Ship Enters News

A refurbished high-spec oil spill response vessel for the Aegean Sea has entered service under a four-year contract with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), a contract with an option for four additional years.Dubbed AKTEA II, the OSRV will be able to reach anywhere in the Aegean within 24 hours and can collect and carry up to 4,500 tonnes of oil.Based in Piraeus, Greece AKTEA II OSRV (IMO 9327516) has onboard capacity of 4,486 cu. m. for recovered oil and is equipped with…

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s new container/roll on-roll off (ConRo) ship El Coquí delivered its first cargo from Jacksonville, Fla., to the company’s Isla Grande Terminal in San Juan yesterday – a milestone in the company’s transformation of its U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico logistics services.“Increasing supply chain velocity while reducing customers’ landed costs was the core reason for our $550 million investment in this important service,” said Tom Crowley, company chairman and CEO.

The stern section of Britain’s new polar research ship, RRS Sir David Attenborough, will be transported by barge this week from Hebburn-based shipyard A&P Tyne (Newcastle), part of A&P Group, to the Cammell Laird’s shipyard in Birkenhead. The new ship is a major U.K. Government investment in frontier science. Commissioned by NERC, and built by the world famous marine engineering company Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd. The vessel is a Rolls-Royce design, and will be operated by British Antarctic Survey when the ship enters service in 2019.

The newly built 11,000 TEU vessel Cape Sounio owned by Costamare has been deployed on Zim’s Asia South America East Coast (ASE), the Israeli container shipping company said. The vessel embarked on its maiden voyage on from Pusan, South Korea, on May 4, on its regular route calling ports in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, connecting to major Asian ports. Built at Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines (HHIC Phil) and delivered in April, 2017, Cape Sounio is the largest vessel to serve in this line and the largest currently employed by ZIM.

Saft will supply two specialized Seanergy marine lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery systems to Rolls-Royce Marine for integration in the hybrid propulsion systems for the polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough. The new vessel, one of the most advanced ever, is being commissioned by the U.K.’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for operation by the British Antarctic Survey. The contract follows an earlier Rolls-Royce Marine contract for a hybrid multi-application vessel for Kystverket, the Norwegian Coastal Administration.

USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), representing the newest class of surface combatant, was commissioned on October 15 in ceremonies at Baltimore. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was the principal speaker. “This ship is an example of a larger initiative to increase operational stability and give the U.S. a strategic advantage,” he said. “Our Navy and our Marine Corps, uniquely, provide presence – around the globe, around the clock – ensuring stability, reassuring allies, deterring adversaries and providing the nation's leaders with options in times of crisis,” Mabus said.

On Saturday, August 27, shipbuilders at General Dynamics NASSCO celebrated the christening and launch of the Constitution, the sixth ship in a series of eight eco-friendly tankers constructed or under construction at the company’s San Diego-based shipyard. The ship, the Constitution, is a 610-foot, 50,000 deadweight-ton, and LNG-conversion-ready ECO Class product tanker with a 330,000 barrel cargo capacity. As part of the ceremony, the ship’s sponsor, Cristin Thorogood – wife of Dan Thorogood…

Iran's defence minister said on Thursday four of his country's vessels accused of harassing a U.S. warship were only doing their job, and Tehran would contront any American ship that entered its waters. The vessels from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted what a U.S. defence official described as a "high speed intercept" of the warhip on Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz. The official said two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the USS Nitze in an incident that was "unsafe and unprofessional…

A new regulation requiring the gross mass of a container to be verified before it is loaded onto a ship enters into force today (1 July 2016). It will assist in ensuring that the millions of containers carried on ships each year are optimally stowed, thereby helping to prevent container stacks collapsing and containers being lost overboard, and the associated injury and loss of life. Some 170 million[1] containers are loaded onto ships each year, bringing vital commodities as well as consumer goods to billions of people around the globe. In 2011, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of pollution from ships…

A Chinese military ship entered the waters of south-western Japan on Wednesday, EFE news reported quoting government officials. This is the first such incident in over a decade and comes a week after a Chinese navy ship sailed near the disputed Senkaku islands. Ap reported Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko as saying that a Maritime Self-Defense Force plane spotted the ship in Japanese waters west of Kuchinoerabu island in southern Japan before dawn. The ship sailed out of Japan's waters about 90 minutes later. “The government will continue to take all possible measures for warning and surveillance activity for our territorial waters and airspace,” Seko said.

On February 22, a new, advanced 14,000-TEU containership entered the NYK fleet after being delivered at the Kure shipyard of Japan Marine United Corporation (head office: Tokyo; president and CEO:  Shinjiro Mishima). The vessel, NYK Blue Jay, employs a hull form that allows for improved cargo-loading efficiency, mainly achieved by minimizing engine-room space. Moreover, the vessel’s main engine is equipped with the world’s first system (patent pending) featuring two power ranges (high and low) that allow for high speed operations, and result in an improved fuel-consumption rate when slow-streaming, resulting in a significant reduction of both carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption.

A former member of the 9-11 Commission recently wrote in The Hill that an “often overlooked” benefit of the Jones Act is its role in homeland security and border protection. Former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton and former state attorney general and homeland security expert from the Commission, said he finds border security the Jones Act’s “most vital benefit” in addition to its economic benefits of supporting more than 500,000 American jobs and the nearly $100 billion it fuels into the U.S. economy every year. The complete article written by Mr. As homeland security and border control remain a top priority among presidential candidates, one important provider of that security is often overlooked—the principal role the domestic maritime industry plays in securing America’s borders.

The Indian Navy said on Saturday that its sailing vessel Mhadei, having an all-women crew of naval officers, has entered the Chennai Port. The vessel which had left Visakhapatnam on February 9, was scheduled to make stops at Chennai and Kochi ports enroute before reaching her home port at Goa. "This is the first all-women crew to man any ocean-going ship of the Navy," says a statement from Indian Navy. The ship is skippered and crewed by an all-women team of naval officers for first time ever and is back after participating in the International Fleet Review. "All the crew members are volunteers and are driven by their passion for adventure and a love for sailing and the seas," says a naval official.

A Chinese naval intelligence ship was spotted off Japan's Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, Jiji Press reported quoting the Defense Ministry. The vessel did not enter the country's territorial waters, Japan's Defence Ministry said, but added it is rare for a Chinese naval vessel to sail back and forth in that area near Tokyo. Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C patrol aircraft spotted a Dongdiao-class intelligence-gathering ship sailing northeast in waters outside the contiguous zone surrounding Japanese waters southeast of the peninsula around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The ministry has confirmed a Chinese military ship sailed back and forth in waters near the Boso Peninsula for the first time, officials said.

Press release - To reap the benefits of any efficiency improvements, reliable measurement and analytics are essential, both to set baselines and to calculate returns. Today, at Marintec China trade fair, Hempel and DNV GL signed a cooperation agreement to work together to bring customers clear, comprehensible and verifiable analytics to track and assess hull and propeller performance, for reduced fuel costs and a smaller environmental impact. Torsten Büssow, Head of Fleet Performance…

Search and rescue teams resumed scouring the seas on Monday for the missing cargo ship El Faro and it mostly American crew, after it was caught in the eye of Hurricane Joaquin four days ago, the U.S. Coast Guard said. More than 70,000 square nautical miles have been searched so far, the Coast Guard said. On Sunday, aircrews found a debris field in the vicinity of the ship's last known position, including styrofoam, wood, cargo and other items. There was no confirmation that the debris belonged to the El Faro…

Shipping company TOTE and shipbuilder NASSCO on Saturday launched Perla del Caribe, the second of two Marlin Class ships – the first containerships in the world to be powered by natural gas. The christening and launch ceremony took place at General Dynamics NASSCO’s shipyard in San Diego. The 764-foot-long Perla del Caribe and sister ship, christened Isla Bella, are Jones Act vessels built for the Puerto Rican trade for TOTE Shipholdings and will be operated by TOTE subsidiary Sea Star Line out of Jacksonville, Fla.

The new ship Anita Garibaldi departed on Wednesday, June 3 from the Petro-Eisa A shipyard in Niterói (RJ), for its maiden voyage. The tanker is the 10th ship of the Program for Modernization and Expansion of the Transpetro Fleet (Promef) to go online. After leaving the shipyard, the ship headed for the Terminal Island Water in the Bay of Guanabara, where it will make its first load operation. There are currently 14 program vessels in different phases of construction, seven of which are in the finishing stage. Four of the vessels are due for delivery later this year.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will hold an international conference on the enhancement of safety of ships carrying passengers on non-international voyages, in Manila, the Philippines, on April 24, 2015. The conference, which will be opened by IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu, will be hosted by the Government of the Philippines at the Philippine International Convention Centre, Manila, and is expected to be attended by a number of IMO Member States interested in the matter…

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics welcomes into operation the M/V Thermopylae, the first of its new generation of Post Panamax HERO (High Efficiency RoRo) PCTC vessels. Measuring in at 36.5 m wide and 199.99 m long the Thermopylae provides the right capacity and fulfils WWL’s frontrunner commitment to the environment. The Thermopylae features five liftable car decks, allowing for more configurations for cargo of various sizes and hence increased capacity for cars, trucks, equipment and breakbulk.

The maiden voyage of the containership CMA CGM Rhone started in China on February 20, the CMA CGM Group announced. The 9,365 TEU vessel CMA CGM Rhone is the seventh in a series of 28 ships from 9,400 TEUs to 10,900 TEUs that will be delivered from now to the third quarter of 2016. The CMA CGM Danube, CMA CGM Elbe, CMA CGM Litani and CMA CGM Tigris are the firsts of this series of 28 vessels named after famous rivers that started being delivered on June 30, 2014. More recently…

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (TR) (CVN 71) successfully completed Tailored Ship's Training Availability (TSTA) and the Final Evaluation Problem (FEP) Oct. TSTA/FEP is a three-week training and evaluation period that prepares the ship and crew for integrated training with carrier strike group (CSG) assets through a wide range of drills, exercises, and operational scenarios. "FEP is a two-day evolution, which tests the basic watchstanders' and training teams' performance," said Capt. John Sipes, the director of aviation training at Afloat Training Group (ATG), from San Diego. FEP ensures TR's crew is fully capable of defending…

ABB’s Symphony Plus control system to help protect Venice from high water flooding at the long Venetian Lagoon Malamocco inlet. Every four years or so, text messages, church bells and sirens alert the Venetians to what they call an "Aqua Alta" or the imminent arrival of an exceptionally high tide. These are high waters of more than 140 cm, which cover around 54 percent of the city. More frequent, but no less worrying, are high tides of around 110 cm, which occur up to four times a year…