Spotlight - Continuing Interest

Welcome to the Maritime Spotlight. Here you'll find hundreds of pages of information on current and recent developments, port security, government compliance, legislation and court decisions. You can access links to industry resources and organizations and archived materials on maritime matters, as well.


View archived items.

Subscribe to electronic newsletter

If you want to receive updates via an electronic newsletter - Maritime Items - please send me an E-Mail. Please include your name, title or position, company or affiliation, address, telephone number, and telefax number. Dennis Bryant

Visit our Maritime Industry Website

You are invited to browse our Maritime Industry Website.

Naval Appropriations Act of 1850

On September 28, 1850, Congress enacted the

Naval Appropriations Act. In addition to providing the US Navy with its operating funds for the year (including $2,758,282 for pay of naval personnel), the statute abolished flogging in the navy and on board vessels of commerce. Also, the statute adopted the "meridian of Greenwich" for all nautical purposes.

UN – Treaty Collection

The United Nations has posted its entire

Treaty Collection, including the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) on the Internet. (9/18/08).

Talk like a Pirate

In the spirit of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Treasure Island", it should be duly noted that September 19 is annually celebrated as

Talk Like A Pirate Day. This is all in good fun, mates, and must never be confused with real pirates, such as those currently plaguing the waters off Somalia. Avast!

Celebrating the heroism and sacrifice of 9/11

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the horrific attacks of 9/11, when a small group of terrorists used commercial airliners to crash into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. A fourth airliner attack was thwarted by brave passengers and crashed in Pennsylvania. We remember not so much that attacks as the heroism and sacrifice of the many victims and response personnel. Holland & Knight, in particular, celebrates the selfless actions of one of its own. Glenn J. Winuk was a partner in the New York office and a long-time volunteer firefighter. When the Twin Towers were attacked just blocks from the firm’s New York office and everyone was seeking safety, Glenn went into the South Tower to render assistance. His remains were found months later in the rubble. The firm sponsored a

Memorial Wall at FDNY Ten House, adjacent to the World Trade Center to honor his memory and that of all the response personnel involved.

Fire on MORRO CASTLE – 1934

On the evening of September 7, 1934, as the passenger ship

MORRO CASTLE was returning to New York City following a vacation cruise to Havana, the master was found dead in his cabin from an apparent heart attack. At about 0300 on September 8, fire was discovered in the passengers’ Writing Room. The fire spread quickly through the ship, which contained fancy wood paneling and expensive cloth curtains. The acting master steamed for the nearest land – Asbury Park, New Jersey. The fire was faster than the ship; 137 passengers and crew died by the time the ship was beached. The casualty led to numerous fire-safety improvements in future passenger ships.

Grounding at Honda Point – 1923

On September 8, 1923, fourteen new destroyers of the US Navy were steaming south in simulated wartime conditions from San Francisco to their homeport of San Diego. As they approached the turn into the Santa Barbara Channel in heavy fog, the lead destroyer ignored or misinterpreted signals from the experimental radio compass station ashore and commenced the turn early. The other destroyers followed close astern. Ten of the ships quickly grounded on the rocks at

Honda Point, with a loss of 23 lives. This event remains the single greatest maritime casualty involving electronic navigation.

Lighthouse Act anniversary

On August 7, 1789, the First Congress of the United States adopted the

Lighthouse Act, assuming responsibility for all lighthouses in the country. This marks the commencement of what we know today as the Aids to Navigation (ATON) mission, the oldest of the numerous missions performed by the US Coast Guard. Although the US Lighthouse Service (USLHS) did not officially become part of the Coast Guard until July 1, 1939, the two entities and their predecessors worked cooperatively from the earliest days. Over the years, the ATON mission expanded to include lightships, buoys, daymarks, ranges, sound signals, and numerous forms of electronic aids to navigation. As waterways become more congested and ships become larger, the mission only grows in importance.

Coast Guard Day

Today (August 4, 2008) marks the 218th anniversary of the enactment of the law establishing the Revenue Cutter Service – the forerunner of the US Coast Guard. The service is as vigorous and important to the nation now as it was in the early days of the Republic. It is appropriate, though, to reflect on some of the advice provided by Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, in his Letter of Instruction to Commanding Officers of the Revenue Cutters:

While I recommend in the strongest terms to the respective officers, activity, vigilance and firmness, I feel no less solicitude, that their deportment may be marked with prudence, moderation and good temper. Upon these last qualities, not less that the former, must depend the success, usefulness and consequently continuance of the establishment in which they are included. They cannot be insensible that there are some prepossessions against it, that the charge with which they are intrusted [sic] is a delicate one, and that it is easy by mismanagement, to produce serious and extensive clamour, disgust and alarm.

They will always keep in mind that their countrymen are freemen, and, as such, are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. They will, therefore, refrain, with the most guarded circumspection, from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult. If obstacles occur, they will remember that they are under the particular protection of the laws and that they can meet with nothing disagreeable in the execution of their duty which these will not severely reprehend. This reflection, and a regard to the good of the service, will prevent, at all times a spirit of irritation or resentment. They will endeavor to overcome difficulties, if any are experienced, by a cool and temperate perseverance in their duty--by address and moderation, rather than by vehemence or violence. The former style of conduct will recommend them to the particular approbation of the President of the United States, while the reverse of it--even a single instance of outrage or intemperate or improper treatment of any person with whom they have anything to do, in the course of their duty, will meet with his pointed displeasure, and will be attended with correspondent consequences.

The foregoing observations are not dictated by any doubt of the prudence of any of those to whom they are addressed. These have been selected with so careful an attention to character, as to afford the strongest assurance, that their conduct will be that of good officers and good citizens. But, in an affair so delicate and important, it has been judged most advisable to listen to the suggestions of caution rather than of confidence, and to put all concerned on their guard against those sallies to which even good and prudent men are occasionally subject. It is not doubted that the instructions will be received as it ought to be, and will have its due effect. And that all may be apprized [sic] of what is expected you will communicate this part of your orders, particularly, to all your officers, and you will inculcate upon your men a correspondent disposition.

Looking ahead, your attention is invited to the Commandant’s recent directive:

The Guardian Ethos.

Semper Paratus – Always Ready!

Black Tom Island incident

Early (about 2 a.m.) on the morning of July 30, 1916, the Port of New York and New Jersey experienced the first act of maritime terrorism in US history. A major explosion occurred at the munitions loading facility on

Black Tom Island, across the Hudson River from Manhattan. While the United States was still officially neutral in World War I, weapons and explosives were shipped from the railhead on Black Tom Island to allied forces in Europe. That night, a suspicious fire was discovered in a railroad boxcar on the island. Most guards fled the island, but several people were killed by the explosion, which blew out windows in buildings in lower Manhattan and parts of northern New Jersey and leveled the island. A Claims Commission later determined that German agents had set off the explosion and Germany eventually paid reparations. This incident provided the genesis for the Coast Guard’s port security program.

Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision – July 25, 1956

On July 25, 1956, in one of the most noted collisions in recent history, the ocean liner

ANDREA DORIA collided with the ocean liner STOCKHOLM in fog off Nantucket. The casualty resulted in the deaths of 51 people and the sinking of the ANDREA DORIA. The STOCKHOLM limped into New York with its bow staved in, but returned to service under a different name after extensive repairs. The casualty has rightly been called a ‘radar-assisted’ collision. It resulted in mandates for increased training of deck officers in the proper use of radar.