Cruise Ship Runs Aground
The MS Mistral cruise ship carrying 1,139 passengers has run aground off the Caribbean island of Nevis. "The passengers are still aboard, and they are in good shape," a member of the Coast Guard for Saint Kitts and Nevis said, adding few other details were immediately unavailable. The 47,000-ton ship, built in 1999 and operated by Festival Cruises of Greece, caters to Europeans and regularly travels the Greek Islands and the Caribbean. The ship carries a crew of about 500. - (Reuters)
Podded Propulsors Gain Wider Acceptance
The growing uptake of integral electric-driven, podded propulsors in the most capital-intensive sector of the cruise shipping industry, has forever altered the established position of conventional propulsion systems in an important segment of the market. Having established a foothold in the offshore sector, the concept will no doubt find increasing application with the next upswing in investment by the offshore oil and gas industry. Once conservatism has been overcome in various quarters of the shipping business, and once the net acquisition costs of such systems reach more acceptable levels for a broader band of the shipowning community, usage of the technology will no doubt spread to other spheres.
