Marine Link
Friday, March 29, 2024
SUBSCRIBE

Brock News

11 Dec 2023

Canada’s Fifth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship Launched

(Photo: Irving Shipbuilding)

The Royal Canadian Navy’s fifth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), the future HMCS Frédérick Rolette, was launched December 9, 2023, at Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax Shipyard.A full two months ahead of schedule, the 103-metre future HMCS Frédérick Rolette transitioned from Halifax Shipyard’s land level facility to a submersible barge on December 8 and launched in the Bedford Basin. The ship is now pier side at Halifax Shipyard where work continues in preparation for sea trials…

21 Sep 2023

U.S. Revives Cold War Submarine Spy Program to Counter China

Credit: noraismail/AdobeStock

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

07 Jul 2023

Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China

On Feb. 10 last year, the cable ship CS Dependable appeared off the coast of the island of Diego Garcia, an Indian Ocean atoll that’s home to a discreet U.S. naval base.Over the next month, the ship’s crew covertly laid an underwater fiber-optic cable to the military base, an operation code-named “Big Wave,” according to four people with direct knowledge of the mission, as well as a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery and ship tracking data.The new super-fast internet link to Diego Garcia, which has not previously been reported, will boost U.S. military readiness in the Indian Ocean, a region where China has expanded its naval influence over the last decade.The CS Dependable is owned by SubCom…

28 Sep 2022

Ship Captains Held by Indonesian Navy Decry Bribes and Betrayal

Plagued by mosquitoes at night and marauding monkeys by day, ship captain Glenn Madoginog was held for months at an Indonesian naval base before ending up in a cramped prison cell, sleeping alongside convicted murderers and child rapists.The Filipino father of four was one of dozens of captains held at the Batam naval base after being arrested for anchoring in Indonesian waters without a permit while waiting to enter Singapore, according to a dozen people involved in the cases, including captains, ship owners, intermediaries and insurers.Most of the captains were freed after a few weeks once ship owners made unofficial payments to navy intermediaries of between $300…

05 Aug 2022

China's Military Drills Near Taiwan Disrupt Key Shipping Lanes

© tawatchai1990 / Adobe Stock

China's military exercises in the waters around Taiwan have prompted some ships to navigate around the Taiwan Strait and give the island a wide berth, disrupting key trading routes for cargo and commodities sailing around the world, analysts said.Angered by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China on Thursday began four days of military drills around the disputed island, including firing live missiles and deploying fighter jets.Although Taiwan's ports are operating as normal…

15 Jul 2022

Indonesia Jails Captain of Tanker Arrested for Illegal anchorage

The captain of a fuel tanker arrested by the Indonesian navy in May on suspicion of illegally anchoring in its waters has been jailed for 15 days and fined 200 million rupiah ($13,350), a navy spokesman said on Wednesday.The Nord Joy, a Panama-flagged oil products tanker, was detained on May 30 whilst anchored in Indonesian waters to the east of the Singapore Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.Indonesian navy officers asked for an unofficial payment of $375,000 to release the vessel, two people involved in the negotiations told Reuters at the time. The Indonesian navy denied any such payment was requested and said the vessel was being held for anchoring in its waters without a permit.

21 Jun 2022

Old is Gold: Sky-high Cost of Ageing Containerships Sounds Inflation SOS

© STOCKSTUDIO / Adobe Stock

Shipping companies are transforming rust buckets into gold mines in a modern-day alchemy that could fuel already rampant inflation for years to come.The disruption to world trade caused by pandemic lockdowns and a shortage of new cargo vessels has pushed freight rates for ageing containerships to record highs.Cashing in on the boom, shipping firms are locking in long-term leases lasting three to four years, which means consumers could carry on paying the price for the surge in costs until hundreds of new ships on order come into service.Take the Synergy Oakland…

10 Jun 2022

Indonesia Investigating Report Navy Asked for Payment to Release Tanker

Indonesia's head of the armed forces said on Friday that he is investigating a Reuters report that navy officers asked for a payment of $375,000 to release a fuel tanker detained last week on suspicion of anchoring illegally in its waters.Navy officers at the Batam naval base, just south of Singapore, requested the unofficial payment to release the Nord Joy fuel tanker, two security sources involved in the negotiations told Reuters.The incident comes after Reuters reported a dozen similar detentions last year. In those cases, the ship owners made unofficial payments of about $300,000 each and the vessels detained by the Indonesian navy…

09 Jun 2022

Indonesian Navy Officers Want $375,000 to Release Detained Tanker

Indonesian naval officers have asked for $375,000 to release a fuel tanker they detained last week, accusing it of anchoring illegally in Indonesian waters off Singapore, two people involved in negotiations over the unofficial payment said.The incident comes after Reuters reported a dozen similar detentions last year. In those cases, the ship owners made unofficial payments of about $300,000 each and the vessels detained by the Indonesian navy east of Singapore were released. The Nord Joy fuel tanker was boarded by armed navy personnel on May 30 whilst anchored in Indonesian waters to the east of the Singapore Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes…

16 Mar 2022

COVID Curbs Bite at Chinese Ports, Threatening Global Supply Chains

© yu/ Adobe Stock

The queues of container ships outside major Chinese ports are lengthening by the day as COVID-19 outbreaks in manufacturing export hubs threaten to unleash a fresh wave of global supply chain shocks, ship owners, logistics firms and analysts say.China is experiencing its biggest spike in COVID-19 infections since an initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan was contained in early 2020.The spread of the highly-infectious Omicron variant this month has led to movement controls across China…

15 Nov 2021

Shipowners Make Payoffs to Free Vessels Held by Indonesian Navy

© zheltikov / Adobe Stock

More than a dozen shipowners have made payments of about $300,000 apiece to release vessels detained by the Indonesian navy, which said they were anchored illegally in Indonesian waters near Singapore, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.The dozen sources include shipowners, crew and maritime security sources all involved in the detentions and payments, which they say were either made in cash to naval officers or via bank transfer to intermediaries who told…

10 Sep 2021

FMC Announces National Shipper Advisory Committee Membership

© dbvirago / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on Thursday announced the membership of its newly formed National Shipper Advisory Committee.The committee is comprised of 24 members, evenly divided between those who export cargo from and those who import cargo to the United States, that will advise the commission on policies relating to the competitiveness, reliability, integrity and fairness of the international ocean freight delivery system.“The current freight transportation challenges…

24 Jun 2021

Russia Warns Britain It Will Bomb Ships Next Time

(File photo: UK Royal Navy)

Russia warned Britain on Thursday that it would bomb British naval vessels in the Black Sea if there were any further provocative actions by the British navy off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea.Russia summoned the British ambassador in Moscow for a formal diplomatic scolding after the warship breached what the Kremlin says are its territorial waters but which Britain and most of the world say belong to Ukraine.Britain said Russia was giving an inaccurate account of the incident.

19 Mar 2019

Lobster Boat Skipper Sentenced for Manslaughter

United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Christopher A. Hutchinson, 30, of Cushing, Maine was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for Seaman’s Manslaughter for causing the death of two crewmen who were then 26 and 15 years old. Hutchinson pleaded guilty on September 25, 2018.According to court records, on November 1, 2014, after smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, Hutchinson took his lobster boat, the No Limits, out into a predicted storm with two crewmen aboard. After he had ingested oxycodone, the boat capsized. The two crewmen were not wearing personal floatation devices or survival suits. The No Limits’ Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon alerted at about 1:20 p.m.

14 Jan 2019

Hans Jensen Lubricators Appoints Nielsen CCO

The board of directors at the Danish family-owned business Hans Jensen Lubricators appointed former Sales Manager Stefan Sletting Nielsen (34) as new Chief Commercial Officer.

The board of directors at the Danish family-owned business Hans Jensen Lubricators appointed former Sales Manager Stefan Sletting Nielsen (34) as new Chief Commercial Officer.Stefan has been part of the company for more than five years. He has previously worked for Danish wholesaler Sanistaal, supplier of interior concepts Carl F International as well as the design company d line. Stefan has studied sales and management at Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College, and he has later completed the first module of an Executive MBA at AVT Business School in Copenhagen.For more than 101 years…

11 Oct 2018

Hurricane Michael Races Northeast, Leaving Devastation in Florida

The latest storm track for Michael. (CREDIT NHC)

Hurricane Michael, the third most powerful storm ever to strike the U.S. mainland, headed northeast on Thursday, weakened but still set to soak Georgia and the Carolinas after devastating the Florida Panhandle.By 6 AM on Thursday, heavy rain and wind had reached as far north as Charlotte, North Carolina and the Western North Carolina mountains. The center of the storm was located over Augusta, Georgia, moving north rapidly at more than 20 MPH in a north / northeast heading. Charlotte…

24 Aug 2018

Torrential Rain, Howling Winds as Hurricane Lane Nears Hawaii

Hurricane Lane (Photo: NOAA)

Hurricane Lane, a powerful Category 3 storm, spun slowly north out of the Pacific toward Hawaii on Friday, causing torrential downpours and catastrophic flooding on the Big Island.The greatest threat from wind and rain shifted to Maui overnight and then to Oahu, the U.S. state's most populous island, through Friday, the National Weather Service said. Hurricane conditions were possible over Kauai into Saturday, according to forecasts.More than 2 feet (60 cm) of rain had already fallen on a few areas on the windward side of the Big Island…

15 Sep 2017

T. Parker Host Snaps up CWT Talent

Virginia-based stevedoring and shipping terminal operator T. Parker Host on Friday said it had hired all the staff from CWT Commodities' U.S. team as part of its drive into metals logistics and warehousing. The team of under ten people has joined Host to form Host Logistics, LLC, based in New York, to run warehousing and stevedoring operations. CWT Commodities USA is a unit of Singaporean logistics firm CWT Ltd. Anton Posner, former president of CWT Commodities USA, will be executive vice president, while Margo Brock, vice president at CWT, will be senior vice president, Host said in a statement. CWT Commodities USA was set up almost seven years ago as part of CWT's expansion of its London Metal Exchange warehousing and logistics business.

29 Sep 2017

U.S. Army General to Lead to Puerto Rico Recovery Effort

The Pentagon named a senior general to command military relief operations in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico on Thursday and the Trump administration sent a Cabinet emissary to the island as U.S. lawmakers called for a more robust response to the crisis. The U.S. territory of 3.4 million people struggled through a ninth day with virtually no electricity, patchy communications and shortages of fuel, clean water and other essentials in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the most powerful storm to hit the island in nearly 90 years. The storm struck on Sept. 20 with lethal, roof-ripping force and torrential rains that caused widespread flooding and heavily damaged homes, roads and other infrastructure. The storm killed more than 30 people across the Caribbean, including at least 16 in Puerto Rico.

28 Sep 2016

South Africa Raids Boxship Operator's Offices

Six of the world's biggest container shipping companies were raided by South African authorities on Wednesday on suspicion of colluding to inflate rates between Asia and South Africa, the country's Competition Commission said. The six companies comprise local subsidiaries of Denmark's Maersk, Swiss-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company, France's CMA CGM Shipping, Germany's Hamburg Sud, Singapore-based Pacific International Line and Maersk unit Safmarine, the commission said in a statement. It said the firms were suspected of engaging in collusive practices to fix incremental rates on the shipment of cargo from Asia to South Africa. "Any cartel by shipping liners in this region results in inflated prices for cargo transportation," Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said.

28 Sep 2016

Container Shippers Raided in S.Africa over Suspected Collusion

File photo: Maersk Line

Six of the world's biggest container shipping companies were raided by South African authorities on Wednesday on suspicion of colluding to inflate rates between Asia and South Africa, the country's Competition Commission said. The development comes as global container lines struggle in the worst-ever market conditions, caused by a glut of ships and slowing global trade, which has battered earnings and forced at least one out of business. The six companies raided comprise local subsidiaries of Denmark's Maersk…

11 Oct 2016

Post-Brexit, Lawmakers Call for Royal Yacht's Return

(Photo: The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust)

As Britain sets sail in uncharted waters on the lookout for post-Brexit trade deals, lawmakers and a former diplomat have earmarked two key weapons: the Duchess of Cambridge and a new royal yacht. Following the vote in June for Britain to leave the European Union, and with the government facing the tricky task of securing new trade agreements, some 100 lawmakers from Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party have called for ministers to back the commissioning of a new royal yacht. "I think we have to ask ourselves what sort of Britain we want to live in and what we can do ...

17 Apr 2018

RMS St. Helena to Return as Anti-piracy Armory Vessel

The RMS St. Helena, Britain’s last working postal ship, was for nearly three decades the main source of contact between one of humanity’s remotest islands and the outside world.Now the ship, cherished by the 4,500 residents of British-ruled St. Helena, will start a new life as a floating armory, packed with automatic weapons, bullet-proof jackets and night vision goggles, all stored for maritime security operatives.Renamed the MNG Tahiti, the 340-foot ship will undergo some tweaks before sailing to the Gulf of Oman where it will be used to ferry guns and guards to passing vessels navigating stretches of water lurking with pirates, its new operator said on Tuesday.“The ship is good to go with a few adjustments…