Keel Laid News

The U.S. Navy on Friday celebrated the keel laying of the lead ship of the Constellation class of guided-missile frigates, the future USS Constellation (FFG 62), at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wis.Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti participated in the ceremony along with Wisconsin governor Tony Evers and Fincantieri Marine Group CEO Marco Galbiati.Hundreds of FMM shipbuilders gathered with guests inside the shipyard’s massive new climate-controlled Building 34…

The Finnish Border Guard has held a keel laying ceremony for its new patrol vessel at Baltic Operator's shipyard in Gdansk.On March 12, 2024, a keel laying ceremony was arranged at Baltic Operator’s shipyard in Gdansk. The ceremony took place in the presence of the representatives of the Finnish Border Guard, Meyer Turku, Baltic Operator and Bureau Veritas.The keel laying ceremony is an old tradition. Before the keel laying, the ordering party - the Finnish Border Guard - and the shipyard’s representative placed their lucky coins under the keel beneath the first block.Later on…

Babcock International Group continues its successful delivery of the Royal Navy Type 31 frigates with the keel laying of HMS Active, the second of the five-ship Inspiration class program.The two warships are being built simultaneously, with work continuing only meters away on the first of the Inspiration class, HMS Venturer.In keeping with tradition, Babcock asked their youngest apprentice, first-year Electrical Fitter, Robbie Dick, to place the specially designed coin under the keel.Babcock’s Type 31…

The keel has been laid for the United States' first plug-in hybrid service operation vessel (SOV) at Edison Chouest Offshore's (ECO) LaShip Shipyard in Houma, La.Louisiana-based ECO has a 10-year charter agreement to operate the SOV for Empire Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Equinor and BP, starting form the mid-2020s.The 262-foot-long vessel will accommodate up to 60 wind turbine technicians for operations and maintenance work at the Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farms off the coast of Long Island…

Construction of Young Endeavour II has officially commenced at the Birdon shipyard in Port Macquarie, Australia.The Australian Commonwealth Government has ordered the vessel to replace the brigantine Sail Training Ship (STS) Young Endeavour. This vessel is now 35 years old and has been delivering sail training voyages in Australia since 1988.The new sail training ship, to be built over the next three years, will be a barquentine rig, with square sails rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails rigged on the fore…

The Meyer Group's Neptun Werft officially laid the keel for the new German research vessel Meteor IV during a ceremony at the Rostock, Germany shipyard.The Meyer Group is building the research vessel together with the Lower Saxony shipyard Fassmer on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research."Only two months after the burning start, the assembly of the individual components for the Meteor IV is now beginning. At our shipyards in Rostock and Papenburg, and together with Fassmer Werft…

Austal USA hosted a keel laying ceremony for the future USS Pierre (LCS 38) Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship at the company’s Gulf Coast shipyard. Ship sponsor Larissa Thune Hargens, with the assistance of Hon Tran – a 13-year Austal USA veteran A-class welder, authenticated the keel by welding her initials into a keel plate that will be welded to the hull of the ship.The future USS Pierre is the final Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship being built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. LCS 38 is the second U.S. Navy ship named for the South Dakota capital city.

Vard's shipyard in Tulcea, Romania, on Wednesday held a keel laying ceremony for the Prysmian Group's newest cable laying vessel.The new 171-meter vessel, an identical sister ship to the state-of-the-art Leonardo da Vinci delivered in 2021, is scheduled to start commercial operation in early 2025.According to the Prysmian Group, both the new ship and the Leonardo da Vinci are the only installation vessels in the world with two rotating platforms of 7,000 and 10,000 tons, bringing the total capacity up to 14,000 tons to ensure the highest carousel capacity in the market.

A keel laying ceremony was held earlier this week for a Construction Service Operation Vessel ordered by Olympic in 2022 from Ulstein.The ceremony was held on March 14 at the hull yard CRIST. This is vessel number two, yard number (yno) 319. The keel for the first vessel, yno 318, was laid on January 31, this year.The two vessels are designed for the offshore wind industry and are based on the ULSTEIN SX222 design with TWIN X-STERN from Ulstein Design & Solutions AS.According to Ulstein…

Keel laying and steel-cutting ceremonies for two new ferries being built for Scotland's Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) were held this week at Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard in Turkey.The first ferry in the production timeline has had its keel laid, while steel-cutting for the second vessel has also begun – three weeks earlier than planned.The new, 94.8-meter vehicle/passenger ferries will each have capacity for up to 450 passengers and 100 cars or 14 commercial vehicles…

A keel laying ceremony was held Tuesday for the wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) Boreas, being built for the Dutch marine and offshore services firm Van Oord.The ceremony took place at the YCRO yard in Yantai, China.The Boreas will be able to operate on methanol and will be capable of installing wind turbines of up to 20 MW capacity. The vessel, ordered in October 2021, will be 175 meters long and be able to lift more than 3,000 tonnes.

On November 1, the Longkou Shipyard in Shandong, China held a keel laying ceremony for the first of Wallenius Marine's new Sleipner car carrier vessels.In the summer of 2021, Wallenius Marine and Volkswagen signed a contract for two multi-fuel vessels with the ability to carry 6,500 cars each. After delivery, the vessels will be chartered out to Volkswagen Konzernlogistik GmbH & Co. OHG and transport new vehicles of the Volkswagen Group for at least 10 years, with ship management from Wallenius Marine.The Sleipner ship design was created by Knud E.

Houma, La. shipbuilder Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors hosted a keel-laying ceremony for NOAA’s newest oceanographic research ship, Oceanographer.“Today’s keel-laying ceremony marks a major step forward both in the construction of Oceanographer and the revitalization of NOAA’s ship fleet,” said Rear Adm. Nancy Hann, director of NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.Oceanographer is one of two ships being built for NOAA by TMC to support a variety of missions…

A keel-laying ceremony was held earlier this week for Seaway 7’s new offshore wind turbine installation vessel Seaway Ventus.The ceremony was held on Monday, June 6, at the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) Haimen facility, Nantong.The GustoMSC NG-14000XL-G jack-up vessel was originally ordered by OHT, with which Seaway 7 merged in 2021."This is a very important and satisfying milestone for the Seaway Ventus construction project, marking the period where all the fabricated…

A keel laying ceremony was held Friday for Finnsirius, the first of two ro-pax vessels being built for Finnlines at China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Weihai, China.Scheduled to enter service in 2023, Finnsirius and its sister vessel Finncanopus will operate on the Finland–Sweden route where Finnlines has sailed since 1997. The ports of call are Naantali in mainland Finland, Långnäs on the Åland Islands and Kapellskär in Sweden.Each combined passenger-cargo vessel will have capacity for about 300 trucks, 200 cars and 1,100 passengers.

Chinese shipbuilder China Merchant Heavy Industries has laid the keel for expedition cruise ship company SunStone Ships' sixth Infinity Class newbuild, Ocean Albatros. A keel laying ceremony was held January 20 at the CMHI yard in Haimen, China.Scheduled to be delivered in March 2023, the vessel will be on year-round charter to the Danish travel company Albatros Expeditions, who is also the charterer of SunStone’s Ocean Victory and Ocean Atlantic.SunStone’s Chairman, Niels-Erik Lund…

Danielle Doggett, founder and CEO of SailCargo, updates the project to build  Ceiba, a true sailing cargo ship taking shape in the jungles of Costa Rica.Danielle Doggett and her co-founders have been on a mission since 2014 to prove the viability of truly emission-free shipping courtesy of the construction of its $4.2m flagship Ceiba, a three masted sailing cargo vessel being built in Costa Rica.“The name Ceiba comes from a type of tree, also called the kapok or silk tree and it is recognized by the Mayan people as a spiritual tree that connects this world with the next…

Fincantieri Marinette Marine held a keel laying ceremony for the final Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to be built in Marinette, Wis., the future USS Cleveland (LCS 31).The Freedom-variant LCS will be the fourth commissioned ship in naval service, since World War I, named after Cleveland. It will be the nation’s 31st LCS.“Our team at Fincantieri Marinette Marine is proud to celebrate the keel laying of the LCS 31 with the gracious citizens of Cleveland. This milestone is a testament to the power of cooperation and forward thinking by the entire Freedom Team and our customer, the United States Navy.

Russian shipbuilder Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex on Tuesday held a keel laying ceremony for a new Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier ordered by compatriot shipowner PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group).The newbuild is the lead vessel in a series of 15 carriers ordered from Zvezda for servicing the Arctic LNG 2 project. She is the first-ever vessel of such dimensions, cargo capacity and icebreaking capabilities to be constructed at a Russian shipyard.The series' lead ship will be owned by SCF…

As the maritime industry debates the "future fuel", one carrier, United European Car Carriers (UECC), plows forward, celebrating today the keel-laying of its third in a series of PCTCs powered by a liquefied natural gas (LNG) battery hybrid arrangement.The ceremony at China's Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard saw the laying of the keel for the hull designated H2665 as part of an ambitious newbuild program in which UECC is taking the lead in sustainable shipping by developing the first-ever vessels to run on hybrid propulsion power fueled by LNG.All told the ships measure 169 by 28 meters…

The Nanjing Jinling shipyard in China has laid the keel for the second of three new hybrid ro-ro vessels it is building for Finnlines.The construction of MS Finneco II is proceeding, and the keel laying ceremony was held on May 12, Finnlines said.The vessel is part of Finnlines’ €500 million ($607 million) newbuilding program which includes two eco-sustainable ro-pax vessels in addition to the three hybrid ro-ro vessels.“Finnlines has made major investments in renewing and developing its fleet into more sustainable, using the latest technologies and green innovations available.

China's CMHI Haimen shipyard last Thursday hosted the keel laying ceremony for Jan De Nul's heavy lift crane vessel Les Alizés.Les Alizés, ordered in November 2019, will mainly be used for the construction of offshore wind farms, but will also be suitable for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms.Together with the Voltaire, for which the keel was laid March, Les Alizés will be in a super-size class of its own, capable of building the newest generation of offshore wind farms.

Offshore installation contractor Jan De Nul has informed that the keel-laying ceremony was held in China for its offshore installation vessel Voltaire. The vessel will, once delivered, be able to install the world's largest offshore wind turbines.The keel-laying ceremony for the jack-up unit was held Thursday at the Cosco Shipping Shipyard in Nantong, China, in the presence of Jan De Nul, Cosco’s and Bureau Veritas’ representatives.Luxembourg-based Jan De Nul Group ordered the…