daily collection of maritime press clippings 2008 – 241
Transcripción
daily collection of maritime press clippings 2008 – 241
DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Number 241 *** COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS *** Sunday 14-09-2008 News reports received from readers and Internet News articles taken from various news sites. www.tos.nl TOS Rotterdam (+31)10 – 436 62 93 E-Mail [email protected] The TSHD HAM 312 seen operating in Banjarmasin (Kalimantan-Borneo) Photo : Brian Wester © Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 1 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 IF YOU HAVE PICTURES OR OTHER SHIPPING RELATED INFORMATION FOR THE NEWS CLIPPINGS ?? PLEASE SEND THIS TO : [email protected] CONTENTS EVENTS, INCIDENTS & OPERATIONS • • • • • • • • • • Nine Pinoys in hijacked ship off Somalia freed Why Pirates Thrive And Cannot Be Defeated Hurricane Ike bears down on busy Houston port Billionaire’s luxury cruise ship awes coastals Asgard crew praise heroic captain Bulker rescue mission aborted ICS calls for action over ongoing piracy in Gulf of Aden Regulation of Ship Design and Construction Loose storm barges in New Orleans from one company Germany to back Nord Stream project – Merkel • Charity may run historic warship NAVY NEWS SHIPYARD NEWS • • • Kazakh Shipbuilding Launches First Boat Remontowa shipyards deliver latest AHTS Another newbuild for Saudi company • • • Acergy contract extension for Solstad Heerema completes first phase of NW Hutton removal project Havila Shipping ASA receives 140-day contract for AHTS Havila Neptune from Total E&P Libya Scandlines adjusts Rostock service's capacity THE S&P MARKET WEEK 36 Cobelfret bestelt ro/ro-schepen Throughput of Tallinn port down 26.5% to 19.506 mln t in Jan-Aug 08 China Shipping picks up more tankers LIMERICK TUNNEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER RIVER SHANNON (IRELAND) Carriers re-route to save on bunker costs How Fat Herbert won a place in grateful seafarers’ hearts Vietnam Plans to Upgrade Ports STILL GOING STRONG AFTER 40 YEARS • • • • • • • • • • ROUTE, PORTS & SERVICES Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 2 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 EVENTS, INCIDENTS & OPERATIONS Nine Pinoys in hijacked ship off Somalia freed Nine Filipino seamen who were among the 13-man crew of a German-owned vessel hijacked off Somalia were freed by pirates last Thursday after almost a month of captivity, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said. DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the Filipino sailors, along with four other crew members, of the Germany-operated container vessel were released around 6 p.m. (Manila time) They were all physically unharmed and in good condition, he added. German’s Antigua-flagged M/V BBC Trinidad were seized last Aug. 21 off the unpatrolled Somali coast. The vessel, which was held in the northeastern Somali fishing village of Eyl, has a 13-member crew: a Slovenian captain, 10 Filipinos and two Russians. Cristobal also said efforts are ongoing to secure the release of 51 other Filipino sailors seized by armed men who have hijacked six foreign vessels since July 19 in the pirate-infested Somali waters. The DFA identified the released Filipino seamen as: Antonio Calubiran, chief officer, 43, of Antique; Mark Anthony Abalos, 4th engineer, 32, of Rizal; Honorato Sotaridona, oiler, 48, of Pasig City, Ryan Abarientos, wiper, 26, Cebu City; Jesus Cubil, able seaman, 36, Cebu City; Elmer Langaman, ordinary seaman 29, of Pangasinan; Arturo Nicolas, ordinary seaman, 43, Makati City ; Rodrigo Recto, ordinary seaman, 33, of Manila; and Arnold Asuncion, cook, 30, of Bulacan. Cristobal said the DFA is now coordinating with shipping company and manning agency on the repatriation of the sailors possibly through Oman. Due to the rising number of hostage-taking involving Filipino sailors, the DFA proposed a deployment ban on land and sea-based workers in Somalia to protect them from being taken as hostages. The DFA said it must be stipulated in the contract of Filipino seamen that they would not be allowed to be on ships vulnerable to pirates and raiders as happened in the Somalia incidents. Under the proposal, Filipino crews are to be restricted by their contract to “safe sea lanes” identified and certified by the Coalition of Naval Forces operating in the area. Somalia has no central government and the International Maritime Bureau has called on the United Nations to take action to secure the waters and stop the piracy menace in the Gulf of Aden. The waters off Somalia and Nigeria are the most pirate-infested in the world, with the IMB reporting 24 attacks in Somalia and 18 in Nigeria between April and June this year. Source : Daily Tribune Why Pirates Thrive And Cannot Be Defeated The Transitional National Government (TNG), and its Ethiopian allies are still trying to work out political and economic agreements. While the TNG represents the majority of Somalis (or at least according to population controlled by clans and warlords), the smaller number of groups allied with the religious radicals of the Islamic Courts are more disciplined and militarily effective. But the Islamic groups are not powerful enough to dominate and rule the majority. The natural state of Somalia, over the last few centuries, has been violent anarchy. For the last century, however, order was imposed, first by colonial governments, and then by post-colonial dictators. But Somali dictators have been unable to maintain their rule over the entire region known as "Somalia." A government of sorts was always found in some of the coastal towns, which enabled trade with the outside world. But this has been threatened by the recent growth of piracy. Some warlords are taking over coastal villages and running piracy operations from them. This is possible because of the current anarchy. In the past, piracy was suppressed by foreign navies destroying the towns of villages the pirates used as bases. This is no longer politically acceptable, and no one is yet willing to send troops ashore to fight the warlords who created and maintain the pirate operations. The nations with the military forces able Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 3 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 to go into Somalia (like the U.S., Britain and France) are well aware of the region's history, and the willingness of the Somalis to just keep fighting. The availability of speedboats, satellite radio and GPS have made it possible to conduct piracy deep into the Straits of Aden (a major choke point for international shipping). Many nations are sending warships to try and control the pirates at sea, without going ashore. This will be expensive, but is believed to be ultimately less expensive than skyrocketing insurance rates for ships. At least someone is trying to do something about the growing pirate activity off Somalia's north coast. As the risk of ships getting seized in the Gulf of Aden passes one percent, the maritime insurance companies have raised premiums (covering passage through the 1,500 kilometer Straits of Aden) from an average of $900 to $9,000. That's expected to go higher because, when you do the math, you realize that the current increase does not quite cover the million dollars per ship ransom (which is also going up.) The insurance increase has made certain that all ships moving through the area are aware of the pirate risk, and more ships are alert enough to spot and speed away from the pirates. Most ships moving through the Straits of Aden have a top speed in excess of what the pirate speedboats can achieve. But the larger ships take time to reach their top speed, and the trick is to rev the engines of the larger ship soon enough to get away from the approaching pirate speedboats. This requires posting more lookouts (because the speedboats are low enough in the water to not show up well, if at all, on the navigation radar of larger ships). The pirates will continue to go after the ships that they can catch, and these will tend to be the smaller and slower ones from poor (often Moslem) nations. That could have interesting repercussions. September 8, 2008: An American warship caught 14 Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, arrested them and destroyed their boats. Inside Somalia, the group that seized a Canadian journalist last month, are demanding a $2.5 million ransom for her release. Source: Strategy Page Hurricane Ike bears down on busy Houston port Hurricane Ike threatened to wreak havoc with international commerce along the Gulf Coast, as the port of Houston the nation's second busiest - prepared Thursday to shut down cargo operations through the weekend, and airlines canceled flights to the region. The Port of Houston Authority said it relied on information from the Coast Guard in planning the shutdown. The 25-mile-long Houston port receives consumer goods - "anything that you could buy at Wal-Mart or Target," said port spokeswoman Lisa Whitlock - plus automobiles, industrial equipment and other cargo from around the world and ships out vast amounts of petrochemicals and agricultural products. Officials told cargo operators to prepare their vessels to leave the port if requested by the Coast Guard. "It's safer for vessels to go out to sea to get away from turbulent waters," Whitlock said. "If they're stuck in port, they have nowhere to go and can bump against docks." The port is expected to reopen Monday. The approaching storm caused gasoline prices to surge on concerns that the storm could damage Texas refineries, or at the least halt production for several days. October gasoline futures rose 8.7 cents to $2.75 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But along the Gulf Coast, wholesale prices - what refineries charge retailers, who then mark up prices at the pump - rose to nearly $5 a gallon, up from $3 to $3.30 a gallon on Wednesday, according to Tom Kloza, publisher of the Oil Price Information Service. Even before making landfall, the storm interfered with oil refining and chemical operations clustered around Houston. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 4 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Late Thursday, Valero Energy Corp. said it was closing its big refinery in Port Arthur, 90 miles east of Houston, because of an eastward shift in the storm's projected path. Valero had already begun shutting down smaller refineries in Houston and Texas City. Dow Chemical Co. was shuttering its enormous Freeport facility that includes 75 plants producing 27 billion pounds of chemicals and chemical products per year. It was also closing down Union Carbide plants in Seadrift and Texas City, said Dow spokesman David Winder. BASF, the world's largest chemical company, began closing one its two larger Texas plants and was deciding what to do with the other Thursday. The German-based company has 14 facilities along the Gulf Coast. Shell Oil, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said it began shutting down its Deer Park refinery and chemical operations and its joint venture Motiva refinery in Port Arthur was running at reduced rates. LyondellBasell also began shutting down its Houston refinery and has stopped production at a dozen other Gulf Coast chemical and polymer facilities, spokesman David Harpole said. Airlines curtailed service to Texas cities in the storm's path. Continental Airlines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines canceled many flights to Houston, Corpus Christi and Harlingen, Texas. Houston is Continental's largest hub, and the airline expected to stop outgoing flights early Friday afternoon there and possibly at other airports along the Gulf. Houston service will not resume until Sunday, the airline said. Southwest operates 144 daily flights from Houston's Hobby Airport, one of its biggest operations. American expected to resume flights to Houston Sunday, a spokesman said. Trains and automobiles were affected by the incoming storm as well. Amtrak stopped service in parts of Texas because freight railroads, whose tracks it uses, began closing facilities around Houston. Amtrak said ticketed passengers slowed by the storm could get refunds. Union Pacific Corp. halted all rail shipments around Houston except autos and intermodal containers. The railroad said employees were moving equipment out of the path of the storm, then evacuating the employees. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. closed its facility at the Houston port Thursday afternoon but kept its New Orleans hub open. The company expected shipments would be delayed two to three days. German auto maker Volkswagen AG had about 5,000 new vehicles at the port of Houston and wanted to move them indoors. The problem: VW only has enough indoor parking for 100 cars. Spokesman Tom Wegehaupt said luxury Audi models would get the best spots. As for the rest, workers were busy removing signs and any other nearby objects that could become fender-bending, windshield-smashing projectiles in high wind. Source : Associated Press/AP Online Billionaire’s luxury cruise ship awes coastals There is awe in Mombasa following the arrival of one of the world’s most expensive private cruise ships that docked on Monday. The luxurious cruiser, owned by billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, anchored off the Mombasa Old Town seafront. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 5 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Mr Allen was aboard the state-of-the art vessel and was visiting tourism sites. Sources claimed Allen visited several destinations but secretively, shunning media and the public. Enthusiastic residents ogled the expensive vessel christened MV Tatoosh, which looks like a floating hotel from afar. Left : The TATOOSH Photo : Barry Dörr © It has been moored on a secluded stretch of the English Point Channel near Bamburi Cement Factory’s loading bay. The glittering white ship features a helipad on one end of the deck, complete with a helicopter. Allen and his guests have been seen taking off and back in the chopper to inland tourist destinations, understood to be in the Tsavo East and West National Reserves. "This is an amazing piece of floating luxury. You will marvel at how it looks when the helicopter lands and takes off," a resident, Akeel Ibrahimjee, said. The ship is 300ft long and has a 30-man crew. It also sports a deck swimming pool, a health resort, a movie theatre, several surface boats (including a separate 54ft racing yacht) and a small submarine. Allen, a wealthy American, has a collection of other yachts regarded as the most expensive collection in the world. One of his yachts is named Octopus (left) and stretches 416ft long and rated the world’s eighth longest private cruise ship. It is equipped with a music studio and basketball court. Photo : Ernst van der Thoorn © Sources said passengers aboard My Tatoosh were served with meals from a five-star beach resort situated at the northern side of the Coast. Aviation experts at the Moi International Airport said the group had once used the airport after arriving from Kampala, before their helicopter Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 6 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 ferried them to the yacht. The Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers chairperson Lucy Karume said visits by high profile personalities were an indication the country was a popular tourist destination. Source : Standard, Kenya Asgard crew praise heroic captain TRAINEE sailors on the tall ship, the Asgard II, have praised their captain's efforts during the dramatic sinking ordeal. Young seafarers Holly Byrne (18) from Dundrum and Holly Clarke (16) have said that captain Colm Newport was a hero, but said that the sinking of the ship was still a mystery. "The captain was absolutely incredible, there was no fear," said youngest member onboard the ship, Holly Clarke. Photo: Crédits photos "No one onboard was afraid. We never thought for one minute that we weren't going to make it." The crew praised the swift efforts of the captain. "He got us all off the boat in five minutes. You couldn't have asked for better," Holly Byrne said. There were 22 Irish, two British and one Italian on board the vessel which went down in the Bay of Biscay on Thursday morning. It is still a mystery as to why the world-renowned vessel started taking on water in fair water, 20 miles off shore. The Marine Casualty Investigation have confirmed that a full investigation is under way into the sinking and all trainee sailors and the crew have been offered counselling following the incident. VLIERODAM WIRE ROPES Ltd. wire ropes, chains, hooks, shackles, webbing slings, lifting beams, crane blocks, turnbuckles etc. Nijverheidsweg 21 3161 GJ RHOON The Netherlands Telephone: (+31)105018000 (+31) 105015440 (a.o.h.) Fax : (+31)105013843 Internet & E-mail www.vlierodam.nl [email protected] Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 7 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Bulker rescue mission aborted As Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Air Force were forced to abort a rescue mission Friday to save the 22 crew members on a Cyprus-flag bulker. The Coast Guard received a call around 4 a.m. Sept. 12, 2008, from the motor vessel Antalina, a 584-foot freighter with 22 people aboard and carrying petroleum coke, reporting that it had lost main propulsion 90-miles southeast of Galveston and was drifting southwest away from the coast. Left : File photo of the ANTALINA Photo : Gene Peterson © The Antalina departed Port Arthur, Texas to seek a safe haven away from Hurricane Ike when the vessel lost propulsion. Chron.com, the Houston Chronicle web site, reports New Orleans based Petty Officer Jaclyn Young as saying Friday afternoon that the five helicopters and planes sent to assist the ship could not safely rescue the crew. "We will talk to them hourly and they have electricity and no injuries. They have an emergency beacon to put on if they get in distress,'' she said. But the Coast Guard will not be able to approach until the storm passes, she said. According to the chron.com posting, Chief Michael O'Berry said two medium range recovery helicopters, and three other planes went on the mission in high, agitated seas. A statement issued by the Coast Guard this afternoon said the rescue crews were forced to land in Lake Charles, La. due to prohibitive heavy weather. The HU-25 Falcon rescue jet was able to reach the Antalina and observed 20-foot seas, 80-knot winds and visibility as low as a half-mile. "Unfortunately there were 80-knot winds on scene, well beyond the operating conditions for the air crews to safely rescue the crew of the Antalina. The safety of the rescue crews and the crew of the Antalina are of the utmost importance to us. The Coast Guard will continue to maintain contact with the crew of the Antalina and monitor their situation very closely," said Rear Adm. Joel R. Whitehead, commander, Eighth Coast Guard District. According to the Equasis data base, the 1984-built, BV-classed Antalina is registered to Perovo Shipping Co., Cyprus, and managed by TEO Shipping Corp., Athens, Greece. The Coast Guard's PSIX data base shows that the vessel had three electrical system deficiencies when inspected in Houston in February--a ground in the 440 V main distribution panel, a ground in the galley range and a ground in the emergency battery distribution system. These were corrected. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 8 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 However, the Equasis data base showed that the Antalina didn't do too well at a Tokyo MOU port state inspection in Shentzen, China, in May this year. It was detained after the inspection revealed 28 deficiencies. Source : MarineLog The SAFMARINE ABERDEEN – Photo : Ferry van Rijsbergen (c) ICS calls for action over ongoing piracy in Gulf of Aden The International Chamber of Shipping has expressed grave concern over the continuing incidence of attacks against shipping in the Gulf of Aden by pirates operating from lawless Somalia. Two days ago a South Korean vessel was seized for ransom, the 49th vessel to be attacked off Somalia this year and the 20th to be hijacked. As many as 11 ships are now being held by pirates. Malaysian carrier MISC has already ceased sending ships through the Gulf of Aden after two of its vessels were hijacked last month. At the prompting of the IMO, the UN Security Council has already given a mandate to a US-led coalition of naval forces, specifically set up to combat terrorism in the region, to take action against the pirates. However, this action has so far proved ineffective, noted the ICS Executive Committee at a meeting this week. It concluded that the underlying problem was that many of the military forces have not been given clear instructions or ‘rules of engagement’ by their governments, ‘presumably due to a lack of political will’. The ICS is therefore asking its national shipowner association members to draw attention to this unacceptable threat to merchant shipping and the lives of seafarers by briefing mainstream media in their countries on the problem. It also urges members to take up the issue with their defence and foreign affairs ministries, ‘in order to put as much pressure as possible on governments to allow their military forces to fulfil the existing UN mandate’. Source : Seatrade Asia Online Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 9 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Regulation of Ship Design and Construction It is often said that humans learn more from their failures than from their successes. While the saying may be an exaggeration, there have certainly been a number of failures in the design and construction of ships that have resulted in improvements of future efforts. Some of those improvements have been forced on the marine industry by government regulation. More often, though, government regulation has been utilized to ensure that all players implement needful improvements that have been voluntarily adopted by forward-thinking companies. An early example of a needful improvement that was made uniform was the Plimsoll mark or load line. In the 1800s, many ships were being overloaded so as to maximize revenue. Overloading led, not unsurprisingly, to ships sinking in weather conditions that should not have been a problem. After several years of advocacy, chiefly by British Member of Parliament Samuel Plimsoll, Parliament enacted the UK Merchant Shipping Act 1876, requiring ships to be surveyed and have marks affixed to the outside of the hull showing the line(s) above which they could not be safely loaded. While many ships were already operating in that manner, the law made the system uniform. Following the sinking of the TITANIC, the international maritime community developed and adopted the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention. It established uniform standards for, among other things, navigation, construction, radiotelegraphy, and life-saving appliances. Watertight and fire-resistant bulkheads were required. Radio communications capability (at that time, Morse Code) was required on large passenger ships. Lifeboats capable of holding 120% of the persons on board were required. The SOLAS Convention has been renewed, expanded, and amended many times since. Fire protection standards, particularly on passenger ships, were significantly improved following the fire on the MORRO CASTLE on September 8, 1934, when 137 passengers and crew lost their lives. Investigation revealed that the design of the ship and its use of flammable construction materials were significant contributory factors in the casualty. Wood-lined openings between the ceilings and the steel bulkheads allowed the fire to rapidly spread. Possibly the most famous (or infamous) example of regulation of ship design was the mandate that new oil tankers have double hulls. The mandate is found in the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90). The concept, though, was not invented by the U.S. Congress. Ships, admittedly a minority, had been built with double hulls for years. OPA 90 merely made everyone operate at that level. Double hulls for tankers are generally, although not universally, seen as an improvement over single hulls. The major problem with the double hull provision as found in the current version of OPA 90 is that it does not allow for alternatives, regardless of effectiveness. Naval architects and marine engineers Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 10 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 are innovative. Given time and incentive, they will develop different designs for tankers that reduce the risk of oil spills more than do double hulls. There is no incentive to do such sophisticated design and testing if there is no market. So long as OPA 90 does not allow use of alternative designs shown to be at least as good as double hulls, the world will be deprived of those improvements. On March 23, 2006, a fire broke out on a cabin balcony on the cruise ship Star Princess. By the time the fire was extinguished one-and-one-half hours after discovery, one passenger had died of smoke inhalation and another 13 were treated for the effects of smoke. Investigation quickly revealed that the polycarbonate balcony divisions generated intense heat and copious amounts of smoke as they burned. Combustibility of materials used in balcony areas had not been factored, as the balconies were outside standard fire zones for vessels. Similarly, fire detection and suppression equipment was not routinely installed in the balcony areas. The cruise industry immediately adopted voluntary standards to address these shortcomings and the SOLAS Convention was rapidly amended to make those standards uniform and mandatory. On the one hand, the industry (including the architects, engineers, and standard setters) had failed to recognize the problem as cruise ships began to be designed and built with exterior balconies. On the other hand, the reaction following this casualty was a heartening example of how we can learn from our failures. When it became apparent that the discharge of oily waste water from ships was creating an environmental problem, engineers developed the oily water separator (OWS). The requirement for ships to install and utilize the OWS was mandated in the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention). The design and operation of the OWS has been improved over the years and the MARPOL requirement has generally kept pace with the engineering. Further improvements in the OWS are needed and are being worked on. There is little doubt that the mandates for installation and use of the OWS will be modified to account for those improvements as they come on line. Specialized container ships are a relatively recent phenomenon. Even more recent are the ultra-large container ships, able to carry in excess of 10,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units). The January 18, 2007 casualty involving the MSC NAPOLI caused many naval architects and marine engineers to re-examine various assumptions that had gone into the design of container ships. The MSC NAPOLI was large (4,419 TEU capacity) but nowhere near as large on those container ships recently launched or on the drawing boards. Only when the investigation of this casualty (and several others) has been completed and analyzed will the architects and engineers develop appropriate solutions. Once those have been developed, there is little doubt that those solutions will be incorporated into the SOLAS Convention so as to ensure that everyone is operating from the same prospective. The objective is not uniformity for its own sake. The goal of standard setting and regulation in the maritime industry is to ensure that lessons learned, either though failures (such as the TITANIC or the STAR PRINCESS) or through experimentation and innovation (such as the development of the double hull or the OWS) are implemented across the board, not just by a few forward-thinking companies. Those involved in standard setting and regulation, though, must exercise care so as to avoid stifling future improvements. The way must be left open for naval architects and marine engineers to do their work. Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN. For additioal information contact Dennis at [email protected] Source : September edition of Maritime Reporter Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 11 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 The PACIFIC RUNNER departing from Lyttelton,New Zealand for Noumea. The vessel had been in port undergoing repairs and maintenance in the dry-dock.Before arriving in Lyttelton she had been engaged working in the oil fields off the West Coast of New Zealand. Photo : Alan Calvert © Loose storm barges in New Orleans from one company A single scrap metal company was responsible for all of about 70 barges and ships that floated loose in a major city canal during Hurricane Gustav, threatening flood walls and a bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard said Monday it launched a formal investigation into whether New Orleans-based Southern Scrap followed a plan for securing ships and barges before a dangerous storm. It also barred the company from keeping any vessels in the canal during the rest of the 2008 hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, and said it will review the order for future seasons. The vessels - mostly barges but also two decommissioned Navy ships - got loose during Gustav last week in the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal, better known as the Industrial Canal, where a flood wall breach was responsible for much of the flooding that devastated the city in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck. Some of the vessels crashed into an interior flood wall, a bridge and industrial warehouses. Capt. Lincoln Stroh, the Coast Guard's New Orleans sector commander, wrote to Southern Scrap that the "company has not shown the ability to follow (its) Heavy Weather Protection Plan as hurricanes approach this Port." Joel Dupre, president of Southern Scrap's parent company, Southern Recycling, has repeatedly said his company followed a federal mooring plan, but that Gustav's storm surge and high winds were too powerful, snapping anchor chains and causing other mooring failures the company had never experienced before, including during Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard questioned whether the plan was truly followed. There were fears that another big storm could unleash barges in an unprotected industrial area and sweep them toward a federal flood wall that protects the Upper 9th Ward. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 12 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 That threat prompted the Coast Guard to issue an unprecedented order for all vessels to be removed from the Industrial Canal in advance of gale-force wind conditions. Dupre said his company was now following Coast Guard orders to get all vessels out of the canal, or to sink them, by the time Hurricane Ike could threaten the area. Ike was on a projected path toward Texas on Tuesday but forecasters cautioned that the course could change. Southern Scrap was in the process of either sinking in place or evacuating all of its vessels in the canal and poking holes in all grounded barges to make sure they won't float, Dupre said. Source: Associated Press/AP Online Germany to back Nord Stream project – Merkel German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government would support the Nord Stream project not to lag behind the construction of the South Stream pipeline, Itar-Tass reports. Speaking at the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Germany’s VNG Verbundnetz Gas AG on Wednesday, Merkel said the long-term contracts on gas supplies played a central role in Germany’s business. Russia is Germany’s important partner, she said. At the same time, the chancellor said Germany is Russia’s key client. “We have disagreements. But I believe that Russia and the EU will strengthen relations based on mutual interests,” the chancellor said. Nord Stream AG is a joint project to build a new gas pipeline, which will run through the Baltic Sea water area. Gazprom has 51 percent of the capital of the joint venture and BASF (Wintershall and E.ON Rurhgas) have equal shares – 20 percent. The Netherlands’ N.V. Nederlandse Gasunies has 9 percent. Tel: +31 115 645000 - www.multraship.com NAVY NEWS Charity may run historic warship Historic warship HMS Victory could be run by a charity or a public body, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed. The 249-year-old ship was Lord Nelson's flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar when the Royal Navy defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet. The MoD is examining a series of options for its future maintenance. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where the ship is based, said it was "in the Royal Navy's and the dockyard's interests to see her future secured". HMS Victory, where Admiral Lord Nelson also died after being shot during the battle, is the oldest commissioned warship in the world. She was built between 1759 and 1765 and is the only 18th Century ship of the line still to be found anywhere in the world. However, the cost of maintaining her is reportedly about £1.5m a year and more, if major work is needed. An MoD spokesman said: "This is not a case of the Navy giving away HMS Victory nor are we decommissioning it. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 13 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 "We are looking at a range of funding options for the continued support and ongoing maintenance of HMS Victory." Keeping the current status quo, public ownership by another government department or non-departmental public body as well as establishing a new charity for the vessel and employing an existing charity are among the options the MoD is investigating as part of its consultation exercise. Some 500,000 people a year visit the ship in the dry dock in Portsmouth and it is one of the city's major attractions. Robert Bruce, managing director at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, said: "It is clearly in both the Royal Navy's and the Historic Dockyard's interests to see her long term future properly secured and we will work with the Royal Navy to ensure that." Source : BBC NEWS The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) flies a large American Flag in honor of Patriot Day while steaming through the North Arabian Sea after completing a replenishment at sea with the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10). Patriot Day is celebrated in remembrance of the lives that were lost in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Chancellorsville is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility and is focused on reassuring regional partners of the United States' commitment to security, which promotes stability and global prosperity. Photo : U.S. Navy Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 14 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 SHIPYARD NEWS The ZEUS (ex Fairplay 28) changed hull colours again from “Fairplay blue” to her original “Adria Tow orange” Photo : Arjan Ardon © Kazakh Shipbuilding Launches First Boat The shipbuilding yard of Gidropribor Research Institute based in Uralsk (the administrative center of West Kazakhstan Oblast) has reportedly finished the construction of a marine boat called Shagala. Gidropribor general director Alexander Gnilomedov told Interfax-Kazakhstan on August 27 that for the first time in the history of the Kazakh shipbuilding yard the project was supervised by Russia's Maritime Register of Shipping. Earlier the shipyard had only built riverboats for the frontier guarding forces under the supervision of Kazakhstan's Register of Shipping. Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan Remontowa shipyards deliver latest AHTS 9th in series contracted by Tidewater... On August 8 , 2008 another Anchor Handling Towing Supply vessel has been named and delivered by Remontowa to Tidewater Marine Inc., New Orleans based and widely known in the off-shore business, American shipowner. Day Tide has been the 9 th multi-purpose and oceangoing tug of this type, contracted by Remontowa S.A. and built, as the rest of her “sisters”, at Northern Shipyard, the Remontowa’s subsidiary shipbuilder. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 15 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Delivery of the ship was predecessed by a naming ceremony, which took place at Remontowa SA with the participation of the representatives of the shipowner and the REMONTOWA Group. Mrs Shirley Boyd from Tidewater, who was serving as the godmother of the ship, broke a traditional bottle of champaigne against the hull. The multi-purpose anchor handling tug and supply vessel Day Tide (shipyard no. B 844/7) is designed as capable of operation in relatively shallow waters comparing to competing designs with similar deck payload, power and other principal characteristics. The 70.00 m long, 15.50 m wide and 6,3 deep vessel is powered with two main engines, rated at 7500 kW (approx. 10 000 HP), which enables to achieve service speed of 13 knots and maximum speed of 15 knots and a bollard pull of over 125 T. Open work deck area of above 400 sq m and 1000 t capacity facilitates supply functions in addition to 55 underdeck tanks for water, fuels and dry bulk drilling materials. The ship will be equipped with fire-fighting system of 1200 cu m / h capacity. The successful B 844 series of vessels is being constructed to design supplied by NED consulting naval architects from the REMONTOWA Group and under supervision from ABS. The REMONTOWA Group has 23 units of the AHTS type in its orderbook, so far. Already contracted ships of this type are expected to be delivered till the end of 2010. There are also six ships of larger design with the 150 T bollard pull, in the orderbook. And, as Mr Monty Orr, vice president International Sales, Tidewater Inc, has announced, this may not be the end of co-operation with Remontowa. Above seen the HAM 309 during repairs at the Ciramar Shipyard in the Dominican Republic. Photo : Martijn Hollander © Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 16 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Another newbuild for Saudi company Saudi Arabia-based Zamil Offshore Services has launched Zamil 53, the second of seven UT 733-2s building at its yard in Dammam. Said Seabrokers in the latest issue of its monthly market report Seabreeze: "Zamil operates arguably the largest and most modern specialised offshore support fleet in the area with the majority on term charter to Saudi Aramco." Meanwhile Zamil Shipyard is busy up to 2011 with the five AHTS, a DSV, two tugs and a buoy handling vessel ROUTE, PORTS & SERVICES REDWISE MARITME SERVICES B.V. Amersfoortseweg 12-E 3751 LK Bunschoten-Spakenburg The Netherlands Phone : +31 (0) 33 42 17 860 (24 hr) Fax : +31 (0) 33 42 17 879 - [email protected] www.redwise.com Heerema completes first phase of NW Hutton removal project On August 28th, Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) completed the first phase of BP’s North West Hutton removal project, which is located some 130km northeast of the Shetland Islands. In this phase of the project, the topsides were removed and subsea work was carried out to remove a great number of structures like anodes, conduits and densitometers in preparation for removing the jacket in 2009. HMC’s semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) Hermod commenced the removal campaign on May 7th. The challenging project was characterized by an excellent safety record (no LTIs – Lost Time Incidents), which is all the more impressive considering the more than 100,000 man hours spent on the platform. During the 114 days of the project, 18 days of fierce weather downtime was experienced, which caused delays to both Hermod and the five transportation barges. One of the successes of this campaign was managing the hook down, removal and subsea activities in parallel. For three months Hermod berthed and fed 360 people (her maximum capacity) working around the clock. Said HMC: "The welders did outstanding work with only three cut-outs in thousands of metres of welds, and the marine and tug crews dealt with the ever-changing weather conditions and logistics." Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 17 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 All of the 21 lifts were critical in their own respect, in particular the eight which came close to the maximum capacity of the crane. The position of Hermod and the cargo barge was essential to the success of the lifts. The structures have now arrived at the Able recycling yard in Teesside, UK, where they will be dismantled further and largely recycled. HMC will return to NW Hutton in 2009 to remove the jacket. Friday 12.9.08 the PICTON CASTLE seen passing Felixstowe after leaving Ipswich on her way to the Mediterranean, then across to the Caribbean, then back to her port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where her trip started on 5.5.2008 and will finish on 23.5.2009 at her home port. She is 179 feet overall, with a Riveted steel hull, Pine decks, Steel masts, 12,450 square feet of canvas, Engine is a 690 hp Burmeister & Wain alpha diesel. Photo : George Munnings © Havila Shipping ASA receives 140-day contract for AHTS Havila Neptune from Total E&P Libya Norwegian offshore vessels operator Havila Shipping ASA said on Friday (13 September) that it has received a contract for its anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel Havila Neptune from Total E&P Libya. The contract has a firm duration of 140 days and is estimated to be worth USD11.5m. Havila Shipping, headquartered in Fosnavaag in Norway, provides maritime support functions for the offshore oil and gas industry. The company operates 12 ships and has a newbuilding programme of 10 vessels, and reported revenue of NOK675.26m in 2007. Acergy contract extension for Solstad Solstad in Norway has announced that Acergy has declared an option to extend the contract for the construction service vessel Normand Mermaid for one year from November 2008. This is the second of a total of three yearly options. Source : offshore Shipping online Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 18 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Scandlines adjusts Rostock service's capacity SSG-RINGKØBING. Scandlines will adjust its capacity on the service from Gedser to Rostock during the winter seasons. According to Scandlines the need for transportation of lorries and trailers are decreasing due to a growing recession in Europe. Therefore Scandlines has decided to lay up the freight ferry Rostock ex Thjelvar. Rostock will be taken out of service in October and will remain laid up until April 2009. The sailings on the Gedser-Rostock service will decrease from 12 to 9 sailings per day. The ferry will be lying on short notice and can be re-deployed if traffic volumes rises during the winter. THE S&P MARKET WEEK 36 By the Scandinavian Shipping Gazette Bulkers Iris II/Achilles II: 75,798 dwt blt 04 Sanoyas, 7Hoha, Three Stars: 74,759 dwt blt 05 Hudong, 7Hoha, Medi Cebu: 52,464 dwt blt 07 Tsuneishi, 5Hoha, Crs 4x30t. Sold region USD 352,000,000 en bloc to Oceanaut, sale incl tc periods as follows: Iris II: 5 years tc at USD 40,000 per day, Achilles II: 2 years tc at USD 57,350 per day. Three Stars: 3 years tc at USD 60,000 per day, Medi Cebu: 3 years tc at USD 42,000 per day. ABG Keshava: 37,459 dwt blt 82 Caneco, 5Hoha, Crs 2x35t, 2x25t. Sold region USD 18,000,000 to Vietnamese buyer. Containers Ruiloba: 18,091 dwt blt 07 Barreras, 8Hoha, 1,267 teu. Sold region USD 46,000,000 to German buyer, sale incl 3 year tc to A.P. Møller at USD 19,590 per day. Sinar Riau: 12,300 dwt blt 93 Szczecinska Stocznia, 4Ho/7Ha, 1,012 teu, Crs 2x40t. Sold region USD 15,500,000 to Indonesian buyer. Ara Atlantis: 11,435 dwt blt 07 Germany, 5Hoha, 868 teu. Sold region USD 20,200,000 to Holland based buyer. Jacqueline: 10,730 dwt blt 95 Miho Shimizu, 5Hoha, 844 teu, Crs 2x40t. Sold region USD 16,000,000 to Shreyas. Ro-ro/Ropax/Ferries/Cruise Prinsesse Ragnhild: 1875/583/1762 pax/cabins/beds, 950 lm, 21 kn, blt 81 HDW. Sold for EUR 23,000,000 to Celebration Cruise Holdings. Tankers African Horizon: 151,445 dwt blt 88 Daewoo. Sold region USD 30,000,000 to Nigerian buyer. Siteam Panther: 46,100 dwt blt 85 Boelwerf Temse. Sold region USD 9,500,000 to undisclosed buyer. Bow Santos: 19,997 dwt blt 04 Shin Kurushima. Sold region USD 41,000,000 to undisclosed East buyer. Jambeli: 3,467 dwt blt 96 Banguhjin. Sold region USD 5,600,000 to undisclosed East buyer. Cobelfret bestelt ro/ro-schepen Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 19 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 De Belgische rederij Cobelfret heeft in Japan vier ro/ro-schepen besteld voor oplevering in 2011 en 2012. Dat meldt het Zweedse ShipPax Information. Het kwartet is bestemd voor de veerdiensten van de dochter Dart Line uit Oostende. In vergelijking met de zes ro/ro-schepen die Cobelfret al in het Duitse Flensburg in aanbouw heeft, worden de vier eenheden die Kyokuyo Shipyard in Japan zal bouwen, een stuk kleiner. Het worden wel de grootst mogelijke schepen die Ipswich kunnen aanlopen. De 6.600 dwt metende ro/ro's zouden een garagecapaciteit van 2.000 meter krijgen. Cobelfret werd onder de naam Dart Line actief vanuit Oostende na de overname van de activiteiten van Ferryways. Ook Ferryways was kort voor de overname al met een Chinese werf in contact omdat de schepen die toen vanuit Oostende ingezet werden, stilaan aan vervanging toe waren Bron : Nieuwsblad Transport Throughput of Tallinn port down 26.5% to 19.506 mln t in Jan-Aug 08 In January-August, 2008, the port of Tallinn handled 19.506.1 million tonnes of cargo (-26.5%, year-on-year), the port informs. In the reported period, transshipment of general cargo fell by 26.6%, year-on-year, to 424,800 tonnes, dry cargo – by 69.3% to 2.010.5 million tonnes. In January-August, transshipment of liquid bulk cargo amounted to 13.633 million tonnes (-14.9%, year-on-year). The port’s container throughput made 121,895 TEU (+1.3%). Transshipment of ro-ro cargo amounted to 2.452.4 million tonnes (+3.9%, year-on-year). In the reported period the port dispatched 15.235.5 million tonnes of cargo (-33.1%), including 1.982.5 million tonnes of export cargo (+10.8%), transit – 13.253 million tonnes (-36.8%). Commercial Seaport of Tallinn is a large cargo and passenger seaport located at the southern shore of the Tallinn Bay. It was founded in 1219. Tallinn is the third largest port of the Baltic Sea after St. Petersburg and Primorsk. The port consists of 5 port ones: Muuga, Old City Harbour, Paljassaare, Paldiski South and Saaremaa. China Shipping picks up more tankers Local reports confirmed Thursday that China Shipping Development (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., has ordered four oil tankers each with a carrying ability for 76,000 tonnes of crude oil or oil products. The China Shipping Development subsidiary placed the $228 million order with Dalian Shipbuilding. 20% of the cost is slated to be self-financed with 80% being picked up by bank loans. Delivery has been scheduled from middle to late 2011. As of June 30, 2008 China Shipping Development owned 56 oil tankers, including 31 crude and 25 product tankers, with a total carrying capacity of 3.58 million tonnes, reported the Xinhua News Agency. Source: tankerworld Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 20 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 LIMERICK TUNNEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER RIVER SHANNON (IRELAND) The Limerick Tunnel is one of the largest projects undertaken in the western region, at a cost of over 500Million euros. The Limerick Tunnel Project is Phase II of the Limerick South Ring road project connecting the Dublin Road, N7 to the Ennis Road - N18. The estimated completion date is 2010. The construction of the Limerick Tunnel began in August 2006 since then work has opened up on a number of fronts. The tunnel is the major element of the project. After serious consideration and an exhaustive environmental impact study it was agreed that a tunnel under the river Shannon offered the best long term socio-economic to Limerick and the region. The tunnel is an immersed tube tunnel measuring 675m in length. The tube will consist of two bores, one for southbound traffic and the other for Northbound traffic. Each of the two bores comprises a two lanes with emergency walkways on each side. Five Tunnel Units are casted in an area north of the Shannon. These units will be floated out and sunk into a pre-dredged channel across the river. The tunnel is completed by cut and cover sections at each end and approach ramps. Above seen the transport of the first tunnel element by means of winches of TENWOLDE at the river Shannon before being submerged at the final location, the remaining 4 elements will be installed in the next couple of weeks, the installation and submerging operation will be completed during week 43 Photo’s : Arie Schelling – Tenwolde © Carriers re-route to save on bunker costs The Port of Portland, Oregon has reported increased interest from cargo carriers as shipowners commit to reducing fuel costs. "We have marketed our proximity to Asia relative to other West Coast ports, as it yields efficiencies in time, fuel and money for carriers," a spokesperson for the port told Bunkerworld today. "Being closer to Asia than US Pacific Southwest gateways is a selling point among others. The response has been very positive," added the spokesperson. Earlier this year the lines in the CKYH Alliance, which includes Cosco Container Lines, K-Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping, decided to bring K-Line back to the Portland market. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 21 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 Part of that decision was based on fuel efficiency, noted the spokesperson. The shipping company pulled out of Portland at the end of the 2004, saying it added a stop in Shanghai and needed to save time by cutting a US call. Route adjustments and port combinations have since been introduced by the CKYH alliance on four transpacific loops to streamline the service alignment, and reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. "Transpacific container trade has shifted over the last 18 months, and the CKYH Alliance of carriers has been proactive in adjusting to rising bunker fuel costs and changing global market conditions," the port spokesperson concluded. Source: Port World How Fat Herbert won a place in grateful seafarers’ hearts Adventures of the Far Turbot, the tug that became a life-saver for the Dover coastguard The tug’s crew would place their ‘Dead Fred’ weighted dummy at the far end of the shaft tunnel and the lifeboat crew had to work with the tug’s crew in getting a badly injured and unconscious Fred into a suitable stretcher and then onto the lifeboat. LIKE humans, most ships lead inconspicuous lives. But everyone has their moment of fame. When a ship is passed down to new owners, highlights of any previous notable exploits can be lost on its new custodians with the arrival of a new crew. One particular hard-working ship sold on to new owners in the Far East a few years ago will, however, have an interesting chapter in its history to tell. The Norwegian-owned, British-crewed anchor handling tug supply vessel Far Turbot served the offshore oil industry, mainly in the North Sea, until 1995, when it headed south to the relatively calmer waters of the Dover Strait to become one of the first Maritime & Coastguard Agency-chartered emergency towing vessels. The provision of standby tugs at a number of strategic locations was one of the recommendations following the late Lord Donaldson’s inquiry into the loss of the tanker Braer in the Shetlands in 1993. Initially a winter season-only arrangement, the joint Farstad Shipping/United Salvage contract later became an all-year-round operation under the control of Dover Coastguard, in an area identified by Lord Donaldson as being of high risk from maritime incidents. In later years, the MCA was to share the costs of the Dover Strait ETV with its French counterparts, the vessel alternating between French and UK control every few days. Anchored overnight in Margate Roads, the Downs or Dungeness Roads, the tug’s distinctive aspect and markings made it instantly recognisable to the local population. An elderly lady was once heard referring to Fat Herbert, as it was affectionately known, as ‘our tug’. As a taxpayer she had a valid point. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 22 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 The raison d’être of the ETV was to avert pollution by being able to intervene during the early stages of a ship encountering difficulties. But of course it does not spend every day towing ships to safety, and is expected to carry out other duties as well. Its availability often provided an extra string to the bow of the coastguard and the local maritime rescue services, particularly in waters popular with the leisure boating sector. The crews of the Far Turbot were keen to carry out training exercises with the local rescue services, including RNLI lifeboats, opportunities that allowed these David and Goliaths to practise drills which, particularly for the lifeboats, were normally difficult to arrange. Margate, on the north Kent coast, is one of several lifeboat stations in the area that took advantage of this opportunity. A popular scenario was evacuating an injured crew member from a remote part of the vessel. The tug’s crew would place their ‘Dead Fred’ weighted dummy at the far end of the shaft tunnel and the lifeboat crew had to work with the tug’s crew in getting a badly injured and unconscious Fred into a suitable stretcher and then onto the lifeboat. On one occasion the crew simulated language difficulties to frustrate the lifeboat crews’ attempts to use their ‘local knowledge’ of the ship and any useful equipment they might have. The lifeboat turned up on one occasion to find Fred draped unceremoniously over the rails on the monkey island, but the tug’s crew were talked into making use of the ship’s crane, making that rescue an easy one for the lifeboat crew. These occasions always started with a pre-exercise telephone briefing between the tug’s master and the lifeboat coxswain, which inevitably included the usual contractual arrangement of swapping a supply of the Sunday newspapers for a tray of hot Chelsea buns and the mail. There was a serious side to all this, of course, and on one occasion after such an exercise both the tug and the lifeboat were to work together in danger. A local fishing boat that had been attending a ship anchored in Margate Roads was caught out by a sudden and dramatic change in the weather when a passing line squall saw a balmy summer’s day go all wrong. A light southwesterly breeze becamea northerly gale with gusts of around 50 knots in a matter of minutes. Allhell broke loose, with vessels both small and large in the Thames Estuary and beyond finding themselves in difficulties. For a while the rescue services were stretched. While the fishing boat was moving away from the side of the ship, a wave swamped it, partly flooding the engine compartment. The boat was then dangerously unstable and at risk of foundering. The skipper followed the correct procedure by broadcasting a mayday message, and the lifeboat from Margate and the Far Turbot were soon on scene, but the fishing boat’s skipper faced a dilemma. Holding his boat’s head into the heavy seas, he was reluctant to leave the wheel to assess the situation below. With the lifeboat close at hand in case it all went wrong, it was considered that the best option was for the boat to execute a carefully timed turn for a downwind run back to the safety of Ramsgate harbour. The tug positioned itself beam on to the seas in the boat’s path, providing a lee, manoeuvring sideways to keep pace with the boat’s slow progress. The tug’s master very slowly narrowed the gap between his vessel and the fishing boat, and with the insurmountable solid bulk of the tug’s red hull blocking his path the fishing boat’s skipper then had the opportunity to make his turn and run for safety. Probably the comparative vastness of the tug had taken his mind off the steep seas. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 23 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 All ended happily. The Ramsgate lifeboat arrived to take over the escort and the Margate lifeboat went off to help out another small craft that was “held in a queue” to be rescued. In turn, the Far Turbot set out to assist a bulk carrier that was experiencing difficulties. For the tug, just another job, but it had probably been instrumental in helping save a man’s life that day. This is only part of the story of one of many ETVs that have provided this work at four locations around the UK coast, work that continues today. The Far Turbot was replaced in 2001 by Klyne Tugs’ Anglian Monarch and this valuable contribution to the safety of both small boats and large ships continues. After returning to duties in the oil industry the Far Turbot was sold on to new owners in China in 2004 to become the splendidly named Dong Fang Yong Shi 3. Before leaving the Dover Strait, however, the lifeboat crew at Margate presented both the ship and United Towing with a plaque thanking them for their friendship over the years. If the plaque stayed with the ship, perhaps the new Chinese crew look at it and say: “I wonder what that was all about?” Vietnam Plans to Upgrade Ports The Vietnam Seaports Association (VPA) is focusing on 10 major measures to upgrade national seaports to the regional and international standards to turn the shipping industry into the key of the national marine economy after 2020. The strategy was worked out at an annual conference held by the association in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on September 11, which drew over 300 representatives from 49 seaports nationwide and leaders of the relevant agencies. The VPA said it attached importance to international cooperation in consultancy, development assistance and trade promotion to bring the national seaport system on a par with other regional countries in all fields, ranging from development scales to management, potential tapping effectiveness and competitiveness. It also unveiled a plan to upgrade the technological system to increase the cargo handling capacity and mitigate service costs, thus ensuring high competitiveness in deep-water seaports in the global integration era. Vietnam now boasts a system of 160 seaports, which recorded an annual growth rate of 20 per cent in cargo handling volumes. Source: VNA STILL GOING STRONG AFTER 40 YEARS Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 24 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 The tug WIZARD seen arriving in IJmuiden yesterday morning with the newbuilding hull YVONNE, built as the HOLLYGARTH during 1969 and during 1997 renamed TOWING WIZZARD followed by WIZZARD in 2003, the 36.5 mtr long 50 ton BP tug is at present owned by Atlas Salvage Consultants in Piraeus (Greece) Photo : Jan Plug © MOVEMENTS LATEST UPDATE ON ARRIVAL OF THE TUG ZEUS WITH THE UISGE GORM : AT PRESENT ETA MAASPILOT STATION IS TODAY (SUNDAY) SEPTEMBER 14TH AROUD NOON, WHEN DUE TO WEATHER/SPEED OF THE TRANSPORT THIS TIME CAN NOT BE ACHIEVED THE TRANSPORT HAS TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT TIDE WHAT WILL BE AROUND MIDNIGHT The Saga Ruby at anchor in Carrick Roads - Falmouth Friday 12th September 2008. She was to move in alongside the County Wharf - Falmouth later in the day . Photo : Ian Denton © Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 25 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 …. PHOTO OF THE DAY ….. The Asian Hercules II discharging the Bunga Orkid Turret at MMHE in Pasir Gudang in Malaysia Photo : Capt. Jelle de Vries © Crisis in de hand Organiseren onder moeilijke omstandigheden Door : Jurriaan Cals, Els Visser, Ruud Plomp Prijs: € 24,90 ISBN-13: 9789089650085 Samenvatting Stelt u zich voor: u krijgt te maken met een onverwachte situatie, waardoor het imago en/of het voortbestaan van uw organisatie worden bedreigd of de veiligheid van het personeel of de omgeving in gevaar worden gebracht. Een crisissituatie. Het hoeft niet altijd om een fysieke crisis te gaan, zoals een crisis die wordt veroorzaakt door een brand of een explosie. Een crisis kan bijvoorbeeld ook ontstaan door fraude, diefstal, discriminatie, computeruitval, een seksschandaal of een productiefout. Ook dan is er sprake van een onverwachte situatie met mogelijk grote schadelijke gevolgen. In dit boek gaat het om het moment dat er daadwerkelijk iets misgaat. Wat doet u dan? Wat gebeurt er allemaal op zo’n moment. Hoe voelt dat en wat zou u dan kunnen doen? Waar en hoe begint u eigenlijk? Hebt u keuzes? Wat kunt u doen om u een beeld te vormen van wat er werkelijk aan de hand is? Hoe kunt u overzicht behouden? Hoe kunt u omgaan met de onvermijdelijke menselijke beperkingen? Daarnaast komt de moeilijkheid van besluiten nemen aan de orde en wordt stilgestaan bij wat communicatie allemaal betekent. Uiteindelijk biedt ieder incident unieke kansen om te leren. Hoe kan uw organisatie leren van de crisis? Vanuit de optiek van de auteurs zijn organisaties die zich bewust zijn van mogelijke risico’s en daarop vooraf anticiperen, Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 26 9/14/2008 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2008 – 241 weerbaarder dan organisaties die dat niet doen. Daarom besteden zij uitgebreid aandacht aan hoe u organisaties veerkrachtig en weerbaar kunt maken. Dit boek is bedoeld voor managers, leidinggevenden, directieleden, stafleden en andere vakmensen in profit- en nonprofitorganisaties die zichzelf willen voorbereiden op moeilijke en complexe situaties. http://www.managementboek.nl:80/boek/9789089650085/crisis_in_de_hand_jurriaan_cals The compiler of the news clippings disclaim all liability for any loss, damage or expense however caused, arising from the sending, receipt, or use of this e-mail communication and on any reliance placed upon the information provided through this free service and does not guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information. If you want to no longer receive this bulletin kindly reply with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Distribution : daily 4775 copies worldwide Page 27 9/14/2008
Documentos relacionados
Newsletter 18 2014 - Subscribe
tug fleet, crews, shore-side staff, offices and other facilities will continue to operate as before under the existing chief executive, David Offin. All four vessels are Japanese built ASD tugs cap...
Más detalles