In the three months ended February 2013 overall confidence levels in the shipping industry were at their highest levels for two years. There was improved expectation of freight rate increases over the next twelve months, particularly in the dry bulk sector, and greater likelihood of new investment in the industry. The average confidence level was 5.8 on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) vs. 5.6 last November.
At Hong Kong, hundreds of dockworkers demanded a 15 percent pay increase and better working conditions – many work 72 consecutive hours during the high-season. They’ve been paid the equivalent of US$167 per day for 24 consecutive hours of work, less than they received in 1997.
Thin Places and Hard Knocks
A hard-luck small ship was the Indian MSV (motor sail vessel? dhow?) Arul Seeli, which sank about 21 nm off the Beypore Port while heading for Lakshadweep Islands. On board were eight seamen and 150 metric tons of cows (twenty), bricks, sand, and other commodities for the islands. Fishermen rescued three sailors.
About 124 miles northeast of Yangtze River Estuary, the container ship CMA CGM Florida came in contact with bulk carrier Chou Shan. The container ship had water ingress in cargo hold No. 5 due to damages sustained on its port side, containers were damaged by their shifting contents, and the bunker tanks started spilling fuel. At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the 473-foot tanker Harbour Feature picked up a load of liquid tallow and moved to a refueling dock. Mooring lines snapped and the Piscataqua River’s strong currents swung the bow ninety degrees across an open bridge. Five hours later at slack water, two tugboats moved the ship away from its pinned position against the now-badly damaged bridge. (Three bridges cross the Piscataqua at Portsmouth. One is a high-level bridge that has stayed free of nautical attacks. The third is under reconstruction and two small tugs have already had major problems there due to the current, one sinking.)
At Colon City in Panama, six coaster-sized vessels were driven ashore when a cold front brought high tides and high winds to the port. Two seamen on one ship could not be rescued. Photos showed the former US Coast Guard buoy tender Hornbeam hard ashore, wave-washed and listing with the remains of an elaborately balustraded porch railing between it and the shore.
Somewhere between Africa and the US, a fire on the container ship Hammonia Antofagasta killed two crewmen. The fire was extinguished and the vessel headed toward Tenerife in the Azores. Off Fynsha in Denmark, the unloaded bulker CSK Glory suffered an engine room explosion and was taken in tow for Frederickshaven by the tugs Svitzer Njal, Svitzer Trim, and Frigga. The Alaska-bound tug Gulf Titan had to tack back and forth near Prince Rupert, BC, Canada while the local tugs Smit Mississippi and Lecheval Rouge put out a fire in containers on the barge being towed. After an explosion blew a hole in the hull of the Sohar Port-bound bulker Atlantik Confidence, the master ordered the crew of twenty-two into the lifeboats from which they were picked up by the tanker Alpine Marie and later transferred to the product tanker YM Pluto. The destroyer USS Nicholas and its helicopter coordinated the rescue. The fire-ravaged bulker later sank some 140 nautical miles off Oman’s Wusta Coast.
The Port of Tacoma was briefly shut down in memorial after two fatalities in one week. A 48-year-old crane mechanic died atop a crane from ”blunt force trauma to the head” and a 57-year-old refrigeration mechanic fell from a five-foot ladder, perhaps shocked by nearby wiring. The medical examiner said the cause of death here was heart disease. Both men worked for the same company. In Ireland’s Belview port, a 22-old crewmember on the Russian freighter Sormovskiy 3053 accidentally slipped and was caught in the jaws of a crane grab. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The four Canadians on the 36-foot sailboat Viewfinder knew they had problems when the rudder unfixably broke 600 miles off Cape Verde. Authorities arranged for the tanker Amazon Guardian to swing by and pick them up. It dropped them off at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and the yacht owners decided to stay here while their insurance claim was processed. They were familiar with the process, having had submitted a claim for a rudder replacement after it was damaged by debris only last November. This time, their boat was left to drift and the Viewfinder may arrive at the North American seaboard in a few months.
The Russian cargo vessel Sea Star 1 had engine failure in the Japan Sea, some 60 nautical miles south of Nakhodka, and was taken in tow by the salvage tug Lazurit. Some 30 miles to the north, the Chinese aframax New Alliance was also drifting for unknown reasons. At the Danish island of Bonholm at Nexo harbor, the small tanker Orakota, loaded with mink food, was trapped by a low tide. It made a cautious two-hour crawl toward the harbor entrance but had to return and wait for more-favorable tides. (The Orakota carries molasses and anything liquid that animals might eat. Other specialized tankers carry cargoes like orange juice and wine.)
Gray Fleets
Cleanup of the former US Navy bombing and shelling range on the Puerto Rican island of Culebra wasn’t as thorough as authorities had hoped. A young tourist, believed to be seven years old, was carrying a munition containing white phosphorus while she and her family were waiting to board a ferry back to mainland Puerto Rico. She dropped it and it activated. She was burned but how badly was unknown because the family refused immediate medical help.
Removal of the mine countermeasures ship USS Guardian from its embarrassing perch on the edge of Tubbataha reef was completed when the giant crane of the pipelay vessel Jascon 25 picked up the stern-third of the warship and deposited it on a nearby vessel for transport anywhere-elsewhere. (Actually, the bigger pieces went to Sasebo, Japan.) Now all that remained was to pick up the smaller debris and pay a surprisingly moderate $1.4 million fine for damaging 2,345.67 square meters of coral at $600 per square metre. But, as expected, heads rolled. The Guardian’s CO, exec/navigator, the assistant navigator, and the officer on watch were relieved from their posts.
Not a Gray Warship but possibly part of a nasty conflict, the freighter Venus was suspected to be carrying Iranian arms to Syria. Its cargo was 8,500 tons of weapons and ground missiles for the Syrian regime, a rebel source said. It was scheduled to make a “fuel stop” at a Syrian port where it probably unloaded its cargo.
Guinea-Bissau’s former navy chief was plucked off a yacht in the east Atlantic and flown to New York to face charges linked to cocaine trafficking. The small West African state is a staging post for Latin American drug-smuggling gangs.
White Fleets
It was not a happy month for Carnival Cruise Lines. The sudden passage of a cold front brought 70-mph winds to Mobile, Alabama that tore the disabled Carnival Triumph from its shipyard moorings. The big ship ravaged the port for five hours, banging into a cargo vessel and other piers before four tugs wrestled it under control. Damage overall was surprisingly light. The Carnival Elation had a precautionary tug escort when it undocked at New Orleans and headed towards the Gulf because one of its two Azipod drives had failed. However, the other Azipod unit was sufficient to keep the ship on its scheduled itinerary. The Carnival Dream lost some power-generating capability while the ship was docked at Philipsburg, St Maarten in the eastern Caribbean so elevators stopped running and public toilets didn’t flush. Carnival flew more than 4,000 passengers back to Florida. The Carnival Legend had propulsion (Azipod again) problems that forced it to operate at a lower speed and miss a scheduled port of call.
But there was a bright side: Carnival Sunshine is being refurbished and will return to service as the Carnival Destiny. The cruise line is making significant investments to enhance the ship’s backup systems and the ability of hotel services to run on emergency power, plus improvements to the ship’s fire prevention, detection, and suppression systems. (Carnival Cruise Lines, the largest of ten cruise-ship brands owned and operated by Carnival Corporation & plc, has 24 vessels that account for 21.1 percent of the worldwide market share.)
Most cruises are placid affairs but there are occasional exceptions. In northern Norway, the Marco Polo gave its 1,100 passengers a bonus moment when it ran onto something outside Sortland in Vesterålen where charts showed plenty of water. A ballast tank was breached but quickly repaired and, after an overnight inspection, the ship continued to head for Scotland. In New Zealand, a man was missing from the Celebrity Solstice when it left Port Chalmers but he rejoined the ship at Akaroa. The Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Los Angeles with 84 passengers having become norvirused during a 36-night South Pacific cruise. Several ships skipped stops at Grand Turk because of passenger illnesses after recent cruise-ship visits to the island. (The last to stop there may have been the Carnival Miracle and the cause of illnesses may be because the ground near the port is reportedly saturated with sewerage.) The Princess could not dock at Bermuda due to repairs being made to the Heritage Wharf, and the repairs affected other ships arriving later, including the Riviera, MSC Poesia, Carnival Splendor, and maybe the Norwegian Dawn if work isn’t finished in time. The Ventura had propulsion motor problems in mid-Atlantic and limped along while eagerly heading for a scheduled two-week refit in Germany. The Seven Seas Voyager had similar problems and missed a stop. Somebody was seen going overboard from the Coral Princess in mid-Caribbean and a body was recovered. A 4-year-old boy nearly drowned on the Disney Fantasy and was taken by ambulance to Cape Canaveral Hospital and later flown by medical helicopter to Orlando. His family had just boarded for a seven-day cruise to the western Caribbean.
Those on small boats sometimes needed other-than-routine rescuing. Fifteen miles east of Elliot Key, Florida, the Carnival Breeze diverted five miles to become a stable platform so a Coast Guard helicopter could hoist a woman suffering from heart problems. She and her male companion had radioed for help from their 28-foot sailboat Gretchen. A helicopter rescue swimmer decided it was too rough to hoist her in a basket so both sailors were pulled aboard a Coast Guard small boat and delivered to the cruise ship. She was helicoptered ashore to a hospital, he stayed on board for some lesser medical care, and the Gretchen was towed to Convoy Point.
Those That Go Back and Forth
The cross-Channel ferry Oscar Wilde’s needed five tries to offload 500 passengers and their vehicles at Cherbourg. The Channel was rough and conditions were far from ideal when the big ferry finally arrived five hours late. It failed to dock, even with tugs helping. During the night three further efforts were made and the vessel circled outside the port until the wind direction changed, making the fifth docking attempt successful. Then the bow doors refused to open—no problem, just back out and use the stern doors. But port authorities ruled that conditions in the English Channel were still too dangerous. Unloading was about 24 hours late and the ankle of a seaman, broken when a line snapped during a mooring attempt, finally received shore-side medical attention.
After three days without electrical power because of a freak snowstorm, hundreds of shivering Scots on Arran lined up in bitter cold to take the ferry to Andossan in Ayrshire where warmth and light were available. The situation on the island was perhaps best summarized by a resident in a hamlet called The Craw who said, “We are okay for food at the moment but have a shortage of coal or logs.”
The ro/pax ferry Olympus normally operates between the Egyptian port of Adabiya and the Saudi Arabian port of Dhuba. Shortly after departing Adabiya, the ship experienced engine problems that the crew was unable to rectify so the vessel was towed back to Adabiya. There, 200 trailers with drivers on board were transferred to another vessel while the Olympus was repaired. The ferry Caddebostan came to the rescue and removed dozens of passengers when the Turkish “tourist ferry” Sabret had a fire off Istanbul. Some passengers suffering from smoke inhalation were taken to hospitals. The ferry was travelling between Istanbul and the popular Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. Thirty-one people were injured in a collision between the ferry Lamma IV and another vessel off Hong Kong Island in deep fog. The other vessel was reportedly a barge and the ferry, strangely, was damaged in its rear.
In dense driving snow one evening, the vehicular ferry Nordfjord drove itself up on a rocky ledge near the ferry dock in Rysjedalsvika (if you’re lost, we’re on Norway’s west coast). The single passenger and the crew of four weren’t injured but had to spend the night on board.
In the State of Washington in just one day, four ferry runs were cancelled, each time because a single worker failed to show up. (One called in sick and another overslept.) A cure for the over-tight ferry manning is in the works if the funds can be found for more staff. Across the border, BC Ferries cancelled a couple of sailings after a woman fell/jumped-off the Spirit of Vancouver Island. She was rescued near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. Paramedics boarded the vessel and took the conscious woman to a waiting ambulance.
On Cape Breton, a vehicle failed to stop as it boarded the Englishtown cable ferry, speeded up, and ended up floating in Saint Ann’s Bay. It didn’t float for long and was last seen about 200 meters from where it entered the water due to the strong local currents. Days later, searchers using side-scan sonar still hadn’t found the vehicle and then ice floes arrived to fill the Bay and that stopped all searching. The ice left about a week later and RCMP divers found the car. It was a Toyota Camry and inside was the body of an elderly man. On the other side of Canada at Gabriola Island in British Columbia, a vehicle traveling at extremely at high speed broke through a six-foot high barrier gate, launched off the loading ramp, and landed on the deck of the ferry Quinsam, which was tied up in dock. The car sped the length of the ferry and flew off the end. The water there was 48 meters deep, too deep for a RMCP dive team. Pretty sure at least one death. In Cornwall not far from Falmouth, a car rolled down the slipway (a steep approach road leading onto the King Harry Ferry) and into the River Fal on the Feock side. The elderly driver had stepped out but his wife was trapped inside. One definitely dead.
Energy
Two Taiwanese-German expeditions are investigating the role that plate tectonics play in the formation of gas hydrates. Producing natural gas from gas hydrates in the seabed could be particularly attractive to industrialized regions (especially Taiwan) in East Asia where demand for energy is increasing but resources within their own borders are scanty.
Methane hydrates form in the sea floor whenever enough methane is available, the pressure is sufficiently high, and the water temperature low enough. Then water molecules create cage-like structures that capture large quantities of methane molecules. The formation of hydrates can also be fostered by plate tectonics when one tectonic plate is pushed under another. That compresses huge quantities of sediments, and natural gases and fluids escape through these sediments to the sea floor, forming gas hydrate on the way. “The amount of energy that is stored in natural gas hydrate in the oceans exceeds the presently known oil and conventional natural gas deposits by far“, said one authority.
Metal-Bashing
Drillers sought oil as far back as 1979 off Australia and found gas that couldn’t be transported to a market – they lacked the technology to extract gas from waters more than 3,000 feet deep and pipe it ashore for conversion to LNG. Now, two companies will build floating platforms to process and chill the gas to liquid form. These monster FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) vessels will probably never enter a local port. The Shell vessel, at 1,600 feet long, and 242 feet wide, will weigh about 600,000 tons when fully loaded. (A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is 1,092 feet long and weighs about 100,000 tons.) It will be operational by 2016 at a cost of about US$12 billion. ExxonMobil’s barge will be much the same with gas fed into its super-chilling system from an initial seven production wells (to be drilled in 2018 and 2019) with five more wells drilled later. Production should start in 2020.
Odd Bits and Headshakers
The research vessel Falkor was routinely sonar-scanning the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles offshore when it spotted an unexpected object. A ROV found the wreck of the fishing vessel Katmai some 8,920 feet down. The brand-new Alaska-bound FV had disappeared in February 1972 along with its owner, his wife, their eight-year-old son, and a deckhand.
Queen Elizabeth I dispatched a ship to France in 1592 but it foundered off the island of Alderney in the Channel Islands. Researchers found an oblong crystal in the wreck. It was Iceland spar, a transparent, naturally occurring calcite crystal that polarizes light and can be used to get a bearing on the Sun. It may have been used as a navigation aid by Viking mariners and that use may have continued into Elizabethan times.
In Scotland a charitable organization transformed a former MoD tank barge into a swish, award-winning headquarter complex, now named Tom Dunn, with an onboard teaching area, a cinema room, a multi-purpose meeting space, boardroom, and offices. (Windows in the hull’s sides make it look especially spiffy.) Explained a trust officer, “One of the reasons we were keen to get the barge was that many people associate us with medical projects in the Amazon, where we provide care for over 100,000 patients through our two medical ships, and we are beginning work with another medical ship on Lake Victoria in Tanzania, so the barge helps build on that nautical theme.
At Los Angeles, a mechanic tried to add realism to a heightened-awareness drill by providing a fake bomb made from metal oil filters, batteries, and wires, all bound with silver duct tape and black electrical tape, with a note attached to the bottom reading, “this is for the drill.” He was fired and authorities want him to pay the expenses for proving the fake bomb was a fake.
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