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Crescent News

14 Dec 2023

Upper Miss Navigation Season Draws to a Close

The last tow of the 2023 navigation season: The towboat Thomas Erickson departed Lock and Dam 10, near Guttenberg, Iowa, Dec. 3, with 15 barges. (Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District)

The 2023 navigation season has drawn to a close on the Upper Mississippi River.A 15-barge tow pushed by the towboat Thomas Erickson, the last of the season, departed Lock and Dam 10, near Guttenberg, Iowa, December 3, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District said.The 2023 season commence March 12, when the towboat Phillip M Pfeffer broke its way through the ice of Lake Pepin to travel to St. Paul, Minnesota.With the 2023 navigation season in the rearview, St. Paul District staff will remain busy this coming winter with maintenance projects at Lock and Dam 2…

25 Sep 2023

Blakeley BoatWorks Building New Tug for Crescent Towing

(Image: Crowley Engineering Services)

Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Blakeley BoatWorks is building a new EPA Tier 4 ship assist tugboat for fellow The Cooper Group company Crescent Towing. Upon completion, Crescent will operate the new tug in New Orleans as part of its Mississippi River ship assist fleet.“The addition of this new 6,000-hp z-drive in support of our Mississippi River operations highlights our continued commitment to providing our customers with the most powerful and technologically advanced equipment in the industry,” said Scott H.

08 Mar 2023

Crescent River Port Pilots Order Two Vessels from Snow & Company

(Image: Snow & Company)

Seattle shipbuilder Snow & Company announced it has been awarded a contract to build a pair of 50-foot pilot boats for the Crescent River Port Pilots’ Association, based in Louisiana. Designed by U.K.-based Camarc Design, the all-aluminum vessels have a refined hull with enhanced fuel efficiencies and reduced slamming accelerations, which provide excellent all-around seakeeping capabilities and a pilot specific shape to facilitate safe boarding operations.The vessels will be powered by twin Volvo Penta D13-800 EPA Tier 3 marine diesel engines…

31 Oct 2022

DOT Announces $703M in Port Funding; 41 Projects in 22 States

Copyright bannafarsai/AdobeStock

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced more than $703 million to fund 41 projects in 22 states and one territory that designed to help improve port facilities through the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program. Following is the full list of FY 2022 Port Infrastructure Development Grant Awards:ALASKANorth Extension Stabilization Step 1 Project ($68,700,000), Anchorage, AlaskaThe Project will reconfigure and realign the shoreline within the “North Extension” (the area north of the existing general cargo terminals) at the Port of Alaska in Anchorage, Alaska.

16 Mar 2022

Spain Detains Yacht Thought to Be Owned by Rosneft CEO

Spanish authorities on Wednesday detained a mega-yacht called "Crescent" that is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, the sanctioned chief executive of Russian oil giant Rosneft, a police source told Reuters.The 135-metre-long yacht, described by specialist publications as one of the biggest in the world, sails under a Cayman Islands flag and arrived in Spain from Italy in November 2021, according to monitoring site Marine Traffic.Spain's Transport Ministry, which confirmed the detention but not the ownership, said it docked in the Mediterranean port city of Tarragona on November 2 and had sought permission from the coast guard to depart…

05 Jan 2022

Louisiana Students Take Mississippi River Tour Field Trip

Ky Robillard, 6th grader. Louisiana Key Academy, Baton Rouge; Jamaree Washington, 9th grader, Franklin Senior High School, Franklin, Jordan Savoy, 9th grader, Lafayette High School, Lafayette, Joseph Mitchell, 8th grader, Iberia Middle School, New Iberia, Gabrielle Adams, 8th grader, Louisiana Key Academy, Baton Rouge. (Photo: Jonathan Lopez)

Dozens of South Louisiana middle and high school students eager to learn about careers in the maritime industry enjoyed a cool, windy autumn day on the mighty Mississippi River in St. Bernard Parish at the first-of-its-kind Maritime Field Trip.The daylong field trip was organized and coordinated by a group of maritime industry partners and featured Crescent River Port Pilots. The educational trip taught the students the importance of river safety and the dramatic impact mariners…

27 Dec 2021

First Ship Sails after Latest Mississippi River Channel Deepening

(Photo: T. Parker Host)

The first vessel has sailed from the Mississippi River with a draft of 47.7 feet following the newly increased draft at 48 feet.The M/V CSSC Le Havre, operated by Cargill International with a cargo from Alliance Coal, LLC, is destined for the Far East and loaded over 112,000 metric tons on December 23, 2021.HOST served as both the vessel agent and terminal operator for the voyage.“When the Crescent River Pilots who oversee navigation of vessels in the this stretch of river announced the increase in depth on Dec.

11 Nov 2021

USACE to Perform Winter Maintenance at Six Locks

( Photo: Patrick Moes / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is preparing for major repairs at six of its Mississippi River locks this winter to ensure they continue working as designed.Maintenance is scheduled at Lock and Dam 4, Alma, Wisconsin; Lock and Dam 5A, near Fountain City, Wisconsin; Lock and Dam 6, Trempealeau, Wisconsin; Lock and Dam 7, near La Crescent, Minnesota; Lock and Dam 8, near Genoa, Wisconsin; and Lock and Dam 10, Guttenberg, Iowa.The locks will be closed from Nov.

11 Mar 2021

Coast Guard Cutter Dorado Decommissioned

The Coast Guard Cutter Dorado (WPB-87306) before a decommissioning ceremony on March 10, 2021 in Crescent City, Calif. (Photo: U.S. Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dorado (WPB-87306) was decommissioned Wednesday after 23 years of service. The vessel was the Coast Guard's sixth 87-foot Marine Protector-class patrol boat to serve as the Coast Guard’s primary nearshore patrol asset.“I would like to thank my crew and all previous sailors for bolstering her highly successful service life,” said Lt. Rebecca Cotton, the Dorado’s commanding officer, during a decommissioning ceremony in Crescent City, Calif. “They made the Dorado an unforgettable cutter in which to serve the West Coast for the past 23 years.

14 Aug 2020

Ship-spotter: Webcamming

Truth be told, my ship-spotting addiction (nurtured by webcams streaming on the internet and fueled further by excessive desk-time during the 2020 pandemic) actually started with some business purpose. Agents in far flung locales were sometimes not as swift as hoped for with their reports- so when a vessel was visible online, augmented by AIS driven position websites, information flows to clients or partners in various supply chains were improved. It probably started around 2014 when a client’s vessel was transiting through Miraflores Locks in Panama.

18 Nov 2019

Kim Heng Enters Taiwan’s OWP

Kim Heng Shipbuilding & Engineering (KHSE), wholly owned subsidiary of Kim Heng Offshore & Marine (KHOM), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for offshore wind farm projects (OWP) in Taiwan.KHSE did not disclose the name of the other signatory.Singapore headquartered integrated offshore and marine value chain services provider said that its subsidiary and the unnamed subsea cable installer will collaborate with each other targeting the offshore wind farm cable-laying projects in Taiwan.Both companies have agreed to cooperate to pursue submarine cable-laying work for the Taiwan windfarm renewables projects and will work towards signing a formal contractual agreement.The company will make further announcements when there are material updates to the MOU and related matters…

14 Oct 2019

HII Employees Honored at SASE

SASE 2019 Award Recipients (Photo: Huntington Ingalls Industries)

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that employees from its Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions received awards during the 2019 Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) National Conference and STEM Career Fair. The conference, the largest for Asian Americans in the United States, was held Oct. 10-12 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.Marie Lawson, an engineer at Newport News, and Scott Chin, an engineer at Ingalls, received Professional Achievement awards.

05 Sep 2019

Bahamians Struggle in Dorian's Devastating Wake

A file image of Equinor's South Riding Point storage terminal (CREDIT: Equinor)

Stunned residents of the Bahamas surveyed the wreckage of their homes and officials struggled to assess the number killed by Hurricane Dorian, as the storm bore down on the South Carolina coast, threatening record flooding on Thursday.The United Nations said 70,000 people in the Bahamas needed immediate humanitarian relief after the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation.Aerial video of the worst-hit Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas showed widespread devastation…

11 Jul 2019

Course on Enhancing Maritime Security

How do you deal with maritime crimes at sea - and how do you train others to do so? These are the skills being taught on the latest in a series of regional training of trainers courses on combating insecurity in the maritime domain.Participants from 18 countries have attended the course, at the Mohammed Bin Naif Academy for Maritime Science and Security Studies, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (30 June - 11 July).Bahrain, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen were the participants.Participants learned teaching skills.

11 Jul 2019

Tunisia Migrant Boat Casualty Death Toll Rises to 58

The death toll from a ship packed with migrants that sank off the Tunisian coast last weekend has risen to 58 after Tunisia recovered 38 bodies on Thursday, the Tunisian Red Crescent said.More than 80 African migrants in total are feared to have drowned in the incident, in what would be one of the worst migrant boat disasters to date. The boat capsized after setting off for Europe from neighbouring Libya.Reporting By Tarek Amara

12 May 2019

Offshore Wind: California's New Gold Rush

Alla Weinstein, CEO, Castle Wind, a joint venture with EnBW North America.

California Dreamin': In CA, offshore wind has unlimited potentialWhen it comes to States promoting renewable, non-fossil electricity generation, California surely leads the list, from utility-scale regional grids to individual rooftop solar panels.In fact, a December 2018 update from the California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates the state may already have exceeded an initial renewable generation goal of 33% by 2020. CEC estimates that in 2018 that generation number was already 34%.

18 Dec 2018

French Frigate Shoals: A Canary in the Coal Mine

© cartoonresource/Adobe Stock

French Frigate Shoals are located in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, between Kauai and Midway. The atoll consists of a twenty-mile long crescent-shaped reef, with 13 coral and sand islands and the 120-foot high volcanic rock Perouse Pinnacle, named for French explorer Jean-Francois de la Perouse, who charted the atoll in 1786 and nearly grounded his two frigates. Tern Island is the largest, covering 105,276 square meters or 26 acres. Second largest is (or was) East Island, with 35…

04 Dec 2018

Migrants die in boat off Libya, Egyptian survivor says

MISRATA, Libya, Dec 4 - Fifteen migrants have died in a boat off the Libyan coast after spending 12 days at sea without food or water, an Egyptian survivor said on Tuesday.Only 10 migrants from the capsized boat survived, all of whom were suffering from severe dehydration, Othman Belbeisi, head of the U.N. migration agency IOM in Libya, said on Twitter.The owner of a beach chalet found the migrants washing up on the shore near the city of Misrata and called authorities, who brought them to the Red Crescent relief service and hospitals, residents said."We were 25 migrants on a boat ... We set off from (the western Libyan town of) Sabratah and we were at sea for 12 days without food and water," the survivor said.

14 Jun 2018

Saudi Arabia, UAE to Establish Shipping Lane to Yemen's Hodeidah Port

© ronedya / Adobe Stock

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced a five-point aid plan for Yemen's Hodeidah port and surrounding areas on Wednesday, after a Saudi-led alliance of Arab states launched an attack on Yemen's Houthi-held main port city.As part of the plan, the two coalition states aim to establish a shipping lane to Hodeidah from the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, and Jizan, a city in southern Saudi Arabia, officials told a news conference in Riyadh.They will also distribute food, provide medical supplies, equipment and staff to hospitals, sustain electrical stations and provide economic support, they

21 Jun 2018

East Libyan Forces Advance to Retake Oil Ports

East Libyan forces said on Thursday they had retaken the shuttered oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, though clashes resumed south of Ras Lanuf in the afternoon after a counter-attack by rival factions.Staff were evacuated from terminals in Libya's eastern oil crescent and exports were suspended last Thursday when armed opponents of eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar stormed the ports and occupied them.The closure has led to production losses of up to 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) and two oil storage tanks were destroyed or badly damaged by fires during the fighting.For the past week, Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) has pounded the area with air strikes as it mobilised to retake the ports…

09 Jan 2018

WWII Museum’s PT-305 Sails Again

(Photo: National World War II Museum)

Commercial workboat philanthropy on display on PT-305: WWII Museum’s PT-305 sails again after a far reaching donor-funded restoration. In March, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans launched its reconstructed PT-305, built locally by Higgins Industries in 1943. The museum acquired the boat known as the USS Sudden Jerk in 2007, restoration began in 2009, and it now sails Lake Pontchartrain as an interactive exhibit. PT-305, with a fifteen-man crew, belonged to a 12-ship squadron operating in the Mediterranean from 1944 until the war ended in 1945.

18 Mar 2018

Drydocks World Earns Dubai Chamber CSR Label

Drydocks World - a DP World company, the leading provider of maritime and offshore services to the shipping, oil, gas and energy sectors has received the Dubai Chamber Corporate Social Responsibility Label for the fourth year in a row in recognition of the company’s efforts and contributions to excellence in various areas of social responsibility. The Dubai Chamber Social Corporate Responsibility Label is designed to provide a diagnostic practice that enables the Chamber to scrutinize and examine the activities of companies both internally and externally. This helps companies assess their current contributions to CSR and determine how to further improve their leadership position in the area of social responsibility within industry.

28 Mar 2018

Vitol Stores Gasoline Aboard Ships off Singapore

Vitol seen storing gasoline off Singapore as local onshore light distillates stocks at record levels. European trader Vitol is storing gasoline on tankers offshore Singapore, Asia's biggest oil trading centre, for the first time since 2016 amid oversupply and weak demand for the fuel, said four people that participate in the market on Wednesday. The sources said that Vitol was seen storing gasoline aboard more than one so-called Long-Range (LR) tanker. The company does not typically comment on its trading operations. At least one of the vessels is the tanker Glory Crescent, a so-called LR-2 tanker, said one of the four sources. The vessel is 105,000 deadweight tonnes and could carry the equivalent of about 800,000 barrels of gasoline.