Mersey News

U.K. shipbuilder Cammell Laird has been awarded a contract to construct the first new Mersey ferry in 60 years.The Birkenhead facility, part of the APCL group, signed a deal with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to design and build the vessel on-site for a target delivery date of the end of 2025.The ferry will feature Azi-pull propeller system for reduced fuel usage, along with a diesel-electric hybrid-ready propulsion system – with potential for future conversion to full electric propulsion at a later date.

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…

German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) on Monday held a keel laying ceremony for a new new roll-on / roll-off (RoRo) vessel currently under construction Tasmanian shipping and logistics company SeaRoad. It was announced during the ceremony that the vessel will be named SeaRoad I.During the ceremony, the first module for the newbuild, weighing more than 154 tonnes, was lowered by crane onto the blocks, and a coin was placed under the keel in accordance with maritime tradition.At 210 meters long and over 43,000 gross tonnes, the ship will be the largest in SeaRoad’s history.

A.P. Moller - Maersk's towage arm Svitzer has been fined £2 million ($2.4 million) in the U.K. after pleaded guilty to safely failures that led to a crewmember fatality.Svitzer Marine Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to operate a vessel safely and failing to provide a safe system of work, causing the “avoidable tragedy” of 62-year-old Ian Webb falling into the water, the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced.Heard at Liverpool Crown Court on February 20, the tragic death sparked an investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) which identified a number of Svitzer’s safety failures.On the evening of Webb’s death, January 27, 2019, Svitzer Marine’s tug Millgarth was cast off from the Tranmere north jetty, in the river Mersey, in storm force conditions.

One of Europe’s largest ferry route and port operators, Stena Line, said it has signed a new deal with U.K. port operator Peel Ports to operate its 12 Quays port and ferry terminal in Birkenhead until the beginning of the 22nd Century. The Swedish company has operated twice daily ferry services to Belfast since 2011 and this new deal will see them continue to operate there for at least another 77 years, until 2100.The value of the deal has not been disclosed.Stena Line operates six routes and 12 vessels across the region and Birkenhead has been a key focus for investment in recent years.

Marine Specialised Technology Group has launched the first in a series of new Police Patrol Craft being built for the UK Ministry of Defense Police (MDP) and the Gibraltar Ministry of Defense Police (GDP)Awarded in March 2021, The Police Patrol Craft (PPC) contract is a six-year program that will see delivery of 18 patrol craft to various Police units around the UK and Gibraltar. The Patrol Craft will be used to ensure protection of major Royal Naval Assets, including capital ships and submarines…

Over 500 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain's largest container ports, have launched a two-week strike over pay, the Unite trade union said on Tuesday, adding to a wave of industrial unrest caused by soaring inflation.The Liverpool strike from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3, which was announced earlier this month, will overlap a second walkout by workers at Felixstowe, Britain's top container port, which starts on Sept. 27.More than 560 port operatives and maintenance engineers…

More than 560 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain's largest container ports, will go on strike from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3 over pay, the Unite union said on Friday, adding to a summer of industrial unrest caused by soaring inflation."Workers across the country are sick to death of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards," Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement."MDHC needs to think again, table a reasonable offer and fulfil its previous pay promises…

Salvors have removed two tugs from the Mersey River in Devonport on the northwest coast of Tasmania that had been sunk by a cement carrier in January.New South Wales based emergency response, salvage and environmental support specialist, United Salvage, engaged AAL Shipping to supply the 31,000DWT 700 tonne heavy lift vessel AAL Melbourne for lifting of the tugs and their onward shipment along the East Coast to Brisbane. The first tug, the 420 tonne York Cove, was pulled out of…

Dutch shipbuilder Kooiman Marine Group said it has secured a contract from Dutch dredging and marine services firm Van Oord to build two Water Injection Dredgers (WID) for delivery scheduled in the first half of 2024.The order follows the previous deliveries of the WIDs Maas and the Mersey delivered in mid-2021."The new vessels will have the same specifications, supplemented by innovative optimizations. The first of the two vessels will be commissioned in the first half of 2024…

A £25 million maritime center of excellence development project has been proposed to focus on innovation, engineering, R&D, entrepreneurship and training within the heart of Wirral Waters in the U.K.Peel L&P has formally submitted a planning application to Wirral Council to build the proposed Maritime Knowledge Hub, which would provide a high-level industrial and maritime facility, supporting the region’s £5 billion maritime ecosystem where research and innovation will focus on areas such as decarbonization of the maritime industry as well as technology transfer from other industries.

German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has cut first steel for a new new roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) freight vessel being constructed for Australian shipping company SeaRoad.A May 20 steel cutting event involved the ceremonial ‘pushing of the button’ to start the laser cutting machine with SeaRoad Technical Marine Manager, Tony Johnson, and FSG CEO Philipp Maracke doing the honors. Johnson is currently on the ground in Germany overseeing the newbuild project.The 210-meter-long newbuild was ordered in 2021 at a cost of more than €100 million.

Australian shipping company SeaRoad said it has finalized an agreement with German shipbuilding yard Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) to construct a new roll-on /roll-off (RoRo) vessel with liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion worth more than 100 million euros.Construction on the 210-meter-long vessel will commence in late 2021. The ship will have a capacity of 4,227 lane meters and capability to transport heavy cargo with a unit weight of up to 100 tonnes. At over 40…

A pair of custom designed and built Water Injection Dredgers (WID) dubbed Maas and Mersey were built at Kooiman Marine Group and christened earlier this week at the office of Van Oord in Rotterdam.The hybrid vessels were developed by Kooiman Engineering in cooperation with Van Oord. Two electrically driven pumps deliver water under high pressure, or with a lot of volume through the U-shaped water injection pipe located at the rear of the ship. With this pipe, water is injected into the soil, releasing sediment which is flushed away by the current.

Swedish ferry firm Stena Line has taken delivery of its RoPax ferry, Stena Scandica, the first of two Visentini vessels being lengthened and modernized by Stena RoRo at the Sedef Shipbuilding in Tuzla, Turkey. The Stena Scandica ferry will start operating on the Stena Lines route between Nynäshamn in Sweden and Ventspils in Latvia at the beginning of July.The conversion and lengthening of Stena Scandica (ex Stena Lagan) and sister vessel Stena Baltica (ex Stena Mersey) is managed by Stena RoRo at the Sedef Shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey.The two vessels are lengthened with a 36-meter mid-section.

One of the world’s oldest tugboats, the 117-year-old, steam-driven Daniel Adamson, is set to return to service offering short cruises along the River Weaver, a tributary of the fabled Mersey River in England, after the completion of a project to install new propeller shaft bearings.The 1903-built steamship, rescued from scrap merchants 15 years ago, was fully restored in 2016 at Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird yard, the original builder of the vessel. Thordon Bearings’ SXL water lubricated propeller shaft bearings were installed last year after competitor bearings failed.Chris Simmons…

Ferry company Stena Line announced that Stena Embla, the last of its three new ferries destined for the Irish Sea, has completed its sea trials in China’s Yellow Sea and is set to arrive in Belfast at the end of 2020.Stena Embla is the latest new Stena Line next generation RoPax vessel that is being constructed at the CMI Jingling Weihai Shipyard in China, marking the end of significant recent investment on the Irish Sea by the Swedish owned ferry company. The global pandemic did not delay the build of the vessel…

The U.K.’s most advanced polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough left Cammell Laird shipyard Wednesday to commence two weeks of technical sea trials ahead of scheduled delivery to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in November.“Although the vessel’s construction is now complete, trials are a critical and final part of the program as they allow our engineers and the ship’s crew to put the vessel through its paces at sea,” said Linton Roberts, Director of Operations at Cammell Laird.

Sweden-headquartered ferry operator Stena Line on Thursday revealed plans to replace two vessels currently operating on its Nynäshamn-Ventspils route with the modernized and lengthened RoPax ferries Stena Lagan and Stena Mersey.Stena Line said the vessels switch will increase freight capacity by almost a third, and improve the onboard experience for travelers on the Baltic Sea route.Stena Line, which operates 18 ferry routes in Europe, including three across the Baltic Sea, acquired the ferry route between Nynäshamn in Sweden and Ventspils in Latvia in 2012.

Ferry shipping company Stena Line announced Monday that the construction of its two new larger E-Flexer ferries has begun in Weihai, China. The vessels were ordered in 2018 and the delivery is expected in 2022.The two new vessels planned to be delivered in 2022 are the last of five vessels of the E-Flexer series that Stena Line ordered from sister company Stena RoRo, that are being built at the CMI Jinling Weihai Shipyard in China. Of the first three vessels, the first two, Stena Estrid and Stena Edda, have already entered service on the Irish Sea earlier this year.

Merseyside, U.K.-based boatbuilder Marine Specialised Technology (MST) has been awarded a £9.9-million ($12.9 million) contract to supply two new boats to replace the U.K. Royal Navy's Gibraltar Squadron fast patrol craft used to patrol HMNB Gibraltar and British Gibraltar territorial waters. Construction began in July, and the first vessel is due to be delivered in the third quarter of 2021 followed by the second in the first quarter of 2022. MST will provide four years of local…

Britain's newest aircraft carrier has sailed out of Rosyth dockyard for the first time. The GBP3bln, 65000 ton HMS Prince of Wales will sit at anchor in the River Forth for around 2-7 days following departure from the dockyard to complete Initial Sea Safety Training.The vessel is the sister ship of HMS Queen Elizabeth."Cammell Laird is proud to have played a key role in the construction of this magnificent vessel – one of the most powerful surface warships ever constructed in the UK," said a press release from the British shipbuilding company.Following Cammell Laird’s successful completion of nine units for the first Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, the company’s block building expertise was called upon once again in 2013.

Three ‘megamax’ quayside ship-to-shore (STS) cranes sailed up the River Mersey, destined for the Liverpool2 container terminal, UK, completing the final stage of their voyage from China.The cranes are part of work on the second phase of the Liverpool2 project to provide additional capacity for growing volumes of cargo.Their arrival follows Peel Ports announcing a record-breaking month for its container operations at the Port of Liverpool. Quayside and landside throughput in October at exceeded all previous figures on record with year on year growth of 12%.Mark Whitworth, Chief Executive Officer of Peel Ports, said: “An increasing number of businesses are understanding that it makes more sense to ship products closer to their end destinations.