Ship

Captain Ahab assembled the crew of the Pequod and told them that they could not afford to fail in the quest to kill the great white whale, and so he had come up with a plan. The Pequod lay becalmed on a glassy sea, the sails hung loose, the ship drifting with the current. The Captain had mulled over the recommendations of the Moby Dick Study Group and rejected them. "If we turn back to New Bedford now, as the Old Ones suggest, we risk the loss of the high seas." And so he had decided to put 10 oarsmen in a longboat and to row ahead, towing the ship, "surging" it forward.

City may best handle new-worker influx Baltimore may be in the best position to absorb thousands of new workers expected to surge into the region as part of a national military base realignment, the state's planning secretary nominee told legislators yesterday. Because of existing housing that is vacant, the city would have the easiest time accommodating new federal employees, private-sector workers and their families as Maryland's military bases expand over the next five years, said Richard Eberhart Hall, who has been nominated by Gov. Martin O'Malley to head the state Department of Planning.

A retired Navy hospital ship, abandoned by its previous owner and ostensibly bound for Greece under a new buyer, must remain in Baltimore's harbor after the Environmental Protection Agency obtained a warrant this week to search it for toxic chemicals and secured an injunction barring it from being exported. The multiweek delay will cost new owner Potomac Navigation Inc. hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The company bought the vessel Sanctuary for $50,000 through a court-ordered auction in August.

At 2: 30 a.m. Sunday, the voice emanating by radio from the U.S. Coast Guard station at Woods Hole on Cape Cod said an EgyptAir Boeing 767 jet had gone down 60 nautical miles off Nantucket. On the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy training vessel, crew members realized it was clearly within range of their 224-foot ship."It was surreal," said Gilbert Cadena of Nederland, Texas, a senior at the academy. "We didn't expect this to turn into anything."The transmission set the 26-member crew into action, plunging the team of mariners in training into a real-life odyssey of international scope and monumental human tragedy.

LIBERTY SPICHER HAS MADE her mother proud. So much so, that Sharon Spicher called this reporter to announce that the Bollman Bridge Elementary School fourth-grader has received an award for her participation in the Peabody Training Choir.But that's only one of the 10-year-old's accomplishments. She and her family, residents of Savage, have an unusual and inspiring history.Liberty is named in honor of her grandfather, John Clarence Spicher. Her older brother, Sean -- "John" in Gaelic -- was given the variation of his grandfather's name (and that of his maternal grandfather, John Souder.

Ralph E. Phillips, 79, broker, broadcasterRalph E. Phillips, a former broadcasting executive who later managed a suburban office for Prudential-Bache Securities, died Friday of lymphoma at his home on Hopkins Creek in Essex. He was 79.Mr. Phillips retired in 1990 from the Pikesville office of Prudential-Bache Securities, which he managed for several years. He began his brokerage career in the mid-1960s, when he became a broker with Auchincloss, Parker and Redpath and later joined the firm of Thomson McKinnon.

Michael R. Cataneo, who headed a family-owned line-handling company on the Baltimore waterfront and cut an imposing figure on the docks, died Monday of kidney failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Lutherville resident was 86.In 1979, Mr. Cataneo retired as president of Cataneo Line Service, a business established by his father, Pietro Antonio "Tony" Cataneo, an Italian immigrant, in 1926. The elder Mr. Cataneo started the business after his waterfront luncheonette on Clinton Street failed.

Baltimore Marine Industries Inc. said yesterday that it has won several contracts that will bring the shipyard more than $9 million in new work.The contracts are one more step in BMI's ascent since it was created out of the former BethShip. Bethlehem Steel sold the shipyard to a New York-based merchant banking fund in 1997.Since then, BMI has boosted employment from 25 to 750 -- about 50 more than BethShip had when it was put up for sale -- and 150 contract workers. The turnaround has come with help from workers, who agreed to a 75-cent hourly wage cut, to $12.75, in return for profit-sharing.

From Pier 8 on Locust Point in southern Baltimore, it looked as easy as lifting a drinking straw and slipping it deep into a frosty shake.With the flick of a lever, Tom Malott of Williams Crane Service hoisted the Constellation's new 14,500-pound main mast high over the cab of his giant crane.Then, gentle as you please, he swung the 97-foot shaft of Douglas fir out over the old warship, eased it down through three decks and set it softly on its base, or "step."Five years after the decaying Civil War-era ship was stripped of its rotted masts and rigging as a safety measure, Malott and a gang of restoration workers yesterday "stepped" the new main mast.

The 1854 warship Constellation, towed away sagging and leaking in November 1996, is being readied for a triumphal return to Baltimore's Inner Harbor in time for a July 4 weekend celebration.The Constellation Foundation was to announce plans today to return the floating landmark to Pier 1 on July 2, with a 19-gun salute from Fort McHenry, fireboat displays and a parade of ships.Foundation chairwoman Gail Shawe called the ship's $9 million restoration and return "a once-in-a-lifetime experience that many doubted would ever occur."

A look at recent travel news, deals and tips. Rehearsal rate The Sanctuary Hotel in New York has a "Dress Rehearsal" rate that's perfect for Thanksgiving. The hotel, which undergoing a multimillion-dollar upgrade, is offering nine of its newly renovated rooms at $159 per night. Guests also receive a $50 credit for a future stay when they give feedback to the hotel. After the renovation is complete, rates will start at $309. The offer is good through March 31. I checked last week, and there were rooms available for Thanksgiving.

Driving over the Bay Bridge on his way to work about four years ago, Luis Elizondo routinely found himself thinking about the large ships he saw waiting in long queues on their way to Baltimore to unload their cargo. Elizondo figured the waiting that crews endure at ports around the world must be wasteful and costly. So he put his analytical mind to work. Researching the shipping and cargo industry, he and his partner, John Robert, came up with a new way for ships to move cargo around the world.

The state of Maryland is nearing the conclusion of talks that could transfer ownership of the state's goodwill ship, Pride of Baltimore II, before the end of the year to the nonprofit organization that has operated it since 1988. The transfer would mean one less annual bill for the cash-strapped state and free the nonprofit's fundraisers from a public perception that the ship is kept afloat by tax dollars, perhaps making it easier to raise money. Officials at Pride of Baltimore Inc. note that the state has already ended its $164,000 annual subsidy for the ship's operation and maintenance.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Patricia Flynn stood in a Northeast Baltimore cemetery and saluted four French soldiers who have been dead for more than 90 years. Flynn came to the service at the urging of her friend, Sharon Citro, who had attended the annual memorial several times before. A few minutes into the hourlong remembrance, it hit Flynn why she felt the urge to go to a funeral on an otherwise pleasant day. "When I got here, my mind went back to the French people who helped us gain our independence, not only these four people," said Flynn, who lives in East Baltimore.

The USNS Comfort cruised into its home port of Baltimore on Tuesday, ending a four-month humanitarian health mission and reuniting doctors, nurses and sailors with family and friends. During a tour that brought the ship to seven Caribbean, Central and South American nations, the Comfort's staff treated more than 100,000 patients, and worked with each country's health ministry so that health care could continue after the ship's departure. Capt. Thomas J. Finger called the mission a "phenomenal success," and said it "certainly exceeded what I expected we'd be able to accomplish."

If only the original sailors on the Constellation had it as good as the recent crew aboard the former Civil War ship. Raw bars were set up both "fore" and "aft." There were tables featuring mounds of Chinese noodles, seared tuna and shrimp galore. Not a bit of hardtack in sight. It was all part of the Constellation Historic Ships Museum's "10th Annual BLAST!" A couple hundred folks strolled the decks of the ship, enjoying a pleasant evening. "Excellent. We're in the [Inner] Harbor on a ship.

Michael Linkowich Sr., a retired ship's engineer who survived a German torpedo attack in the North Atlantic during World War II, died of lung disease Wednesday at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick. The Essex resident was 95. Born in Turners Station, he attended Baltimore County public schools and the old St. Mary's Industrial School until the eighth grade. As a young man, he worked for the old Essex Real Estate Co. and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He joined the merchant marine during World War II as an assistant engineer.

Eighteen years after its opening was hailed as the beginning of a renaissance for the port of Baltimore, the Seagirt Marine Terminal is operating at less than half capacity, despite longtime state efforts to bolster traffic at the only port terminal that exclusively handles lucrative container cargo. Containerized cargo remains the port's bread and butter, accounting for 65 percent of the business at Maryland's public terminals. But Seagirt continues to lose ground to its East Coast competitors, as container volume growth in Norfolk, New York and Savannah has far outpaced Baltimore.

Four crew members aboard a Malta-flagged ship being investigated by the Coast Guard after a dispute in the Chesapeake Bay last week were drunk, and one, armed with a knife, shoved a Maryland Port captain, federal prosecutors charged yesterday. The master of the Ocean Victory, Wojciech Kowalski, 63, of Poland, was charged with failing to ensure the wheelhouse was staffed by a competent crew member and with failing to notify the Coast Guard that the ship did not meet minimum staffing requirements, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said.

Havre de Grace will not be home to the USS Forrest Sherman, a retired Navy destroyer that volunteers had hoped to convert into a museum for the Harford County city on the Susquehanna River. The head of the USS Forrest Sherman DD-931 Foundation Inc., a nonprofit group formed to preserve the ship, said the organization has withdrawn its proposal. Kurt Wagemann, foundation president, said city officials had not kept an open mind on the concept. The Navy has placed the ship on "donation hold status" and made the gift of the Sherman contingent on the foundation finding it a permanent home.