Can a ship tow a sail boat?

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by chrisr

this is a matter oft talk about in the industry. no-one admits doing it but we are well aware that many ships 'look the other way' where rescuing illegals is concerned

personally i don't believe this happens with more normal distress / emergency rescues

cheers,

ps : skipperpete, as i'm sure you will recall, the actual problem with the tampa situation was that the master choose not to take to rescued people to the nearest port, but instead continued on to australia

That was a pretty disgusting business that reflected very poorly on Australia. The master was going to take the reffos to Merak, they had different ideas.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-mome...s/tampa-affair

Another sad case involved the USN in the South China Sea https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...259-story.html
The captain was convicted
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/24/w...at-people.html

A number of other masters did the right thing, Sibonga and Roachbank f'rinstance. Both Bank Line ships - I think Sibonga picked up over 1000 people in total.

[skipperpete]

Yes Ping,I agree. The Mediterranean refugee influx is particularly difficult for professional mariners when company orders demand no rescue. I wouldn’t like to live with the memory of those faces looking up at me as they perished. Tampa set a bad precedent.
Whatever possessed Bank line to name some of their ships after fish?

[Wotname]

Yes, the Tampa affair has had far reaching affect for seafaring rescues. As I understand it, the Master allowed the threats made by the rescued refugees to dictate his actions and alter his initial course of action. In essence, he let the refugees to determine where the ship was going. Whether that was piracy is debatable and whether the Master could maintain his authority of the bridge is also debatable. Clearly having the SAS troops on board changed the dynamic but the Master had then lost all chance of determining where the refugees would be allowed to disembark.

Once abdicating his responsibility to take them to the nearest safe port, the stage was set for a political outcome.

[jeanathon]

Originally Posted by aqfishing

Can’t see too many aviators slowing down to tow another….

Planes tow gliders all the time.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by jeanathon

Planes tow gliders all the time.

And can snatch them too! My dad flew a glider into Eindhoven and got snatched out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYSmGl8io8

[jeanathon]

Originally Posted by Don C L

And can snatch them too! My dad flew a glider into Eindhoven and got snatched out.

Thank you for that!