Maritime News Thread

Tabnabs

Sad news is that she has gone to Denmark to be scrapped. A pity that she couldn't live on in another form.

http://www.fornaes.dk/english/news/ocean-seeker-en.php

Tabnabs

More sad news with the announcement of a death aboard the Ulysses which is currently in dry dock for scheduled maintenance:

Police are investigating after an engineer died at Falmouth Docks when he fell down the lift shaft of a car ferry undergoing maintenance.

Steve Summerside, a 45-year-old father of two from Sunderland, died at the scene following the incident on board the Irish Ferries owned vessel MV Ulysses on Monday morning.

A police spokesperson said officers and paramedics were called to the Queen Elizabeth Dock at 11.35am following "concerns for a man aboard" the ship.

The spokesperson said: "Officers located a man on board the ship who had sustained serious injuries. The man, in his 40s, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

"The death is being treated as unexplained at this time."

Conflicting reports state that Mr Summerside either fell down the lift shaft or was crushed between the lift and the side of the shaft.

It is unclear whether he was wearing a safety harness at the time of the incident.

A spokesperson for Irish Ferries said: "It's very sad when we heard the news, and our thoughts are with the family of the person who died.

"It's under investigation by the Health and Safety Executive because it's a work place accident but there isn't any more that we can say."

The police spokesperson said CID and scene of crimes officers had attended the scene, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had been informed, and Mr Summerside's next of kin are being traced.

A spokesperson for the HSE confirmed that it is making enquiries into the incident and inspectors visited the site on Monday, but said it is "too early to say that we are officially investigating."

The Cornwall Coroner's office said an inquest into the death had not been launched at the time of going to press.

The 51,000-tonne Ulysses, named after the novel by Dublin author James Joyce and which sails between Dublin and Holyhead, is in the dry dock for an annual refit.

Two men were seriously injured in August 2014 when scaffolding fell on them in the steel stock area of the docks, and the death of a painter in 2009 when he was struck by a piece of plant being moved by a crane.

In another incident a crane inspector reportedly had to climb to the ground with a broken collarbone after he was allegedly injured when one of the docks' cranes was started up while he was on the structure.

In a statement issued by A&P Falmouth late on Tuesday the company said: "A&P Falmouth can confirm that a fatal incident occurred yesterday on board Irish Ferries vessel MV Ulysses. A&P Falmouth would like to take this opportunity in extending its condolences to the family of the deceased in these sad and difficult circumstances, and will provide any assistance as required by the Police and HSE with their investigations into the incident."

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/14200843.Police_investigating_death_of_worker_at_Falmouth_Docks/

flyingsnail

Stena Explorer to be converted to floating office

https://www.vesselfinder.com/news/5122-High-speed-ferry-Stena-Explorer-to-be-converted-to-floating-office

tricky D

Will we ever see the like again?

Hoverspeed hovercraft set to be destroyed

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-35445419

BoltzmannBrain

ah that's quite sad, i was on them once! "Concorde of the sea" as it says in the film.

Tabnabs

As Europe’s politicians struggle to control a deepening migrant crisis and staunch the rising threat of Islamist terrorism on their borders, little attention is being paid to the continent’s biggest frontier: the sea.

New data highlight the extent to which smuggling, bogus shipping logs, unusual coastal stop-offs and inexplicable voyages are increasing across the Mediterranean and Atlantic for ships passing through Europe’s ports - with little or nothing being done to combat the trend, according to a detailed report in The Financial Times.

There is currently no comprehensive system to track shipments and cargos through EU ports and along its approximately 70,000km of coastline - a deficiency that has long been exploited by organised criminals and which could increasingly prove irresistible to terrorists too, say European security officials.

“So far, the thing about maritime security, and particularly terrorists exploiting weaknesses there, is that it’s the dog that’s not barked,” says former Royal Navy captain Gerry Northwood, chief operating officer of Mast, a maritime security company, and commander of the counter-piracy task force in the Indian Ocean.

“But the potential is there. The world outside Europe - North Africa for example - is awash with weapons. If you can get a bunch of AK47s into a container, embark that container from Aden then you could get them into Hamburg pretty easily. A whole armoury’s worth.”

In January, 540 cargo ships entered European ports after passing through the territorial waters of terrorist hotspots Syria and Libya, as well as Lebanon, for unclear or uneconomic reasons during the course of their voyages.

The number of vessels using flags of convenience - using the ensign of a state different to that in which a ship’s owners reside to mask identity or reduce tax bills - is also rising. Of the 9,000 ships that passed through European waters last month, 5,500 used flags of convenience.

The data were compiled for the FT by Windward, an Israeli maritime intelligence company which collates shipping data from public and proprietary sources and uses algorithms to identify unusual or suspicious activities.

Some specific cases identified in the Windward data are particularly worrisome. In the middle of last month, for example, one 76-metre cargo ship left Golcuk in Turkey, sailed to Misurata in Libya and then switched off its location and transmitting devices for three hours as it sailed close to shore along the coast of Tunisia before reassuming its stated course and going to Pozzallo in Italy.

Another ship left Genoa bound for Lisbon on November 8th, but rather than take a direct route, the vessel took a 500 nautical mile detour to a point mid-sea off the coast of Africa, where it stopped, lingered, and then performed a u-turn towards Portugal. It raises the possibility that the ship performed a mid-sea rendezvous with another vessel to transfer an illicit cargo.

Scale of problem

A senior European counter terrorism official said there was mounting concern about port and maritime security in Brussels and in Europe’s capitals, but that the scale of the problem was so large that no one was thinking of ways to meaningfully tackle it.

“Some countries have pretty good customs operations, but we’re talking about having to monitor hundreds of ports and co-ordinate across them. The reality is that most of the time we are relying on what the ship’s captain is telling us,” he said.

Even a single container ship was impossible to fully search, he added.

In the wake of the September 11th terror attacks in New York and Washington, and the bombing of the Limburg oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden in 2002, maritime security standards were strengthened significantly with the International Ship and Port Security Code, an amendment to the safety of life at sea convention.

The code requires port authorities to have detailed security plans and measures in place, but it stops short of mandating specific standards. Many European states resisted stronger measures on cost grounds and enforcement is patchy, say experts.

“In principle it is stringent but in practice, it’s only as good as the people who are applying it,” says Mr Northwood. “There is very little or no oversight.”

Part of the problem in Europe is a lack of co-ordination or information sharing in identifying suspicious activity at sea that would allow authorities to target their investigative resources more effectively.

“What’s needed is better upstream intelligence,” says Calum Jeffray, research fellow at the defence think-tank RUSI. “There is thematic analysis across Europe, but a lot of that is specifically around narcotics . . . . there’s a tendency to overlook maritime and port security when it comes to terrorism. When you think about how much effort goes into airport screening - there’s a huge difference. And what is happening in north Africa at the moment is going to make that much more noticeable.”

Mr Jeffray suggested that oversight could be improved by expanding the remit of the maritime analysis and operations centre (MOAC), a Portugal-based multilateral naval intelligence service staffed by military officials from seven EU states and the US. The centre currently only has a remit to interdict narcotics smuggling.

“Something more is needed,” says Ami Daniel, chief executive of Windward. “At the moment, the sea is a backdoor into Europe and unless there is clear intelligence or a tip off, most of these vessels are never inspected or intercepted. We are getting to a point where this is going to cause problems . . .arms, drugs and people are all coming over unchecked.”

The Financial Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/cargo-ships-pose-islamic-state-terror-threat-to-europe-1.2523735

Tabnabs

An Irish-owned ship which was carrying humanitarian supplies to Yemen has been detained by Arab coalition forces on suspicion of arms smuggling. The 54m vessel MV Mainport Cedar was en route to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, when it was apprehended late last week.

Owner Mainport of Cork confirmed that the ship, with 13 crew on board, none of whom are Irish, was diverted to the Saudi Arabian port of Jizan where it was still being held yesterday. The Mainport Cedar, registered in the Marshall Islands, was built in Malaysia in 2013 for the Cork-based shipping company as a seismic support, tug and supply vessel.

A spokesman for Mainport said the ship had been on regular charter trips for the World Food Programme (WFP) and was carrying a cargo of tuna, medical supplies and telecommunications equipment to Yemen when it was escorted to Saudi Arabia for inspection.

None of the crew – two Britons, seven Filipinos, two Nepalese, one Croatian and one Bulgarian – had been harmed. The spokesman said the diversion was a “formality” relating to paperwork.

An Arab coalition spokesman told Sky News Arabia that the vessel had “military communications equipment and military hardware” in containers, and claimed that the port of origin was Bandar Abbas in Iran.

The Mainport spokesman said no illegal arms were on board. Three fully licensed firearms had been kept in a locked secure cabinet, separate to the ship’s five cargo containers for crew safety, he said.

World Food Programme spokeswoman Jane Howard confirmed that the organisation was in communication with coalition forces. She said the vessel had been on charter to the programme.

It is understood the telecommunications equipment had been on board since a previous trip to Aden and there was a “misunderstanding “over paperwork as a result. Ms Howard said the coalition forces had asked the World Food Programme to resubmit paperwork and she hoped the vessel would depart shortly.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-owned-ship-held-by-arab-coalition-forces-in-saudi-arabia-1.2537080

She's back in Djibouti now. http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:713985/mmsi:538004829/vessel:MAINPORT%20CEDAR

323

Interesting. 14 new exploration licenses

Exxon, Eni and Statoil win Irish offshore licences

Good to see, even if the offshore Oil industry is in near total collapse.

BoltzmannBrain

Happy Birthday John Philip Holland, 175 today! :-)

http://coastmonkey.ie/john-philip-holland-the-submarine/

BoltzmannBrain

Coastal News // Lots of it!

The RMS Titanic is the world’s most famous ship. Built in the dockyards of Harland and Wolff Belfast, the biggest ship of her day and hailed as unsinkable, she is unfortunately best remembered for the disaster that befell her maiden voyage when she struck an iceberg and sank with the loss of 1503 souls.

Now a replica of the famous Titanic is set to sail in two years thanks to the efforts of an Australian Billionaire. But is this a fine tribute to a legendary ship or just crass commercialism?

http://coastmonkey.ie/titanic-2-poll-tribute-or-tragic/

Ghost Train

Will have modern life boats hopefully

I don't see problem with it, might be a bit unlucky naming it the same and may be a bit impractical

But it would be good to have replica of such a historic ship, maybe one day could be turned into a museum when it retires or if it fails to make it commercially

BoltzmannBrain

The Irish Naval Service has this month floated out the LÉ William Butler Yeats.

It’s the third Samuel Beckett-class offshore patrol vessel (OPV), joining the LÉ Samuel Beckett and LÉ James Joyce. OPV’s are primarily deployed in fishery protection, search and rescue (SAR) and maritime patrol missions across the 200-mile Irish Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Loads of photos

http://coastmonkey.ie/meet-the-le-william-butler-yeats/

Tabnabs

Deepwater Horizon - the movie

http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2016/mar/29/deepwater-horizon-mark-wahlberg-in-disaster-movie-trailer-video

Coming this Autumn.

Bet it will be ****e! :pac:

Tabnabs

On this day in 1982, the RN fleet sailed south...

Atlantic Dawn

Tabnabs wrote: »

On this day in 1982, the RN fleet sailed south...

There was a good documentary on BBC4 during the week about the QE2's "final" trip to Dubai they had pieces of history in between where it showed the QE2 being used to transport troops down, they basically butchered it to add helicopter landing pads and made the accommodation for soldiers. The ship was basically commendered by UK for the trip, no choice for Cunard.

kub

The largest container ship to ever visit Ireland was here in the early hours of this morning.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/the-largest-container-ship-to-ever-dock-in-ireland-is-dropping-off-over-5-million-bananas-728783.html

man98

kub wrote: »

The largest container ship to ever visit Ireland was here in the early hours of this morning.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/the-largest-container-ship-to-ever-dock-in-ireland-is-dropping-off-over-5-million-bananas-728783.html

I think they went a bit overboard on this story, at the same time there was a tanker 10 metres long than it docked over in Whitegate, and they get tankers larger than that quite often. 230 metres is a feat of engineering, but what's the need for two news sources to report on it?

bladebrew

I was a bit puzzled this morning driving to work when Red Fm said the biggest container ship in the world is in Cork?! Only 170 metres short!
Nissos Santorini crude tanker due in on the 11th is 20 metres longer!

roundymac

Thats your own fault for listening to a crap radio station:D, you should listen to RTE, they hav'nt got their report yet.:( Seriously don't take anything you hear on the radio to heart. All they want is to file a story that fills the airways.

roundymac

Busy day in Cobh to day with liner visits.
https://www.facebook.com/sailcork/

BoltzmannBrain

Shackleton expedition medal up for sale today if youve a few quid spare

http://coastmonkey.ie/polar-medal/

roundymac

New use for Marino Point as Cork Harbour Comm buy into the derlict site.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cobh-boosted-by-purchase-of-former-ifi-site-at-marino-point-412714.html

murphym7

I was only passing this place a few weeks ago and it struck me what a waste of a prime industrial location this is. Links to sea and rail - just couldn't figure out what sort of heavy industry that would make the site viable.

Tabnabs

A 17,000-tonne oil rig has run aground after breaking her tow and being blown ashore on the Western Isles.

The Transocean Winner was under tow west of Lewis when it was hit by severe storms.

It became detached from the tug boat overnight, before running aground at the beach of Dalmore in the Carloway area.

Stornoway Coastguard said there were no personnel on board the rig and there was no risk to life.

However, coastguard personnel have blocked access to the beach for health and safety reasons.

The Transocean Winner was being towed from Norway to Malta.

BBC Alba reporter Angus Macdonald said the structure was "towering over the beach".

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "The rig has more or less come ashore at the beach of Dalmore.

"Dalmore is a well-known beauty spot. It is a sandy beach where a lot of surfers turn up because the waves are so good."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-37007656

LiamoSail

Tabnabs wrote: »

A 17,000-tonne oil rig has run aground after breaking her tow and being blown ashore on the Western Isles.




http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-37007656

Should never have happened. Semi-subs have plenty of anchors. Had it been manned for the tow, which they usually are, they could simply have dropped a few of the anchors.

Tabnabs

A massive fire has engulfed the tanker 'Burgos' off the coast of Mexico. Some stark images appearing online and on social media.

neris

video on thsi twitter account

https://twitter.com/tutv_mexico/status/780367764825473024

Tabnabs

Irish Naval Service are looking for direct entry level officers with a merchant navy background, deck and engine vacancies. Top up your pension!

http://jobs.nautilusint.org/job/5190/direct-entry-naval-service-officers/

roundymac

roundymac wrote: »

New use for Marino Point as Cork Harbour Comm buy into the derlict site.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cobh-boosted-by-purchase-of-former-ifi-site-at-marino-point-412714.html

Talk now is that Cork Harbour Comm are stalling on the idea.:eek:

tricky D

Job Alert

Watch Officer in the Irish Coast Guard

https://www.publicjobs.ie/publicjobs/campaignAdvert/46078.htm
description: https://www.publicjobs.ie/publicjobs/campaignAdvert/46078/booklet.htm