Titan News

Jayson Robinson has been named Vigor’s Vice President of Fabrication, taking the helm of the complex and marine fabrication divisions with facilities in Clackamas and Portland, Ore., as well as Vancouver, Wash. Robinson joined Vigor, a Titan company, as the director of quality in 2018 and has been serving as the assistant vice president since last fall.“Jayson has been a key part of several highly-successful projects at Vigor during his tenure,” said Titan CEO Jim Marcotuli. “His leadership and expertise will be critical as we enter a period of potential growth for this part of our business.

Lighting solutions specialist Glamox has won a contract from PGS to provide marine LED lighting for eight of its vessels that undertake seismic surveys of the seabed.This first phase of the major retrofit project will involve replacing fluorescent tube lighting with around 2,500 marine-certified LED luminaires fitted on the exterior and interior of the eight vessels.PGS’s switch to energy-efficient LED lighting is being driven by its desire to comply with emission reduction targets…

Lt. Lena “Lexie” Royster, a mechanical engineer in the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center, in Washington, has been selected as the 2023 Coast Guard Engineer of the Year.The Coast Guard Engineer of the Year Award recognizes Coast Guard active duty and civilian engineers for their accomplishments and achievements. The award’s selection panel considers many factors including engineering accomplishments, awards, honors and educational achievements.“I am extremely thankful for the opportunities the Coast Guard has given me,” said Royster.

Analysts and commentators are quick to point out that fossil fuels will power maritime equipment, and indeed dominate the fueling marketplace, well into the future. However, they will do so alongside new fuels, and new technologies, that will be introduced to the maritime sector in the coming years. In its September, 2023 report “Beyond the Horizon: View of the Emerging Energy Value Chains”, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) explains that, “During the recent 80th meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80)…

While Greg Trauthwein never assigns me column subjects, each time the Great Ships issue comes around I go with the theme. However, I try to take a view askew on that subject and have found that these are the rare columns where I am criticized for my views. Greg must enjoy that, and this year he asked me to write a column on the worst ship designs. That was the entire assignment, and it was unclear if he asked me to discuss the worst ship designs for 2023, or in the history of ship design.

Vigor Alaska, a Titan Company, successfully completed a dry dock and repair work solicitation on U.S. Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick this month, returning it to service ahead of schedule.The $3.65 million contract was awarded in September 2023 and represents the first non-emergent maintenance solicitation awarded to the Ketchikan Shipyard since 2011.USCGC McCormick is homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan, only 3.5 miles from the Ketchikan Shipyard.This was also the first time a vessel of USCGC McCormick's class has been serviced at Ketchikan Shipyard…

Phoenix International Holdings, under the direction of the U.S. Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV), have recovered the remaining debris of the Titan submersible from the North Atlantic seafloor near the RMS Titanic shipwreck.Work was performed using Phoenix’s Remora remotely operated vehicle (ROV). This 20,000 ft rated vehicle, designed and built by Phoenix, was used to map, locate, and recover Titan submersible debris at a depth of 12,500 feet. This was a follow…

Authorities from the U.S., Canada and France are combing through evidence recovered from the Titan submersible that suffered a catastrophic implosion en route to the wreckage of the Titanic in June.Investigators from the U.S. Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) and the French Marine Casualty Investigation Authority (BEAmer) conducted an onsite evidence review in Newport, R.I., on November 8, as part of their respective…

The U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday said its engineers recovered remaining debris and presumed human remains from the imploded Titan submersible in the North Atlantic.The evidence recovered from the seafloor by marine safety engineers with the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) was transferred to shore for analysis as part of ongoing investigations into the fatal incident.In June, the Titan imploded while on a voyage to visit the wreck site of the famed sunken ocean liner Titanic, killing all five people on board.

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

The U.S Coast Guard has awarded Vigor Alaska, a Titan company, a $3.65 million contract to perform maintenance and repairs on U.S. Coast Guard Cutter John McCormick at the Ketchikan Shipyard.Work on the project begins this week and will cover comprehensive maintenance and repair of the vessel. After USCGC John McCormick is dry docked, the team at Ketchikan Shipyard will inspect the hull plating, conduct maintenance on the ship's propulsion system and renew hull coatings, as well as several other key maintenance and repair operations.

Lighting solutions specialist Glamox has won a contract from the Norwegian marine seismic survey firm PGS to provide marine LED lighting for eight of its seismic data acquisition vessels.This first phase of the retrofit project will involve replacing fluorescent tube lighting with around 2,500 marine-certified LED luminaires fitted on the exterior and interior of the eight vessels. PGS’s switch to energy-efficient LED lighting is being driven by its desire to comply with emission reduction targets…

German Ship Repair Jamaica Limited (GSRJ), a private joint venture of German, Turkish and Jamaican investors, has welcomed its first floating dock to Jamaica as part of plans to open a new shipyard later this year. The 215 meter-long Panamax-size dock was towed across the Atlantic by the deep-sea tug Titan from its previous home port in Bremerhaven, Germany. The dock arrived in Kingston on August 24 and is now moored at its new home port at the GSRJ Shipyard in Kingston Harbor…

Fuel supplier Titan and 123Carbon, the first independent blockchain-based carbon insetting platform for the transport sector, have issued what they claim is the first LNG-based carbon insets.Carbon insetting enables fuel suppliers and vessel operators to transfer the environmental benefits of clean, lower carbon intensity fuels throughout the maritime value chain, enabling decarbonisation within their own supply chains. This contrasts with offsetting where the environmental benefits are made given to other industries or ventures.There are…

In November 2020 I wrote a column in MREN that discussed the right of people to engage in crazy marine ventures. The example I used in that column was an attempt to row from South America to Antarctica. In it I also made note of the inherent unseaworthiness of single-handed ocean racing and noted that such foolishness often resulted in the public spending lots of money providing rescue services.The Ocean Gate Expedition Titan venture has now managed to set an entirely new standard…

With a lame-duck CNO, a divided Congress and the impending launch of the next Presidential election cycle, America’s naval market is locked into something of a fragile and fearful autopilot, cruising inexorably towards whatever excitement 2024 might bring.Materially, don’t expect much change: The demand for naval platforms will continue to outstrip available funding, meaning there will be little movement or growth in America’s major shipbuilding programs of record. The procurement outlines are already set.

OceanGate, the U.S.-based company that managed the tourist submersible that imploded during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, has suspended all exploration and commercial operations, its website showed on Thursday.The company did not elaborate beyond a red banner at the top of its website: "OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations."OceanGate had planned two expeditions to the century-old Titanic ruins, located in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, for June 2024, its website showed.U.S.

Funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle and private equity firm Stellex Capital Management announced they have completed the sale of Titan Acquisition Holdings, a bi-coastal leader in ship repair services and marine and heavy complex fabrication, to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds. The initial definitive agreement of the sale was announced in February 2023 and the final close took place on June 15, 2023.Titan is comprised of Vigor Industrial LLC, an infrastructure, defense…

A Canadian-flagged ship on Wednesday brought ashore debris from the Titan submersible that imploded while on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic earlier this month, killing all five people on board.Video from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation showed what appeared to be the nose of the submersible and other shattered fragments wrapped in white tarp pulled up by a crane off the Horizon Arctic vessel at the St. John's harbor in Newfoundland on Wednesday morning.The debris is expected to shed more light on the cause of the catastrophic implosion that killed everyone on board - OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire Hamish Harding…

Ship repair services provider Titan has announced that Frank Collins will join the company as Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs.Collins will replace long-time Vigor Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Jill Mackie, who has announced her retirement effective the end of June. Additionally, Benton Strong was recently named Director of Public Affairs, responsible for all communications, as well as state and local government affairs across all Titan companies including of Vigor…

Canadian safety officials on Friday opened an investigation into the undersea implosion of a tourist submersible that killed all five people aboard while diving to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, raising questions about the unregulated nature of such expeditions.A debris field from the submersible Titan was found at the bottom of the North Atlantic on Thursday by a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian search vessel, ending an intense five-day international rescue effort.Fragments of Titan…

The question on many minds this week is why did some of the world’s richest men risk death to venture to the bottom of the sea in a cold and cramped “experimental” submersible for a chance to glimpse the wreck of the Titanic?The “unsinkable” ship that sunk on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg is arguably the world’s most well-known boat. The Titanic is recognisable to more of the world’s population than, say, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (Christopher Colombus’s fleet that launched the Spanish conquest of the Americas)…

The U.S. Coast Guard convened a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) -- the highest level of investigation in the Coast Guard -- into the loss of the Titan submersible and the five people on board. The crew of the Polar Prince research vessel lost contact with the Titan submersible 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday, June 18, 2023. After an extensive search and rescue effort, wreckage of the Titan submersible was located on the ocean floor approximately 500 meters off the bow of the Titanic.