A free Anti Piracy chart from UKHO

aha, so if we can have a few "pirate" events around Plymouth, Solent, E Coast, Western Isles, etc, do you think the UKHO would issue free charts for those area, too ?

A small issue, but why on a raster .pdf, rather than a vector chart ? If you try and read some of the rubric and contact material, it's almost illegible.
 
sarabande said:
aha, so if we can have a few "pirate" events around Plymouth, Solent, E Coast, Western Isles, etc, do you think the UKHO would issue free charts for those area, too ?

A small issue, but why on a raster .pdf, rather than a vector chart ? If you try and read some of the rubric and contact material, it's almost illegible.
Click to expand...

Because the paper version is printed from a raster chart. All paper charts are printed raster charts.
 
Even if the crew of the Maran Centaurus (see the story below) had one of these charts on board, I doubt it would have helped them very much.......

These pirates are getting very ambitious - and succeeding! This story is on the PBO news at http://www.pbo.co.uk/news/432920/somali-pirates-seize-oil-tanker-near-seychelles


Somali pirates seize oil tanker near Seychelles

After the much-publicised kidnapping of Paul and Rachel Chandler, a British couple, from their yacht some weeks ago, Somali pirates have today seized a huge tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

The Greek-flagged Maran Centaurus was hijacked yesterday morning about 800 miles (1,300km) off the coast of Somalia, near the Seychelles. A Greek coastguard official said that the ship and its 28 crew had been taken by a group of about nine armed pirates.

The ship is now being shadowed by a Greek naval frigate taking part in the EU's anti-piracy operation in the region.

The shipping intelligence company Lloyd’s List said the Maran Centaurus is a “very large crude carrier, with a capacity of over 300,000 tonnes”. Officials could not immediately say how many barrels of oil were on board.

Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions in ransoms that can be earned, successfully hijacking dozens of ships in the past few years. Yesterday's attack appeared to be only the second ever on an oil tanker and raised fears that the vessel could leak oil if it crashed or ran aground - or was the focus of a firefight.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I think we can safely assume that she was probably loaded down to her marks with around 300,000 tonnes of oil on board, hence low freeboard, not going very fast, not many crew on board, and with a cargo that is worth an absolute fortune - an ideal target!

Must be worth a good few million in ransom money, which will no doubt get paid pretty quickly.

I am wondering, why did the Owners not shell out a bit extra for having professional armed security guards on board?
 
Minn said:
Because the paper version is printed from a raster chart. All paper charts are printed raster charts.
Click to expand...

Actually, no. They are printed from digital information, but the majority of it is vector data, not raster. The vector data are rasterized during the printing process, but the raw data are definitely vector in nature. This is true for both UKHO and Imray charts, from personal knowledge - other chart providers may be different. However, as "professional" chart data are supplied in S57 format - a vector format - then I'd be surprised if anyone's underlying database is anything but vector based.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top