Imperial News

Here’s some good news for America’s sea power. While the U.S. Navy has initiated another review of its 30-year shipbuilding plan in the face of widespread dissatisfaction, one element within that plan has been praised: the decision to provide funding for continued construction of amphibious warfare ships. These vessels offer unmatched flexibility and the capability of transporting, deploying, and supporting ground combat forces – typically U.S. Marine Corps – to conduct amphibious assaults, humanitarian operations, or disaster relief missions.

We think of Bermuda as a tiny paradise in the North Atlantic. But long before cruise ships moored up, prison ships carried hundreds of convicts to the island, first docking in 1824 and remaining there for decades.Islands have long been places to deport, exile and banish criminals. Think of Alcatraz, the infamous penitentiary in San Francisco, or Robben Island in South Africa, which held Nelson Mandela. The French penal colony Devil’s Island was immortalised in the Steve McQueen film Papillon…

METIS Cyberspace Technology appointed Panos Theodossopoulos as its new Chief Executive Officer.Theodossopoulos has considerable experience in leadership roles in the ICT and maritime sectors. In recent years, he has specialized in maritime digitalization, co-founding a maritime tech start-up in 2015 and later serving as Chief Digital Officer at OceanKing, a marine technical and commercial group. Previous positions include Director of Public Sector Sales at Microsoft Hellas and General Manager Cloud Divisionat SingularLogic.Eleni Polychronopoulou…

New York Waterway on Monday christened its new vessel Arthur E. Imperatore, named in honor of the company's late founder. The vessel will provide scenic tours of New York Harbor in addition to commuter transportation.Built locally by Yank Marine in Tuckahoe, N.J., the Arthur E. Imperatore is a brand new, low-emission 2,000-horsepower, Tier 3 compliant ferry designed to carry 600 passengers. The vessel has a service speed of 21 knots. One of the largest and most modern commuter ferries in the New Jersey-New York Harbor…

The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbor could no longer accommodate the needs of modernized shipping.In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock…

Twenty-five people were injured when a ship came off its holding and tipped on its side in a dry dock in Leith, Scotland on Wednesday, the Scottish Ambulance Service said, with 15 taken to hospital.Ten people were treated and discharged at the scene, the emergency service added in a statement.Pictures posted on Twitter showed a large ship propped up against the wall of a dry dock.

The U.S. Administration’s strategy to fast-track offshore wind development is exciting for overseas shipbuilders and service providers in the field. Joint ventures meeting Jones Act requirements will support accelerating development. Some question, however, whether ambitious 2030 targets can actually be achieved.Ulstein group is a front runner. The Norwegian-based company has already provided the design for a rock installation vessel now under construction for a joint venture between Houston-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) and Netherlands based Van Oord.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday touted Russia's Arctic power at a flag-raising ceremony and dock launch for two nuclear-powered icebreakers that will ensure year-round navigation in the Western Arctic.Presiding via video link from the Kremlin at the launch ceremony in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg in northern Russia, Putin said such icebreakers were of strategic importance for the country."Both icebreakers were laid down as part of a large serial project and are part of our large-scale…

Irving Shipbuilding Inc. announced it has cut first steel for the future HMCS Robert Hampton Gray, marking the official start of production for Canada’s sixth and Final Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) for the Royal Canadian Navy built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.Construction of Canada’s future combat fleet begins at Irving Shipbuilding’s Marine Fabricators facility in Dartmouth, N.S. The resulting 70,000 pieces are fabricated in a strategic sequence to meet…

Singapore's Ministry of Transport announced that Teo Eng Dih will take over as chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), succeeding Quah Ley Hoon, who will step down on September 5, 2022.Teo Eng Dih, currently Deputy Secretary (Policy) of the Ministry of Defense (MINDEF), is responsible for MINDEF’s defense policy and diplomacy, strategic and public communications, and Total Defense. He oversaw the expansion of defense cooperation with international partners and strengthening of collaborations at the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) platform.

Three grain ships left Ukrainian ports on Friday while the first inbound cargo vessel since Russia's invasion was due in Ukraine to load, as Kyiv called for the safe passage deal to be extended to other cargoes such as metals.The July 22 deal marked a rare diplomatic breakthrough as war rages in eastern Ukraine, with Kyiv trying to rebuild its shattered economy after more than five months of conflict."We expect that the security guarantees of our partners from the U.N. and Turkey will continue to work…

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russia's main rival and set out Russia's global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.Speaking on Russia's Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg founded by Tsar Peter the Great, Putin praised Peter for making Russia a great sea power and increasing the global standing of the Russian state.After inspecting the navy, Putin made a short speech in which he promised that what he touted as Russia's unique Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles…

It was 1914 when the English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard a ship called Endurance. It was an ill-fated journey: the ship got trapped in the ice and eventually crushed by pack ice in 1915. It sank to the bottom of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. (Shackleton and his entire crew survived the ordeal by escaping in smaller boats.)It was difficult to believe that the Endurance might ever be found. The icy Weddell Sea is inhospitable and the wreck lay in more than 3000 metres of water.

The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found, a team searching for it said on Wednesday.The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.Previous attempts to locate the 144-foot-long wooden wreck, whose location was logged by its captain Frank Worsley…

French customs have seized a yacht belonging to Rosneft boss Igor Sechin as it tried to leave the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in a breach of EU sanctions on Russian oligarchs, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.The move came as western states are implementing massive sanctions, including asset freezes, against Russia for invading its neighbor Ukraine. A separate nearly $600 million luxury yacht owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has also been seized, by German authorities, Forbes reported. The 88-meter "Amore Vero" arrived in La Ciotat on Jan.3 and was due to stay there until April 1st for repairs, the finance ministry said in a statement…

Her striking design makes “Black Shark” one of the most interesting superyacht projects at present. Nobiskrug and the owner have signed the contract for the continued construction of the vessel (new build project 793). With the third order since the economic restart the Rendsburg shipyard stays on its successful course since the takeover by Tennor Group. Investor Lars Windhorst, who was significantly involved in the negotiations for the “Black Shark”, emphasizes that this success is proof of Nobiskrug’s capabilities.

Online valuation and data provider VesselsValue announced the appointment of Dr. Alexander Adamou to its board of directors.As an experienced mathematician and modeler in the shipping industry, Adamou will oversee the scientific research that underpins the company’s products in his new role as chief scientist. Adamou first joined VesselsValue in 2010, when he led the development of the company’s first asset valuation model.With a first class degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Imperial College London…

A privately funded mission has found, surveyed and filmed the USS Johnston, the world’s deepest known shipwreck, offshore Samar Island in the Philippines Sea.The expedition was backed by Victor Vescovo, is an entrepreneur, explorer and retired U.S. Navy Commander who personally piloted his submersible DSV Limiting Factor down to the wreck during two separate, eight-hour dives 21,180 feet (6,456 meters) below the ocean's surface. These constituted the deepest wreck dives, manned or unmanned…

The Duluth Seaway Port Authority last week finalized acquisition of the Duluth Lake Port dock on Rice’s Point.Located immediately northwest of the Port Authority’s First Clure Terminal Expansion, but separated from it by the Azcon Metals recycling property, the 7.5-acre Duluth Lake Port dock and 3.5-acre slip date back to the 1880s, when Duluth Imperial Mill built the site’s initial flour mill and grain elevators. The facility was last used for grain in 2015. TN LLC purchased the site in 2017. The Port Authority acquired it from TN LLC in a $950,000 deal that closed Dec. 1, 2020.

Offshore lifting hoists and chains solutions provider William Hackett has published an industry report aiming to help minimize the risk of Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) and Stress Induced Corrosion Cracking (SICC). The report includes guidance on material choices used in topside and subsea lifts.Ben Burgess, Director of William Hackett Lifting Products, said, “There is a real concern across industry regarding the impact of HE and SICC on chains and links used in lift and hoist projects across offshore environments.”Peer-reviewed by a number of organizations and authorities…

Greece urged the European Union on Wednesday to reconsider its customs union with Turkey in response to Ankara's continued gas exploration in contested Mediterranean areas, deploring what it termed Ankara's "imperial fantasies."After meeting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Nicosia, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said they all agreed that Ankara is "blatantly" violating international law."Turkey's leadership has fantasies of imperial behavior with aggressive behavior from Syria to Libya, Somalia to Cyprus, from the Aegean to the Caucus," he said.The EU should also take note of Turkey's 'many violations' of the EU-Turkey customs union accord…

UK-based chemicals company Ineos said Wednesday it has accepted delivery of three of four new gas barges that will be used to transport butane gas from the ARA region (Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam) to the Ineos ethylene cracker facility at Koln, Germany. In addition, they will provide INEOS Trading & Shipping with options to effectively trade butane in Europe.The new gas barges will become the largest operating on the River Rhine and are the first to be fully built to the new ADN gas barge 2019 standard.Hugh Carmichael…

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has appointed Elina Papageorgiou as its new Marine and Offshore President for UK and Ireland, commencing on April 1, 2020.Papageorgiou has held a variety of roles across North and South Europe in sales, marketing and finance functions since joining LR in 2004. Most recently, she led LR’s Marine and Offshore sales teams in 11 different countries across South Europe.Papageorgiou graduated with a BSc in Economics from Brunel University and has an MBA from Imperial College London.