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(Chesapeake Bay) The Marshall islands 600 foot coal carrier BARKALD today proceeded up the Chesapeake Bay en route to Baltimore operating on GMRS repeater input 467.575 MHz. The vessel’s ownership could not be immediately obtained. The MMSI number 538002409 report on AIS was not on file at the ITU. IMO number is 9233404. Ship call sign V7IM6.

The BARKALD made news in 2006 when it was involved in a nighttime collision with a sail boat in Long Island Sound. The Outer Light, a publication of the Saybrook Power Squadron reported on this incident where one person on the sailboat was killed, “The Coast Guard said the crews of both vessels also failed to realize there was a risk of collision and didn’t communicate adequately before the accident on Sept. 20, 2006. Gina Bortolotti, a northern California native who was a chef on the sailboat, the Essence, died. Bothma and Essence captain Ian Robberts were rescued and survived. The 29 crewmembers aboard the freighter Barkald were not seriously hurt. Testing showed that neither alcohol nor drugs were a factor.” The primary cause of the collsion was a mistake made by a sailboat crew member that caused the sailboat to sail directly in the path of the cargo ship.

Reading this one might assume the radio procedures on board this cargo ship are still a problem since 467.575 MHz is not permissible for use by a foreign ship while in US waters. The government of the Marshall Islands also issued a notice to all of their ship’s captains (MS Word DOC File) in 2006 regarding this issue.

A general announcement was made on the local KAE4617 462.575/467.575 repeater announcing the ship’s illegal activity on the repeater input. The ship’s crew was not using CTCSS and could certainly hear this announcement since the ship was visible from the operating location. The crew continued operating conveniently discussing ship’s activity in a language other than English.

The BARKALD is owned by T. Klaveness Shipping A/S of Oslo, Norway according to this article on the 2006 collision with the sailboat ESSENCE.