Irish Navy News

Babcock International has won a contract to deliver the installation of a variable speed drive system for the central cooling system onboard the Irish Navy’s P60 Samuel Beckett Class.The variable speed drive system was first installed on the central cooling system of the fourth Offshore Patrol Vessel, LÉ George Bernard Shaw (P64), at time of build, enabling the vessel to use a variety of power outputs depending on the conditions and requirements. According to Babcock, the system has proven to be very successful…

Tymor Marine of Aberdeen has been tapped to deliver a vessel mid-life extension survey for the Irish Naval Service.Tymor will survey the Irish Navy’s P50 class vessels to assess the condition of their structure, systems, equipment and machinery and provide a full analysis and report containing independent recommendations for integrity maintenance and upgrade activity.The award of this contract, following a competitive tender process, was one of several UK and European projects successfully completed by Tymor Marine in the marine…

An Irish naval ship rescued 712 people including pregnant women and infants off the coast of the Libyan capital of Tripoli as part of an international migrant rescue effort, Ireland's Defence Forces said on Monday. The LÉ Eithne ship led the rescue of multiple vessels in distress 40 kilometres north-west of Tripoli throughout Sunday. Six migrants, including one baby, were revived from states of unconsciousness. The ship will transport the people, including 14 pregnant women and four infants below the age of four months, to a designated "port of safety" to be handed over to Italian authorities. "I'm very proud to say all lives were saved, no lives were lost.

The crew of a speedboat labelled "Libyan Coast Guard" attacked a migrant boat packed with some 150 migrants, beating them with sticks and causing many to fall into the water and at least four to drown, humanitarian group Sea-Watch said on Friday. Rescuers recovered three more dead bodies on a different rubber boat and picked up a total 3,300 survivors from 24 different boats during the day, Italy's coast guard said. Germany-based Sea-Watch, one of several non-governmental organisations operating vessels off the coast of Libya, said the speedboat swooped in just as they were about to go to the aid of the overcrowded rubber boat in the early hours of Friday.

Rescuers pulled 301 boat migrants to safety and found five dead bodies in five operations in the central Mediterranean on Wednesday, the Italian Coast Guard said. An Irish navy ship recovered the five dead from a rubber boat along with 118 survivors. Humanitarian group Life Boat saved 130 people from another rubber boat. Overnight, Italian Coast Guard vessels rescued 18 people from a wooden boat near the southern island of Pantelleria, a further 11 near the uninhabited island of Lampione, and 24 more off the coast of Lampedusa Island on Wednesday morning. The central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy is the deadliest border in the world for migrants.

An Irish navy ship recovered 17 dead bodies on Thursday when it went to the aid of migrants packed onto a wooden boat off the coast of Libya, Italy's coastguard said, marking another deadly day of attempted sea crossings. The LE James Joyce, which is in the Mediterranean specifically to perform search-and-rescue operations, brought on board the bodies of 16 men and one boy, a coastguard spokesman said. He could provide no further details about the cause of death or the nationalities of the dead. On Wednesday, 22 bodies were recovered from a rubber boat off the Libyan coast, and some 3,000 are dead or missing after trying to reach the European Union by sea so far this year, the International Organization for Migration estimates.

Hopes faded of finding more survivors on Thursday from a shipwreck in which 200 migrants are feared drowned, as rescue ships were called to the aid of more migrant boats in the same area of the Mediterranean. "We are witnessing a genocide caused by European selfishness," said Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando as the Irish navy ship LE Niamh docked in the port carrying some 370 survivors of Wednesday's disaster and 25 corpses, including three children. Orlando, speaking on Italian television as hearses arrived to take the bodies away, called on European leaders to do more to prevent such disasters and to allow more refugees to re-settle in their countries. After the survivors disembarked, some were escorted back on board to see if they could identify the dead children.

Voyager IP, the Irish marine telecoms solutions specialist, has partnered with the Irish National Space Center to win a €500,000 contract to manage the entire satellite communications service for the Irish Naval Fleet at home and abroad. Voyager IP will provide the satellite airtime, technical assistance for the onboard systems and a 24 hour helpdesk from its base in Wicklow, while the National Space Center will provide the satellite network infrastructure. Simon Coveney TD, the Irish Minister for Defense, Agriculture, Food and the Marine, officially launched the new service.

In 1864 Abraham Lincoln was president, and the U.S. was embroiled in the midst of civil war. In 1864, McAllister Towing was established (originally as the Greenpoint Lighterage Co.) in New York City. McAllister Towing has persevered, and at times, served, through nine wars, 28 presidents, at least three catastrophic stock market crashes; collapsing oil prices, generations of advances in ship technology and vessel construction and design; and an explosion in maritime regulation.

The future looks bright for Appledore, the UK Westcountry shipbuilder, as owning company Babcock says the yard has won a multi-million pound contract for a third Irish navy vessel, reports the North Devon Journal. Enda Kenny, Irish Minister of Defence announced that an order had been placed with the shipbuilder for a third offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Irish Naval Service at a cost of £43 million (€54,000,000). The new ship will be identical to the recently commissioned LÉ Samuel Beckett and the currently under-construction LÉ James Joyce. The 90 metre, 2256 tonne vessels are designed to provide an operational capability for many years of service in the North Atlantic, the main area of operation. Source: North Devon Journal

The Nautical Institute took its AGM to South Asia for the first time on May 31 and June 1 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The theme was challenges facing maritime administrations. Speakers and delegates highlighted the need to devise and promote best practice to encourage development of regulation that is realistic, practical and that can be complied with readily. It was concluded that a key to achieving this is the recruitment and retention of capable maritime professionals as marine administrators and this requires competitive salary and career advancement structures to be in place.

Caley Ocean Systems contracted by Babcock to supply rescue boat davits for new Irish Naval Service ship. The all-weather Caley davits are designed for rapid deployment, enabling boats to be held in readiness and launched in seconds, even in Sea State 6 (5 metre (16ft) significant waves) conditions. Crew safety is paramount to the davits handling system which features anti-pendulation control for pitch and roll damping and reduction of pendulum swing. During boat recovery, the towing boom positions the boat under the davit…