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This is the greatest commencement speech ever.

Truth Aquatics Inc. filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles federal court under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability. The suit said the company and owners Glen and Dana Fritzler “used reasonable care to make the Conception seaworthy, and she was, at all relevant times, tight, staunch, and strong, fully and properly manned, equipped and supplied and in all respects seaworthy and fit for the service in which she was engaged.” Anyone who could make a claim against the company would be served with notice that the firm was asserting it was not...

Japan will not join a US-led security mission to protect merchant vessels passing through key Middle Eastern waterways, but will consider deploying its naval force independently, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday. Citing unidentified government sources, the Yomiuri said Japan was considering a plan to send its Maritime Self-Defense Force (SDF) on information-gathering missions in the areas around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab shipping lane between Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea. It would also consider including the Strait of Hormuz in the SDF’s sphere of activity if Iran agrees, the paper said, according to Reuters.

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials vowed to find what sparked the inferno aboard the dive boat Conception that killed 34 people in waters off Southern California but vital evidence may have gone down with the ship or drifted out to sea.</p>

A new law requires boat operators to wear an emergency engine cutoff switch or a kill switch lanyard starting Sept. 1, 2019. So what should you know and how can this affect you? State Game Warden Shane Lewis told ABC 7, kill switches are just as important as wearing a life jacket, and he's glad now they’re legally required. “I’m actually surprised the law hadn’t been into effect prior to this, it’s a very important law and its going to really improve the safety of boating on the water,” said Lewis. “Let’s say that you were ejected from a boat...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll said Monday night that 25 people had died. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers initially recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island, and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the...

LOS ANGELES - The 75-foot dive boat Conception was considered one of the best of its kind in the region, and both it and its operator, Truth Aquatics Inc., were in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations. That all changed Monday in the flash of a predawn fire near Santa Cruz Island, when the Conception sank in flames, taking with it more than 30 people who were below deck in bunk beds, apparently unable to get out.

An Iranian cargo ship sank in the Caspian Sea near Azerbaijan's Lankaran port on Friday, according to Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Ukrainian Security Service said Thursday it had seized a Russian tanker in a Black Sea port, a move that could undermine an anticipated prisoner swap between the two countries. The security service said it detained the Russian tanker in a Ukrainian port on Wednesday. Authorities said the tanker was used in a Russian operation to block Ukrainian vessels from sailing through the Kerch Strait in November. The 10-member crew was allowed to disembark and leave Ukraine since they were not involved in November's incident, Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said. Russian ships fired on and...

Pompeo said the “the United States has a responsibility to do our part, but the world’s got a big role in this too – to keep these sea lanes open.” He added that Iran’s recent behavior should alarm nations around the globe. “We don’t want war with Iran. We want them to behave like a normal nation. I think they understand that and I think the whole world is waking up to the fact that this threat is real,” Pompeo told "Fox & Friends." “It’s not just a threat against America, it’s not just a threat against Israel. It’s a...

USS Boxer Downs Iranian Drone in ‘Defensive Action’ By: Sam LaGrone July 18, 2019 4:00 PM • Updated: July 19, 2019 6:29 AM This post has been updated with additional details on the downing of the Iranian drone. Amphibious warship USS Boxer (LHD-4) took down an Iranian drone that U.S. officials say threatened the ship as it entered the Persian Gulf on Thursday. At about 10 a.m. local time, Boxer was transiting Strait of Hormuz when an Iranian fixed-wing drone approached the ship, a defense official told USNI News. “A fixed-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was right to call the world’s attention Thursday to Iran’s unprovoked attack on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier in the day. Pompeo said the U.S. holds Iran responsible for this dangerous aggression – a clear warning to the mullahs who rule the Islamic Republic that the U.S. will ensure they face consequences. It would be irresponsible for the Trump administration to turn a blind eye to what Pompeo called Iran’s “blatant assault.”

U.S. Secretary of STate Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier on Thursday. In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Pompeo said Iran is working to disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and are a deliberate part of a campaign to escalate tension. His comments came shortly after a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News that it saw an unexploded mine attached to the hull of the Panama-listed, Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous ship, one of the two ships attacked. It is the same type of mine...

DUBAI—Two tankers were damaged in attacks off the coast of Iran early Thursday, including one operated by a Japanese company, on a day when Tehran rebuffed attempts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to ease a military standoff with the U.S. The incidents sent oil prices sharply higher, reigniting fears of trade disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, through which over a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil is shipped. Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude prices, rose 4% on Thursday to $62.37. The attacks appeared to use relatively sophisticated weapons, according to early assessments, and came within...

Lots of differing accounts from different media sources. Some say the tankers were attacked, a couple say “ torpedoed”. Bottom line, there was an incident nvolving two large oil tankers, one is on fire.

The situation remains extremely fluid at this time and details are bound to morph in the coming hours, but it seems clear that some sort of maritime incident has occurred in the Sea Of Oman. Reports indicate that at least one tanker is on fire and the UK Maritime Trade Operations group put out a safety bulletin warning of an incident occurring in the Gulf Of Oman and urging extreme caution to mariners operating in the area. The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Front Altair appears to be the ship on fire, while reports also state that the Panama-flagged tanker Kokuka Courageous...

The US and Russian warships came somewhere between 50 feet and 165 feet of each other, according to the two opposing reports, with both sides alleging their ships were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision, which can be seen in video and a picture of the event obtained by CNN. "A Russian destroyer .... made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville, closing to 50-100 feet, putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk," US Navy spokesman Cmdr. Clayton Doss told CNN in a statement. "This unsafe action forced Chancellorsville to execute all engines back full...

Three Chinese warships with 700 sailors on board will spend the next four days docked in Sydney Harbour on an unannounced visit. The 'secret visit' comes just days after it was revealed that a Chinese warship had confronted an Australian vessel in the South China Sea, with Australian helicopter pilots targeted with lasers. Footage emerged of the warships' arrival into Sydney on Monday morning with sailors lined up on the ships in combat uniform, with some carrying guns. The appearance of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA- N) frigate, an auxiliary replenishment ship, and an amphibious vessel docked at Garden...

The wreck of the last slave ship ever to reach American shores has been found in a river delta near Mobile, Alabama, according to the state's historical commission. In 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War, the schooner Clotilda took aboard 110 individuals in West Africa and sailed across the Atlantic to deliver them to slaveowners in Mobile. After they were unloaded, the ship was burned outside of the port. The transatlantic slave trade had already been banned in the U.S. for decades, and at the time of the landing, importing African people for purposes of slavery was...

U.S. Celebrates National Maritime Day (May 22nd) May 22, 2019 by gCaptain Each year, on May 22nd, the United States celebrates National Maritime Day, a holiday in observance of the contributions of the men and women of the U.S. merchant marine, as well as the U.S. maritime industry and the benefits it brings to the country in terms of transportation, jobs, goods, recreation and national security.