Ship Search News

This week is Singapore Maritime Week 2016, when the city-state celebrates its role as the major hub for shipping in the region, Singapore has good reason to celebrate: according to mapping, ship search and valuation provider, VesselsValue, Singapore owners control just under 2,000 deep-sea going vessels with a total value of UD35.4bn. This equates to over USD 8,000 invested in shipping per person in Singapore. This makes Singapore the leading nation when it comes to vessel ownership in USD terms per head (see ATTACHED image for table). The largest owner in Singapore is PIL, with a current fleet and orderbook of 138 vessels worth a total current value of USD 3,394m. The 80-vessel Eastern Pacific Shipping fleet is worth a similar amount at USD 3,128m.

Russian naval units are conducting a defense drill in the Barents Sea, which Russia shares with Norway, involving more than 20 vessels from the country’s Baltic Fleet, as part of the Russian Northern Fleet exercises. The press service of Russia’s Western Military District said in a statement that various ships of the auxiliary fleet, diesel-electric submarines, small missile and anti-submarine boats are participating in the drill. The ‘strike and search group’, as the Russian Ministry of Defence referred to it, from the navy’s Northern Fleet comprised of Tu-142 ‘Bear’ naval aviation reconnaissance bombers and Il-38 ‘Dolphin’ maritime patrol jets as well as two small anti-submarine ships and support vessels.

A ship, called the Davis, believed to be carrying as many as 180 illegal immigrants was still missing on Monday, after sending a distress signal from waters off southern Italy on Saturday evening, the Italian coastguard said. The coastguard searched all weekend for the ship with speedboats and a helicopter but found nothing. "The search is still continuing," a spokesman for the Brindisi coastguard said on Monday morning. Greek radio operators picked up the signal and transferred it to Italy, which estimated the boat to be 24-30 nautical miles off the coast of Brindisi on Italy's southeastern heel. The coastguard said it was not known precisely how many people were on board, but the ship was thought to be transporting illegal immigrants.

Coast Guard rescue crews have been searching since Saturday afternoon for a 59-year-old-Canadian woman who possibly fell overboard yesterday from the cruise ship Jewel of the Sea off Nassau, Bahamas. A Coast Guard C-130 rescue from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., assisted in the search for the Canadian woman. The crew of an HH-60 Coast Guard helicopter searched after a missing persons report was given to the Coast Guard by the cruise ship crew. Begora was last seen on the vessel on Saturday morning. Begora was reported missing to the ships crew about 1 p.m. by her husband. The crew of the Jewel of the Sea conducted a full ship search for the woman before notifying the Coast Guard. According to RCCL, the Jewel of the Seas was in route to Nassau on Saturday morning.

A massive $8.5 billion luxury floating metropolis, the biggest boat in history, is reportedly on the verge of being built in the poverty-stricken Central American nation of Honduras. "If things work out the way we want, we should be starting in January," Mario Mossi, agent for boat builder Freedom Ship Inc. in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, said. Measuring 4,320 ft. (1,500 m) by 750 ft. (250 m) wide and 340 ft. (130 m) deep, the boat will be designed to house sports centers, parks, theaters and nightclubs, all to be built in Honduras' Caribbean port of Trujillo, Mossi said. Approximately five times longer than the biggest cruise liner now afloat…