BAYESIAN INTRIGUE

 

28 SEPTEMBER 2024: Summer is officially in our wake now and for many, the long wait for the re-launching of our boats begins. Hurricane season is in full swing along the East Coast of the US and true to form, the storms keep rolling through leaving devastation behind - at least along the Gulf Coast and in southern East Coast states.

And speaking of bad weather, about a month ago, recently minted billionaire, Mike Lynch's, beautiful sailing yacht Bayesian, sank in a freak storm off the coast of Italy. The following is from CNN:                     

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The Saga of a Tech Exec’s Sunken Yacht Just Got a Lot More Interesting 

Super-encrypted hard drives, water tight safes, and classified documents have entered the picture.

A little over a month ago, the 184-foot yacht belonging to tech millionaire Mike Lynch abruptly sank. The boat had been anchored off the coast of Sicily, where it had been parked for a night of partying, when an unexpected “freak storm” came up in the waters nearby. Within 16 minutes, the vessel went down. Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, his lawyer, and several others, all drowned as a result.

The tragic incident immediately inspired suspicion due to the bizarre timing of the yacht’s sinking. Lynch and his fellow travelers had been aboard the boat to celebrate Lynch’s recent legal victory: the tech executive had recently been found not guilty in a decade-spanning fraud case that involved a multi-billion dollar deal to sell his software company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. After years of fighting accusations of fraud related to the deal, a U.S. court had—only two months before the tragic boating incident—acquitted the tech executive of all charges related to the case.

Now, in a twist that is sure to rankle conspiracy theorists, CNN reports that the yacht, known as the Bayesian, may contain watertight safes that hold “super-encrypted hard drives.” Lynch apparently did not trust cloud services and, as a result, took encrypted drives with him whenever he went sailing. Those drives, in turn, may “contain highly sensitive data tied to a number of Western intelligence services,” the outlet reports, citing four sources familiar with the local police investigation.

To bolster this argument, CNN stresses Lynch’s high-level government connections, noting that he was “associated with British, American and other intelligence services through his various companies” (Lynch was involved with the cybersecurity industry, which often works hand in glove with government agencies), and in the past, he served as an advisor to multiple British prime ministers, including David Cameron and Theresa May.

Authorities are now trying to seize and protect the sunken hard-drives. CNN reports that police are stepping up security and underwater surveillance around the sunken vessel, apparently fearing that it might be targeted by foreign governments (Russia and China are both mentioned).

It’s an exceedingly weird twist to a story that has already had plenty of weird twists. Case in point: Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s business partner (and the co-defendant in the recently concluded legal proceedings), died the same day that Lynch’s boat sunk. Chamberlain had been struck by a car while jogging on August 17th and succumbed to his injuries two days later. While this may sound like something straight out of Michael Clayton, it may also just be a coincidence. The apparent driver of the vehicle that hit Chamberlin is described as having been a 49-year-old woman who “remained at the scene” after police arrived.

Lynch’s software company, Autonomy, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. When the deal went through, Lynch was serving as Autonomy’s CEO. Shortly after the deal went through, however, Lynch left the company, and the company’s operations quickly unraveled. He was subsequently accused of inflating the value of Autonomy in the period before it was sold to Hewlett-Packard. Lynch denied these charges and maintained that HP bungled the operations of the company after it was purchased. After years spent in courts fighting the charges, an American court ultimately agreed with Lynch’s story.

Lynch’s attorney, Chris Morvillo, who helped him win the case against HP—also died, along with his wife, when the Bayesian sank. The couple had been celebrating the legal victory alongside Lynch.

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We think it likely that more will surface (sorry!) from the salvage efforts of this beautiful yacht and perhaps the mystery will be unraveled! So more to come!

 

Until Next time,  

                                         Fair Winds,

                                                    Old Salt

 

ST ELMO'S FIRE

 7 September 2024: Here we are in September - 1st week done already! How the time doth fly! Cool weather and clear skies have mostly dominated here in the Northeast and it's been great for getting out on the water. Those days are diminishing and soon we 'll be laying up for the winter.... 

For those of you who have ventured offshore and encountered less than nice weather, you may have experienced the spectacle of a glow on the ends of spars - on both power boats and sailing vessels - I have seen it on a U.S. Navy destroyer in mid-Pacific. And it's awe inspiring. From "AncientPages.com" an explanation and quit vivid description

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St. Elmo's Fire is a fascinating atmospheric phenomenon that has been observed by sailors for centuries. This natural occurrence is characterized by a bright blue or violet glow that appears to surround ships during certain weather conditions. The phenomenon was first documented by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century A.D., who described blue flames appearing during thunderstorms.

The name "St. Elmo's Fire" is derived from St. Erasmus, also known as St. Ermo, the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors. Over time, "St. Ermo" was mispronounced as "St. Elmo," leading to the current name of the phenomenon.

Throughout history, many notable figures, including Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Julius Caesar, have reported witnessing St. Elmo's Fire during their voyages. Sailors traditionally viewed this luminous display as a good omen and a sign that their prayers had been answered.

St. Elmo's Fire typically appears towards the end of severe storms. Sailors observed that soon after the glow manifested, the turbulent seas would calm, and the storm would subside. This association led to the belief that the phenomenon was a harbinger of improved weather conditions.

Ancient Greeks named St. Elmo's fire based on its appearance. A single discharge was called "Helene" (Greek for "torch"). Two simultaneous occurrences were named "Castor and Pollux" after Helen's mythological twin brothers. This naming reflects the cultural importance of the phenomenon in ancient Greek society.

St. Elmo's fire, was sometimes associated with the Devil among sailors. In 1707, Pierre Taillandier, a missionary appointed to India, embarked on a lengthy journey that involved crossing the Atlantic Ocean, traversing Mexico, and sailing across the Pacific via the Philippines to reach Pondicherry on India's Coromandel Coast.

During his voyage, Taillandier experienced an incident in the Malacca Strait approximately two years after departing France. He, along with his companion Pierre Bonnet and about a hundred other passengers, were aboard a two-masted vessel, likely an Arabian dhow. They narrowly escaped a shipwreck off the coast of North Sumatra during a severe storm that persisted for several days.

Taillandier provided a vivid description of the experience, detailing how the ship momentarily seemed to defy gravity as it lost contact with the water's surface before descending into the troughs between enormous wave crests, which he likened to mountains.

"The sea was very agitated; the waves were high and quick to break over our heads. They kept menacing us with the specter of death. One alone would have been enough to entomb us."

“But their prayers were answered even as the devil himself, the vessel's frightened crew believed, put up a fight by showing itself as points of St. Elmo Fire, off the dhow's whose sails were made of rush and bamboo cross-battens." 

The scientific explanation for St. Elmo's Fire involves electrical discharge in the atmosphere, often occurring during thunderstorms or in strong electric fields. While once shrouded in mystery and superstition, this natural light show continues to captivate observers with its ethereal beauty and historical significance.

An electrical discharge characterizes St. Elmo's Fire. This occurrence results from a voltage difference between the atmosphere and the sea, causing ionization of gases around masts, emitting a visible glow. While similar to lightning, St. Elmo's Fire is distinct and is actually a form of plasma, comparable to the illumination in neon lightbulbs.

It's important to note that St. Elmo's Fire and "ball lightning" are separate phenomena. While the scientific community debates the nature of ball lightning, it is definitively not the same as St. Elmo's Fire. A key difference is that ball lightning can move through the air, whereas St. Elmo's Fire remains stationary.

Despite its name, St. Elmo's Fire is not actually fire. Additionally, it's a misconception that this phenomenon only occurs at sea. Observations of St. Elmo's Fire have been reported on various structures and objects, including church steeples, airplane wing tips, and even cattle horns.

This electrical display results from specific atmospheric conditions and can occur in various locations with a sufficient charge differential. Understanding the nature and characteristics of St. Elmo's Fire helps distinguish it from other atmospheric electrical phenomena and dispels common misconceptions about its occurrence and properties.

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Having experienced this phenomenon myself, I can attest to its attention-getting abilities and even in a modern setting, causes some level of unease. But it's harmless - except for temporarily interrupting some electronic devices -  and makes for some great conversation!

Until next time,

                                          Fair Winds,

                                                    Old Salt

ALASKAN ISLAND: JAPANESE FORTRESS

21 August 2024: We made it, friends! Ten years ago today the first MARITIME MAUNDER appeared on the World Wide Web! To date, we have posted 567 articles and have reached 206,692 individuals who have found something of interest in our site. I would have not imagined those numbers or the fact we have lasted ten years! So thank you to all of the worldwide readers who have (hopefully) enjoyed most of what we have posted and, while I will not promise another ten years, I hope we can last a few more with posts of varying degrees of interest, but always of a maritime nature. 

For today's offering, we sourced Live Science (on line) and found an interesting piece from WWII - and yes, it is about a couple of wrecks, but not of the ancient variety! Enjoy!

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3 shipwrecks from 'forgotten battle' of World War II discovered off remote Alaskan island

Underwater archaeologists have located the wrecks of three military ships involved in Japan's invasion of Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands in World War II — an almost-overlooked conflict sometimes called the "forgotten battle" by historians.

The wrecks of the vessels — two Japanese freighters and the American cable ship SS Dellwood, which laid undersea cables during the war — were discovered last month during an expedition to Attu Island, at the westernmost tip of the Aleutians.

The Japanese ships were sunk by bombs from American aircraft after Japanese troops invaded the island in June 1942, roughly six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the American ship sank about a month after the Japanese invasion had been defeated almost a year later, during efforts to reinforce the island's defenses.

"The original [Japanese] idea was to turn Attu into an 'unsinkable aircraft carrier'" for attacks on other American locations, maritime archaeologist and project co-leader Dominic Bush told Live Science.

"But as things started to change in the Pacific, they were abandoned by the Imperial command and basically told to hold out for as long as they could — essentially, to die with honor," added Bush, who was a doctoral student at East Carolina University (ECU) at the time of the expedition and is now a researcher for the archaeological nonprofit Ships of Discovery.

research ship Norseman II

Attu and the nearby Aleutian island of Kiska were the only parts of North America invaded and occupied by a foreign enemy during World War II, although Japanese warplanes also bombed other Aleutian islands. In response, the United States spent roughly a year bombing the Japanese there with warplanes and, eventually, drove out the Japanese with a force of almost 35,000 American and Canadian soldiers.

The final stages of the invasion included the Battle of Attu, which claimed the lives of 2,351 Japanese and 549 Allied troops in May 1943.

Bush and his colleagues at ECU — including the project's co-leader, maritime archaeologist and historian Jason Raupp — had spent years researching the Aleutian Island wrecks and were able to locate all three during a two-week expedition in July.

The researchers teamed up with several strategic partners, including the Japanese World Scan Project, which scans environmental and archaeological sites with drones and other robots, to find out as much as they could about the wrecks.

"Nobody had documented these wrecks before," Raupp told Live Science. "So we went out there and searched … and since we had about four years of research and preparation, it made the identifications easier when we found them."

 

The wreck hunters searched the area on board a former crab-fishing vessel — the Norseman II — which has been converted into a scientific research ship and is equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle that took video of the sunken ships. The wrecks were located by a sonar array towed behind the research ship; the array carried equipment for an advanced type of sonar called "synthetic aperture" sonar, which uses the reflections of sound pulses to locate objects underwater.

Raupp explained that the system combines new hardware and advanced software processing techniques to create three-dimensional scans of the seafloor over much greater distances and with much higher resolution than earlier sonar systems.

"It allows for increased efficiency of a survey, because you are able to cover massive swaths of the seabed with a high level of resolution," he said. "We would have needed weeks to achieve the same result using standard sonar."

Kotohira Maru

The wreck of the Dellwood and one of the Japanese freighters, Kotohira Maru, were located offshore at a depth of about 300 feet (90 meters), and the wreck of the other Japanese freighter, Cheribon Maru, was found in shallow water near the shore.

Bush said the damage observed on the wrecks of the two Japanese freighters confirmed reports of their sinkings by bombs from American warplanes.

The sunken American ship had been laying cables for a new air base built there after the invasion when it struck an uncharted underwater pinnacle, Bush said, and the researchers had also found evidence that anti-submarine nets were used to defend Attu's main port from attacks by Japanese submarines.

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I wonder how many Americans who read this blog were aware that the country was not only invaded, but occupied by an enemy force! Wow!

So, with the posting of blogpost #568, we will again say 'thank you, readers, followers, and friends' and embark on our eleventh year!

Until Next time,

                                                Fair Winds,           

                                                       Old Salt