We were out on Saturday July 2 again at 750 Square. It is about 40 miles 
off of Cape May. A container ship the Evergreen Lines Ever Refine almost ran 
us down. I think sportfishermen should report these instances to the coast 
guard. I am hearing too many of these stories. Even though they can't do 
much about 1 instance , multiple reports will allow them to determine if 
there is a pattern to these instances. Following is my letter describing the 
incident that I am sending to Evergreen and the Coast Guard

RE: Vessel Ever Refine
Dear Sir:
My son and I were fishing on Saturday July 2nd at 73.53.00 38.55.00 
approximately,
when your ship Evergreen Ever Refine almost ran us down.. We were drifting 
with our
lines on the starboard side of the boat. Ever Refine approached us from our 
port side. The
visibility was restricted to about 1.5 miles. At first I thought the ship 
would pass slightly
in front of us, but as it got closer I realized it was going to hit us 
amidships. We started
the engines and accelerated to maximum power. We were able to avoid the ship 
by 100
feet.

I realize that a large ship has a hard time turning and that we are not 
visible to him when he is 0.5 miles away from us. There was 1.5 miles of 
visibility and he should have seen us. Rule 5 of the rules of the road state 
that a proper lookout by sight and all other means available should be 
maintained at all times. If Ever Refine was following rule 5, why did they 
not sound a danger signal ?

Rule 6 states that a vessel shall maintain a safe speed taking into account 
visibility and stopping and turning ability in the prevailing conditions. If 
they were traveling too fast they violated rule 6.

I am unclear how restricted visibility must be to sound fog signals but Ever 
refine was not sounding any. Rule 35 states that fog signals should be used 
in or near any ares of restricted visibility. 1.5 miles was the maximum 
visibility that day. Many nearby areas were restricted to  mile of less.

I am sending a copy of this letter to the US Coast Guard Group, Cape May, 
NJ. I also am going to make sport fishermen in this area aware of the 
incident and encourage them to report all such encounters to the Coast Guard 
to build a case history. I also am going to publicize the incident on the 
internet to make all aware of your disregard for human life and safety. You 
should inform your captains that even though you are a big company with big 
ships, you do not own the ocean.

Sincerely


Captain John W Eppehimer

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Common sense would dictate that if you see a container ship in your
general vacinity ( let alone bearing down on you ) you should keep a
close eye on it and be prepared to move aside.

If the visibility was a mile and a half, it sounds like you had plenty
of time to reel in and move.

Quoting rule 6 to 70000 plus tonnes of steel approaching at I guess 25 to 30 
knots is rather like quoting the 6th of the 10 commandments to a terrorist 
pointing a gun to your head.

Still you had 90 seconds to shift and who was on your radar watch anyhow or 
was your mate looking elsewhere as probably was the mate of the Ever Refine.

Tight lines and brown pants
KM


"Eppefour"  wrote in message 
news:f5ednVSQ5s1y8FPfRVn-sQ@comcast.com...

> We were out on Saturday July 2 again at 750 Square. It is about 40 miles 
> off of Cape May. A container ship the Evergreen Lines Ever Refine almost 
> ran us down. I think sportfishermen should report these instances to the 
> coast guard. I am hearing too many of these stories. Even though they 
> can't do much about 1 instance , multiple reports will allow them to 
> determine if there is a pattern to these instances. Following is my letter 
> describing the incident that I am sending to Evergreen and the Coast Guard
>
> RE: Vessel Ever Refine
> Dear Sir:
> My son and I were fishing on Saturday July 2nd at 73.53.00 38.55.00 
> approximately,
> when your ship Evergreen Ever Refine almost ran us down.. We were drifting 
> with our
> lines on the starboard side of the boat. Ever Refine approached us from 
> our port side. The
> visibility was restricted to about 1.5 miles. At first I thought the ship 
> would pass slightly
> in front of us, but as it got closer I realized it was going to hit us 
> amidships. We started
> the engines and accelerated to maximum power. We were able to avoid the 
> ship by 100
> feet.
>
> I realize that a large ship has a hard time turning and that we are not 
> visible to him when he is 0.5 miles away from us. There was 1.5 miles of 
> visibility and he should have seen us. Rule 5 of the rules of the road 
> state that a proper lookout by sight and all other means available should 
> be maintained at all times. If Ever Refine was following rule 5, why did 
> they not sound a danger signal ?
>
> Rule 6 states that a vessel shall maintain a safe speed taking into 
> account visibility and stopping and turning ability in the prevailing 
> conditions. If they were traveling too fast they violated rule 6.
>
> I am unclear how restricted visibility must be to sound fog signals but 
> Ever refine was not sounding any. Rule 35 states that fog signals should 
> be used in or near any ares of restricted visibility. 1.5 miles was the 
> maximum visibility that day. Many nearby areas were restricted to  mile 
> of less.
>
> I am sending a copy of this letter to the US Coast Guard Group, Cape May, 
> NJ. I also am going to make sport fishermen in this area aware of the 
> incident and encourage them to report all such encounters to the Coast 
> Guard to build a case history. I also am going to publicize the incident 
> on the internet to make all aware of your disregard for human life and 
> safety. You should inform your captains that even though you are a big 
> company with big ships, you do not own the ocean.
>
> Sincerely
>
>
> Captain John W Eppehimer
>
> -- 
>
>
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> This mailbox protected from junk email by MailFrontier Desktop
> from MailFrontier, Inc. http://info.mailfrontier.com
>
> 

Quite what has this to do with UK.REC.Fishing is my question ?