The Captain's Corner

These endangered whales spend much of their time up near Nova Scotia, but they are seen around Cape Cod in large numbers, and migrate up and down the East Coast to Georgia and Florida.

The Coast Guard has added questions on Northern Right Whales to the Coast Guard Captain's Exam .  Test candidates will have to prepare on this additional subject.  Presumably they will only show up on the near coastal exams, and not the inland exams.

Here's a couple of important facts about Northern Right Whales.  You might find these interesting, and on top of that they are necessary reading for test-takers.

(Under Construction)
    NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE FACTS

• Millions of Americans go out whale watching (4 million in one recent year).
• It is illegal to approach a norther right whale in Massachussets (closer than 500 yards).
• Northern right whales are the most endangered of whales.
• They are sometimes injured or killed in collisions with boats and ships, partly because they are slow-moving.
• Only around 350 northern right whales are believed to remain in the western hemisphere.

 
• Right whales got their name from the facts that early whalers considered them the "right" kind of whales to hunt  -- they were comparatively easy to get and were valuable.
• Whalers obtained up to 90 barrels of oil from one whale.
• The baleen (whalebone) was another valuable product and was used for many things, including the making of buggy whips.

Rescue of the Tamaroa

The Tamaroa, a heroic small ship of WWII vintage, and later a Coast Guard Cutter with famous and daring rescues to her credit, is now being “rescued” and restored by a dedicated group of Navy men, Coasties, and others.

This feisty vessel saw action at Iwo Jima in her first career as a sea-going salvage tug for the US Navy.  Later the Tamaroa was turned to peace-time service in the Coast Guard, and  participated in dramatic East Coast events over a long period of time.  She was one of the first vessels on the scene in the Andrea Doria disaster, and more recently, she was the cutter that rescued the helo crew in the Perfect Storm off the New England coast.

Her admirers feel that the Tamaroa has the looks, character, and history to warrant a restoration effort (and we at Edcon Marine agree fully).  That work is ongoing in Baltimore at the present time.  Consider lending help in one way or another to this worthy project.  More information on the Tamaroa can be found at the official web site of the Tamaroa Maritime Foundation.
http://www.tamaroa.org/   Click here to go there now.

Todays mariners are fully aware of the benefits of GPS position finding.  Current GPS models have features which make them convenient and easy to use; and few, if any, serious boaters will tackle a difficult navigation problem without their GPS.  But, Coast Guard Captain Exam challengers are often surprised to learn that electronic aids to navigation are given little attention  on the exam.  Running-fix problems and set-and-drift problems, and the like, are seemingly much more likely to come up that the more "modern" issues.  That is just the way it is:  the CG wants to test traditional skills more than knowledge of the latest electronic hardware.

But, in a concession to modern times, the CG has recently added a set of questions on GPS to the questions they draw from for the exams.   These GPS questions tend to emphasize background matters, like accuracy and technical information, rather than actual button-pushing on a GPS unit.  Here is a sample question: "What is the minimum number of satellite measurements for GPS to give an exact position?"  (answer: 4).  Loran questions remain on the exam, and have been encountered by test-takers for many years. GPS questions, though, are new.