Weston News

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. on Tuesday announced that it has completed its merger with fellow dry bulk shipping company Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc.Eagle Bulk shareholders this week voted to approve the $2.1 billion deal, which was first announced in December 2023.Under the terms of the merger agreement, each Eagle shareholder received 2.6211 shares of Star Bulk common stock for each share of Eagle common stock owned. Eagle common stock has ceased trading and will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Petros Pappas…

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, forcing those who did not flee to brace themselves for the toughest test yet of the billions of dollars spent on levee upgrades following Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.Ida came ashore near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CDT (16:55 GMT), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Hurricane-strength winds extended 50 miles (80 km) out from Ida's eye, forcing New Orleans to suspend…

HM Coastguard is coordinating the search for a missing crew-member from a ferry, who it is believed may have gone overboard off the Pembroke coast.   The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at St Athan has been searching the area for the missing man, along with lifeboats from Angle and Weston-Super-Mare and two from St David's.

The owner of a harbor tanker has been fined £3,000 with more than £7,000 costs after pleading guilty to a charge of operating a vessel for being dangerously unsafe. Joseph O’Connor was fined at the hearing in Southampton Magistrates Court February 12 following his guilty plea to the charge which was brought until the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. In March 2009 the Wadestone, then known as the Humber Star, sank at its berth on Weston Wharf in the River Solent. As a result, the vessel was detained by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) as being dangerously unsafe on March 26, 2009. At the time it was detained it was noted that Wadestone (Humber Star) had been poorly maintained and repaired and was not fit to go to sea.

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, Adm. Mark Ferguson announced the 2015 CNE-CNA Shore Sailor, Sea Sailor and Junior Sailor of the Year in a ceremony held at Naval Support Activity, Naples, Capodichino, Jan 29, 2016. Operations Specialist 1st Class Amparo Balderas, from Commander, Task Force 68 in Rota, Spain was named Sea Sailor of the Year. Legalman 1st Class Stephani Pavoni, from CNE-CNA in Naples, Italy was named Shore Sailor of the Year. Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Dawn Weston, from Commander, Task Force 69 in Naples, Italy was named Junior Sailor of the Year. Balderas will advance to compete next month at the Navy Sea Sailor of the Year competition at Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

Terry Weston has been confirmed as Chief Executive of Maritime and Engineering College North West (MECNW) following the retirement of his predecessor, Jim Teasdale, at the end of September. Jim Teasdale was a founder director and chief executive of Birkenhead-based Maritime and Engineering College North West (MECNW), a charitable foundation set up under his leadership in 1998 to provide apprenticeship training in vocational skills with a particular focus on engineering and marine engineering. Under his direction, the college merged with industry representative body Mersey Maritime - also led by Mr Teasdale – in 2007, bringing together the complementary strengths of each organisation under the newly-formed Mersey Maritime Group umbrella.

The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, joined by Andrew Saxton, Member of Parliament for North Vancouver and John Weston, Member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, announced that Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards (VSY) has started construction on the first National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) ship, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG)’s Offshore Fisheries Science Vessel (OFSV). It was also announced that the first ship will be named CCGS Sir John Franklin in honour of a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. Found in September 2014, Franklin’s ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions…

Congestion at the U.S. West Coast ports could take as much as two months to unwind, according to port and trade group officials, with retailers and other companies bracing for further shipment delays after the apparent resolution of a months-long labor dispute. A tentative labor agreement involving 29 ports was announced late on Friday involving 20,000 dockworkers. Tensions over their lack of a contract since July had led to chronic cargo backups. But port officials and companies warned it will take time to restore a normal flow of traffic. "It's not going to be fast," Jon Slangerup, chief executive officer of the Port of Long Beach, told CNBC television. The port slowdown has rippled through the U.S. economy including the retail, auto and agriculture sectors.

The Franklin Expedition ship discovered in early September by the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition is Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Erebus. Sir John Franklin, who was in command of the Franklin Expedition, sailed on HMS Erebus, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday. On May 19, 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror of the Royal Navy departed Greenhithe, England, on a much-heralded Arctic expedition in search of a Northwest Passage. Under the command of Sir John Franklin…

The Govermnent of Canada announces that with an unprecedented number of organizations from the public, private and non-profit sectors it will partner together, using state-of-the-art technology, to locate the historic ships of the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition. The 2014 Franklin Expedition will also have the added benefit of furthering our knowledge in a number of priority areas, including through the collection of important scientific information about Canada's most remote region. Government partners for the 2014 Victoria Strait expedition include Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Navy…

Six Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program students have been awarded scholarships by Crowley Maritime Corporation. Alex Youngs, Garrett Weston, Alex Dion, Christian Blakesley, Rebecca Newman and Amanda Ketting-Oliver were each chosen as a result of their academic excellence, morale and community involvement. The students also exhibited strong leadership qualities and were articulate spokespeople for maritime education, according to Sarah A. Jordan, Williams-Mystic's director of alumni and development. Each student is in the midst of his or her respective academic career.

Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar officially launched the Coast Guard’s new state-of-the-art S92 search and rescue helicopter for the Dublin region in Weston Airport. This is the fourth Sikorsky S92 helicopter base to come into operation for the Coast Guard and means all four Coast Guard bases now have upgraded helicopters. The new S92 helicopters replace the Sikorsky S61 which was in use until recently at the Coast Guard bases in Dublin, Shannon, Sligo and Waterford.

The Irish Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Leo Varadkar, will officially launch the new Coast Guard helicopter for the East Coast region next Monday, January 13 at Dublin Weston Airport. This will complete the upgrading of the Coast Guard’s search & rescue helicopter fleet from Sikorsky S61 to S92 craft.

Survival Craft Inspectorate (SCI), a global provider of emergency marine systems and support services, said it has made a key appointment as it targets further growth in 2014. David Weston has been appointed training and competence operations manager at the business, which recently opened its 12th office in Rotterdam. As well as his company-wide auditing role, David – who served in the RAF for 22 years – heads up the new Survival Craft Inspectorate Training Academy in Stonehaven.

Torqeedo recently won first, second and third places in the 13th annual Wye Island Electric Boat Challenge in St. Michaels, Maryland. This is the second time Torqeedo-powered boats have swept the 24-mile, electric motor-only race. In all the years of the race, any boat with a Torqeedo motor has always finished the marathon and this year was no exception. All Torqeedo-powered vessels crossed the finish line after completing the circumnavigation of Wye Island. This year five boats were powered by Torqeedo motors.

The Whatever Input to Torsion Transfer (WITT) transmission system is unique and capable of collecting chaotic movement in any direction to turn it into useable power. The Technology Strategy Board award for Vessel Efficiency is the first of its kind and follows successful testing of the device in the Wave Tank at Plymouth University and in Plymouth Sound, UK. The project, Energy Harvesting Technology from Vessel Motion, will be led by A&P Falmouth Limited, with Devon-based Supacat…

Government of Canada to invest in replacement of 'MV Princess of Acadia' for Digby to Saint John ferry service. The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Member of Parliament for Central Nova; Greg Kerr, Member of Parliament for West Nova; and Rodney Weston, Member of Parliament for Saint John, have announced that the Government of Canada will invest in a replacement vessel for the federally-owned MV Princess of Acadia. Travelling the 70 kilometres between Digby…

On the heels of the announcement that the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia will go into effect in May, Port Everglades and  the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport hosted a delegation of public officials from Colombia to discuss international trade and visit Broward County's seaport. Port Everglades is the top seaport in Florida for trade with Colombia, which totaled more than $1 billion in FY 2011, representing 54 percent of Colombian trade through all of Florida's seaports last year.

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society’s Christmas Carol Service Helps Residents Remember. Dementia residents at The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society will be hitting the high notes this Christmas at a carol service which marks the culmination of an innovative programme of ‘musical therapy’ introduced this year to help their condition. The care home, which provides dedicated nursing and respite care to former seafarers and non-seafarers, introduced singing and music sessions to help relax residents’ minds and take the fear out of the condition which affects 750,000 in the UK.

By Lt. The Navy's latest "Conversation with the Country" brought its discussion of the new national maritime strategy to an appropriate venue – Los Angeles - the home of the fifth-busiest seaport complex in the world on April 17. Just a half-hour away from the bustling ports of and , officials from the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard presented the new maritime strategy, "A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower," at a symposium April 17 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown . During the event – the fifth in a series of similar outreach discussions throughout the – business and industrial leaders got their chance to examine the national maritime strategy, which hadn't been updated since 1986.

Weston Solutions, Inc, and joint venture partner Bean Environmental LLC (Weston/Bean) announced an initial $11.8 million contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) - Jacksonville District for dredging and sediment disposal on the Miami River. "The Miami River project epitomizes our approach to the ports and waterways business," stated Patrick G. McCann, WESTON President and Chief Executive Officer. "By delivering integrated dredging, sediment disposal and beneficial use solutions, we provide our clients the services necessary to restore assets to full use, making operations more productive, more competitive, and environmentally sound.

The U.S. Navy is awarding indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts to 391 contractors that will provide for their competition for service requirements solicited by Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, Military Sealift Command, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Strategic Systems Programs, and the United States Marine Corps. The 22 functional service areas within the scope of the contracts include 1. Research and Development Support. 2. Engineering System Engineering and Process Engineering Support. 3. Modeling, Simulation, Stimulation, and Analysis Support. 4. Prototyping, Pre-Production, Model-Making, and Fabrication Support.