James Cook News

The National Oceanography Center (NOC) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the scientific research ship RRS Discovery’s predecessor being designated as a Royal Research Ship (RRS), while the modern RRS Discovery becomes the first Research Vessel to be refitted at Babcock’s Rosyth facility, 35 miles away from the birthplace of the original vessel in Dundee.To mark this 100th anniversary, the current RRS Discovery will also join its ancestral inspiration, the original RRS Discovery in Dundee fromJune 2-4…

The U.K. has awarded Babcock International’s Rosyth shipyard a £45 million (approx. US$56.6 million) contract to maintain its fleet of three scientific research vessels.The initial three-year contract, announced by U.K. Industry and Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani earlier this month, will see the large oceanographic and polar research vessels RRS Sir David Attenborough, RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook dock at Babcock’s state-of-the-art facilities in Rosyth, Scotland, for programmed maintenance and upgrade work.

Lindblad Expeditions announced the launch of its second new polar vessel, National Geographic Resolution, on her inaugural voyage to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. Under Antarctica’s clear blue skies and parked on fast ice in the Weddell Sea’s Duse Bay, guests walked onto the ice to cheer on Captain Heidi Norling as she christened the 126-guest National Geographic Resolution.“I wish this ship calm winds, fair seas, and great adventures. May everyone who sails with her be blessed,” marked Captain Norling as she tossed the bottle.

Melanie Olsen is harnessing 10 years of missile defense and electronic warfare systems expertise to drive rapid technological innovation in marine research and monitoring. Today, on International Women in Engineering Day, the AIMS Team Leader for Technology Development Engineering shares her unique journey.Growing up in a third-generation farming family near the small settlement of El Arish in north Queensland, Melanie Olsen thought engineers were train drivers.When a James Cook University engineering lecturer visited her small rural high school with a quad helicopter…

Scientists working remotely with Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) have completed a first look at deep waters in the Coral Sea, despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the only at-sea science expeditions to continue operations, the team has discovered the deepest living hard corals in Eastern Australian waters, sighted fish in new regions and identified up to 10 new marine species.SOI’s R/V Falkor spent the 46 days in the Coral Sea Marine Park, one of the largest protected areas in the world.

Reygar announced that its BareFLEET remote monitoring system is now in use on 100 vessels worldwide. The growth is in step with a general migration to digital solutions across the maritime sector, and the milestone is punctuated as Reygar expands its control system capabilities across dynamic positioning, autonomous vessels and consultancy, with two new engineering hires and a larger premises in Bristol: James Cook and Richard Crowder. Cook joins the business from Rolls Royce…

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, a global provider of expedition cruises and adventure travel experiences,  and Norwegian shipbuilder and ship designer Ulstein Group have celebrated the keel laying of Lindblad’s second polar new build at the Crist shipyard in Gdynia, Poland.The occasion also served as the official naming ceremony of the vessel. It is named as National Geographic Resolution,  in honor of Captain James Cook.Captain James Cook was the first to circumnavigate Antarctica, cross the Antarctic Circle, and the first European to reach Hawaii. While he captained several ships in his career, his favorite was the 'MS Resolution'.The newbuild is sister ship to the National Geographic Endurance which is being finalized at Ulstein Verft.

Profiled in the March 2019 cruise edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News is Sven Lindblad, intrepid explorer and wildlife photographer Sven Lindblad blazed the trail for environmentally sensitive travelers to Antarctica on Lindblad Expedition’s fleet of cruise ships with National Geographic.You can tell a lot about a man by whom his heroes are, whether famous athletes, virtuoso musicians, brave warriors or movie stars. As we age, we choose our heroes by their moral compass…

Italian yard Rossinavi has launched its new 49.9-metre superyacht Endeavour II during a ceremony attended by 300 guests and shipyard staff. Known as project FR032, the yacht is built entirely out of aluminium to a design by Team 4 Design. Featuring exterior styling by Team For Design, naval architecture by Arrabito and interior décor by Salvagni Architetti, this displacement yacht comprises a total volume of less than 500GT. Up to 10 guests can sleep in the yatch , as well as a crew of 9. Performance wise she is powered by 2 x CGT/Caterpillar C32 Acert engines providing the yacht a maximum speed of 16 knots and a cruising speed of 12 knots. Designed for long range cruising, FR032 is fitted with twin diesel-electric engines that drive the two Rolls Royce azimuthing pods.

HMAS Cairns took a northern outlook this year for Remembrance Day activities, sending Lieutenant Commander Ian Jackson, to Cooktown. The event at Anzac Park was hosted by the RSL Sub Branch and was attended by many veterans of the Vietnam War. “As a former Royal Naval hydrographer I was very keen to visit this wonderful Far North Queensland town and see the sites that my professional predecessor, James Cook, would have seen over 200 years ago,” Lieutenant Commander Jackson said. “I regard it as an absolute honour to attend the service and have the opportunity to represent the Royal Australian Navy at such an event. “I had the opportunity to lay a wreath on behalf of the Navy and to speak with many of the veterans from the local area.

Port of Townsville Limited (POTL) has released the 2015 Annual Seagrass Health Survey carried out in Cleveland Bay during 2015. The survey, commissioned annually since 2007 at a cost of around $70,000 per year, is carried out by James Cook University’s (JCU) Centre for Tropical Water & Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER). JCU scientist in charge of the program Dr Michael Rasheed said that the results of the monitoring in Townsville over the past few years were encouraging, with a large scale recovery of seagrasses being recorded. “This program is part of a network of seagrass monitoring along the east and west coast of Queensland conducted with funding and support from Queensland port authorities.

A team of scientists will set sail from Southampton to drill through the Earth’s mantle in the center of the Atlantic Ocean. They leave on board the Royal Research Ship James Cook on October 26, 2015 to explore the Atlantis Massif, a 4000 meter high underwater mountain. This is the first time a UK research ship will be used for this branch of science. The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).

The first true three-dimensional picture of submarine canyon habitats has been produced using a combination of marine robotics and ship-based measurements. The information captured in this new set of maps ranges in scale from the 200km canyon down to the size of an individual cold-water coral polyp, and will be used to inform the management of the only English Marine Conservation Zone in deep water. This ‘nested map’ is the result of a recent scientific expedition to the Whittard Canyon in the Bay of Biscay, led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

The CMA CGM Group’s largest vessel, CMA CGM Georg Forster, was christened today in Hamburg, Germany. The new ultra large vessel, a 398-meter-long, 18,000 TEU containership, is the second in a series of six vessels of the same size that will enter service for CMA CGM in 2015, joining the group’s fleet of 460 ships. The U.K. flagged Georg Forster was delivered to the CMA CGM Group on June 2 in South Korea, when she began her first rotation sailing the group’s French Asia Line (FAL).

The 18,000 TEU capacity containership the CMA CGM Georg Forster was delivered to the CMA CGM Group on June, 2 in South Korea. With its 1,305 ft. (398m) length and 177 ft. (54m) width, the CMA CGM Georg Forster is the group’s second 18,000 TEU capacity vessel to be delivered. Six vessels will compose this series of vessels named after great explorers, that will have  the CMA CGM Group’s largest containership capacity. This gigantic vessel has a 18,000 TEU (twenty feet equivalent) capacity. All containers placed together would totalize around the distance between Hamburg and Hanover.

BMT WBM’s Brisbane-based Graduate Scientist, Danielle Udy, was recently awarded the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland 2014 Kevin Smith Prize for her honours research. The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland presents medals to the highest achieving student majoring in geographical science at three major Queensland universities – James Cook University, The University of Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast.  Danielle’s research identified atmospheric circulation patterns that were linked to recent flood events within the Brisbane River Basin to enhance flood forecasting potential.  She will be presenting this research at the upcoming annual Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society conference in July.

Zentech’s President Ramesh Maini announced that the company has been awarded a contract to perform an inspection and evaluation of the hull steel for the Naval Aircraft Carrier São Paulo, as part of the Brazilian Navy’s upgrade of this flagship vessel. Zentech will perform the work using the patented methodology of its ZAIMS (Zentech’s Asset Integrity Management Solution) system to assist the Brazilian Navy in assessing the sea-worthiness of the vessel’s hull. The initial work involves corrosion inspection…

A crewman was airlifted to a hospital after a fire on board a tanker approximately six nautical miles north east of Whitby. Humber Coastguard was contacted by the tanker just after 12:30 p.m. reporting that they were dealing with a fire in the engine room. A mayday relay was broadcast via Channel 16, and two vessels in the area at the time responded and went to the scene. The RNLI lifeboats from Whitby and Scarborough were also tasked, along with the search and rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield. The injured crewman, one of 17 onboard, was winched on to the helicopter and flown to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. The fire is now out. Arrangements are currently being made to bring the tanker, which currently carries no cargo, into port. www.mcga.gov.uk

The North of England P&I Association (North P&I Club), a leading marine insurance association, has donated £3,000 to fund life changing sailing expeditions for young people in Northern England. Staff at the Newcastle based insurers chose to donate the funds to Ocean Youth Trust North, the North of England’s leading sail training and youth development charity, for its work providing personal development opportunities, for people aged 12-25, through adventure under sail. Tyneside…

NOAA Ship 'Fairweather' to conduct hydrographic work in the Arctic updating depths measured in the 18th century. NOAA Ship Fairweather begins a 30-day survey mission in the Arctic, scheduled to check a sparsely measured 1,500-nautical mile coastal corridor from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, north through the Bering Strait and east to the Canadian border. The mission will collect needed information to determine NOAA’s future charting survey projects in the Arctic and will cover sea lanes that were last measured by Captain James Cook in 1778.

Sonardyne International’s Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) acoustic positioning technology has played a crucial role in a scientific mission to discover a new eco system on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The Irish led VENTuRE expedition used the Ranger 2 equipment to track the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Holland 1 over three kilometres below the sea surface as it searched for and filmed evidence of the newly named Moytirra Vent Field. The mission to find and study the deep sea vent field on the mid Atlantic Ridge was undertaken from the Irish research vessel, RV Celtic Explorer.

Wärtsilä has been awarded the contract to supply the propulsion equipment for a new, state-of-the-art, research vessel. The vessel will be operated by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and is to be built at the C.N.P. Freire S.A. shipyard in Spain. The NERC is the UK's main agency for funding and managing world-class research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. The contract calls for Wärtsilä to supply four of its 8-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 20 main diesel electric generating sets…

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The resultant spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil was not the largest in US history and most people forget that salvage and response efforts kept the majority of the oil safety on board the ship. The incident resulted in the relatively swift passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90). A subsequent USCG Report  provides some context for the incident and changes that resulted therefrom. One of the ironies of history is that Bligh Reef was named by Captain James Cook (during his third voyage of exploration in 1778) for William Bligh, who served as master of the HMS RESOLUTION during the expedition.