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Carolina Coast News

02 Mar 2023

Bollinger Delivers USCGC Maurice Jester

(Photo: Bollinger Shipyards)

Bollinger Shipyards announced it has delivered the USCGC Maurice Jester to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Fla.. This is the 178th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 52nd Fast Response Cutter (FRC) delivered under the current program.Measuring in at 154-feet, FRCs have a flank speed of 28 knots, state of the art C4ISR suite (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot…

16 Feb 2023

2023 Shipbuilding Report: US Passenger Vessels

Casco Bay Line selected the Senesco to build a double ended hybrid electric ferry to replace an existing diesel boat. (Image: EBDG)

With travel and tourism nearing pre-2020 levels, and transit systems benefiting from a return to work, passenger vessels have seen renewed activity. In its year-end review, John Groundwater, Executive Director of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA), which advocates for the sector in Washington, D.C. wrote: “As we are nearing the end of the calendar year, we are delighted to report that our industry, and our members, are reporting far and wide that they have experienced very…

11 May 2022

Researchers Set to Explore Historic Shipwreck off North Carolina

The bow of the iconic Civil War ironclad Monitor resting on the seafloor off North Carolina. (Photo credit: Joe Poe, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary advisory council)

NOAA scientists and partner researchers are set to explore the shipwreck of the USS Monitor, natural reefs and the maritime cultural landscape off the North Carolina coast, and starting May 15, the public will be able to follow along.The two week mission — titled “Valor in the Atlantic” — will use state-of-the-art, remotely-piloted submersibles and other technologies to explore notable sites surrounding America’s first National Marine Sanctuary. The Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration is providing much of the technology for the mission…

11 May 2022

U.S. to Hold Offshore Wind Auction for Carolina Coast

© Ian Dyball/AdobeStock

The Biden administration on Wednesday will hold a wind energy auction for two areas off the coast of North and South Carolina, its second such offering this year.The sale is part of the government's broad push to put wind turbines in federal waters along every U.S. coastline and comes on the heels of a record February wind auction off the coast of New York and New Jersey that drew $4.37 billion in high bids.U.S. President Joe Biden has said the nascent offshore wind industry will create good-paying jobs while creating the carbon-free electricity needed to combat climate change.

21 Apr 2022

USCG Commissions Sentinel-class Cutter Clarence Sutphin Jr.

(Photo: Ryan Schultz / U.S. Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned its 47th Sentinel-class cutter, USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147), into service on ThursdayBuilt by Bollinger Shipyards and officially delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard on January 6 in Key West, Fla., Clarence Sutphin Jr. is Patrol Forces Southwest Asia's (PATFORSWA) sixth 154-foot Sentinel-class cutter.Vice Adm. Steven Poulin, U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander, presided over the commissioning ceremony at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

03 Dec 2020

Shipowner Fined $12 Mln for US Pollution Violations

Pacific Carriers Limited (PCL), a Singapore-based company that owns subsidiaries engaged in international shipping, was sentenced today in federal court before U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan in New Bern, N.C., after pleading guilty to violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, obstruction of justice, and for a failure to notify the U.S. Coast Guard of a hazardous condition on the cargo vessel Pac Antares.PCL pleaded guilty to a total of eight felony offenses across three judicial districts – the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Southern District of Texas, and the Eastern District of Louisiana. PCL was sentenced to pay a fine of $12 million…

05 Sep 2019

Bahamians Struggle in Dorian's Devastating Wake

A file image of Equinor's South Riding Point storage terminal (CREDIT: Equinor)

Stunned residents of the Bahamas surveyed the wreckage of their homes and officials struggled to assess the number killed by Hurricane Dorian, as the storm bore down on the South Carolina coast, threatening record flooding on Thursday.The United Nations said 70,000 people in the Bahamas needed immediate humanitarian relief after the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation.Aerial video of the worst-hit Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas showed widespread devastation…

03 Sep 2019

NOAA's NHC: The Latest on Hurricane Dorian

CREDIT: National Hurricane Center

At 800 AM EDT (1200 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Dorian was located by reconnaissance aircraft and NOAA Doppler radar near latitude 27.1 North, longitude 78.4 West. Dorian is beginning to move northwestward at about 1 mph (2 km/h), and a slightly faster motion toward the northwest or north-northwest is expected later today and tonight.A turn toward the north is forecast by Wednesday evening, followed by a turn to the north-northeast Thursday morning. On this track, the core of extremely…

24 Jun 2019

Shipping Company Pleads Guilty to Environmental Laws

Portline Bulk International S.A. pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and one count of Obstruction. The charges stem from the falsification of the Oil Record Book onboard the M/V Achilleus, a Maltese-flagged ocean-going bulk carrier ship managed by Defendant Portline.From April 2017 to August 2018, senior members of the vessel’s engineering team oversaw and participated in the bypass of the ship’s Oil Water Separator utilizing a yellow plastic hose, referred to as a magic pipe. The ship’s Chief Engineer made a series of fake entries and key omissions in the Oil Record Book in order to conceal the illegal overboard discharges of oily bilge water. On Aug.

09 May 2017

New Commanding Officer at USCG Sector North Carolina

Coast Guard Capt. Jerry Barnes assumed command of Coast Guard Sector North Carolina in Wilmington, N.C., Tuesday. Barnes reported to Sector North Carolina after serving as the 5th Coast Guard District's chief of prevention. Barnes, a specialist in marine safety, security, environmental protection and marine transportation system management, previously served at the Marine Safety Center in Washington, D.C., Sector Hampton Roads, in Portsmouth, Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville, Fla., various staff positions at the 5th Coast Guard District, and aboard a 210-foot medium endurance cutter home ported in St. Petersburg, Fla. Barnes, a native of Raleigh, N.C., is a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He graduated from the U.S.

25 Feb 2016

Royal Caribbean Faces Lawsuits over Storm-battered Cruise Ship

Anthem of the Seas (File photo: Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.)

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd faces at least two lawsuits by passengers accusing the company of negligently endangering their lives by letting its Anthem of the Seas cruise ship sail into a fierce Atlantic storm this month. The lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court in Miami claim that Royal Caribbean knew, or should have known, that a coastal storm carrying hurricane-force winds had been forecast before the ship set sail from Cape Liberty, New Jersey on Feb. 6 for a scheduled seven-night cruise to the Bahamas.

16 Jan 2016

USCG Helps Release 130 Sea Turtles

The Coast Guard assisted with the release of 130 sea turtles Thursday into Gulf Stream waters off the Outer Banks. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Cushing, along with their family members, assisted North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission personnel in releasing the sea turtles. The rehabilitated sea turtles were among many that experienced cold-water shock along the North Carolina coast in recent weeks. Cushing crew members assisted with the rescue of many of the cold-water shocked turtles last week. “We got word about a week ago that turtles were stranded and they were freezing," said Fireman Anthony C. Williams. "We partnered with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources commission to assist. Just as we protect people, we protect sea life.”

01 May 2015

Savannah, Ga. Opposes Offshore Drilling

Photo: BOEM

The city council of Savannah, Georgia on April 30 unanimously approved a resolution opposing offshore seismic testing and oil drilling activities, the Savannah Morning News reported. The city’s opposition comes as the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is trying to open the mid and south Atlantic coastal areas to exploration and development of offshore drilling as part of the Obama Administration’s drafted program to allow exploration and drilling at least 50 miles offshore starting in 2017.

04 Apr 2015

Missing Sailor Rescued after two months

A man missing at sea for 66 days has been rescued in a disabled boat off the North Carolina coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday. A German-flagged vessel alerted the Coast Guard at about 1:30 p.m. that it had spotted the 37-year-old man and the vessel some 200 miles (320 km) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and took him aboard. The man, identified as Louis Jordan of South Carolina, was then airlifted from the ship and was being sent to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, the Guard said. He was initially reported missing by his family on Jan. 29, the Coast Guard said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Paul Tait)

22 Oct 2014

WWII Wrecks Found 30 Miles off US Coast

The wreck of a World War Two German U-boat and a freighter that sank 72 years ago have been discovered off the North Carolina coast by U.S. researchers, officials said. The submarine, the U-576, and the Nicaraguan-flagged freighter Bluefields were found about 30 miles (48 km) off Cape Hatteras in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic for its number of wrecks, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday. The discovery underscores how close the battle for the Atlantic Ocean came to U.S. shores and is a rare view into the underwater battlefield landscape of World War Two, researchers said. "These two ships rest only a few hundred yards apart and together help us interpret and share their forgotten stories…

21 Oct 2014

WWII Wrecks Found off North Carolina

The German U-576 departs Saint-Nazaire, France, on the Atlantic coast, circa 1940-1942. The submarine was sunk in 1942 by aircraft fire after attacking and sinking the Nicaraguan freighter Bluefields and two other ships off North Carolina. (Credit: With permission from Ed Caram)

A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two vessels, in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, is a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII.

03 Jul 2014

Hurricane Arthur Intensifies as it Heads for Land

Hurricane Arhur approaches the U.S. coastline (Source: NOAA)

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season gained strength on Thursday is expected to attain Category 2 status as it reaches the North Carolina coast, where thousands of vacationers scrubbed their July Fourth holiday plans amid evacuation orders. Hurricane Arthur was about 110 miles (175 km) south-southwest of Cape Fear, North Carolina, with current maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour), U.S. forecasters said. Moving faster at 10 mph (17 kph), the center…

05 May 2014

$1.3m in Gold Recovered from 1857 Shipwreck

A deep-ocean exploration company in Florida says it has recovered nearly 1,000 ounces of gold, worth $1.3 million at current gold prices, on a reconnaissance dive to an historic Atlantic Ocean shipwreck. The dive confirmed that the ship had not been disturbed since 1991 when another company stopped recovery work, Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration, announced on Monday. The ship's sinking in 1857 with 21 tons of gold aboard in a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina sparked a U.S. banking panic. Recovered gold included five gold ingots and two $20 Double Eagle coins, an 1857 coin minted in San Francisco and an 1850 coin minted in Philadelphia. The gold ingots were stamped with the manufacturer's "assay-mark" and weigh from 96.5 to 313.5 troy ounces. U.S.

24 Jan 2013

NOAA Satellites Aid in 263 Rescues in 2012

SARSAT System

The same NOAA weather and climate satellites that accurately tracked Hurricane Sandy’s path in October also played a key role in rescuing 263 people in 111 emergencies in the United States and surrounding waters in 2012. Since NOAA’s seven operational satellites circle the globe or sit above the United States, they also carry instruments to detect distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers. In addition to their role in weather prediction…

21 Jan 2013

R/V Cape Hatteras Will Embark on New Phase

Famed for Finding Oil Deposits on the Seafloor after the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Accident, the Invaluable Seagoing Laboratory is up for Sale. Meticulously tended to by a professional crew, and certified for another decade of exploration, the research vessel (R/V) Cape Hatteras has a lot of life left in her. That service may, however, take place in new seas now that the craft is being retired and sold by the Duke - University of North Carolina Oceanographic Consortium (DUNCOC). Constructed for The National Science Foundation in 1981 by Atlantic Marine Ship Builders, the 135-foot craft has been operated and meticulously maintained for 31 years by DUNCOC, and berthed at Duke University Marine Laboratory (DUML) on Pivers Island in Beaufort, North Carolina.

08 Feb 2012

This Day in Naval History - February 8th

From the Navy News Service:   1862 - A Union joint amphibious force captures Roanoke Island, N.C., opening the entire North Carolina coast to the Federals. 1890 - USS Omaha Sailors and Marines assist the city of Hodogary, Japan, in subduing a large fire. 1974 - Three Skylab III astronauts are recovered by USS New Orleans (LPH 11) in the Pacific Ocean about 150 miles west of San Diego. 1991 - Battleship USS New Jersey (BB 62) is decommissioned at Long Beach, Calif.   For more information about naval history, visit the Naval Historical Center Web site at www.history.navy.mil.

14 Mar 2014

Coast Guard's Eighth FRC Enters Service

The cutter’s command group, (left to right) Petty Officer 1st Class Nicole Thomas, first officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Graham Sherman, executive officer, and Lt. Kevin Connell, commanding officer, were on hand to bring the ship to life. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Sabrina Laberdesque)

Coast Guard Cutter Charles Sexton was commissioned into service March 8 at Coast Guard Sector Key West, Fla. The Sexton is the second of six Fast Response Cutters to be homeported in Key West, and the eighth vessel to be delivered through the Coast Guard’s Sentinel-class FRC recapitalization project. The cutter is named after Machinery Technician 1st Class Charles W. Sexton, who drowned during a rescue operation conducted off the coast of Washington. On Jan. 11, 1991, Sexton was aboard a motor lifeboat dispatched to assist the 75-foot fishing vessel Sea King…

19 Mar 2014

Video: USCG Medevacs Man from Cruise Ship

Image: USCG

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said it medevaced a 66-year-old man Wednesday from a cruise ship approximately 50 miles east of Wilmington, N.C. after receiving reports that the man was in medical distress. The USCG’s video can be seen here: Coast Guard Medevacs 66-Year-Old Man From Cruise Ship off North Carolina Coast. Personnel aboard the 950-foot cruise ship Carnival Splendor notified watchstanders at the Fifth District Command Center of the man’s condition at approximately 10:45 p.m. Tuesday.