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Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
- fbonetti 7y agoWell that's embarrassing. Could you imagine being the crew of the cruise ship and having to rescue the clowns that just tried to ram you?
- lonelappde 7y agoAs I understand it, sailors have strong ethics because the sea is the common enemy of all. Even sailors on ships at war will rescue the enemy after incapacitating their boat.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- nradov 7y agoIn theory they're supposed to, but that kind of went out the window since WW2.
- karatestomp 7y agoIIRC uboats were only “supposed” to sink ships if they could aid in rescuing the crew and passengers after... but gave that policy up when the Allies kept attacking them with aircraft while they were conducting rescue operations.
- perl4ever 7y agoDid u-boats typically even have the capacity to transport the number of people on the ships they sank?
- hanoz 7y agoNotably after a US bomber knowingly attacked a surfaced U-boat carrying survivors of the RMS Laconia on its foredeck. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident
- cptaj 7y agoYeah, but if you're a ship with a skeleton crew of civilians, you're going to think twice about rescuing a full compliment of soldiers from a dictatorship that just tried to sink you with no reason whatsoever.
- lstodd 7y agoThere can not be any thinking twice about pulling people from the water. Even Somali pirates were first pulled up from their junks, and only then the boats were used for target practice. EDIT: and they, being pirates, were subject to being killed on the spot. But still, the whole situation is hilarious.
- dodobirdlord 7y agoI'm sure they had lifeboats.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoRescue would likely be an upgrade from conditions in Venezuela for the Venezuelan Navy crew.
- a3n 7y agoAnd then, full chutzpah, the rescued crew commandeer the cruise ship, having "boarded" it.
- firekvz 7y agoThey ran away, they didn't rescue them. Kinda shows that they might be on blame Ps: Venezuelan here and I hate my gov but this looks really shaddy
- dhosek 7y agoThe account I read indicated that the cruise ship offered assistance, got no response and remained on the scene until the MRCC arrived.
- rdtsc 7y ago> They ran away, they didn't rescue them. They were rammed by this military boat, headed by what looks like a crazy captain. Would you have brought them on-board? They could have dropped an extra life-boat and called for help for them probably. But I can't entirely fault them for wanting to run away.
- t0mas88 7y agoOf course they moved to a safe position, they were under attack by a navy ship. What would you have done? And it wasn't just any navy, it was a Venezuelan navy ship, a country with erratic and unpredictable leadership.
- woodandsteel 7y agoSo you're saying the navy vessel was both justified and acting in an intelligent manner when it rammed the cruise ship? My guess is you are really troller working for the Maduro regime.
- antpls 7y agoFrom the article : "Columbia Cruise Services says Resolute remained in the area until it was clear its services were not required to help in the rescue of the 44 crew members. It then continued on, as planned, to the Port of Willemstad in Curaçao." Then "Even if the cruise liner had deliberately sailed within 12 miles of Isla La Tortuga, it very likely would have been legally entitled to do so under the right of innocent passage, unless Venezuelan officials believe the ship of conducting some other prohibited activity."
- starpilot 7y agoThis, is Jackass.
- birdyrooster 7y agoI’m Kenny Rogers
- smoyer 7y agoDoes anyone else feel like we've been living in a comic strip lately?
- nradov 7y agoI've felt like I'm stuck in some alternate history timeline since 2001.
- sixQuarks 7y agoIt feels like Elon Musk is correct about our universe being a simulation.
- 93po 7y agoDon't mention Elon on this website unless you want a horde of incels bringing up their misdirected anger
- techsin101 7y agoMayans?
- parsimo2010 7y agoSince 2001? The CIA was actually trying to spy on the Russians via psychic powers in the late 1970's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project (edit- I suppose it was the US Army and the CIA) There was a group of people that committed suicide to try and get their souls on a magical spaceship in the early 1970's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_gro... Weird stuff has been going on forever, it's just that our capacity to report meaningless stuff has grown over time. A few decades ago you would have never heard about two ships colliding with zero casualties unless you worked in the shipping industry or maybe the Venezuelan government.
- nradov 7y agoThat reminds me of a funny story. Back in the 90's before they all killed themselves, the Heaven's Gate UFO cult actually tried to recruit at my college by passing out flyers titled "Last Chance to Advance Beyond Human". Of course we all thought it was hilarious. Next week some guys threw a kegger and put up flyers to advertise: "One More Chance to Advance Beyond Human!"
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sudoaza 7y agoSince the US is currently trying to invade Venezuela under the guise of the fight against drugs trafficking I understand Venezuelans being more strict with their borders and would not diacard it being a setup.
- analognoise 7y agoIf the US wanted to invade, apparently we could do it with a handful of cruise ships. Why send carriers when Carnival will do?
- sudoaza 7y agoNot what I meant. Could be there as an excuse loaded with drugs so the navy then can move in. Iraq was invaded under the false pretence of the weapons of mass destruction which didn't exist and UN observers proved so 1 week before Invasion. Panama was invaded under the excuse of drug war. Planting drugs to justify the invasion wouldn't be much of a stretch. Pretty bad luck that 1 of 3 reinforced cruise just drifts towards Venezuela during this escalation period. As the covid crisis worsens in US and a distraction is needed we'll see what happens, let's check back in a month.
- duxup 7y agoExcept in your examples nobody needed to stage something like a cruise ship stuffed with drugs, they just made their case and did whatever. There is no need for staging anything, nobody would need a cruise ship full of drugs to think that drugs are coming out of Venezuela... Staging an event with a cruise ship as an excuse when they could just do the thing anyway seems like an overly complicated conspiracy theory.
- sudoaza 7y agoThere were staged news, like newspaper articles showing in astonishing detail Saddam's biological and chemical weapons, which oops didn't exist. Also check where the La Tortuga island is located, It's right next to the coast, surrounded by other island, pretty dangerous location to just be drifting without paying attention to where you are. I'm not saying, that's definitely the reason they are there, I'm saying it's pretty weird and odd timing to suspect ulterior motives.
- ck2 7y agoWorld is going to become even more scary. Imagine what is happening inside North Korea we will never hear about. The population will be quietly cut in half. Putin has been doing some (more) scary things in Russia while no-one outside is paying attention. I'm still not completely convinced we are going to be allowed to have elections in November.
- greedo 7y agoHungary has become a dictatorship overnight...
- save_ferris 7y agoWe’re seeing indicators of global destabilization to a degree, but it’s important to remember that this is cyclical. > Imagine what is happening inside North Korea that we will never hear about. North Korea experienced a terrible famine within the last 20 or so years that killed a significant portion of the population, but that didn’t really make sustained news. Terrible stuff has been happening there for decades and the rest of world accepts it. It’s also quite a stretch to say that no one is paying attention to what’s going on in Russia when that clearly isn’t true. Yes, Putin is finding ways to retain power, but it’s not like he’s doing all of this in secret. And as for elections, we haven’t heard anything to indicate that they aren’t happening, so why speculate wildly?
- cov1dnineteen 7y ago> Imagine what is happening inside North Korea North Korea has no cases of COVID-19. That number isn't real you say? Well, if we're going to start questioning the numbers we might find ourselves looking hard at China's highly improbable figures. And that would jeopardize a whole basket of important narratives. Can't have that. > I'm still not completely convinced we are going to be allowed to have elections in November. Patience for this has an expiration. I don't know when that is but I know it's measured in weeks, not months. There are a bunch of power elite with assured futures that are unaware of the distress and ruin they're causing. The backlash is coming.
- hirundo 7y agoThe Venezuelan ship had a 76mm gun, maybe one like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTO_Melara_76_mm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTO_Melara_76_mm Why would you ram when you could shoot up the other ship with 85 to 120 fourteen pound shells per minute, with no risk to your own ship? Maybe they didn't actually have the ammo. Or maybe they decided to play chicken with the cruise ship and lost.
- detaro 7y agoBecause pushing/ramming a bigger ship (especially if you do little damage) is more in the realm of the kind of bullying that gets tolerated by other countries than firing on a civilian ship with a heavy gun. It appears they misjudged the "little damage" part.
- jandrese 7y agoThey weren't trying to sink the cruise ship, they were trying to turn their tiny destroyer into a tugboat and push the cruise ship into a port where it could be seized.
- topspin 7y agoPiracy then.
- pasquinelli 7y agoPrivateering if you're Venezuelan.
- hef19898 7y agoBoth are illegal since the late 19th century. But Venezualan vessel was an official navy ship. So more offical commerce raiding?
- duxup 7y agoDoesn't seem like they would likely be able to maintain control of a ship like that enough to really force some small directional changes each collision.
- ansible 7y agoThis is insane. I can't imagine what was going through the Venezuelan captain's head trying to do this. It's one thing if the shooting is already started to defend yourself. But even if this stunt had worked, you're looking at many months of downtime while your ship is being repaired in drydock. Millions of dollars, and bigtime loss of capability for a small navy. Unless you are an icebreaker, you just don't intentionally hit anything (tugboats nudge after gently making contact, they do not ram). If this cruise liner was not following instructions (seems more like an act of piracy than legit, but that is another discussion), then you fire a shot or two off the bow of the offending ship. That usually gets people's attention. Ramming? WTF?
- Scarbutt 7y agoI wondered if the Captain let himself sink with the ship.
- m4rtink 7y agoWell, ramming used to be BIG: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lissa_(1866) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lissa_(1866) One can't possibly blame the captain wanting to be as cool as admiral Tegetthoff back then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anton_Romako_001.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anton_Romako_001.jpg
- fnordprefect 7y agoNo need to go that far back. One famous one is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_torpedo_boat_PT-109 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_torpedo_boat_PT-109
- m4rtink 7y agoSometimes it works, sometimes it does not: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glowworm_(H92) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glowworm_(H92) Back in WWI it still worked, with the famous HMS Dreadnought ramming a submarine.
- 7y ago
- malcolmwhite 7y agoTrump recently announced we are doubling the size of southern command and dramatically increasing our activity off the coast of Venezuela, where this occurred. Could the cruise ship have been doing something sneaky?
- duxup 7y agoWould they need a cruise ship to do a thing?
- malcolmwhite 7y agoWhy did we ship military supplies aboard the Lusitania?
- duxup 7y agoWe? Why?
- sjg007 7y agoTrump announced it to distract from covid-19. Saber rattling in both South America and Iran.
- t0mas88 7y agoHighly unlikely. It looks way better for Trump to have a big grey US Navy ship with large guns off the coast of Venezuela. Why hide on an old cruise ship?
- z2210558 7y agoI only ever seem to see stories that look a whole lot like propaganda from thedrive.com. Who's behind this site?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ObsoleteNerd 7y agoIt's a major automotive blog with TV shows and a large online presence. They also just post stuff that's entertaining to people who like cars/bikes/vehicles in general.
- WalterBright 7y ago[deleted]
- geoffmunn 7y agoThis was taken from another angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTAx8r_090o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTAx8r_090o
- dzaragozar 7y agoThis new seem to be an April fools joke. There's no mention of the incident in Venezuelan press,nor Reuters nor AP.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoSounds like the cruise company is on the joke then: https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute- https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute- incident/
- dzaragozar 7y agoIndeed I see it now. The statement was published on April first and no mention in the news was weird.
- LatteLazy 7y agoI don't k ow about the Venezuelan press, but the Times of London, Popular Mechanics and Deutsche Welle are all reporting it. Plus its April 3rd now...
- dzaragozar 7y agoIndeed I see it now. The statement was published on April first and no mention in the news was weird.
- Ballas 7y agoI misread the url as "thedive.com" - seemed like a better fit.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoWhy was the cruise ship in those waters? The ship was in the news last November about how they had no money and canceled a planned cruise, and I can't figure out what it's been doing since then.
- djmips 7y agoMaybe it really was doing something fishy.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoArticle says they were drifting during engine maintenance. Likely why they couldn't respond quickly.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoThat doesn't explain why they were there.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoThe article gives an explanation. Maybe you don't believe it, but it is plausible.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoAll it says is that it was traveling to Curacao. The ship was arrested for nonpayment of debts in November, it's not clear who paid off the debts or why it is traveling to Curacao.
- tuukkah 7y agoMore info on the cruise liner: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCGS_Resolute https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCGS_Resolute Seems buying one made in Finland can be a lucky charm as ice breaking is obligatory here.
- fouc 7y ago> Of course, this would not be the first time a country has seized, or attempted to seize, a commercial ship to exert its own pressure on its international opponents. Seems like many HN readers are failing to make it to this line, and are assuming "crazy captain" as the motivation.
- pmachinery 7y ago> this would not be the first time Which the laughably biased article illustrates with Iran's "infamous" seizure of a British ship. Not the earlier British seizure of an Iranian vessel, which the Iranians were simply responding to, which is barely a footnote. I'm sure if a ship from an ally of a country brazenly attempting to overthrow the US government innocently "drifted" for days off the US coast before innocently "finding its way into" US territorial waters, the US response would be kid gloves and a cheery smile. Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, a few days after this event exposed Venezuelan capability in response to violation of its territorial waters: > US to Deploy Navy Ships near Venezuela > The deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama ... It involves assets like Navy warships, AWACS surveillance aircraft and on-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/02/trump-us-deploy-anti-drug-navy-ships-near-venezuela.html https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/02/trump-us-depl...
- mhh__ 7y agoThe original British seizure was because it was in violation of international sanctions, no? The Iranian seizure, whether it matters or not, was illegal as far as I'm aware.
- pmachinery 7y agoThere are no international sanctions against Syria, simply EU sanctions and US sanctions. Countries that aren't the US and in the EU don't have to abide by that any more than the US or EU has to abide by dictats Iran or Russia or China dream up. The British action, made at the behest of the US, was at least as illegal as the response it provoked.
- hazeii 7y agoMore details here (from ship's owners, I presume):- https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute-incident/ https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute-incid...
- stevespang 7y agoThat cruise ship appeared to be some serious booty $$$ for Maduro to ransom back to Western capitalists for violating Venezuelian sovereignty . . .
- adonovan 7y agoAn act of piracy off the island of Tortuga? Cue Michael Bolton!
- knbknb 7y agoRequired reading for the Venezolan captain : "How to Avoid Huge Ships" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Avoid_Huge_Ships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Avoid_Huge_Ships