Freight Vessel News

Finnlines’ second new Superstar passenger-freight vessel, Finncanopus, was launched on Friday at the China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Weihai. The new Superstar class ro-pax vessels, along with sister vessel Finnsirius launched in August 2022—both part of Finnlines’ €500-million investment program—will enter service in 2023, serving the Naantali–Långnäs–Kapellskär route between Finland, Åland Islands and Sweden.Both vessels have capacity for 1,100 passengers, which is the double compared with the current vessels on the route. Each vessel has 323 passenger cabins and 64 crew cabins.

German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has cut first steel for a new new roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) freight vessel being constructed for Australian shipping company SeaRoad.A May 20 steel cutting event involved the ceremonial ‘pushing of the button’ to start the laser cutting machine with SeaRoad Technical Marine Manager, Tony Johnson, and FSG CEO Philipp Maracke doing the honors. Johnson is currently on the ground in Germany overseeing the newbuild project.The 210-meter-long newbuild was ordered in 2021 at a cost of more than €100 million.

Australian shipping company SeaRoad said it has finalized an agreement with German shipbuilding yard Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) to construct a new roll-on /roll-off (RoRo) vessel with liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion worth more than 100 million euros.Construction on the 210-meter-long vessel will commence in late 2021. The ship will have a capacity of 4,227 lane meters and capability to transport heavy cargo with a unit weight of up to 100 tonnes. At over 40…

A recent marine casualty resulting in an injury of a crewmember on board a foreign freight vessel brought to light a potentially dangerous situation involving the turntable pin on accommodation ladders, the U.S. Coast Guard pointed out in a recent safety alert developed by the Investigators of Sector Delaware Bay and distributed by the Office of Investigations and Analysis. Currently, there are no established timelines or requirements to replace turntable pins. Without proper and periodic examination and replacement…

A Palau-flagged freight ship has sunk off the coast of Turkey's Black Sea province of Bartin, killing two crew members, the coast guard said on Sunday, adding that search and rescue operations for more crew members were continuing.Bartin Governor Sinan Guner had initially said the ship, the ARVIN, was a Russian dry freight vessel that sank off the coast of the Inkumu region in poor weather, but later corrected that."The ARVIN ship attempted to take refuge at the Bartin port due to poor weather conditions as it carried cargo from Georgia to Bulgaria," Guner was quoted as saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency.The coast guard said the ship had sunk after taking in water amid heavy weather conditions.

Swedish ferry operator ForSea, the Helsingør-Helsingborg ferry service, has decided to convert Mercandia 4 from a passenger and freight vessel to a pure freight vessel."As a consequence, we will no longer offer retail and F&B services on Mercandia 4 as of 1 September 2019. This is a response to a long term decline in car and passenger traffic," the environmentally friendly ferry service said.In addition, customer surveys have over time demonstrated a clear preference of passengers to use the larger and more modern ferries, it said.The 95-meter-long ferry, built in 1989,  can accommodate up to 110 cars and 383 passengers."This is an important step to secure the position of the company in the future.

Merseyside shipbuilder Cammell Laird has completed the building the $13 million ferry the Red Kestrel, for Isle of Wight ferry operator Red Funnel.The Red Kestrel, a new freight-only RoRo vessel, sailed away from Cammell Laird’s famous River Mersey shipyard following a nine-month build program. In total the project used 45 British supply chain businesses and generated 3000 man hours of work for Cammell Laird's apprentices. Cammell Laird further employed 200 direct workers, 200 sub-contractors and 10 apprentices on the contract.The Red Kestrel will operate between Southampton and Isle of Wight.

Cammell Laird recently floated out a new $13 million ferry built for Isle of Wight ferry operator Red Funnel.Dubbed Red Kestrel, the freight-only RoRo is slated to operate between Southampton and Isle of Wight, scheduled to join the fleet in May 2019 after finish and sea trials. Red Kestrel is Red Funnel’s first ship to be designed for freight traffic. As a freight vessel it is limited to 12 passengers and builtspecifically to provide additional year-round freight capacity for Red Funnel’s Southampton-East Cowes route, which currently handles 53% of all freight movements across the Solent.

Congressional and Agency Actions to Implement Changes to U.S.-Flag Vessel Safety Requirements Three Years after the M/V El Faro IncidentOctober 1, 2018 marked three years since the tragic sinking of the M/V El Faro – ranking as one of the worst maritime disasters in U.S. history and resulting in the highest death toll for a U.S. commercial vessel sinking in almost 40 years. Following this incident, both the  National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and U.S. Coast Guard spent considerable  effort to investigate this incident.

Finnlines said it is continuing capacity expansion efforts in response to growing volumes. The Baltic Sea ro-ro and passenger vessels operator has purchased MS Europalink as reports further progress in its vessel lengthening program. Finnlines Plc’s fully owned Swedish subsidiary, Rederi Aktiebolaget Nordö-Link, has purchased a Star class passenger-freight vessel, MS Europalink, from the Grimaldi Group in accordance with an earlier signed purchase agreement. MS Europalink will be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers in mid-March and will sail under Swedish flag…

The U.S. Coast Guard said it has issued a $5,000 fine to the owners of a foreign freight vessel for unauthorized ballast water discharge into the Willamette River in Portland, August 16. During a routine port state control ballast water examination on the 590-foot bulk freighter ANSAC Moon Bear, Coast Guard marine inspectors, from Marine Safety Unit Portland, discovered that the vessel had discharged untreated ballast water into the Willamette River on three separate occasions during port calls in 2017. As part of the port state control exam, log books were reviewed during administrative evaluations by the marine inspectors, which led to the ballast water discharge discovery.

Last year, one in three ships at the Port of Gothenburg received an environmental discount on the port charges. This represents an increase of 83 per cent on the previous year. Heading the discount list are Donsö-based shipping companies Tärntank Ship Management AB and Furetank AB, whose vessels are powered by liquefied natural gas. The Port of Gothenburg rewards vessels that are environmental high performers. One in three vessels that called at the largest port in Scandinavia last year were classified as green according to the industry environmental indexes. In total, 75 vessels received a discount of 10 per cent on the port charges compared to 41 in 2015.

A brand new liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled roll-on-roll-off freight vessel, Searoad Mersey II, has commenced service from its home port Devonport, in northern Tasmania, Australia. Touted by Bass Strait shipping and logistics firm SeaRoad as the “cleanest, greenest freight ship ever to trade in Australian waters”, Searoad Mersey II is the first coastal ship in Australia to use LNG fuel-and-power technology and the first pure dry cargo ship in the world to use a roll-on roll-off LNG supply system.

The Coast Guard is investigating the grounding of the 575-ft motor vessel Pollux, which ran aground two miles east of Gadsden Point in Hillsborough Bay, Fla., on Jan. 2. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a call at 11:15 p.m., from the Cooperative Vessel Traffic Service that the Pollux had run aground and could not move under its own power. The Pollux, a Malta flagged freight vessel carrying a load of fertilizer, was inbound to Tampa Bay from Galveston, Texas. Members from Sector St. Petersburg are investigating the incident and are working with the vessel's crew and representatives to safely remove the vessel. Vessel traffic has not been affected, but all vessel operators are urged to use caution when transiting the area.

U.S. Coast Guard personnel are investigating the cargo onboard an Antigua Barbudan flagged vessel that requested to moor in Honolulu on last week. The 400-ft. freight vessel, BBC China, was reportedly behind schedule for its delivery to Portland, Ore. when it requested to enter the port without the required 96-hour advance notice. The vessel plans to ship the cargo by air. The vessel was granted permission to enter the port by the CG Captain of the Port, but standard procedures for failing to give advance notice then required the ship to be boarded and escorted. Subsequently, fellow Department of Homeland Security officials from the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement interviewed the crew.

There are less than three months until July 1 ... Do you know where your International Ship Security Certificate (ISSC) is? If not, you are in grave danger of having your ship delayed or even denied entry into port in the United States and various other countries. The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code comes into effect on July 1 and full enforcement of the U.S. Coast Guard regulations under the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) also commences. Ships engaged in international commerce and port facilities that they utilize are required to have fully implemented relevant provisions by that date. Port states, particularly the United States, have announced plans to vigorously enforce the ISPS Code and related provisions as of that date.

Having logged fresh orders from existing clients UN RoRo (formerly UND) of Turkey and Denmark's DFDS group, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft has taken its tally of RoRo trailerships contracted in recent years to 23. The volume of business puts the German yard to the fore in European RoRo freight vessel construction, with a prolific, current output rate of four such newbuilds per annum. FSG's assumption of a high profile in the RoRo category is a mark of thecompany's meticulous attention to production processes, materials and equipment procurement and logistics, build quality and design added-value. Measures aimed at ensuring cost competitiveness in the international market are complemented by the maintenance of a large…

Hvide Marine Incorporated (HMI) and subsidiary Sun State Marine Services, Inc., recently christened the first in a series of new cargo ships at its U.S. shipyard facility in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Constructed entirely on-site by Sun State Marine Services, Inc., the 190-foot 'landing craft' type freight vessel is specially designed and ideally suited for conducting trade with Bahamian and Caribbean markets that have minimal or unimproved facilities. "The landing craft has a reinforced hull that allows use of unimproved landing sites such as beaches or boat ramps by actually grounding the forward part of the vessel," noted Robert J. Coppedge, vice president of Sun State Marine Services, Inc.

Every year, MarineNews chooses a handful of vessels delivered in the past 12 months and bestows upon them the distinction of “Great Boats.” The boats are chosen for innovations in design, construction and utilization. Following are the 17 vessels or groups of vessels chosen as the Great Boats of 2000. Crowley Marine Services delivered Alert, Attentive, and Aware, a series of three 140-ft., 10,000-hp Prevention and Response Tugs (PRTs), to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company in Valdez, Alaska. Specifically designed and developed for Alyeska, the boats will be used by Crowley in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System trade. Alert was deployed in February; Attentive was delivered in June, and Aware was delivered in July.

NorseMerchant Ferries, a subsidiary of Cenargo International, is to introduce a third vessel to its Liverpool – Belfast service. Built in 1996, the 2,119 lane metre Lindarosa will join Mersey Viking and Lagan Viking on this route from 4 September 2002, increasing the number of daily sailings available to three on Tuesdays to Saturdays and two on Sundays and Mondays. A dedicated freight vessel, Lindarosa will carry up to 150 trailers and a maximum of 12 drivers. “It was always part of our planning to add this third ship once we transferred our operations to our new riverside terminal, Twelve Quays. On our old terminal, we simply didn’t have the space to increase the number of sailings.

On Tuesday, September 24th, 2002 California State Senator Tom Torlakson honored Titan Maritime, its subcontractors, the USCG, and the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) for their success with the underwater oil cleanup of the freighter SS “Jacob Luckenbach”. Senator Torlakson presented Titan with a plaque in recognition for their successful efforts in protecting the sensitive California coastline and the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary from further oil pollution damage from this wreck. Titan has just completed a contract with the U.S. Coast Guard to recover oil from the SS “Jacob Luckenbach”, an ocean freight vessel built in 1944.

USCG inspectors in Dutch Harbor detained 281-ft. freight ship Jacha for the third time since Aug. 1998 due to Safety of Life At Sea violations (SOLAS). Inspectors found seven discrepancies aboard 14-year-old Jacha, including fire doors that didn't close properly, an incompetent fire drill and water leaks on the vessel's main engine. Due to Jacha's history of safety discrepancies, this time, it is not permitted to conduct any cargo operations, bunkering operations or move within the port until some of the discrepancies are corrected to the satisfaction of the Captain of the Port. Flagged in Panama, Jacha is not an unfamiliar site in the port of Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.