This new seem to be an April fools joke. There's no mention of the incident in Venezuelan press,nor Reuters nor AP.
Sounds like the cruise company is on the joke then: https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute-
incident/
Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
101–110 of 164 posts
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#102> 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.
> 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-depl...
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#103Well 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?
They 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
Of 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.
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#104Trump 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?
Highly 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?
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#105This 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 intentio…
Venezuela has a habit (recently) of putting loyalty ahead of meritocracy in government positions. I would not be at all surprised if the captain had minimal actual nautical experience, but a lot of party loyalty.
A tale as old as time. From the H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan (1878):
I grew so rich that I was sent
by pocketborough into parliament.
I always voted at my party's call,
and I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
I thought so little, they rewarded me
by making me the ruler of the Queen's Navy!
Now landsmen all, whoever you may be,
if you want to rise to the top of the tree,
if your soul isn't fettered to an office stool,
be careful to be guided by this golden rule:
Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
and you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navy!Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
So how do you stop a cruiser like that?
Antiship missiles (AShM) or torpedeos would be the fastest way to get rid of a big ship. But in this case they'd have a really hard time explaining why they thought that a cruise ship was enough of a menace to warrant launching AShMs at it.
Actually, the fastest might be boarding it and planting charges. Everything that's remote ordnance based (shells, missiles, torpedoes, etc.) can take hours, if not more, for the vessel to sink.
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#107This new seem to be an April fools joke. There's no mention of the incident in Venezuelan press,nor Reuters nor AP.
I 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...
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#108This 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 intentio…
Old timers here may recall The Cod Wars? Iceland and Britain duked it out in three major confrontations, the navies ramming each other but not firing a shot. There are some truly spectacular videos on YouTube etc.
> Iceland and Britain duked it out in three major confrontations, the navies ramming each other but not firing a shot.
Huh! I had no idea, and just did some research on it. Apparently it started in the 50s and ended in '76.
It kind of gives further context to the Icelandic People's reaction regarding the 2008 Icesave scandal towards the UK. Who went on to put Iceland on the UK's Terrorist list. The UK got paid back in full by 2016.
But I can easily see them being resentful for having the US intervene and stop them from trawling around the Icelandic coast.
Sidenote: according to the this video, shots were fired, and one resulted in the UK having to pay Iceland for the inconvenience of commandeer it:
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#109Since 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.
The US ought to invade Venezuela. It makes a whole lot more sense than invading Iraq or Syria. Venezuelans are hungry and destitute due to the regime, and the country's domestic turmoil has been spilling over into other nations where Venezuelan emigrants endure so much hardship in their travels that many of them turn to crime and panhandling just to be able to eat and have a place to sleep. It's truly disgusting the…
> The US ought to invade Venezuela.
Interesting coming from someone who claims to feel for the hardships of venezuelans.
> Venezuelans are hungry and destitute due to the regime
They are hungry because of crippling economic sanctions.
> and the country's domestic turmoil
Started by foreign desire for regime change.
> It's truly disgusting the kind of inhumanity that Russia and Cuba have propped up in Venezuela.
They are propping up a democratically elected government? Isn't it more disgusting that we are trying to overthrow a democratically elected government in venezuela, like we did in bolivia? Shouldn't you be praising russia and cuba for protecting a democracy?
What's with the ridiculous anti-venezuelan propaganda all of a sudden everywhere on social media? The nytimes op-ed/propaganda by the youtuber daughter of the ousted "venezuelan" central banker wasn't enough?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/opinion/contributors/vene...
Wonder how the nytimes found this small unknown youtuber to write an op-ed/propaganda about this complex international matter. Also, why does the nytimes, which professes to love democracy, support regime change? I know the nytimes was created by a banker, but does that mean it must peddle bankers' interests even if it means millions of innocent people suffer?
Re: Venezuelan ship sinks itself after ramming cruise liner with a reinforced hull
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Old timers here may recall The Cod Wars? Iceland and Britain duked it out in three major confrontations, the navies ramming each other but not firing a shot. There are some truly spectacular videos on YouTube etc.
> Iceland and Britain duked it out in three major confrontations, the navies ramming each other but not firing a shot. Huh! I had no idea, and just did some research on it. Apparently it started in the 50s and ended in '76. It kind of gives further context to the Icelandic People's reaction regarding the 2008 Icesave scandal towards the UK. Who went on to put Iceland on the UK's Terrorist list. The UK got paid back i…
It was Gordon Brown's government who did the stupidity of putting Iceland on a "terror" list. I remember objecting at the time - Iceland had my full sympathy, and that of many other English people.