Cornell News

Maritime Partners,a Louisiana-based provider of maritime financing solutions primarily focused on Jones Act vessels, announced the addition of Stephen J. Bordes and Greg Chase to its executive leadership team.Bordes joins Maritime Partners as its chief financial officer, and Chase as as the firm’s chief legal officer.Bordes brings to the company more than 20 years of experience in the fields of finance and fund management. Prior to joining Maritime Partners, he served as the CFO for New York-based American Industrial Partners…

Predictability is the aim of every human, company, or society.Humanity simply strives to increase its level of predictability whether as a person, or as a group of people. When humans attain a certain level of predictability, their hope for the future goes up and their level of anxiety goes down.Oddly, conservatives and progressives both strive for predictability, they just do it in different ways. A conservative will say: If nothing changes, then my predictability for the future will go up.

Crowley has named offshore wind veteran Christy Guthman as vice president of business development for its Wind Services business as the company grows in the clean, sustainable energy sector.Guthman most recently served as executive general manager of sales and commercial operations for GE Offshore Wind. During her tenure there, she built the company’s North American sales, marketing and supply chain strategy. Guthman also worked as General Electric’s senior sales director for the western U.S.

Marine salvage, rescue, emergency response and specialized services company Resolve Marine announced that Deputy CEO Joseph Farrell, III has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. In the combined role he oversees all operations and administration including emergency response, projects, Alaska, shared resources, HSEQ, strategy and M&A, finance, government relations, human resources, marketing, and alternative investments.Farrell, III, was appointed Deputy CEO in April 2022 and brings 17 years of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine…

HII announced on Wednesday that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division promoted Kimberly Nastasi to vice president of the newly formed integrated communications and stakeholder engagement department. This new department will enhance communication and engagement with key stakeholders inside and outside of the shipbuilding community.As vice president of integrated communications and stakeholder engagement, Nastasi will report to Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson and will be responsible for leading internal and external efforts in marketing and communications…

U.S. federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel B. Maffei announced Phillip C. “Chris” Hughey has been hired as the General Counsel of the Federal Maritime Commission and appointed to be a member of the Senior Executive Service.In his capacity as General Counsel to the Commission, Hughey will provide legal advice and recommendations to the Chairman and Commissioners on regulatory and policy matters. He will serve as a member of the agency’s senior management team and will also…

Chairman Daniel B. Maffei announced today the hiring of Linda S. Harris Crovella to serve as an Administrative Law Judge of the Federal Maritime Commission.Judge Crovella joins the Commission after serving as an Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration in Richmond, Va. and Buffalo, N.Y. for the past six years. Prior to joining the Social Security Administration, she worked at the National Labor Relations Board as a Field Attorney, investigating and litigating unfair labor practice charges…

Marine salvage and emergency response company Resolve Marine announced on Friday that it has appointed Joseph Farrell, III as deputy CEO, a transition role to CEO.Farrell has more than two decades of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine. After serving as a naval architect and project manager where he worked on and led high-profile salvage projects around the world, he was appointed director, business development with oversight of the company’s Alaska and compliance divisions…

Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous command and control systems for commercial vessels, announced Monday that it has hired Trevor Vieweg as chief technology officer (CTO), reporting to the company’s CEO Michael G. Johnson. Effective earlier this month, this new position gives Vieweg responsibility for the company’s overarching technology strategy, as well as continuing to develop a high-performing team focused on the development of advanced marine technology.

“I hold no branch in higher esteem, than the Merchant Marine…”That is a quote from General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific in WWII. That one sentence sums up National Maritime Day. Inasmuch if it were not for our glorious Merchant Marine and maritime industry, we may not even have been a nation at all.National Maritime Day is the day we honor our American Merchant Mariners for protecting our freedom and for their dedication to promoting American commerce together with the accomplishments of the U.S. maritime industry.

New rules that entered force at the start of 2020 to reduce sulphur emissions from ships are leading to significant hikes in vessel operational expenditure, members of theshipping industry say.Using low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) can add as much as $20,000 to the operational expenditure for each ship per annum, said Sacha Cornell, fleet manager, Norbulk Shipping, speaking during a webinar organized by trade association management company Maritime AMC. “I would guesstimate that the extra cost for additional sampling…

A widely-shared meme has taken several facts about the Titanic out of context to make unsubstantiated claims that imply the ship’s sinking was a deliberate act. This is not true—experts widely agree the sinking of the Titanic was an accident. The meme was posted to Facebook on March 1 and has been shared more than 600 times (here). It consists of two images: one of the ship and a second of American financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan. These sit alongside a wall of text that…

Crowley Maritime Corporation said senior executive Dan Warner has been promoted to chief financial officer, consolidating company’s enterprise-level financial strategy, resources and services under his leadership. Warner has served as senior vice president and treasurer and member of the company’s senior leadership team since 2005. He began his career with Crowley in 2001 as a senior analyst for the corporate planning group, and later served as finance director for both the company’s…

The following excerpts are from the new travelogue by Captain Sean P. Tortora, titled, “Steaming to Djibouti…My First Hitch on an Underway Replenishment Ship.”  Join a motivated young merchant marine officer on his first journey onboard a venerable navy auxiliary steamship. Accompany him through the convoluted reporting for duty process through his truly surreal first tour onboard. Meet the oddball characters in the crew and follow their outlandish daily routine. Listen in to the truly jaw-dropping crew interactions.

British navigator Jimmy Cornell set sail from Seville in Spain on Thursday to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first voyage around the world—this time on an electric boat.Cornell plans to follow the route taken by explorers Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano.The trip "has two dimensions, a historical dimension, because I want to travel the original and historic route," Cornell told reporters."But it has another very important dimension for me, which is to protect the environment.

Greensea recently added key personnel to its engineering team in its Plymouth, Mass., office to support their hull robotics program. James Truman, Senior Robotics Engineer, is leading the development of Greensea’s latest technology, a hull crawling robot with precise hull-relative navigation and autonomy capabilities. Assisting James on the hull robotics program is Sam Fladung, Robotics Engineer.“James is one of the best engineers I know. I first met him at graduate school and then worked with him at Phoenix International,” said Greensea CEO, Ben Kinnaman.

There was important cruise news in January: Viking – a premier European ocean and river cruise company - will offer two new “destination-focused travel experiences,” starting in 2022. One set of cruises becomes Viking’s first foray in the inland North American market, in this case the Great Lakes. Another set of cruises will head to the Arctic and Antarctica. Viking is building two new vessels: the Viking Octantis and the Viking Polaris, under construction now in Norway, by Fincantieri’s VARD.In a press release Viking writes that it has created “the thinking person’s expedition.”  Indeed…

Another year; another major fleet takeover by Kirby Corporation. But the leader of the inland tank-barge sector is not growing for growth’s sake: a deeper look at the numbers shows a disciplined strategy at work.“Kirby is definitely the big gorilla in the inland barge market,” affirmed Jefferies analyst Randy Giveans. Indeed, Houston-headquartered Kirby Corp has been extremely active buying fleets over the past few years, most recently acquiring the 63 tank barges of Cenac Marine in March for $244 million.

Boys are coaxed into cleanliness at bath time playing with boats. But it was never a game for Joseph Farrell, III, instinctively realizing he was ballasting and salvaging ships, unlike the typical Mr. Bubbles kid. The scion of Resolve Marine Group may have been born to lead the global emergency response company founded by his father with a single tug 38 years ago, but he’s never taken dangerous wreck removal lightly.Before turning 15, Joey had two close calls on and around ships that guide him today, at 34.

The United States on Thursday said it will impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, reigniting investor fears of a global trade war as Washington's allies took steps to retaliate against U.S. goods.The move, announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a telephone briefing on Thursday, ended months of uncertainty about potential tariff exemptions and suggested a hardening of the Trump administration's approach to trade negotiations.It also sent a chill through financial markets…

Gulf of Mexico vessel builders – and their customers – adapt to a lean offshore market. After oil prices plunged in late 2014 – pressured by shale output – demand for offshore vessels in the Gulf of Mexico shrank, day rates for boats fell and non-working units were idled. This year, several GoM boat builders filed for Chapter 11, or voluntary bankruptcy, while others consolidated. The most diversified companies kept their heads above water. Today, the outlook's a bit brighter. Crude oil prices hit bottom early last year. Tidewater Inc.

The construction of up to 20 new ferries for New York City is arguably the most exciting maritime new construction project in the U.S. this year. Last month we visited with Cameron Clark, Corporate Vice President, Development and Special Projects, Hornblower, the project manager for the new Citywide Ferry by Hornblower fleet, who discussed the challenges and opportunities ahead. Hornblower has, in the span of 36 years, become the force in the U.S. ferry market, with more than 2,000 employees and 20 million passenger trips annually, including a cumulative staff of 700 in the New York City area.

Maritime lawyer Dr. Frank Lawrence Wiswall Junior, former Chair of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Legal Committee and Vice President (Honoris Causa) of the Comité Maritime International (CMI), has received the International Maritime Prize for 2015 for his contribution to the work of IMO over many years. Presenting the Prize, during a ceremony at IMO Headquarters on Monday, December 5, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim highlighted Dr. Wiswall's dedication and leadership in the field of international maritime law over several decades…