Rockland News

Bayou la Batre, Ala. shipbuilder Steiner Shipyard reports it has launched a new ferry it is building for the Maine Department of Transportation.The 104-foot passenger/vehicle ferry, named Charles Norman Shay, is designed by Gilbert Associates and is scheduled to be delivered in the near future.Once completed, the brand-new vessel will service the Maine State Ferry Service’s (MSFS) longest route, between Rockland and Matinicus Island (23 miles). It will provide the necessary upgrade to the ferry service that transports nearly 500…

A Maine State Ferry Service vessel was damaged after running aground off the coast of Vinalhaven on August 16.The car and passenger ferry Captain Richard G. Spear was pulling away from Vinalhaven to start a trip to Rockland shortly after 10:30 a.m. when it grounded. There were 65 passengers and five crew members on board at the time of the incident. No injuries were reported.MaineDOT, which runs the MSFS, said its employee who was captaining the ferry at the time of the incident…

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…

Bayou la Batre, Ala. shipbuilder Steiner Shipyard has been selected by the Maine Department of Transportation for the construction of the Matinicus Island Replacement Ferry for the Maine State Ferry Service (MSFS).The 104-foot passenger/vehicle ferry is designed by Gilbert Associates. Once completed, the ferry will provide the Rockland-based ferry service with a brand-new vessel capable of servicing the MSFS’s longest route to Matinicus Island (23 miles). It will provide the necessary upgrade to the ferry service that transports nearly 500…

North Kingstown, R.I. shipyard Senesco Marine said it has been selected by the Maine Department of Transportation to build a new hybrid-electric passenger vessel for the Maine State Ferry Service (MSFS).The 154-foot passenger-vehicle ferry, designed by Gilbert Associates, will be equipped with BAE Systems’ electric hybrid propulsion solution to deliver reduced and zero-emission operations capability for the Rockland-based ferry service that serves nearly 500,000 riders and 190…

Small shipyards in the U.S. are critical to the nation’s maritime operations and economic security. Typically family-owned and employing less than 1,200 workers, America’s small shipyards support more than 400,000 jobs, employ more than 100,000 Americans directly and contribute tens of billions in gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD).In an effort to help support these vital assets, MARAD’s Small Shipyard Grant Program provides funds to help drive efficiency…

Colleen Stephens, President of Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises will be President of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) for 2020, the trade association announced.Elected during the PVA Annual Convention at MariTrends 2020 held February 3-6, 2020 in Tampa, Fla., Stephens reaffirmed PVA's commitment to continuously improving safety in passenger vessel operations as well as the association's engagement in being good stewards of the environment. "PVA's Green WATERS program…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced $19.6 million in grants to support capital improvements at 28 U.S. small shipyards as a part of its Small Shipyard Grant program. The grants enable small shipyards to modernize equipment and processes to fuel future growth. “These grants help create jobs in America’s small shipyards, which play a significant role in our country’s maritime sector,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.In 2013, U.S. shipbuilders produced $37.3 billion in gross domestic product.

Marine News showcases the best of North America’s 2017 workboat deliveries. There is something for everyone. Notwithstanding the lingering offshore energy downturn, there were plenty of bright spots for North American shipyards in 2017. If a hull was delivered in 2017, we took a look at it, with several areas as a focus for inclusion into this edition. For starters, it is always exciting when a domestic yard delivers a vessel – or multiple vessels, for that matter – to foreign buyers. We can compete in a foreign arena; on price, quality and on-time delivery. This year was no different. No less important is the environmental footprint of a vessel, and there was plenty to report on from that angle in the past 12 months. The domestic waterfront is indeed getting greener and cleaner.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. delivered the DNV classed factory processor fishing trawler F/T Araho (Hull 175) on January 28, 2017 to the O’Hara Corporation of Rockland, Maine. She is the first U.S. flag freezer processor factory trawler constructed in over 25 years. The F/T Araho will be in service in the waters of Alaska. The O’Hara family and Eastern Shipbuilding are no strangers to each other. The F/T Araho is the sixth fishing vessel Eastern has built for the O’Hara family over the last 20 years. This factory processor fishing trawler is far more sophisticated than the prior five vessels. The O’Hara and D’Isernia families go back to the early 1990s with the F/V Enterprise a Catcher Processor Conversion delivered in 1996.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle is scheduled to arrive in Rockland, Maine, Friday, at 3 p.m. as part of its 2014 cadet summer training deployment. The Eagle's visit to Rockland is to celebrate the Maine Lobster Festival. The Eagle will be open for free public tours Saturday, Aug. 2, from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 3, from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. At 295 feet in length, the Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the stars and stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.

New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, Monmouth County Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone, NY Waterway President & Founder Arthur E. Imperatore and Yank Marine President & Founder John C. Yank Jr. of Tuckahoe today announced an $11 million contract to build two state-of-the-art ferries, the first NY Waterway ferries built in the Garden State since the Weehawken-based ferry service started service December 3, 1986. The new catamaran ferries, financed by NY Waterway…

BOSTON – U.S. Coast Guard units in Maine are scheduled to begin ice-breaking operations on the Kennebec River during the week of March 12, 2012. The public is being advised to remove their fish shacks as soon as possible, if safe to do so, in advance of Coast Guard ice-breaking operations. "Anyone who still has ice fishing shacks or gear on the Kennebec River should remove them as soon as possible and should proceed with extreme caution in areas where the Coast Guard will break ice," said Chief Warrant Officer Bob Albert, the ice operations mission manager for Coast Guard Sector Northern New England. During the Kennebec River Spring Break-out…

1882- At 9 a.m during a thick snowstorm, the schooner A .F. Ames of Rockland, Maine, was bound from Perth Amboy to Boston with a crew of seven persons. She stranded during a thick snowstorm five hundred yards east of Race Point and one mile and three-quarters west of Station No. 6, Second District. The vessel was discovered by the patrol and the life-saving crew boarded her at 9:15 o’clock. She was leaking and pounding heavily. The pumps were manned to keep the water down. The vessel was floated on the rising tide and made sail. She was piloted into deep water. The leak, however, was gaining rapidly. After consulting with the captain, the vessel was put on the beach. The crew was sheltered at the station until the 13th when the keeper sent them to Boston.

A Connecticut-based Coast Guard cutter is scheduled to deploy to the Great Lakes Nov. 29, 2010, to assist in the service's icebreaking mission there throughout the winter months. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay, a 140-ft icebreaking tug, will arrive in the Great Lakes region a few weeks after it departs its homeport of New London, Conn. While there, the crew will assist those of other Coast Guard icebreakers during Operations Coal Shovel and Taconite, the largest domestic ice breaking operations in the country.

Coast Guard investigators are working with the Maine State Ferry Service to determine why the ferry Everett Liberty ran aground with 30 people on board shortly after leaving the terminal in Vinalhaven, Maine, on the way to Rockland, Maine, Thursday, June 3, 2010. None of the 26 passengers or four crew members were injured during the accident and there are no reports of pollution. The ferry terminal manager called the Coast Guard around 9:25 a.m., reporting the ferry grounded in The Reach, Maine, near Norton's Point, Maine. “We worked quickly with the Maine State Ferry Service to ensure the vessel was safe to transit to Rockland and to minimize interruptions to ferry service,” said Lt. Lisa Ceraolo of the Sector Northern New England command center.

Paul Stuart Crandall passed away on July 20, 2002 following a massive stroke. A Civil Engineering graduate, MIT class of 1942, and a registered professional engineer, Paul Crandall served 3-1/2 years with the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Water Supply Battalion operating in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany during WWII. Crandall joined Crandall Dry Dock Engineers in 1945 as the fifth generation of engineers to carry on the dry dock business begun in 1854 by his great-great grandfather, William H. Crandall. He served as designer, field engineer, and subsequently principal engineer until 1953 when he became President of Crandall Dry Dock Engineers.

The master and crew of Maine Maritime Academy's tug boat, Pentagoet, were recently cited for outstanding service to fellow mariners in peril in a letter of appreciation from USCG Captain Harry E. Haynes, Commander, Group Southwest Harbor. The letter recognized Captain Tim Leach, master of the vessel; Harry Stevens, mate engineer; and Zander Parker, MMA student crew member, for their assistance to the Coast Guard in voluntarily responding to the aid of the disabled tug and barge, Mackenzie Ryan. Maine Maritime Academy President Leonard Tyler presented the letter to the master and crew in a special ceremony held last week during the college's daily morning formation.

The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) is soliciting bids for the construction of a 154-ft. LOA replacement ferry vessel for the Maine State Ferry Service, Rockland, Maine. Details of the Invitation for Bids is posted at the MaineDOT website at: http://www.state.me.us/mdot/comprehensive-list-projects/project-information.php For general information regarding Bidding and Contracting procedures, contact Scott Bickford at Tel: (207) 624-3410

A tank barge that ran aground outside the channel in Raritan Bay near Wards Point Bend successfully re-floated. Reinauer Transportation conducted lightering operations throughout the night, and with the rising tide in the morning they were able to free the grounded vessel. The barge George Morris was being towed out to sea by the tug Rowan M. McAllister carrying 50,000 barrels of Ethanol aboard when it ran aground around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Coast Guard pollution response officers and marine investigators report that the ship suffered no apparent hull breach and no oil or Ethanol has entered the water. The barge George Morris and the towing barge Rockland are being moved to Perth Amboy Anchorage to continue lightering operations.

Maine Maritime Academy’s (MMA) training ship, State of Maine, arrived earlier today in Palermo, Sicily, a port-of-call not originally on the itinerary of the college’s annual two-month training cruise. The rescheduled port visit was necessitated by the ship’s 3-day diversion to Siracusa, Sicily, due to an onboard medical emergency experienced by the ship’s master, Captain Laurence Wade. Wade was hospitalized for additional medical care at a local facility. According to Captain Jeff Loustaunau, MMA’s commandant of midshipmen, the remainder of the itinerary of the training cruise remains unaffected by the substitution of the port of Palermo for a previously scheduled visit in Odessa, Ukraine.

Boston Whaler will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. The chatter began in 1958 when Richard T. Fisher -- a Harvard-educated engineer by trade and a boater by choice -- in partnership with naval designer C. Raymond Hunt, first introduced the Boston Whaler at the New York Boat Show. No one had seen a boat quite like it before. set this boat apart from the others. It had an odd-shaped body that resembled a seagull in flight rather than the traditional "V" shape found on most pleasure craft of that day. Its body was constructed using the revolutionary Unibond construction process by which protective fiberglass skin and foam fuse to create a extremely durable and buoyant vessel. The talk continued in 1961 when Boston Whaler was thrust into the international limelight.

1882- At 9 a.m during a thick snowstorm, the schooner A .F. Ames of Rockland, Maine, was bound from Perth Amboy to Boston with a crew of seven persons. She stranded during a thick snowstorm five hundred yards east of Race Point and one mile and three-quarters west of Station No. 6, Second District. The vessel was discovered by the patrol and the life-saving crew boarded her at 9:15 o’clock. She was leaking and pounding heavily. The pumps were manned to keep the water down. The vessel was floated on the rising tide and made sail. She was piloted into deep water. The leak, however, was gaining rapidly. After consulting with the captain, the vessel was put on the beach. The crew was sheltered at the station until the 13th when the keeper sent them to Boston.