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Prayer Requests:
Please keep the following AOS-USA Members in your prayer:
For Fr. Michael J. Ryan, Cruise Ship Priest Member, who is having surgery for esophageal cancer.
For Fr. Dominic Hahn, Cruise Ship Priest Member, and Cruise Assignment Agent for Holland America Line who is struggling with cancer.
A prayer of thanksgiving for the healing of a bad staph infection for Fr John R. Olsavsky, Cruise Ship Priest Member.
For the repose of the soul of Fr. James F. Barry, AOS-USA Cruise Ship Priest, who passed suddenly
Fr. Tim Brian - Cruise Ship Priest member, who is facing heart problems.
Fr. Marvin Klemmer - Cruise Ship Priest member facing illness.
Fr. Donald Koch - Cruise Ship Priest member facing illness.
For those recovering in the wake of Hurricane Isaac
For those lost on September 11, 2001 & for all those families, co-workers, and friends forever scarred by their loss.
For a close supporter of AOS-USA as he goes through recovery for alcoholism. May he welcome the Holy Spirit to guide him.
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Join AOS USA Today!
To join AOS USA simply click on the following link:
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Check out our newly designed website!
www.aos-usa.org
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Videos of the Maritime Community's Response to September 11, 2001
Dear Friends,
The following videos show the amazing heroism and courage of our US Merchant Marine, Coast Guard, and the maritime community on September 11, 2001.
We feel it is appropriate to share these videos again to pay tribute to the men and women who gave so tirelessly of themselves to bring others to safety.
Rescue at Water's Edge - US Maritime Administrations account of the incredible work of the US Merchant Marine on 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc66PsnXPoA
Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg
Remembering 9/11 - (The US Coast Guard tells their story in that day's events)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOu3j9HraPA
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Piracy victims and PTSD: let the truth be told
By: Michael Rawlins
Post traumatic stress disorder afflicting mariners attacked and held captive by pirates is barely a blip on the radar screen of press coverage.
It is very real and debilitating to its victims.
A typical reported story about pirate victims goes like this: Seafarer attacked. Seafarer kidnapped. Seafarer held hostage. Ransom paid. Seafarer released. Seafarer goes home. End of story.
To the seafarer, it's not the end of story.
"Too many mariners victimized by pirates today remain traumatized for life, are unable to go back to sea, and instead of being one of their extended family's breadwinners, are a liability," said Michael Frodl, the founder and director of C-Level Maritime Risks, a Washington-based risk consultancy advising maritime industry interests.
According to numbers reported by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), 62 seafarers have been killed in the past four years from incidents directly related to piracy in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. Causes of death include deliberate murder, heart attack induced by the incident, suicide, drowning, disease and malnutrition.
There have been more than 3,500 mariners kidnapped and held hostage during the same period. Many of them were used as human shields, forced to operate pirate mother ships and subjected to "extreme mental as well as physical anguish," said Giles Heimann, Chairman of the Save Our Seafarers Campaign.
Heimann detailed types of "horrific torture" inflicted on seafarers by pirates including:
-Being hung over the side of the ship by the ankles.
-Locked in the freezer hold.
-Cable ties tightened around genitals.
-Being savagely beaten, kicked and punched.
The trauma is so severe that many of these mariners will not go back to sea for a long time, if ever at all.
The victims' families suffer as well, both during the long period of not knowing whether he or she will survive captivity and in adjusting to life with a person barely resembling the one they knew before, whose spirit is now broken, who may be subject to depression, bouts of despair, extreme anxiety and insecurity, paranoia, insomnia, startled responses, substance abuse, thoughts of suicide and fits of rage.
Dipendra Rathmore was held hostage for eight months as an Indian deck cadet aboard the Merida Marguerite. "They kept us in a state of terror-we were beaten constantly with metal poles," Rathmore, 22, told reporter Diana Appleyard in an article appearing in The Guardian. "I saw my crewmates being thrashed with sticks and having electric probes attached to their genitals."
"Even when I could not see the torturing, I could hear the screams. I can still hear the screams to this day."
Seafarers have a history of PTSD well beyond the scope of piracy. Industry legal site The Maritime Lawyer recently reported about 41-year-old ex-tugboat crewman Scott Evans Dekraai, who gunned down eight persons in a California hair dressing salon in 2011.
Dekraai was seriously injured and permanently disabled while trying to save a female co-worker who ended up being killed in a tugboat accident a few years earlier. She was crushed when the tow bridle became taut. After the accident, he fell into depression and was diagnosed with PTSD. His marriage fell apart. He had a hard time finding work. There was a custody dispute with his ex-wife. His rage boiled over into his ultimate act of death and destruction.
"Our image wasn't helped when, for a period of time, it seemed like every serial killer or whacko that gunned people down in a random act of violence was a merchant marine," wrote Michael Rawlins in his book "The Last American Sailors." There was George Hennard, who drove his truck into Luby's Cafeteria in Texas in 1991, killing 21 and wounding 20 persons in the worst mass shooting in American history. He had been a seaman who had lost his papers. The infamous Richard Speck, who murdered eight women in the 1960s, was formerly a Great Lakes seaman. Retired merchant marine officer Lawrence Singleton raped and hacked off the forearms of a 15-year-old female hitchhiker in California in 1978.
Many hostage crisis management experts say that there's too much focus on post event trauma and not nearly enough on preparing potential victims before they sail through high risk waters.
"More can be done by providing pre-captivity training to potential hostages, and that such can be done at more 'bang for the buck' than simply waiting for a tragedy to occur and then approach the problem, says Frodl. "That other approach, the current approach, we call the "Humpty Dumpty" approach and like in the tale, it's not effective, and in the modern world, it's not cost-effective, which is just as bad if not more so."
(Reprinted courtesy of the author)
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Apostleship of the Sea celebrates 50 years in war-torn Ivory Coast
Courtesy AOS - Great Britain
11 September 2012
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Fr. Celestin Ikomba |
The Apostleship of the Sea is celebrating 50 years of its mission Abidjan, the war-torn capital of Ivory Coast.
The Church's official maritime charity has maintained its presence in the west African country through the outbreaks of violence that have erupted in the years since the coup in 1999.
During the civil war last year, which claimed 3,000 lives, port chaplain Father Celestin Ikomba, a member of the Sons of Charity, a French religious congregation, was forced to suspend his work.
Instead he brought young people from opposite political factions together and encouraged them to turn away from violence.
Many of the seafarers who arrive in Abidjan use the seamen's club, which was originally established by Apostleship of the Sea in 1963.
"There are ships coming into the port every day now. The violence has stopped and we are at peace now," said Father Celestin.
"I am currently trying to assist some Syrian seafarers who haven't been paid. I have contacted the International Transport Workers Federation to try and sort out the problem."
Father Celestin and his 15 volunteer ship visitors are planning a special Mass in October to celebrate Apostleship of the Sea's jubilee in Abidjan.
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Seychelles Ferry Boat Sinks in a Storm
Courtesy: eTN
Bryant's Maritime Consulting
11 September 2012
In what has been termed a miraculous escape amongst the maritime fraternity on the Seychelles, was the three man crew of the ferry boat "Le Cerf" rescued after their vessel sank in a storm while returning to base in Mahe.
Owned by Mason's Travel, one of the Seychelles leading DMC's, the vessel was en route back from Denis Islands when it was struck by freak waves, damaging the hull and taking on water.
The experienced skipper sent an immediate SOS out which was picked up by the Seychelles coast guard, which dispatched a rescue mission immediately, but the crew was rescued by a Praslin based yacht, after being adrift for over 4 hours since abandoning their sinking vessel.
A source in Victoria attributed the rescue and safe return of the crew to the regular safety training and to presence of all required safety equipment like rafts, life vests and other items, that can help to survive a potential ship wreck.
The news spread fast when the vessel went into distress and as light faded, a number of leisure boats went out to sea to assist in the search, helped by the crew's use of mobile phones. The skipper and his two deck hands used their phones to give status and position updates to the search teams which in turn used powerful search lights which were eventually spotted and used for the final rendezvous between rescuers and the crew afloat.
"Seychelles has in past years strengthened the capacity for search and rescue in our territorial waters, in part triggered by the piracy problem. In the process a lot of training was done, and this has benefited our maritime safety considerably. Earlier this year we guided a stricken cruise ship to port in Victoria when our coast guard ran a successful mission to bring that ship safely to port. As an island nation we depend on shipping and ferries to travel between the islands and our safety record must be maintained to protect our tourist industry. Hundreds of people travel every day between Mahe and Praslin and between Praslin and La Digue but also a lot of other islands and safety is the highest priority. Boats and ferries are inspected regularly and emergency drills and training are ongoing all the time," commented a regular source from Victoria.
Source: eTN |
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House - Hearing on Maritime Security
Courtesy Dennis L. Bryant
Bryant's Maritime Consulting
12 September 2012
The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure conducted a hearing on developments under Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio, USCG, testified concerning various efforts to reduce the risk of maritime terrorism, including physical security, identity security, and global supply chain security. Mr. Stephen Caldwell, Government Accountability Office, testified that significant progress has been made in enhancing maritime security in the ten year since enactment of the MTSA, but that budgetary constraints and technological challenges remain. Ms. Bethann Rooney, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, testified about the continuing high cost of maritime security and the gradual erosion of the port security grants. Mr. Chris Koch, World Shipping Council, testified concerning the complexities of the maritime security program. The Committee issued a press release following the hearing. (9/11/12). |
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German Prosecutor demands long sentence for Sea Pirates
Courtesy: Associated Foreign Press
In Germany's first piracy trial in four centuries, prosecutors have demanded long jail terms for 10 Somalis. The men are alleged to have hijacked a German-flagged ship off the Horn of Africa.
The group was arrested by the Dutch navy about three and a half hours after they allegedly took over the German container ship Taipan.
The incident took place some 950 kilometers (590 miles) off the Somali coast in April 2010 and the trial, in Hamburg, has been underway since November of that year.
"The public prosecutor's office called for sentences of four to 12 years," court spokesman Conrad Müller-Horn said on Thursday. Members of the crew survived by hiding in a panic room before the Dutch forces arrived.
The trial has been surrounded by complications, with confusion over the Somalis' full names and exact ages. They are estimated to be between 19 and 50.
Successful pirate attacks on commercial vessels sailing off the Horn of Africa have fallen off after a sudden rise at the start of the last decade.
According to recent figures from the European Union Naval Force Somalia, Operation Atalanta, there were 28 attacks in the first half of 2011, but only three in the second half and five since January.
Source: AFP
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New Zealand - Fishing Vessel on Fire
Courtesy: Dennis L. Bryant
Bryant's Maritime News
12 September 2012
Maritime New Zealand issued a media release stating that units are responding to a 64-meter fishing vessel, with 43 people on board, on fire 45 nautical miles northeast of Lyttelton Heads. The personnel have assembled on deck in emergency gear if evacuation is required. No injuries have been reported. A subsequent media release states that the crew has abandoned the vessel and all 43 are safely aboard other fishing vessels that responded to the distress call. (9/12/12).
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| Prayer for Hurricane Season
O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control. The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, and invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us.
Amen.
Originally dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Audrey in 1957. - Fr. Al Volpe, Cameron Parish, LA
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Important Upcoming Events for
AOS USA Members
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