Facebook Inc. (FB) Tells Tale of U.S. Ship Stuck in Venezuela

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has been working hard over the last eight years to become a transcendental modeof communications worldwide, and there is a real-life case study of this extraordinary ability to communicate from virtually anywhere in the world. Even on a cargo ship that is stuck in a Venezuelan port – for rather questionable reasons. First, the Venezuelan officials said they got a tip that the ship was smuggling drugs, then the story changed to firearms. with the captain taken into custody on a charge of forging documents, while the crew members were threatned with arrest at one point but were being detained on the ship, the M/V Ocean Atlas.

Facebook Inc. (FB)

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is the source for regular updates of a dicey international situation in the port city of Maracaibo, Venezuela, where Interpol and the Venezuelan government has essentially seized a U.S. cargo ship, arrested the captain and held the 14 sailors on the ship hostage for more than a week now. The updates on developments come from one of the sailors’ Facebook page – Russell Yale Macomber of Ormand Beach, Florida, who uses his mobile phone to post updates of the crew’s ordeal. With dark humor, the sailor keeps his wits about him and requests prayers for he and his crewmates, beer at one point and of course, help.

Here is a blogger’s post with Macomber’s updates on Facebook.

Macomber uses some dose of humor with many of his updates, though in the last couple days things have become a bit dicier, and he laments at one point that the U.S. State Department isn’t doing enough, as the Seafarers’ International Union has apparently gotten involved in the situation – whether Macomber’s updates on Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) have any effect.

However, this type of situation seems to highlight the value of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in terms of communication and keeping people abreast of events virtually anywhere in the world. And in this case, maybe the value of the information Mr. Macomber shares with his friends just could be more than any market cap Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) could have in the markets.