Baltimore Rescuers Lose Hope for More Survivors from Bridge Collapse
Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed into the span.Search divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.The disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S.
Divers to Search Baltimore Harbor
Search divers were expected to return near dawn on Wednesday to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of a bridge knocked down in Baltimore Harbor by a faltering cargo ship, leaving six workers missing and presumed dead.The disaster also forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.As the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the six workers was suspended on Tuesday eveningā¦
BIMCO: 13% of World Seaborne Trade Under Attack from Houthis and Somali Pirates
One of the largest of the international shipping associations BIMCO has reported increased threats associated with maritime shipping amid Red Sea risks related to Houthi strikes and rise of piracy activities offshore Somalia.Since November 2023, the threat to shipping has increased as the Houthis started attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Simultaneously, piracy activity off the East coast of Somalia has risen and since December, two bulk carriers and several fishing ships have been hijacked.
NYK Roundtable Highlights Ship-to-Shore Communications
On October 23, NYK held its annual roundtable discussion on current conditions and issues on board vessels, highlighting the role of communications in ship safety.The meeting was held at the NYK head office in Tokyo in a hybrid format and attended by more than 150 participants, including three captains and three chief engineers on leave, the captain and chief engineer on board the car carrier Iris Leader, the captain aboard the crude oil tanker Tensho, 22 executive officers, andā¦
KR Publishes Report on Material Compatibility for Liquid Hydrogen Storage
Korean Register (KR) has published a report titled: Research Report of Material Compatibility for Liquid Hydrogen Storage on Marine Application.The report provides detailed technical information on materials suitable for onboard liquid hydrogen systems. For safe and efficient storage and transport of hydrogen, it must be handled in its liquid state, says KR. This necessitates a cryogenic environment. However, until now, there has been a notable lack of research infrastructureā¦
Anneliese Jost to Receive IMO International Maritime Prize
Germany's Anneliese Jost has been selected as the recipient of the International Maritime Prize for 2022, the the International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced. The decision was made by the IMO Council at its 129th session, being held July 17-21, after Jost was nominated for the award by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.In its statement supporting her nomination for the prize, Germany cited Jost's "crucial contribution towards achieving the objectives of IMOā¦
MOL Group Enters CTV Business with Charter Deal for Ishikari Bay New Port Wind Farm
Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Line has concluded a time charter contract with Shimizu Corporation for two crew transfer vessels (CTV) for an offshore wind farm at Ishikari Bay New Port. "This marks the MOL Groupās first entry into the CTV business. In addition, one of the CTVs, The KAZEHAYA, owned by MOL, is the first CTV in Japan managed and operated under International Safety Management (ISM) Code, which is the international standard of ship safety management system, certified by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK )," MOL said.MOL Group company MOL Coastal Shipping, Ltd.
MSC 107: SOLAS Amendments Adopted and Titanic Remembered
The IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) held its 107th session from May 31 to June 9, 2023.Highlights of the meeting included the adoption of amendments to the LSA Code and MSC.81(70) Revised recommendation on the testing of life-saving appliances for the ventilation of totally enclosed lifeboats. ABS reports that the Committee adopted Resolution MSC.533(107) introducing amendments to the LSA Code to provide performance requirements that will require totally enclosed lifeboats to provide a means of ventilation operable from inside the lifeboat at a rate of not less than 5 m3/hour per personā¦
Lifeboats Need to be Reinvented, Industry Group Says
A maritime industry safety group is calling for the total reinvention of lifeboats on board cargo vessels amid frequent injuries among seafarers.āLifeboats are an essential part of crew safety onboard every vessel, but seafarers are way too often getting injured when launching the lifeboat,ā the Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) said. āOver the years, many seafarers have been injured ā some of them fatally ā while launching the lifeboat during evacuations or evacuation drills.
Firefighting at Sea ā Towards a Safe Ship Concept
The most important of all international maritime safety conventions is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). The first version was adopted at a conference in London in 1914. The catalyst for this conference was the sinking of the Titanic on her first voyage in April 1912, which cost the lives of more than 1,500 passengers. This was the beginning of the journey that put in place a regulatory framework to protect those who work and travel by sea.Whilst the sinking of the Titanic was not fire-relatedā¦
Lloydās Register Foundation Names Boumphrey CEO
Lloydās Register Foundation announced the appointment of a new CEO to take the charity into its second decade.Dr. Ruth Boumphrey will take over from outgoing CEO Professor Richard Clegg following his retirement June 30, 2022. Professor Clegg was the charityās first CEO and led the organization for 10 years.Dr. Boumphrey is currently Director of Research and Strategic Programs at Lloydās Register Foundation, the owner of Lloydās Register Group, where she leads its work on someā¦
Inmarsat's Satellite Services for OceanGate Expeditions' 2022 Titanic Survey Expedition
OceanGate Expeditions has announced Inmarsat as the satellite service provider for the 2022 Titanic Survey Expedition. Inmarsatās Fleet Xpress high-speed satellite service will enable OceanGate Expeditionsā at-sea crew to instantly connect with scientific and operational resources anywhere in the world and to share important findings immediately while enhancing safety for the entire operation. Following the tragic loss of life in the sinking of Titanic, the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was adopted.
ABB to Equip RoPax Trio for Polskie Promy
ABB announced it has secured an order from Polish shipbuilder Remontowa Shiprepair Yard S.A. to supply integrated power, automation and propulsion solutions to three large passenger and car ferries to operate in the Baltic Sea. The 195-meter-long ferries will each have capacity for up to 400 passengers and 200 trucks and will be delivered to the Polish ferry company Polskie Promy one apiece in 2025, 2026 and 2027.The "large" order was booked in the first quarter of 2022, ABB said.
Tech File: Yara Birkeland Equipped with Survitec Fire Fighting System
Survitecās advanced fire fighting system and safety equipment aboard Yara Birkeland ā the worldās first fully autonomous containership ā has successfully completed its first annual service ahead of the 3200dwt shipās first laden voyage.The zero-emission, fully electric Yara Birkeland is preparing to carry its first fertilizer cargo on the Herøya-Brevik route in early 2022.The groundbreaking vessel, which deployed on its maiden manned voyage in November, operates a unique, automaticā¦
DNV Aims to Bolster Maritime Cyber Defense with Acquisition of Applied Risk
DNV will acquire industrial cyber security specialist Applied Risk, aiming to build the worldās largest industrial cyber security practice.Cyber threats to the maritime community is a large and growing problem, with the maritime industry experiencing a 400% increase in attempted attacks between February and June 2020, according to Naval Dome. As proven by well-publicized examples in recent years, recovery can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and can effectively shutter global operations for extended periods.In January 2021ā¦
'Containergeddon': Supply Crisis Drives Walmart and Rivals to Hire Their Own Ships
The Flying Buttress once glided across the oceans carrying vital commodities like grain to all corners of the world.Now it bears a different treasure: Paw Patrol Movie Towers, Batmobile Transformers and Baby Alive Lulu Achoo dolls.The dry bulk cargo ship has been drafted into the service of retail giant Walmart, which is chartering its own vessels in an effort to beat the global supply chain disruptions that threaten to torpedo the retail industry's make-or-break holiday season."Chartering vessels is just one example of investments we've made to move products as quickly as possible," said Joe Metzger, U.S. executive vice president of supply-chain operations at Walmartā¦
ClassNK Releases Guidelines for Hull Monitoring
ClassNK released its āGuidelines for Hull Monitoringā that summarize technical requirements for a hull monitoring system to achieve the improvement of the ship safety, and stipulates the relevant class notation.A hull monitoring system is intended to collect information through sensors like a strain gauge or an accelerometer installed on the ship and perform condition monitoring and condition evaluation. With the recent development of sensing technology, communication between ships and shoreā¦
Reefer Ship Catches Fire at Port of Wilmington
A fire broke out on board a refrigerated cargo ship at the Port of Wilmington, in Delaware, late Monday evening.The crew aboard the Dole containerized fruit carrier contacted U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay at approximately midnight, reporting that an engine fire erupted shortly after leaving port.The vessel quickly activated its firefighting system, energizing a carbon dioxide system to flood the engine room and rob the fire of oxygen, and safely moored back to the pier.
Autonomous Ships: IMO Completes Regulatory Scoping Exercise
As the maritime industry continues to develop and test the technologies required for safe autonomous vessel operations, many regulatory questions have remained.Setting out to help answer some of these questions, the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has recently completed a regulatory scoping exercise to analyze relevant ship safety treaties, in order to assess how maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) could be regulated.The scoping exercise was initiated in 2017 to determine how safeā¦
Profiles in Training: Dr. Michael Ekow MANUEL, Professor, World Maritime University
The global seafarers crisis takes center stage at the World Maritime University (WMU), as Dr. Michael Ekow Manuel discusses the importance of seafarers, seafarer training and the MarTID 2021 survey.While many maritime professionals have the theoretical āsalt in their veinsā, a career at sea seemingly predestined by family ties and/or geographic proximity, that is not the case for Dr. Michael Manuel, Professor, WMU. Hailing from Ghana, Dr. Manuel from a young age had a fascination with vehicles and everything that moves, but ships were not his focus, rather airplanes.
MOL to Expand Ship Data Sharing
Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) and Ship Data Center Co., Ltd. (ShipDC) have agreed to share the data of about 180 MOLās ships in operation targeted for MOLās Fleet Optimal Control Unified System (FOCUS) Project through Internet of Ships Open Platform (IoS-OP), the ship IoT data sharing platform promoted by ShipDC.By analyzing the data collected by more than 10,000 sensing items from vessels, engines, cargoes, sea weather and so on at a high frequency (one-minute intervals)ā¦
'K' Line Joins Data Sharing Platform
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (āKā Line) and Ship Data Center Co., Ltd. (ShipDC) have agreed to share operation data of all āKā Line fleet equipped with Kawasaki Integrated Maritime Solutions through IoS Open Platform (IoS-OP), the ship IoT data sharing platform promoted by ShipDC.āKā LINE had so far stored operation data collected from several vessels equipped with Kawasaki Integrated Maritime Solutions to IoS-OP, and has now agreed to expand the sharing for all its owned fleetā¦
Inmarsat Milestones: 10k Ships with Fleet Express Installed, 'Fleet Data Academy' Launched
Ship data consumption is booming, and as digitalization and data trends increasingly drive the maritime world, Inmarsat celebrated a pair of milestones, hitting the 10,000 vessel mark on Fleet Xpress installations and launching its "Fleet Data Academy."Traffic DoublesAccording to Inmarsat, the growth in Fleet Xpress now includes the worldās leading container ship and tanker owners, such as MOL, K-Line and Hapag-Lloyd, offshore support giants like Bourbon, Tidewater and Maersk Supply, as well as growing numbers of yachts, passenger ships and fishing boats.