Examiner News

The state of Great Lakes port infrastructure is one of the biggest issues facing the U.S. and Canadian maritime industries. According to the America Great Lakes Ports Association, “Due to years of inadequate funding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been unable to maintain Great Lakes navigation infrastructure. Over the next five years Great Lakes navigation channels will require $540 million of dredging to maintain authorized channel dimensions. Breakwaters and other federal…

An inmate has died after jumping overboard from a New York City jail barge, the city Department of Correction announced.Police officers pulled Gregory Acevedo from the after after he reportedly climbed a fence at the Vernon C. Bain Center and jumped into the East River on Tuesday. The man was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead after efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, according to officials.The Vernon C. Bain Center, also known as the Vernon C. Bain Maritime Facility, is a a 625-foot barge built for $161 million at Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana that opened as a jail in 1992.

BMT welcomed Catriona Savage to the role of Technical Assurance Director, responsible for its global technical authority. She re-joins BMT from a role as the Chair in Naval Architecture and an Honorary Professor at University College London. Previously, she was the Technical Director for BMT’s UK defense business.The Technical Assurance Director is a key leadership role and one that directly supports the successful delivery of business to BMT’s customers across all territories.

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday called off its search for more survivors from a boat that capsized off a rocky shoal near San Diego in what authorities said was an ill-fated migrant-smuggling operation that left three dead and five hospitalized.The 40-foot trawler-style vessel with 32 people aboard overturned and broke apart on Sunday near the Point Loma Tide Pools, part of a federal marine national monument about 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said.Officials on Sunday said four people aboard the boat had perished…

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is seeking a cruise ship to host examiner training courses while underway.The contracting opportunity is for a vessel of at least 70,000 gross tons to host three Foreign Passenger Vessel Examiner  (FPVE) courses for the Coast Guard's United States Coast Guard Cruise Ship National Center of Expertise (CSNCOE). The training would be conducted in 2021 on board a cruise ship departing from either Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or Canaveral, Fla.The CSNCOE, located in Ft.

I don’t remember when I discovered that the first application of lightbulbs occurred at sea rather than ashore. But when I dug a little deeper into the subject recently, I came across an interesting set of coincidences that shows how innovation often relies on simply doing, rather than endlessly talking about it. After Thomas Edison managed to make sufficient improvements to the lightbulb concept to have it show commercial viability in late 1879, he ended up in a chicken and egg conundrum.The lightbulb might be great, but to get it to work would require an electrical power plant.

The US Coast Guard and local authorities on Wednesday continue to search for two fishermen missing after a fatal vessel collision in Galveston, Texas.The Coast Guard said four fisherman were forced into the water on Tuesday afternoon when their 81-foot vessel Pappy's Pride capsized following a collision with the 600-foot chemical tanker Bow Fortune near the Galveston jetties.One crew member has been rescued, one is deceased and two are missing.One of the individuals from the capsized…

The bodies of three boaters from Europe who died in an Alaska lake were surrounded by frozen debris, a sign that the victims were killed by ice that fell from the melting glacier that feeds the lake, officials in the city of Valdez said on Thursday.The victims were identified by the city as two Germans and an Austrian and were found dead on Tuesday morning in Valdez Glacier Lake, about 120 miles (193 km) east of Anchorage.The victims were found in an area that "was littered with floating icebergs, glacial slush and challenging terrain for recovery," said a statement released by Valdez city officials.Those conditions, plus the location of the remains near the toe of Valdez Glacier…

The Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) announces the appointment of Captain Dwain E. Hutchinson as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Captain Hutchinson succeeds Commodore Davy F. Rolle, who stepped down as Director last year.Captain Hutchinson is a proud Bahamian from Nassau, New Providence island, where he completed his tertiary education before commencing his maritime studies in Scotland at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. Qualified with a UK Master Mariner (Unlimited) STCW Certificate of Competency…

Forward Ships, which enables the adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the fuel of choice for ships at a global scale, said that its  innovative machinery arrangement received its first official patent right from South Korea, a major shipbuilding nation.The Korean Intellectual Property Office Examiner decided to grant this patent application pursuant to Article 66 of the Korean Patent Act to Arista Shipping S. A.  The Project Forward initiative led by Athens-Based Arista Shipping, demonstrates that with LNG as fuel, an advanced hull design, and highly efficient propulsion machinery, it will be possible to meet the IMO’s target for a 40 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2030.

Prospective maritime caterers can now be assured of quality training and additional funding, thanks to a new apprenticeship standard developed by the UK’s Maritime Trailblazer group, said UK Chamber of Shipping. The new Maritime Caterer apprenticeship has been designed to train people to organise a kitchen and cook meals across a number of shifts that span the cultural needs of multinational crews. The new standard, which has been approved by the UK’s Institute for Apprenticeships, covers cookery skills, stocktaking and kitchen management, and outlines the skills, understanding and behaviour expected of caterers onboard ships. As part of the apprenticeship…

Pat Folan, a partner at Tug & Barge Solutions, weighs in on all things tugboat – with a focus on Subchapter M. Pat Folan is a partner in Daphne, Ala.-based Tug & Barge Solutions, a company that focuses on Subchapter M compliance for towing companies. The company also performs surveys of towing vessels and barges, manages safety management systems for towing companies and trains people on towing vessels and in offices. A professional mariner, he has operated towing vessels from Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas, including the Alabama Rivers, Lower Mississippi, Great Lakes and Erie Canal.

Recovering someone who has fallen into the water is no easy task, especially if the victim is unconscious or lethargic due to cold temperatures. Training is essential to prepare potential rescuers for how difficult it can actually be. The OSCAR Water-Rescue Training Dummy from Emerald Marine Products is used by safety instructors across North America for teaching people what it's like to retrieve a lifeless, 180 lb. adult. "It's definitely eye-opening," says Alaska Marine Safety…

Sophia Bullard, Crew Health Program Director at UK P&I Club, comments on the fact many crewmembers fail pre-sea medical examinations due to a combination of serious illnesses linked to obesity. It could be argued that obesity alone is a precursor to other more serious conditions if nothing is done to reduce body mass index (BMI) and improve lifestyle. A BMI of 25 or above can signify a serious weight problem. Poor eating habits and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle can also contribute to the development of many lifestyle diseases.

For more than 15 years Christina Desimone has driven Future Care to be a transcendent maritime medical care enterprise. While the company fully embraces technology and the advent of telemedicine, it ventures far beyond traditional maritime medical solution providers, managing the logistics of effective and efficient mariner care from the beginning of the incident to its medical conclusion. As many global maritime sectors struggle to regain profitable footing, medical care for crews at sea is not exactly on top of the list discussion…

Pat Folan is a partner in Daphne, Ala.-based Tug & Barge Solutions, a safety and compliance company that focuses on Subchapter M compliance for towing companies. The company also performs surveys of towing vessels and barges, manages safety management systems for towing companies and trains people on towing vessels and in offices. A professional mariner, for 27 years, he also operated towing vessels from Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas, including the Alabama Rivers, Lower Mississippi, Great Lakes and Erie Canal. A graduate of St.

Danish shipping giant Maersk — the world’s largest container carrier — began its first ever connection between northern European ports and Cuba last Friday, promising the fastest freight transit times between Europe and the Cuban port of Mariel. Port of Cork has scored a major coup in landing a potentially lucrative spot on the first direct freight shipping service from northern Europe to Cuba since economic sanctions were removed on the Caribbean country, reports Irish Examiner. The move will enable Irish companies to capitalise on an expected boom resulting from the normalisation of relationships between the United States and Havana. The service is an expansion of the shipping company’s existing CRX Latin American route, which connects Mexico and Costa Rica directly with Europe.

Captain Jeffrey P. Novotny is Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center in Martinsburg, WV. He is responsible for all activities related to professional credentialing, training and assessments of the nation’s 215,000 merchant mariners. He graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. Prior to commanding the NMC, he was the Deputy Commander at the Coast Guard’s Deployable Operations Group. His duties included the oversight and responsibility for all personnel…

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines is proud to introduce a very unique cruise experience for Summer 2015, aboard its 880-guest ship Boudicca, the like of which guests will never have seen nor heard of before! Fred. Olsen will be offering an exclusive sailing, created around secrecy and suspense, with Boudicca’s 16-night D1516 'Poison, Murder & Mystery Cruise', departing from Rosyth (Edinburgh) on 10th July 2015, linking the Duchess of Northumberland’s 'Poison Gardens' at Alnwick Castle – which starred as ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry’ in the Harry Potter films – and that of Mr. Fred. Olsen Senior in Guimar, Tenerife. Fred. Olsen unveiled this participative 'murder mystery' cruise at an exclusive VIP launch at The Tower of London, hosted by The Duchess of Northumberland and Mr. Fred.

Two extreme AC72 foiling catamarans with wing sails went head-to-head at over 40 knots in San Francisco Bay, California. The teams were competing in the 2013 Americas Cup Challenge which took place from September 7-21, 2013. Anyone watching the first few days of Americas Cup sailing will know that it looked like Emirates Team New Zealand had a seemingly untouchable lead – then out of the blue Oracle Team USA completed one of the greatest comebacks in sport to win the 34th America’s Cup.

The Maritime Labor Convention of 2006 became effective on 20 August 2013: Are the authorities ready? Consider that MLC 2006 Regulation 1.2-Medical certificate. Standard A1.2 states that “a competent authority shall require prior to beginning work on a ship, seafarer’s hold a valid medical certificate.”  Under paragraph 7a of that same regulation it further states that “a medical certificate shall be valid for a maximum period of TWO YEARS.” That requirement also became official for U.S.

What does a new year of training look like at SCI? With a new simulator in full operation, SCI helps individual mariners complete assessments previously only available in large class settings or in the real world when exact conditions could be met on the water. The Seamen’s Church Institute’s (SCI) Center for Maritime Education puts mariners in real-life situations using high-tech simulation equipment. Most days, SCI classrooms host groups of six to eight students as part of training sessions sponsored by maritime transportation companies…

Chris Bandy, a Coast Guard auxiliarist in Bayfield, Wis., was recognized as the 2012 Coast Guard 'Auxiliarist of the Year' at a recent ceremony held in San Diego, Calif. Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, formally recognized Bandy and awarded him the Coast Guard Auxiliary Commendation Medal during the Auxiliary National Conference. Bandy enrolled in the Coast Guard Auxiliary in June 2010 and quickly earned the reputation as an enthusiastic volunteer, subject matter expert, and Paddle Smart Program manager in the Apostle Island National Lakeshore area of Lake Superior.