Cargo Ship

ANNAPOLIS -- He said he was a German television producer who had covered the Persian Gulf War. He claimed he had bought a $1 million house off the South River near Annapolis and was looking for a yacht to take his wife and 9-year-old daughter sailing on Chesapeake Bay.The stocky, muscular 52-year-old met several times since December with an Annapolis yacht broker. And when he came up with two checks for $310,000 at the end of June for a deposit, the broker let the man he described as an expert sailor take home the 51-foot sloop he intended to buy. Just to be sure it would fit in the slip at a house in the 2600 block of Green Briar Lane.

BEIJING -- In what could be a major embarrassment for the United States, China said yesterday that an inspection of one of its ships in Saudi Arabia has disproved a U.S. charge that the vessel was ferrying banned chemical weapon components to Iran.The United States forced the cargo ship's inspection as part of a broader effort to pressure China into abiding by the guidelines of various international arms control agreements.China has rankled at this pressure, indignantly accusing the United States of "posing as a self-anointed international policeman."

After being stranded aboard their cargo ship in the Baltimore harbor since July 14, at least 14 Yugoslav sailors decided to head back to their war-torn country today.The other half of the crew was scheduled to stay with the ship, the Dormitor, to help maintain the vessel, according to Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, R-2nd."They grew tired of waiting to see if the court appeal would free them and their ship," Mrs. Bentley said. "They were very anxious, they felt like prisoners."The frustration and anxiety they felt was understandable, Mrs. Bentley said.

About two weeks from now, a cargo ship 21/2 football fields long will squeeze under the Key Bridge and deliver the future of the port of Baltimore. On its deck are four massive cranes built in China that state officials and the maritime industry hope will turn the already bustling Seagirt Marine Terminal into a conduit for mountains of goods delivered by the world's largest ships. Baltimore will join Norfolk, Va., as the only East Coast ports with 50-foot-deep berths and cranes able to accommodate vessels up to 1,200 feet long, which will begin using a widened Panama Canal in 2014.

A federal judge in Baltimore has awarded $462,500 to a low-level merchant marine officer who alerted Coast Guard inspectors that his cargo ship was intentionally polluting the high seas. In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis also left open the possibility of giving Salvador Lopez, a former ship's engineer from the Philippines, an additional $462,500 in reward money, depending on the outcome of another portion of the case. Lopez gave Coast Guard inspectors in Baltimore a handwritten note tipping them off to the illegal dumping of oily waste and garbage during the M/V Aquarosa's first visit to the port of Baltimore in February 2011.

The commander of the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command stood solemnly in front of the elementary school students yesterday and thanked them for their support during the Persian Gulf war.Vice Adm. Francis R. Donovan told the students at Pot Spring Elementary School in Baltimore County how much their letters meant to the personnel aboard a cargo ship stationed in the gulf. "I can tell you first-hand they are very, very fond of you," Admiral Donovan said of the merchant marine seamen who received letters from the students.

A delicate maritime ballet in two acts is playing out Wednesday afternoon as tugboats muscle a cargo ship carrying four supersized cranes to the port of Baltimore. The ship has cleared the Bay and Key bridges and is approaching Seagirt Marine Terminal. The bridges were closed to traffic while the ship approached and passed underneath with its giant cargo. The space between the top of the cranes and the bottom of the Bay Bridge was about 10 feet, according to Coast Guard Capt.

Authorities are investigating the pilot who crash-landed a helicopter at the Dundalk Marine Terminal this week, saying he might have been impaired when he tried to set the aircraft onto a trailer, the chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police said yesterday. The chief, Gary W. McLhinney, confirmed the additional details of the probe but would not elaborate or say whether police suspected drugs or alcohol were involved. The police chief said investigators are awaiting further medical tests on the 34-year-old pilot, identified yesterday as Darrell Kenneth Trivett of Fredericksburg, Va., who was hospitalized after the accident and remains in the critical care unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

As a freed U.S.-flagged freighter cruised out of Somalia's crime-infested waters Thursday, a tense standoff continued for a second day between a U.S. warship and a tiny lifeboat, adrift with four stranded pirates and the American captain they were holding hostage. A day after the American crew managed to turn the tables on pirates who had seized their cargo ship, the Danish-owned Maersk Alabama headed for safer waters with 18 armed guards from the U.S. destroyer Bainbridge on board. Reports suggested that the cargo ship, which is carrying food and other humanitarian aid for African nations, including food destined for Catholic Relief Services programs in Rwanda, was headed to its original destination of Mombasa, Kenya.

ABOARD THE COAST GUARD CUTTER RELIANCE - Sleepy figures milled about the ship deck in the early-morning haze. An orange sun sat on the horizon. Preparations for setting sail were already under way at Pier 14, Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia. The crisp white Coast Guard cutter bobbed gently next to gray warships on either side. Those aboard the cutter planned to board a Greek cargo ship full of kerosene, gasoline and oil - all "high-risk cargo" in the hands of the wrong people.