First of all, I want to clarify that I’m not getting into politics here.
By this time, a lot of you have seen a picture of a blue ship named Bella described as a tanker carrying gasoline from Iran to Venezuela. There are three things puzzled me.
1 Apparent hatch coaming, 2 No sigh of any piping, 3 Size of handrail at helm
So, I asked about “cargo ship Bella” to Professor Google. I followed her/his suggestion and go to famous marinetraffic.com. There, I saw a picture of a blue ship which is almost the same as those I have seen at many news site and in the public official document issued by DoJ, U.S. The difference is that those pictures lacked copyright notes at lower left corner for the reason I don’t know.
So the blue Bella, IMO 8808264 (not 9208124), is a Russian cargo ship (not a tanker) and gross tonnage is slightly less than 2000t (not something like near 30000t). I’m sure that this ship would never carry things like gasoline and I’m sure that Mr. Putin would’n be amused if someone mess with Russian ship. Anyway, I was satisfied that my guess was right.
By the way, I think the third picture (Pandi) in the official document issued by DoJ is taken from balticshipping.com web site.
I don’t know if DoJ obtained permission of using those pictures.
But there is a tanker called Bella found on Marine Traffic:
And one called M/T Luna:
As well as M/T Pandi:
And M/T Bering:
All 4 have been absent from AIS for a while apparently.
What gives US the right to order foreign ships carrying lawful international trade to “hand over” their cargo?
Please note: There is no international embargo on Iranian shipping or oil export, only a unilateral US sanction.
Does US District Courts have extraterritorial mandate?:
PS> None of the ships were anywhere near US waters AFAIK.
It is obvious that the 1st pic in DoJ document is taken from marinetraffic.
And it is fairly obvious for many readers of gcaptain that she is not a tanker by looking at this pic alone.
So, my point is that the 1st pic in DoJ document shouldn’t be there. Unfortunately she shows her name so proudly, a lot of news sites around the world picked up her pic and telling their readers that she is a tanker.
Another point is copyright infringement. Did DoJ obtain permission to use these (at least 1st and 3rd, possibly 4th) pics? I have this feeling that DoJ didn’t, considering Bella, the Russian cargo ship, is in their document.
BTW, the 3rd pic is actually from shipspotting instead of balticshipping
/photos/middle/7/0/9/982907.jpg
Which is to say that the flunky charged to find photos for the report picked the wrong one. Big deal. The report clearly identifies the correct Bella by IMO number.
Yes obviously. I had already found the tanker Belle and posted it’s in post #2.(without having seen the justice.gov article yet)
Typical of reporting on anything nautical. Whether it is a tanker, bulker, container ship or cargo ships doesn’t matter to anybody (except Mariners!!) apparently.
PS> All fishing vessels are usually described as “Trawlers”. All Naval vessels are “Battle ships”.
Those of us who both work in this industry and routinely use social media, have frequently found reports from reputable new sources that completely describe ships incorrectly (tankers, bulkers, etc.), use wrong nomenclature, and even get basics as wrong picture with wrong ship. Here in Hawaii I’ve actually seen photos in a local paper of a barge being towed by a tug and the caption describes this as a “ship”.
While looking at gCaptain this morning, i scrolled through some old articles from a day or two ago that had a reprint from Reuters. It described the two men who were arrested as the Captain and the “Deputy Captain”.
Uh, what??
It obviously meant Chief Mate and it was later corrected in more recent articles. But while it is humorous to me and you, it demonstrates how poorly edited journalism is today (with everything BTW), and poorly researched stories are today, and frequently, little verification is ever done anymore. NOT to get political, but journalistic standards in print and cable TV in modern America is absolutely rock bottom. We see this everywhere daily in everything on the news. Deadlines and being FIRST on the scene to report something is MORE important, than being correct about what you are reporting and actual facts.
