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90 Year Old Sailing Ship Puts Half of Iceland's Coast Guard Out of Action

posted by n1 on Monday June 15 2015, @10:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the they-don't-make-'em-like-they-used-to dept.

Runaway1956 writes:

The world’s second largest sailing ship, Russia’s Krusenstern barque, has rammed two Iceland Coast Guard vessels in the port of Reykjavik, considerably damaging the deck of one of the vessels.

Local tugs were apparently a little over-enthusiastic while pulling the Russian ship on Thursday. The Krusenstern was preparing to head out of Reykjavik’s harbor, which required it to be turned around with the help of local tugs, according to TASS.

The incident involved half of Iceland’s Coast Guard fleet, consisting of the Chilean-built ICGV Þór, the Danish-built ICGV Týr and ICGV Ægir and the Icelandic-built ICGV Baldur.

Some of you may ask, "News for Nerds?" Well, I find the whole thing rather humorous. After decades of technological advances, one tired old sailing ship inflicts some moderately serious damage on a pair of warships - and suffers almost no damage to itself. Need I point out that it's an UNARMED sailing ship?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gravis on Monday June 15 2015, @10:46AM

    by Gravis (4596) on Monday June 15 2015, @10:46AM (#196418)

    Iceland's coast guard is comprised of four ships. one should take into account the size of Iceland ( http://i.imgur.com/WPNiPEB.png [imgur.com] ) and it has a population of 329K people. they dont really have a military (and arguably a comprehensible language :P) so i guess what i'm trying to say is... who wants to invade Iceland? :D

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 15 2015, @11:16AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 15 2015, @11:16AM (#196429) Journal

    who wants to invade Iceland?

    The pirates. Or US in case they ever grant citizenship to Snowden [wikipedia.org]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday June 15 2015, @11:37AM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Monday June 15 2015, @11:37AM (#196436) Journal

    > Iceland's coast guard is comprised of four ships. one should take into account the size of Iceland ( http://i.imgur.com/WPNiPEB.png [imgur.com] )

    Given Iceland's location on the map you provided, I'm surprised they need any ships at all.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by stormwyrm on Monday June 15 2015, @11:42AM

    by stormwyrm (717) on Monday June 15 2015, @11:42AM (#196438) Journal
    If you ever read Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising [wikipedia.org], he has the Soviet Union conducting a surprise attack on Iceland to disable the NATO air station and SOSUS link there, so that their submarine fleet could surge into the Atlantic without being detected. I dunno if it would still make sense in a future war though, but it was a realistic enough scenario during the Cold War.
    --
    Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by TWX on Monday June 15 2015, @01:52PM

      by TWX (5124) on Monday June 15 2015, @01:52PM (#196485)

      Iceland is strategic in any cross-Atlantic circumstance involving air coverage or transport; there's not a lot of safe places for large aircraft to land, if they have an emergency, between the Northeastern tip of Canada and Scotland. Iceland is also potentially strategic for resupply of surface warships and submarines without having to spend the time to head back to a North American or European port if that area is where they need to operate.

      I wouldn't doubt that Iceland is planned to be well-protected in any event of war in the Atlantic.

      --
      IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS...
      and everywhere the language went, it was a total loss.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @09:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @09:34PM (#196653)

        there's not a lot of safe places for large aircraft to land

        Greenland is bigger and closer to the center of the pond--but is less developed.

        This reminds me of a PBS presentation I saw in 1996.
        NOVA - B-29: Frozen in Time [pbs.org]

        a perilous mission to repair and re-fly a B-29 bomber stranded on the Greenland icecap since 1947

        Spoiler alert

        When the ice melts, what's left of the Kee Bird, the new engines and propellers, will sink and come to rest on the dark bottom of the lake, forever.

        -- gewg_

  • (Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday June 15 2015, @01:31PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Monday June 15 2015, @01:31PM (#196475)

    > but... it's iceland (Score:4, Insightful)
    > so i guess what i'm trying to say is... who wants to invade Iceland? :D

    Less insightful and more inciteful, I'd say.