Thursday, May 24, 2012

Other Shores - June 2012


Although imports of containers into the US rose by 7.3 percent in March (most of the growth was in furniture and car parts), experts predict that the second half of this year will have a very modest increase in imports.

Elsewhere, Israeli shipping line ZIM is reactivating two 10,000-TEU boxships, idle for months, for when ZIM resumes its Far East-Europe express service.

The new icebreaking anchor-handler tug Aiviq, built for use in Alaskan waters, was painted white and blue because natives told the builder/operator that animals in the region fear the company’s usual all-orange paint scheme.

Although the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia is under 24/7 surveillance and the ship’s bell was in 25 feet of water, it disappeared. (Obviously, an inside outside job!)

Thin Places and Hard Knocks
While crossing Elefsis Bay near Piraeus, Greece, the product tanker Alfa 1 sank after hitting a submerged object (probably the marked wreck of the City of Myconos). That was in March and since then the sunken tanker has been leaking oil through manholes, vent pipes and sounding pipes. Now, the remaining oil is being removed by hot-tapping the tanks. The sixty-foot tug Aquarius sank on the final leg of a voyage from Gibraltar to Plymouth but the crew had time to yell for help. That radio call was heard by the cruise ship Saga Pearl and relayed to authorities. Two crewmen were later lifted from a life raft by a French rescue chopper but a third man was apparently trapped inside the sinking tug.

At Jamaica, the British container ship MSC Brianna was allowed to continue its voyage after posting security because it hit the Kingston Wharves. In the Gulf of Mexico in the Aransas Pass Channel near Corpus Christi, the in-bound crude-oil tanker FR8 Pride lost power and drifted into the outbound jack-up drill rig Rowan EXL-1. The tanker’s forward ballast tanks were holed and it was towed to shallow water, where it was grounded to prevent further flooding. The rig suffered significant damage and was moved offshore where its legs were extended to the sea bottom while damage was assessed. The jack-up is capable of operating in 350 feet of water or more and drilling to a depth of 35,000 feet.
In New Zealand, the mate had been drinking the night before so he wasn’t exactly on the top rung when he stood bridge watch the next day. He failed to notice that the coaster Anatoki had run aground off Golden Bay. But he did ring down to the engineer to comment that the engine “sounded different.” (The incident was attributed to the absence of a bridge alarm system and the mate’s lack of adequate sleep.) In Italy, its pilot may have been aware that the vehicle carrier Hoegh Asia, carrying about 6,000 cars, drew 8.4 meters but he forgot that the channel to Livorno was only six-point-eight meters deep. The vessel met the bottom. Water levels on the Casamance River in Senegal have been low and both the small cargo ship Cap Saint George and the larger Dakar-Ziguinchor ro/pax ferry Aline Sitoe Diatta (whose master should have known the local conditions) ran aground.

A Single Point Mooring is a large buoy that enables connection of a sea-bottom pipeline to a ship. At the Ras Laffan oil and gas field off Qatar, twelve workers on the tug Al Deebel were conducting maintenance on an LNG SPM when there was an explosion. Seven workers died including the tug’s elderly English master. In India, the container ship Cap Norte had a fire in no. 4 hold while about fifty miles off the Mangalore Coast. The fire was under control by the time the fast Coast Guard boat ICGS Savithri Phule arrived. While docked at Hobart, the research vessel Aurora Australis had a fire in the ship’s laundry. Reportedly, an overheated tea towel in the dryer was blamed for the fire.

Three bird-watchers on the cruise ship Star Princess off the Galapagos Islands saw waving figures on a small fishing vessel and frantically tried to tell someone. But word never reached the bridge and the ship sailed on. By the time a commercial FV rescued the small boat two weeks later, two of the three Panamanian fishermen had died. The cruise company admitted to an apparent "breakdown in communication in relaying the passenger's concern."

US forces have been bragging about recent rescues of Iranian vessels in various forms of distress so it was nice when, despite international tensions and sanctions, Iran welcomed an airliner after it declared a medical emergency while en route from Dubai to Seattle. On board was a 52-year-old American man with heart problems. Medical facilities at Tehran stabilized him enough so that he continued his flight a few days later. In Alaska, a Coast Guard 45-foot Response Boat-Medium was out for night training when the nearby cruise ship Carnival Spirit requested medical help. The boat medevaced a 66-year-old female passenger.

The Hong Kong-flagged bulker Pacific Sea almost made it to San Francisco Bay but drifted to a stop 24 miles off Pt. Reyes. Two tugs towed it to Oakland for repairs. The Danish company A.P. Moller – Maersk Group is the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world and may be the maritime industry’s most-environmentally conscious firm. For example, its container ship Gerd Maersk recently broke down off Porto, Portugal. It was safely far from shore in 1,000 feet of water but the company hired the small tug Castelo de Obido to stand by even after the ship regained partial power. Maersk also sent out a larger tug to tow the 6,6000-TEU ship to port if its engineers couldn’t complete the repairs.

Gray Fleets
The Royal Navy will no longer provide frigates to the NATO anti-piracy forces off Somalia. Budget restrictions now make only two frigates available to cover everything east of the Suez Canal, and neither ship can be committed to counter-piracy efforts full time. And it is not yet clear whether the Royal Navy’s replenishment ship Fort Victoria will continue to support the 16-ship fleet after this summer.

The highest powers in the UK have changed their minds once again about which plane should equip the two aircraft carriers being built. First, it was decided that the carriers would carry the F-35B vertical-takeoff version of the US-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Problems with its procurement forced them to shift to the pure F-35C naval version, but that meant installing catapults and arresting gear – very expensive, probably too expensive. Despite “I-told-you-so’s” from the Labor party opposition, it now looks as though it will be no catapults but some jump-jets. Another background reason for the decision: the F-35C’s are too heavy to land on the French Navy’s carrier Charles de Gaulle.

The uniform head of the Royal Navy admitted that the government took a chance (“took a punt,” as he put it) when it demobilized HMS Ark Royal, its only carrier, and sold-off its fleet of Harrier jets. A carrier strike ability will not be available to the Brits until some time in the 2020’s, he admitted. (One can imagine long rows of crossed British fingers, all hoping that Argentina does not get feisty about the Falkland Islands again.)

A $3.5 million floating barrier or boom at Halifax, installed in 2007 to protect warships from terrorist attacks, hasn’t been able to withstand the harbor’s stormy conditions (particularly during the tropical storms that somehow reach the Maritimes) or the buildup of marine organisms. Structural deficiencies coupled with lack of a comprehensive maintenance program resulted in serious damage and the boom was removed last winter for repairs. (The boom’s specifications called for a minimum 15-year operating life.)

White Fleets
The small expedition cruise ship Plancius, built in 1976 as a Dutch oceanographic research vessel, broke down while moored at Grytviken on South Georgia Island in the Antarctic South Atlantic, some 2,150 kilometers east of Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of South America. Its seventy bird-watching passengers were taken to Montevideo on the small passenger vessel Ushuaia and a tug assisted the stricken vessel to a repair port. (Petrus Plancius was a 17th century Dutch astronomer, cartographer, and clergyman.)

The Allure of the Seas had a short-lived fire in an engineroom while en route from St Martin to Port Everglades. The ship’s high-pressure fog sprinkler system quickly contained and extinguished the fire, no passengers or crewmembers were injured, and the vessel continued sailing towards Port Everglades.

During its sea trials in the North Sea, the 77,034-ton newbuild cruise ship AIDAmar ingested flotsam into a bow thruster and the ship had to return to Hamburg and a visit to a drydock.

Those That Go Back and Forth
A Coast Guard inspection revealed that the 195-year-old, not-for-profit Sistersville Ferry needed new life jackets. A local sporting-goods superstore donated 25 youth and 25 adult life jackets as well as one [each?] for the captain and deckhand. The ferry connects West Virginia and Ohio across the Ohio River.

As the big Alaskan ferry Matanuska made a 180-degree turn while docking at Petersburg, it sliced into a concrete dock, snapping dock pilings and damaging a crane. Then it attacked the second floor of a fish-processing plant, doing no good to a wall and outer walkways. The stout ferry suffered only minor dents and scrapes to its bow. An unanticipated current of 3-4 knots may have played a role. In Norway, the ro/ro Hordaland should have set sail for Aarsnes but never left the dock at Varaldsøy. A wire on the car ramp had broken and even a crane couldn’t lift it. In Japanese waters, a high-speed ferry, traveling at about 80 kph, probably collided with a whale off Kagoshima Prefecture and five people were slightly injured while the vessel was disabled and had to be towed. News reports made no mention of the whale’s condition. In Germany, two ferries collided in the Baltic seaport of Travemuende. The Nils Holgersson hit the moored Urd, holing it badly enough so that it sank and lay on its side, No spills. No injuries. The Philippine Coast Guard realized that the ro/pax Grand Star Roro 3, carrying 155 passengers and 13 vehicles, had run aground in the shallow part of Sorsogon Port when they noticed that the vessel was out of the channel and not moving. It was towed free. The Bass Strait ro/pax Spirit of Tasmania had a fire in the overhead of the Galactica games center. When two fire alarms sounded and smoke appeared, a contractor used a fire extinguisher. Next, the chief mate confirmed that the fire was real and activated the general alarm. A fire party in full breathing kit removed ceiling panels and killed the fire. A small fire in the engineroom of the ro/pax ferry Commodore Clipper, en route from Portsmouth to Guernsey with 220 passengers and 39 crewmembers, caused a disappointing return to Portsmouth.

Legal Matters
In a surprise out-of-court settlement, the eighteen survivors of the sinking of the Philadelphia Duck Boat, run down by a sludge barge on the Delaware River, will split $2 million and the families of two dead teenagers from Hungary will divide $18 million.

Costa Cruises settled with French passengers who were on the Costa Concordia when it was wrecked: 235 get €9,000 ($11,700) and can sue the company; 180 have already accepted €11,000 each in exchange for dropping any legal action; 20 have joined a class action suit; another 20 are acting independently, and 14 are asking for €50,000, admitting that they have not suffered physical injury but have post-traumatic stress.

The owners and operator of the supermax bulker Aquarosa were fined $925,000 each for oily water-separation no-nos. The ship’s third engineer had told US Coast Guard inspectors about the malfeasance and provided extensive evidence, even showing them where the magic pipe was hidden. The court awarded $462,500 to the whistle-blower and he may get another $462,500 if an appeal by the companies is denied. They claim he should have notified the company instead of the authorities.

The Seaman’s Protection Act gives seamen legal protection when they complain to the Coast Guard. The Labor Department said riverboat captains are required to report lost engines to the Coast Guard and they can lose their licenses if they don’t. One Louisiana captain complained to the Coast Guard about a faulty engine and his employer suspended him and told him not to make reports without company approval. The same problem recurred, he made a report to the Coast Guard, and he was fired. Then OSHA got into the act and the company agreed to pay $245,000 in pay, compensation, and attorney’s fees to settle the whistleblower case.

Nature
A major factor in salvage of the cruise ship Costa Concordia will be preservation of the seabed. An underwater platform will support the wreck after it is rotated and partially raised from the bottom. Once the hull is repaired, it would be floated away. Posidonia, a protected species of sea grass, will be removed and then replanted after the platform pylons are removed while protective casings around the pylons will shield their seafans and sponges.

Metal-Bashing
In Chinese waters, the 3,100-TEU container ship Bareli ran aground off the coast of Fuqing in March and salvors decided to divide the ship after tide-induced bending caused significant metal fatigue. The stern section was towed to Tanguy anchorage while the forward section remained firmly aground.
The main engine of the container ship Celina was so badly damaged when the vessel ran aground off Gangsøy just south of Maaløy (both locations are in Norway) in March that the vessel will be scrapped.

Scrapping of the Oriental Nicety (ex-Exxon Valdez) at Alang was delayed when the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the Indian customs department denied permission for the ship to anchor and ruled that the ship must remain in international waters. Despite a pending court case, the Gujarat Maritime Board had given a green signal for the vessel to berth.

In Russia’s Far East, the ro/pax ferry Georg Ots fell off the blocks in a drydock at the Skavyanka shipyard. That punched two holes in the vessel’s bottom.

The military-industrial complex occasionally comes through! The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782) was delivered to the US Navy 363 days ahead of contract schedule and more than $60 million below target cost.

Three pinholes and a hole slightly smaller than a golf ball were found in the hull of the Coast Guard’s newbuild national security cutter USCGC Stratton. The 418-foot vessel went into service last fall. No similar problems have been found in the other two cutters of the class.

Do not be surprised if you see an inland-rivers barge painted pink. Its name is Big Hope 1 and the color raises cancer awareness. Part of the barge’s profits for the next five years will be donated to cancer research.

Nasties and Territorial Imperatives
Worldwide, 102 incidents of piracy and armed robbery were reported in the year’s first quarter, with dangerously increasing numbers in West African waters. In total, 11 vessels were reported hijacked, with 212 crewmembers taken hostage and four were killed. A further 45 vessels were boarded, with 32 attempted attacks and 14 vessels fired-upon – the latter all attributed to either Somali or Nigerian pirates.

A Kenyan court found eleven Somali suspects guilty of piracy and sentenced each to 20 years in jail. A US court found a Somalia man guilty of kidnapping, hostage-taking, and weapons charges although he was a land-based negotiator. Explained the US Attorney, “He was among an elite fraternity of pirate negotiators – the vital link to any successful pirate attack. His skills were essential to obtain a ransom for those who attacked the vessel and the financiers who paid for the attack.” Prosecutors said he received at least $30,000 for his role as a hostage negotiator for the Marida Marguerite, which was ransomed for $5 million in 2010 after nearly two dozen crewmembers were held captive for about eight months. Eleven other pirates have been sentenced to life in US prisons. Three more are awaiting trial on murder and other charges that, if convicted, could make them eligible for the death penalty.

Odd Bits and Head-Shakers
Long-distance sailboat races on the US West Coast twice turned deadly. The 38-foot Low Speed Chase ran into the Farallones (aka Farallon) Islands after being hit by a big wave. Five of the crew of eight were washed overboard and two more took involuntary swims after the allision with the rocks. Five men went missing, two were helicoptered off the island, and a man with a broken leg was plucked from the yacht. Then, the 37-foot Aegean ran into one of the Ensenada Islands during the Newport to Ensenada Race and four were killed. Early reports of extensive fragmentation of the fiberglass yacht and head trauma on recovered bodies led searchers to initially believe that the yacht had collided with a large vessel but a detailed GPS track of the yacht showed the last pip coinciding with the shore of North Coronado Island. (Satellite reporting of each contestant’s GPS data is now required during many long-distance races.)

In the UK, a 14-year-old sea cadet died when he fell from the rigging of the sailing brig TS Royalist while it was anchored at Portsmouth. He was furling sails and unclipped his safety harness to help a nearby female cadet, who was having trouble with her bit of the sail. He hit a deck bin and the side of the ship before landing in the water and died of traumatic chest injuries later that day.

At Antwerp, an old ferry will become a city-operated swimming pool, complete with water filtered and heated each night. (Make-up water will be taken from the harbor and filtered through reed beds.) Available will be a 120-meter, Olympic-sized swimming pool, restaurants, bars, and meeting spaces. The Badboot (bathing boat) will double as a skating rink in winter. Open this August, admission will be four euros.

The mobile drilling unit Noble Clyde Boudreaux was anchored in 2027 meters of water, a world-record depth. Deploying and retrieving a drill rig’s anchors requires powerful tugs with immensely strong and large winches to handle the mooring lines, which are increasingly being made from ultra-high-strength plastics instead of wire.

This columnist’s headline pick of the month was “Removal of Capsized Costa Concordia to Begin in Italy.” Doesn’t that lead one to wonder where the salvage process will finish?

Sometimes Her Majesty has to redo a job. Queen Elizabeth recently opened an exhibit featuring the tea clipper Cutty Sark. She did essentially the same thing fifty-five years earlier. (The Cutty Sark was rebuilt after a bad fire and is now indoors and visitors can walk under the old ship.)

In Belfast Lough, a woman holding a child jumped off the Superfaast VII. She was recovered by a pilot boat fifteen minutes later but the nine-day-old child wasn’t in spite of an extensive search. After discussions with the woman’s family, police concluded that no baby was involved in the incident.