New British

MAN B&W Acquires Alstom Engines

Effective June 9, MAN B&W Diesel has acquired the Alstom Engines business, and effective immediately the Alstom Diesel engine business was renamed MAN B&W Diesel Ltd. with its headquarters in Stockport, Cheshire. Dr. Hans-J. Schulte, President of MAN B&W Diesel, stated: "We welcome the new British members of the MAN B&W Diesel team to the MAN family. We will strengthen their technical and brand identities, thus bringing a wider range of products into a wider range of markets and placing more resources at the disposal and to the benefit of our customers." The U.K. company manufactures diesel engines under the Mirrlees Blackstone, Ruston and Paxman brand names. The existing engine programs - which will continue to be strongly marketed according to the company - are complementary to the extensive range of engines in the power bracket between 500 and 68,640 kW being designed and produced by the MAN B&W Diesel Group at its other locations in Europe. Mirrlees Blackstone 500 - 600 rpm medium-speed engines find application in the base load power generation in markets up to 15 MW per unit. Ruston 750 - 1,000 rpm medium-speed engines up to 9MW are widely used in power generation, marine propulsion and rail traction applications and it is the leading brand in engines for large high-speed ferries. Paxman high-speed engines are well known in applications demanding high power density engines up to 4 MW including power generation

New British Warship Exercises with US Carrier Group

Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson works with new HMS Daring to exercise air defence capability HMS Daring has been working with the USS Carl Vinson and her impressive air wing of fast jets to test Daring's Sampson radar and control system which allows multiple targets to be tracked over ranges of up to hundreds of miles. That information is fed to the Aster missiles in the silo on the ship's forecastle. With the  long-range radar, Daring can track many thousands of air contacts

B.C. Seeks End to Offshore Drilling Ban

British Columbia's government is pushing to end a nearly four-decades-old ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling to encourage exploration, Bloomberg reported. Fields off Canada's westernmost province's shores hold as much as 10 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to government estimates. It could be the biggest offshore reserves for any province based on these estimates, topping Newfoundland on the east coast

Foot-and-Mouth Fears Force British Ship Out of Canadian Port

A British ship was directed home from the Canadian port of Quebec City on Tuesday with its cargo only partially unloaded due to fears of foot-and-mouth disease, port authorities said. The ship, Bart 10, was carrying military equipment for 5,000 British soldiers on training exercises at the Suffield army base in the western province of Alberta. Some of the equipment was unloaded but food inspectors touring the ship said the presence of mud on some military vehicles was sufficient reason

'Little Ships' Sail To Denmark

A fleet of "Little Ships" left the famous white cliffs of Dover behind them and set off across the Channel on Friday to mark the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation of 340,000 Allied soldiers from France. The 58-strong flotilla had been due Thursday, but rough seas forced them to postpone 24 hours. Sixty years ago, a rag-tag British flotilla plucked 340,000 Allied soldiers from certain death or capture at Dunkirk. Dubbed the "great tide of small vessels" by British wartime leader Winston Churchill

This Day in Naval History – September 7

1775 - The first prize, the British supply ship, Unity, was captured by the Continental schoonerHannah. 1776 - David Bushnell attempts to destroy a British Ship of the Line, HMS Asia, in New York harbor with his submarine Turtle. 1942 - First air evacuation of casualties to hospital ships off shore occurs at Guadalcanal. (Source: Navy News Service)  

Avon Inflatables to Promote U.K. Marine Industry

Avon Inflatables, a U.K. RIB manufacturer, will be representing the UK Marine Industry on a combined outward Trade Mission to Australia and New Zealand this August. The event, organized by Trade Partnerships U.K. in association with the British Marine Federation, will see a number of U.K. marine companies visiting the two countries with the aim of raising the profile of the U.K. industry. During the mission, the group will be attending The Sydney Boat Show,

Romania and Britain Investigate Ship Deal

According to reports, Romanian and British anti-fraud officials said on Friday they were investigating a 2003 deal in which two used British naval ships were refurbished by defence company BAE Systems and sold to Romania. Romania's anti-graft watchdog said it launched an inquiry into the $214m deal to buy former Royal Navy type 22 frigates, HMS Coventry and HMS London, but did not specify which part of the deal was under investigation.

Goldman Agrees to Buy AB Ports for $4.6b

Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and its bidding partners agreed to buy Associated British Ports Holdings Plc., after raising their offer to $4.6b. Goldman is buying the port operator with the government of Singapore and a Canadian pension fund. The group's first bid was 730 pence a share in March. The sale of London-based Associated British Ports is the third takeover of a British harbor owner in the past six months as an increase in world trade and expectations of steady

This Day in Naval History – August 24

1814 - British invasion of Maryland and Washington, D.C.; Washington Navy Yard and ships burned to prevent capture by the British 1912 - Launching of USS Jupiter, first electrically propelled Navy ship 1942 - U.S. carrier aircraft begin 2-day Battle of Eastern Solomons where Japanese task force defeated and one Japanese carrier sunk. Japanese recall expedition to recapture Guadalcanal. 1960 - USS Bexar (APA-237) deploys to Pangahan Province in response to emergency request for aid