Seal News

An obstructed check valve on a bilge pump led to the flooding and partial sinking of a towing vessel last year while moored at a shipyard near New Orleans, the National Transportation Safety Board reports.Marquette Transportation's vessel Joanne Marie was found partially submerged a day and a half after being moored and deactivated at the Bollinger Quick Repair Shipyard on the Harvey Canal. The vessel was unattended at the time. No injuries were reported and damage to the vessel was over $176…

Australian Pump Industries (Aussie Pumps) has launched a 4-inch NiAl bronze self-priming pump with hydraulic drive.The new pump, called the B4XRA/B HYD34, produces 2,200 lpm and can operate at up to 42psi. It can also lift water through a vertical suction lift of 6m.Aussie Pumps Chief Engineer John Hales said: “The pumps self-prime. You can see from the big tank that’s designed into the body. When the product is properly primed it will have no trouble fulfilling its suction responsibilities in any installation.”“Most vessels today have hydraulic capabilities.

It might be easy to blame EALs, but the ongoing causes of stern tube damage are varied, and possibly declining.Environmentally Acceptable lubricants (EALs) gained market traction with the introduction of US VGP regulations in 2013. Since then, DNV has observed two major trends. The first, starting in 2013 was early life damage, either during sea trials or within the first five years of operation, where aft stern tube bearings typically failed under extreme load conditions. Then from around 2018…

Petroleum product and hazardous material have been removed from a 1940s era military tugboat that sunk in California, the U.S. Coast Guard said.A Unified Command and its contractors completed lightering efforts from the tug Mazapeta, Wednesday.The Mazapeta sunk September 4, 2023, in Little Potato Slough within the San Joaquin Delta, northwest of Stockton, with approximately 1,600 gallons of diesel and engine oil reported to be onboard at the time of the incident.Quantification of recovered product is ongoing…

Salvors are set to begin removing fuel from a 1940s era military tugboat that sunk in California last year, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The Mazapeta sunk September 4, 2023, in Little Potato Slough within the San Joaquin Delta, northwest of Stockton, Calif. with approximately 1,600 gallons of diesel and engine oil were reported onboard at the time of the incident.To date approximately 593 gallons of petroleum product have been recovered from inside the containment boom area, which surrounds the sunken tug.

Canada-headquartered water-lubricated and grease-free seals and bearings company Thordon Bearings has appointed propeller manufacturer Bruntons Propellers as its new distributor for the U.K. and Ireland region.The propeller manufacturer will market, supply and service Thordon’s entire marine portfolio of propeller shaft bearings and seals. There is also provision for Bruntons to promote and service Thordon’s products in other market segments.Neil McDonald, Thordon Bearings’ Regional Manager…

Thordon Bearings and Wärtsilä have announced the formation of the Blue Ocean Alliance to develop and promote a stern tube-less ship concept.The Blue Ocean Alliance brings together Thordon Bearings, Wärtsilä, the School of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), naval architect SDARI (Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute CSSC) and ABS.The companies say that the concept of a ship design that does not require a…

New Zealand-based HamiltonJet has launched its HJ215 waterjet, an ideal propulsion solution for a wide range of boats, says the company.It is compact and lightweight and it is built for greater efficiency at high speeds, making it an excellent waterjet for thrill-seeking tourist crafts, search and rescue vessels and other marine sectors.The new factory-made TURBO II impeller option offers superior performance where acceleration and high thrust in aerated water are important. The…

The 2023 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to Caleb Halle, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class (AST2) of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). He was recognized for the outstanding courage, endurance and determination he showed during the rescue of the seven-strong crew of the tugboat Legacy in January 2023.AST2 Halle, based at the Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, received the award at the annual IMO Awards Ceremony in London. The ceremony…

Chinese shipbuilder China Merchant Heavy Industries (CMHI) has contracted TMC Compressors (TMC) to deliver the completed marine compressed air system to a newbuild FPSO the Chinese yard is constructing for the Dutch FPSO leasing firm SBM Offshore.Under the contract, TMC will provide a large-capacity marine compressed air system, including compressors for control and service air on board the FPSO.TMC will manufacture and assemble the equipment in Europe and deliver it to CMHI in China.

The number of stern tube-related damage claims has increased considerably over the last few years, and this is causing marine insurer Gard some concern.In the past, damage to a stern tube was often considered a relatively straightforward casualty by surveyors. The cause was often obvious – contact with a floating object such as ice, fishing nets or ropes, for example.These causes still exist, but the significant increase in frequency over the past years, without any apparent explanation…

The maritime industry has seen a very long sequence of environmental regulations since the first implementation of MARPOL in the early 1970’s. All of these regulations have very much benefitted the ocean environment and also our industry to some degree. One of those regulations, OPA90, has had an outsized effect to an extent that it may no longer be as effective as it was in recent years due to its own success.Tanker oil spills in the United States have become so rare that people with actual U.S.

When on route to the Gulf of Mexico area, a fully laden bulker hit a buoy off the coast of Colombia damaging the propeller blades and aft seal assembly. A close detailed inspection revealed a missing rope guard, the entire seal box being distorted and dislocated from the stern tube and all five propelled blades damaged.Trained and certified UPE-dive technicians were mobilized, together with special habitat and relevant equipment, from AEGIR-Marine’s Panama branch.A complete new split type seal assembly was ordered and transferred, from stock, to location.

When a 9,280hp workboat returned to service following extensive repairs at the James Marine Paducah River Service yard in Kentucky, U.S.A., it marked the first application of Thordon’s new seal-embedded bearing to an articulating rudder, Thordon Bearings said Monday. Articulating rudders are unlike conventional rudders and can be more costly to repair when things go wrong. They are more susceptible to wear and tear, due to the higher operating pressures and abrasives, and as a result…

Shareholders of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline operator are discussing how to seal and empty the damaged gas pipeline to halt corrosion from sea water, said the chief financial officer of E.ON, one of the owners.The chief financial officer of E.ON, one of the stakeholders, told reporters at the group's results news conference that it was unclear whether the pipeline would be repaired but that any forthcoming decisions are likely to be made with the support of all shareholders."We continue to exercise our rights as a minority shareholder in the Nord Stream 1 operating company.

Qilak LNG plans to invest $5 billion in a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Alaska's North Slope to compete with Russia's Yamal project for Asian customers towards the end of this decade, its chief executive said. Major LNG importers such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are rethinking Russian supplies after sanctions on Moscow after it invaded Ukraine and more natural gas could be needed to produce lower emission and alternative fuels as nations try to reduce their carbon emissions.

The Great Lakes' 2023 shipping season will commence on March 25 with the opening of the Poe Lock at 12:01 a.m., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District announced.The operating season is fixed by federal regulation and driven in part by the feasibility of vessels operating in typical Great Lakes ice conditions.The Poe Lock closed January 16 to undergo critical repairs and maintenance during the 10 week-long winter shutdown. Maintenance crews performed a variety of critical tasks on the Poe Lock…

Columbia Shipmanagement has agreed to install Oceanly Performance solution on board of its ships."Oceanly is a perfect fit for the services that Columbia wants to provide to its customers. The software will allow our technical managers to have a very intimate control of all technical aspects of our managed vessels, while at the same time ensuring complete compliance on all the emission and reporting regulations" says Mark O'Neil, Columbia Group CEO, who was visiting Norshipping and passed by Oceanly’s stand to seal the deal with the company Managing Director, Giampiero Soncini.

Crane Company has successfully tested a new cryogenic valve designed and built for liquid hydrogen applications.This is the first valve launched from Crane’s CRYOFLO™ line of bellow seal vacuum jacketed globe valves, designed and tested by Crane, with final validation, review, and testing conducted by Chart Industries.Liquid hydrogen is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit colder than liquid nitrogen, and significantly colder than the temperature limit of most cryogenic valves. Final testing was conducted at Chart’s one-of-a-kind liquid hydrogen test facility in New Prague…

Authorities in Thailand on Thursday were working to avert a leak from a storage vessel carrying 400,000 barrels of crude oil.One crew member was killed after seawater entered the hull of the Benchamas 2 when a seal malfunctioned during maintenance earlier this week.Navy spokesperson Admiral Prokgrong Monthatphalin said multiple agencies were working to recover the body of the dead crewman, fix the leak and avert an oil spill."The vessel's condition is safe and weather conditions are not interfering with the rescue operations. However, there is no electricity in the engine room ...

Oil and shipping group Monjasa announced it has acquired the oil and chemical tankers Monjasa Thunder (19,991 dwt) and Monjasa Shipper (7,991 dwt) for bunkering and cargo operations across West Africa and in the Arabian Gulf. Both tankers will assume operations during this month.Monjasa said it has already taken delivery of Monjasa Thunder (formerly Solando) in Riga, Latvia and Monjasa Shipper (formerly Pearl Mercury) in Singapore, and the two tankers are currently inbound Lomé, Togo and  Dubai, UAE respectively.

Last month, a Hydrex diver team carried out an underwater stern tube seal repair on a ro-ro ship berthed in Algeciras, Spain.The ship was suffering from an oil leak, making an on-site repair necessary. Using a Hydrex flexible mobdock, the team was able to carry out the entire operation on-site and underwater, saving the owner an expensive and time-consuming trip to drydock.Once the operation was approved, all preparations were handled swiftly and the lightweight equipment was…

Egypt’s SUMED pipeline operator Arab Petroleum Pipeline Company (SUMED) has completed the tailshaft conversion to Thordon’s SXL seawater-lubricated bearing system for seven special purpose single point mooring (SPM) service boats.The final vessel in a series of 17.5m (57.4ft) long, 1976–built service boats had its original oil-lubricated tailshaft bearings replaced with the Thordon system at Nefertiti Marine’s Yard-K, in Rosetta Nile, in December 2022. The first vessel, SUMED 10…