Free Republic

A New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground in Samoa while surveying a reef. Passengers and crew aboard a New Zealand navy ship have been dramatically rescued after their vessel ran aground off the coast of Samoa in the South Pacific, caught fire and sunk. According to the NZ defence force, HMNZS Manawanui first got into trouble at about 6:45pm on Saturday while it was conducting a hydrographic survey just one nautical mile from the shore of the island country. The exact cause of the grounding remains unknown, but it is understood the ship collided with the reef. The 75...

When it took to the sea in 1912, the RMS Titanic was not only a luxury liner transporting society’s upper crust from England to the U.S.; it could also be described as a floating gallery of fine art and design, populated with high-end objects from a Renault Coupe de Ville to irreplaceable books and a 1912 painting by Merry-Joseph Blondel that would be worth over $3 million dollars today. Now, an unmanned mission to the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean where the ship lies has revealed a long-sought two-foot-tall bronze statue showing the goddess Diana that stood atop the...

Sea mines might have caused the tragic sinking of a South Korean naval ship, U.S. experts said Saturday, dismissing concerns over possible North Korean involvement. "I doubt that North Korea was involved in the incident," John Feffer, co-director of the Foreign Policy in Focus program at the Institute for Policy Studies, said. "It didn't seem to involve any artillery fire from the North." The 1,200-ton "Cheonan" sank Friday night (Seoul time) after a mysterious explosion that South Korean witnesses and military officials say split the vessel in two. Only 58 of the 104 crew aboard were rescued. The others are...

EU NAVFOR warship FS Tonnerre located and boarded two pirate ships early this morning, 1st May, 450 nautical miles east of Somalia. Evidence was secured, weapons and a ladder, and 11 suspected pirates were taken on board the Tonnerre. On Friday evening an EU NAVFOR maritime patrol aircraft from Sweden detected a pirate action group (PAG) of one mother ship and two skiffs. The Force Commander, Rear Admiral Jan Thörnqvist, ordered the nearest EU NAVFOR vessel, the French warship Tonnerre, to interdict the PAG. Early this morning Tonnerre located the PAG and deployed her helicopter. When the suspected pirates realised...