Former Commandant, Adm. Papp, has a new job, as reported here in Stars and Stripes.

If you missed this interview with the new Commandant, Adm. Paul Zukunft, by Navy Times, you might want to take a look. I have to say, I like the fact he was PacArea Commander. Frequently, it seems, the Pacific does not get the attention it deserves.

Thought some of you might find this interesting.

NavalToday.Com reports that the Sri Lankan Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Samudura, formerly the USCGC Courageous donated to Sri Lanka on June 24, 2004, recently took aboard 41 immigrants for repatriation to Sri Lanka after they were intercepted by Australia authorities.

More background on this particular transfer here.

It is not the first time she has done this sort of thing There is this similar report from July 2013: http://navaltoday.com/2013/07/29/navys-opv-brings-stranded-73-australia-bound-sri-lankans-ashore/ and this one from August 2013: http://navaltoday.com/2013/08/15/sri-lanka-navy-rescues-arrests-111-australia-bound-persons/

As you can see the ship has been rearmed. Apparently a Bofors 40mm has replaced the 3″/50 or Mk38 25mm that used to be mounted on the foc’sle. I believe the four heavy machineguns in two twin mounts below the bridge are Soviet designed 14.5mm (0.57 inch).

While I’m not sure the former Courageous was used this way, Offshore Patrol Vessels played an important part in ending the bitter civil war against the LTTE, by sinking three ships that were used by the Tamil Tigers as offshore weapons warehouses. Samudura is one of five OPVs in the Sri Lanka Navy.

Ran across an account of the defense and subsequent loss of the Revenue Cutter Eagle by the “Riverhead News-Review.” It is a pretty good read. Could not help but notice that the frigate HMS Narcissus, that took the Cutter Surveyor was also involve in this incident.

Oct 11-13 will be the 200th anniversary of the incident. From the report it sounds as if the anniversary will be recognized by the local community. Hopefully the Coast Guard will also participate in some way.

Mark Tempest’s EagleSpeak is one of my regular reads. He recently did a piece on people smuggling. I think the photographs alone are worth a look.

The Naval Institute News Service has provided a copy of “the April, 2014 version of the multi-national Conduct for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) signed by 21 Pacific nations at the 14th Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Qingdao, China. CUES is a series of non-binding rules-of-the-road to prevent an escalation of tensions between different militaries at sea.”

This is similar to the old INSEA agreement between the Soviets and the US, designed to minimize the possibility of a unintentional incident escalating into a conflict. Particularly any ships operating in the South China Sea, East China Sea, western Pacific, or even the Indian Ocean ought to spend some extra time with this document. Good to see this document emerge, it was needed. Unfortunately it will not prevent intentional provocation, but it may make a determination of accidental or intentional easier.

MarineLog is reporting the issue of the text of the GAO’s decision on the protest of the award of the OPC contract.

“Interestingly, the GAO decision includes a Coast Guard table that indicates that all five shipyards that responded to the RFP got “Superior” ratings for the soundness and mission effectiveness of the concept designs offered and also for their design approach. All were rated “Satisfactory” for organizational management and production capability. On past performance, though, differences emerged. Bollinger and Bath Iron Works were rated ‘Satisfactory,’ Eastern was rated ‘Superior,’ but both Huntington Ingalls and VT Halter got ratings of ‘Marginal.'”

Great story from the Washington Post about LCdr Joel Fisher’s role in the recovery of Nazi loot during the closing days of World War II, as told by his daughter. An unexpected bit of Coast Guard history.

gCaptain has posted news of a new propulsion system developed by Caterpillar Marine in partnership with Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) and Scandinavian Marine Group (SMG) that is claimed to be more efficient, quieter, and suitable for icebreakers and other vessels operating in severe environment, while offering maintenance advantages in terms of accessibility. A more complete view of the system is here.