Sea Shepherds sank Ady Gil

Does this guy think he's in the military. Nobody forces a captain to scuttle a ship. The captain is responsible. The End. Not to say I'd put it past Watson, but any captain who would do it without getting that order in writing doesn't have the sense god gave a billy goat. I would assume he at least cleared it through his own attorney first. Oh yeah right, even a 1st year law student would have told him to get it in writing. It's either sour grapes or utter stupidity on Mr. Bethune's part. As for Mr. Watson, guess it's time for a bigger boat.

The descriptions of the events following the incident did make it sound like they just left it to sink and drove off so this kind of fits.

Batman Boat ?

For some reason I had to look similar pics... the boat was ridicously horrible with those wings and in black OMG, sorry my sincerity... Is not a Insurance fight in some way now? when a plane crashs, most of time the guilty is the captain. If the owner was not driving by himself, then the captain was with the hands on wheel, isn't it?

Having watched the episode showing the collision and the towing attempt, it does not appear that any effort was made to control flooding.

The other side of the coin is that if they thought it was more important to the cause to remain in contact with the Japanese fleet than to salvage the boat by towing it to NZ then that was their decision to make.

From what I have seen of Bethune's behavior, vis a vis seamanship and judgement with regard to safety and leadership, I am not surprised he claims he was "ordered" to abandon his command.

The episode that leads me to that comment is one that shows him setting the ship on fire by playing with an oxygen lance in the bosun's locker. He thought it was amusing when someone from the deck department showed up in response to the fire alarm and was upset to find him and his mate surrounded by burning metal and loose material in the compartment.

Several of that crew are a few containers short of a full load.

Yeah if you watched the show you know that Watson will do anything for publicity. I do think they had to scuttle that vessel or be delayed in salvage operations.

Another argument can be made that the Ady Gil was damaged and in danger of sinking, Watson rescued its crew and had no further obligation or incentive (salvage award) to interrupt his voyage.

Watson performed all that was legally and morally required as the master of the rescue vessel and can not be faulted for not salving the Gil any more than the master of a containership for not towing a dismasted sailboat to land after removing its crew from danger.

Watson is a wacko. I don't care how much I like whales and dislike the actions of the whaling ships- Watson ought to captain only boats that fit in a bath tub.

Wacko, yes, but he knows his stuff about boats, whaling, fundraising and publicity. The southern ocean is a desolate place, but not when Sea Shepherd arrives. Like him or not, you wouldn't give whaling more that a fleeting thought where it not for his wackoness.

Would Sea Shepard have been able to finance the tow back and repairs of this Kevlar build boat?

Personally I wouldn't even want to be on board the same boat as Watson when it was docked in a port, let alone at sea.

Hi,

The tow back itself would not cost very much more in Fuel and stores than not towing it, the real cost to them would be the loss of all the free publicity provided by the 24hr News Streams the operators of which don't seem to always carefully research their stories if it fills the screen with "brainwashed public" interest stories.

There hasn't been much comment recently on who ran into who in the first place.

I wonder if the Sea Shepard boats are subject to Port State Inspections when they are in port re supplying between trips?

I have often thought that some of the carry on seen on TV is a good reason to believe that there are few if any actually properly licensed and certified Officers and crew amongst the people onboard. I am sure I am not the only one who has thought this.

These are not charter yachts nor cargo vessels. I'm sure they have no trouble getting the proper licenses on board. These people are very good at staying just on the right side of the law and the cameras.

Unless it has changed recently the Steve Irwin (IMO number : 7340370) is registered as a "fisheries support" vessel and as such may be manned by seafarers holding certificates endorsed for fishing vessels. Those tickets are not difficult to obtain as no fishing experience is required and the sea time requirements are minimal.

But I think you would find everything MUCH more regulated to operate out of NZ or Australian ports than the USA ones.

And with the bow(s) clipped off like they were it might have been a very slow and perilous journey to tow her back. What might one suggest, a tow from the stern...not likely.

And how far were they from port...quite a distance I believe.

I'm not surprised either...particularly after he spent 7 months in Japanese jail. I'm sure he rethought a few of his stories.

i watched a few of the series including this collision one, and I didn't detect any 'planned' collision.

Agreed

In what way? Port state control is based on a set of international standards.

As long as the vessel was manned in accordance with its certificates had no other deficiencies it would (and undoubtedly is) treated the same as any other foreign flag ship.

As far as towing a vessel by the stern, it is the "normal" technique when there is bow damage. There have been instances of ships steaming astern or being towed by the stern for hundreds or even thousands of miles after a collision that compromised the forward bulkheads.

K1W1 wrote:

Not that it really matters in the context, but your comment titillated my curiosity sufficiently to investigate further:

Someone else already posted this link to the BBC of a video of the collision filmed by a researcher on board the Japanese whaling vessel. In which it's pretty clear that the Ady Gil sustained the crippling damage to her bow because the much larger Japanese whaling vessel (anyone got a name for her?) ran into her, involuntarily or not - E= MC² etc.

A reminder of the IMO COLREGs might be useful at this stage. I quote from the UK's MSN 1781 (M+F) here:

1) Was the Andy Gil an "overtaking vessel"? In the video, it would appear that the Andy Gil might be considered an "overtaking vessel", looking substantially as being well abaft 22.5° of the Japanese vessel. When perhaps 3-5 minutes earlier, she might have been considered a "crossing vessel"...?

2) The Ady Gil was merely going about her "lawful business on the high seas" and should be considered as a "crossing vessel"...?

3) However, the Ady Gil should perhaps have been more observant of Rule 18 (iii) below - "a vessel engaged in fishing"? But wait, was the Japanese whaling vessel displaying the correct day-time signals for a fishing vessel at the time of the collision? And whales are mammals, not fish...?!

I remain astounded by the attitudes of my fellow men. Whether that has to do with merely preserving whatever little wildlife and their environments today or engendering a greater respect of wildlife on the planet, their rights and our own joint futures sharing this Earth. Whilst not entirely condoning everything that organisations such as Sea Shepherd do, at least a few people accomplish something, what millions of others like me (or you) sitting in and posting from the comfort of our armchairs in front of our PCs never do.

PS. What Sea Shepherd really needs is a modern Sea Shepherd with high performance engines and fuel capacity to allow her to easily catch up to all those Japanese whaling vessels. Or even a whole fleet of them. They could then use the old Sea Shepherd as a "mother vessel", supplying fuel and provisions to their newly-acquired ex. U-boat (the typical depths in the area are between 4-5,000m, a couple of torpedoes into the Japanese factory-ship, noone's going "to be raising that Titanic"), mission accomplished!

That is an interesting video. Interesting in the fact that only the last few seconds were made public. Even with that it is obvious that the Nishu Maru (probably spelled wrong), a security ship not a whaler, is overtaking the Andy Gil (a vessel on it's stbd side no less- in case crossing situation is considered). The Andy Gill and it's crew is further under physical attack by water cannon. The Andy Gil may have put itself in position to be attacked, but that doesn't entitle one to attack. The captain of the security ship belongs in jail, but of course that won't happen. Personally, I do my best (and it's not easy) to boycott Japanese products and will do so until their slaughter of whales & dolphin and their taste for products from protected species such as rhino horn stops. I'm just one person, but I won't buy a Japanese car; sushi to me is bait anyway (there's a reason we invented fire). They've got me on electronics but I buy the minimum amount possible there. Judging by where their economy seems to be headed I may not be the only one.