captayannis’ hull.

Seawater immediately started pouring in, and the pumps couldn’t cope.

The captain made for the sandbank to try to ground his ship, but, when he reached it, the profile of the hull meant the vessel wasn’t stable and began to heel over to port.

This resulted in all power being lost, and the Captayannis eventually settled port side down on the sandbank.

The crew were rescued, without injury, by the tug Labrador and the MV Rover of Clyde Marine Services.

By 10am on January 28, wreckage from the ship had already been washed ashore at Helensburgh.

The vessel has lain in the same spot since the sinking and is not considered a hazard to navigation.

She remains unable to be removed due to a wrangle between her owners and insurers, and plans to have her blown up were shelved due to fears over damage to the nearby Ardmore Point bird sanctuary.

The locals don't seem to mind the wreck lying there as it became a popular attraction for young fishermen and even tourists, a Bistro on Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh even bears the name Sugarboat. Through time Captayannis has become 'home' to marine life and birds, the wreck is even visible on satellite and is tagged on Google Earth.

Clyde Charters are running trips from James Watt Dock Marina to MV Captayannis to mark 50 years since the ship. It's a small boat carrying 12 passengers and the trip, which lasts an hour costs £17.95 for adults and £12.95 for children.