Regarding your recent LRAD® article posted at this link:

http://maritimeaccident.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/does-lrad-work/

“After the USS Cole was attacked in October 2000, the U.S. Navy asked American Technology Corporation (ATC) to use our expertise in shaping sound to create a directed acoustic hailing and warning device (AHD) to enable sailors to determine the intent of approaching vessels with unknown intentions, and to help create large safety zones surrounding U.S. Navy ships. ATC introduced its proprietary LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) technology and products in 2002. LRAD uses high intensity 15º – 30º focused acoustic output to communicate well in excess of 500 meters with authority and high intelligibility. Through the use of powerful voice commands and deterrent tones, large safety zones can be created while determining the intent, influencing the behavior and gaining the compliance of the crew of an unknown vessel. Since the sound is directed away from the LRAD operator, it is much safer than utilizing conventional loudspeakers or bullhorn systems in an attempt to accomplish the same objective.

ATC has more than 1,000 LRAD’s in operation around the world including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Russia, the E.U., the U.K. And China. Last year, the U.S. Navy’s selected our LRAD 1000X as its acoustic hailing and warning device for large vessels, and the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army’s chose our LRAD 500X as their AHD for small vessels and vehicles.

LRAD is an important new tool that is vital in giving military and commercial maritime personnel the ability to determine intent at distance and has the potential to resolve misunderstandings and save lives on both sides of the device.”

MAC did ask about civilian real-world examples, to which ATC responded, and got the following response:

“There have been military instances. However, the military prefers to keep quiet about them for security reasons.”

We would emphasise, although LRAD, and some other technologies, were designed to deal with precisely the situation the Global Patriot found itself in, neither the ship, nor its on-board US Navy Security team were equipped with the device.

Unfortunately, the warning system, and rules of engagement, on the Global Patriot were not appropriate for the situation, a situation perceived following the USS Cole incident, in which a small boat might approach within a defence zone without hostile intent.

The rules of engagement evidently assumed that all craft have bridges equipped with VHF radios tuned to the appropriate channel. Bumboats generally have neither bridges nor VHF radios.

The next level of warning assumed that a loudhailer could be heard clearly above the din of a noisy clapped-out outboard on the bumboat. This seems to be an unwise assumption.

It is doubtful, therefore, whether the first two sets of warnings were perceived.

A flare was fired. Was this an unambiguous message, or was it like a driver flashing his lights at an intersection?  Evidentially, it was not an unambiguous message.

The final warning was to fire shots in front of the boat, a fairly unambiguous warning but, in this case, producing one fatality and two injuries. Circumstances suggest that at least one of the warning shots bounced off the water, killing one of the non-hostile persons aboard the bumboat.

Four missing after cargo vessel hits bridge in E China
China Daily – China
BEIJING – China’s maritime search and rescue center said on Thursday morning that an empty cargo vessel hit a bridge under construction near the eastern

Ferries ‘often cut channel’
Manly Daily – Manly,NSW,Australia
It also found the ferry master had been travelling too fast and was taking a short cut across the channel against NSW Maritime regulations, but dismissed 

Numerous errors cited in Candida’s fire, sinking
The Triton (press release) – Fort Lauderdale,FL,USA
“Given the vessel’s recent trans-Atlantic voyage in rough sea conditions, the captain’s increased workload following the departure of the engineer, .

Investigation launched into fishing boat grounding
TV3 News – Auckland,New Zealand
The grounding of a 100-tonne fishing boat in the Far North this month will be investigated by Maritime New Zealand. The 20-metre Seawyf has been flooded and 

US Coast Guard responds to oil spill from towing vessel Dale White
BYM News (press release) – Gibraltar,Spain
The US Coast Guard is conducting an investigation into the grounding and subsequent oil spill from the towing vessel Dale White in the Cal-Sag Channel. 

Container ships sailing too close to shore
Central Midlands & Coastal Advocate – Moora,WA,Australia
Kevin Crane from the DEC in Jurien Bay said he had been in contact with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and there were no specific rules

Napoli removal to start in May
BBC News – UK
Work to remove the remaining section of MSC Napoli off the coast of Devon is set to start in May. The ship was deliberately beached in Lyme Bay after being .

Help! If anyone out there has, or is willing to donate a 220v power adaptor for a Behringer Xenyx 802, to MAC we’d very much like to hear from you at mac@maritimeaccident.com. They’re rather thin on the ground in this neck of the woods and we need one for our podcasting facilities.

Two bodies pulled from sunken Ukrainian tugboat
RIA Novosti – Moscow,Russia
Earlier this week, Anatoliy Prisyazhnyuk, the owner of the Ukrainian vessel, blamed the Chinese dry cargo ship for the fatal collision.

2 crewmen on Thai ship seriously injured; airlifted to Staten …
Staten Island Advance – SILive.com – Staten Island,NY,USA
The accident occurred Saturday during heavy seas as the men were working on board the Thor Alliance, home ported in Thailand, which was en route to New York

US embassy confirms death in Suez Canal shooting incident
Monsters and Critics.com – USA
On Monday, the crew of the Global Patriot ship opened fire on a small Egyptian boat, killing one man and injuring two. The incident happened as the ship was 

World’s fast-growing fleets hit by scarcity of crew
Financial Times – London,England,UK
“We’re talking of -several tens of thousands of seafarers missing from the equation,” he says. The Philippines is the world’s largest source of maritime 

Fatal boat crash ‘due to human error’
The West Australian – Perth,Western Australia,Australia
The vessel had not been visible to the master of the Pam Burridge until it was too late to avoid the collision, the report said.

A ferry with a faulty radar, a containership closing a half a mile a minute, and an oil tanker, all trying to occupy the same space at the same time – can a mad German dentist avoid disaster?

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