Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Ships Monthly

TANKER TERMINAL Tranmere Oil Terminal, on the west side of the Mersey south of Birkenhead, has been busy with ships often calling to load cargo at the south stage, sometimes necessitating discharging vessels to temporarily vacate the berth. All the crude oil, diesel and other products imported to Stanlow’s refinery arrives at Tranmere Oil Terminal by tanker, with a total of nine million tonnes a year being imported. In October 2022 the tanker British Officer made her maiden UK call when she arrived on the Mersey and berthed at Tranmere. Aside from a call at Sarroch, in Sardinia, in 2017, she has spent the majority of her career east of Suez, and in particular in Australasia. The call at Tranmere was also noteworthy as, due to the higher priority given…

NEW FERRY South American ferry operator Buquebús, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is investigating the possibility of having its new 130m long catamaran ferry, being built by Incat Tasmania, powered by a battery-electric propulsion system rather than the LNG-fuelled powerplant as originally planned. If this proves to be feasible – and negotiations are currently under way with potential electric motor and battery suppliers – the vessel will be delivered in 2025 as the world’s first large, lightweight, zero-emissions ferry. Incat Group Chairman and Founder Robert Clifford said: ‘The customer wants this to happen, Incat wants this to happen, and while there are matters to be finalised, I am extremely confident that Incat can deliver this ground-breaking ship. ‘Obviously, there needs to be sufficient energy supply in the ports that the…

DUAL-FUEL CSOVs Rotterdam-based Acta Marine has signed a contract with Turkish shipyard Tersan for the construction of two next-generation methanol MDO/HVOpowered DP2 construction service operating vessels (CSOVs). The twin 89m by 19m CSOVs, to be primarily targeted at the offshore wind construction sector, will be completed to a SX-216 TWIN-X Stern design developed by Norway’s Ulstein Design & Solutions in cooperation with Acta Marine. Beside the Ulstein TWIN-X stern configuration, they will be equipped with a walk-to-work gangway system, a motion-compensated six-tonne capacity deck crane and hotel-style accommodation for up to 135 people in 85 cabins. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL • t > 01959 541444 • e > sm.ed@kelsey.co.uk…

FREIGHT SERVICE The final sailing on P&O Ferries’ North Sea freight service from Rotterdam Europoort to Middlesbrough Teesport was made by the chartered Estraden (1999/18,205gt) on 21 January before the Bore-owned vessel moved to Dutch operator Transfennica after having served the route since January 2015. It is not clear what will next happen to Estraden, but she has also been previously operated out of Tilbury. Teesport’s Belgian link with Zeebrugge continues, being maintained by 2,630 lanemetre/20,911gt sisterships Norsky and Norstream, which were both delivered in 1999 by Aker Yards at Rauma in Finland, but the service has been cut to two sailings each way per week. This is on a triangular basis alongside the Tilbury-Zeebrugge route.…

CSOVs Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Gondán has launched the third in a series of six Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOVs) it is building for Haugesund, Norway-based offshore service company Edda Wind SA, with delivery of the yet-to-be-named ship (C491) expected later this year. All of the CSOVs, led by the earlier delivered Edda Breeze and Edda Boreas, measure 88.3m by 19.7m and can accommodate 120 persons in high-standard cabins along with several common areas. The ships, the final of the series to be delivered by 2025, will transport and house technicians as they perform commissioning and maintenance work on offshore wind turbines. The Norwegian company is also having two Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) built by Spain’s Astilleros Balenciaga.…

P&O FERRIES P&O Ferries has reduced the carbon footprint of operations from Dover by nine per cent thanks to maximising the efficiency of a new procedure described by chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite as a best-ever sustainable performance equivalent to an 85,000-ton cut. He explained: ‘We have made outstanding progress and promise to do everything possible to eliminate another 4,000 tons in the next three years. The lion’s share of the reduction is attributable to our innovative space charter agreement 18 months ago with competitor DFDS Seaways, whereby we make space available to one another on the Calais route to maintain customer service levels to ensure its continued resilience.’ Further reductions are expected later when the world’s longest double-ended vessels, the new 47,394gt P&O Pioneer and P&O Liberte, make their Dover-Calais…

BRITTANY FERRIES Stena RoRo took delivery of E-Flexer Santona at China’s Avic Jinling Yard on 22 December 2022 and immediately transferred the 42,000gt vessel to begin a ten-year charter to Brittany Ferries. She will displace the earlier E-Flexer Salamanca to make two weekly round trips from Portsmouth to the Spanish port of Santander, with a Portsmouth-Cherbourg sailing also fitted in. Santona carries just over 1,000 passengers with 2,714 lane metres of vehicle space accommodating 300 cars and with power from twin Wärtsilä diesel engines bringing a speed of 23 knots. Salamanca has been moved to run from Rosslare to Bilbao in Spain, while Brittany Ferries have resumed taking passengers and cars between Portsmouth and Le Havre on two return trips a week by Cotentin (2007/22,308gt), whose schedule also includes a…

SPANISH OPERATORS RO-RO LINK WITH VIGO • The Suardiaz Group is starting a two-ship service between Vigo and Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. The sea link to England, instead of using lorries, will bring components to the Stellantis plant, hitherto undertaken via lengthy road journeys through Europe. Use of the Peel Ports’ Eastham Dock, near the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal, will save as many as 14,000 road journeys a year and cut CO2 emissions by 300 per cent. Vessels will carry 95 trailers loaded with components for the Stellantis site, with Suardiaz and Peel Ports spending £15 million on a joint redevelopment. BALEARIA CELEBRATIONS • The leading Spanish ferry specialist will be celebrating 25 years of operations in 2023, having so far carried 55 million passengers and 80 million…

TMR VOYAGES Two former Holland America Line vessels will be operating in the French market in 2023, although not both at the same time. Compagnie Francais Croisières Renaissance, formerly Maasdam, completed by FIncantieri in 1993, will enter service in May, largely based in Marseille, although the early cruises will sail from Le Havre. The inaugural voyage is now scheduled for 14 May, just a day after the second ship returns to her owner. TMR Voyages has chartered Vasco da Gama from German operator Nicko Cruises for two cruises from Marseille, aimed squarely at the French Market. Both of them are music-themed, and Vasco da Gama, formerly Statendam, will sail from Marseille on 22 April. TMR is well established in the cruise industry having worked with both Costa and Iberocruceros, sometimes…

TURKISH NAVY The Turkish defence procurement agency has contracted four shipyards, Anadolu, Sedef, Sefine and TAIS, and a government-controlled defence engineering firm, to build three more Istanbul class general-purpose frigates. The ships, Izmir (F-516), Içel (F-517) and Izmit (F518), will all be constructed at the same time for delivery to the Turkish Navy in 2026. The lead ship, the future TCG Istanbul (F-515), was launched on 23 January 2021 and is scheduled to enter service later this year. Under the MILGEM national warship building programme, the 3,000-tonne ships are of 100 per cent national design with 80 per cent domestic material content, much of it produced by Aselsan, Turkey’s largest defence contractor. The newly developed home-produced systems include the CENK 3D search radar, AKREP fire control radar, Gökdeniz weapon system…

WINGFIELD CASTLE Hartlepool Borough Council have approved three elements of the city’s Waterfront Regeneration Programme, which will include a three-year restoration programme of Wingfield Castle, the refurbishment of the Museum of Hartlepool and the dry dock at the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Wingfield Castle will need to be dry-docked and it is intended to use the dock currently housing HMS Trincomalee. The work will be in three phases and will allow Wingfield Castle to be displayed on the water as an integral part of the Museum of Hartlepool. A plan for the refurbishment of the Museum of Hartlepool is also under way, and the Council’s Capital Programme Board has agreed to develop this scheme further to improve access, create new community spaces for events, and renovate exhibition displays…

WAVERLEY An appeal has been launched to raise funds needed for Waverley’s annual dry-docking and the startup costs for the 2023 season. She is booked to dry-dock in late-March and then re-enter service in May, but extensive steel work needs to be replaced in both of the ship’s paddle-boxes and therefore this refit will be expensive She had a successful season in 2022, which included a return visit to Oban and the Inner Hebrides, the South Coast and the Thames after an absence of four years, with over 100,000 passengers sailing aboard her. However, there was an increase of over 60 per cent in the cost of fuel, or over £300,000. Other costs, such as coach hire, catering supplies, insurance and berthing fees all increased. The charity which owns Waverley…

CAR FERRY America’s unique coal-burning car ferry Badger is celebrating her 70th birthday this year and is being prepared to operate her seasonal (May-October) service between Manitowoc, Wisconsin and Ludington, Michigan. The historic vessel was completed by the Christy Shipyard at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1953 and made her maiden crossing of Lake Michigan on 21 March of that year. She continues to use her original Foster-Wheeler coal-fired boilers and Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, the latter considered state-of-the-art machinery in the late 1940s after extensive testing during World War II. When railroad-owned, the ship was bunkered with coal by moving railcars alongside, the coal then flowing by gravity through chutes into the vessel’s bunkering compartments. Today, the ferry is bunkered using dump trucks.…

The name Pandoro was synonymous with freight ships on the Irish Sea for three decades. Owned by P&O, the company’s name was an acronym for ‘P and O Ro-Ro’ and was established in 1974. Three years earlier P&O had bought Coast Lines Ltd. Pandoro emerged in place of Northern Ireland Trailers Limited and Ferrymasters Ireland Limited, who had provided a lift-on lift-off (lo-lo) service from Preston, replacing the earlier lo-lo service operated by P&O Ferrymasters, two years earlier. Times were changing and freight was moving to lorries and trailers driven on and off ships, rather than cargoes being loaded by cranes. A new ro-ro river terminal on the River Wyre in Fleetwood, Lancashire was built, and from there a service to the port of Larne commenced with the 1974-built ferry…

The second half of the 1960s saw the Royal Navy undergo a period of radical change. The decision to cancel its next generation of large aircraft carriers on grounds of cost heralded a period of significant restructuring that gave rise to new designs, such as the Invincible class support carriers and Type 42 air defence destroyers. Another important requirement was for a cost-effective patrol frigate that could sustain the fleet’s traditional presence across the globe. Inevitably, the navy’s design teams struggled to cope with the massive amount of work required to develop this new fleet. Against this backdrop, it was decided to enlist the help of Britain’s private shipbuilders to design the new frigates. Vosper Thornyrcoft (VT), in particular, had earned a good reputation exporting a series of light frigate…

In the 1960s there was an expanding network of amateur marine photographers, and lasting friendships developed between us, as we exchanged spare negatives and slides with our new-found friends. The world’s ports were full of conventional ships, as the container revolution was still some way off, and port entry for photography was a reality for most of us, by way of employment or dock pass. Often cold and sometimes miserable, we waited on beaches and headlands for some special, or not so special, ship, scheduled for that day, which was usually running late. Most of our photos were taken close to home, as affordable international travel was still a little way off. As time passed, packaged travel deals allowed UK-based marine photographers to venture beyond wonderful Rotterdam and Terneuzen to…

Christened in Venice, Italy on 4 July, 2010 by HRH Princess Maxima of the Netherlands (now the Queen), Nieuw Amsterdam was the second of two Signature class ships (the other being Eurodam of 2008) delivered to Holland America Line (HAL) by the ever-fertile Fincantieri Shipyards in Marghera, Italy. They are enlarged and improved versions of the line’s earlier Vista class quartet, the first of which entered service with HAL in 2002. Nieuw Amsterdam carries the line’s traditional and attractive dark blue hull livery. Her interiors were rendered by NB Design Group and inspired by the city of New York with Dutch influnces. Holland America spared little expense in her décor, with the art collection on board valued at over $3 million. Registered in the Netherlands, she has 11 passenger decks…

A WEEK ON THE SENEGAL RIVER ABOARD THE HISTORIC RIVER CRUISE SHIP BOU EL MOGDAD We were one night out of Saint-Louis aboard Bou el Mogdad. Everything seemed to be proceeding normally as the old boat plodded her way upriver from the coast. As her 40-odd passengers finished coffee and dessert in the dining saloon, few had any sense of the gravity of the situation in the galley. There, half the crew had gathered in a huddle, their faces frozen in expressions of near terror, transfixed on the screen of a single smartphone perched on a metal countertop. 2,000 miles away, in Cameroon, Senegal’s national football team had reached the brink of victory or defeat in the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. At last, Senegal scored…

letter of the month I would like to tell you what an outstanding magazine you produce. I see many publications and yours is second to none in packing an immense amount of interesting, timely and interesting information into a tidy 68 pages. I have been a subscriber since 1984 and have read every issue since. As is said in the US Navy, Bravo Zulu! However, the title of Patrick Boniface’s article ‘The Greatest Naval Base in the World’ (SM, Jan), is not quite accurate as it is not about Norfolk Naval Station – usually referred to as Norfolk Naval Base – but rather about Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. The base is about eight miles down the Elizabeth River and out into Hampton Roads. It is entirely different from…

SHIPOWNER The Dutch shipowner Vroon is to be restructured due to a number of economic setbacks, with its ownership to transition from the Vroon family to the company’s banks. This will see the firm’s 40 offshore support vessels sold off over the next 18 months, leaving a 60-strong fleet of livestock carriers, product tankers, high-heat tankers and emergency response and rescue vessels. The Vroon family entered shipowning over 130 years ago, making them one of the longest-running Dutch families in the industry.…

RO-PAX FERRY Singaporean shipbuilder Sembcorp Marine delivered the last of three battery-operated roll-on/roll-off ferries for Norwegian operator Norled in January. The vessel, Leikanger, follows sister vessels Hella and Dragsvik, delivered in March and July 2022. The zero-emission vessels are based on a proprietary design developed by Sembcorp Marine’s wholly-owned subsidiary, LMG Marin AS. Leikanger runs on lithium-ion batteries charged by hydro-electric energy power. The vessel can also operate in hybrid mode using combined battery-diesel power as an alternative, and is equipped with quick-connection shore charging plugs, auto-mooring and auto-cross capabilities, and has efficient hull, propulsion and heat recovery systems.…

JADROLINIJA Major Croatian State operator Jadrolinija has put veteran ferry Dubrovnik (1979/9,795gt) up for sale. The veteran has enjoyed a career stretching back more than four decades, starting when she entered the fleets of B&I Line and then Brittany Ferries. Built at Verolme Dockyards in Cork, she sailed on Irish Sea routes as Connacht until she moved to Brittany Ferries in 1988 and was renamed Duchesse Anne, becoming popular on the Portsmouth-St.Malo run and other England-France services. After the move to Croatia in 1996, she was named after the imposing walled city of Dubrovink on the Dalmatian coast and has operated ever since, taking up to 1,304 passengers, with summer sailings in recent years between Bar and Bari. Now there is speculation that she could go to Montenegro Lines who…

INDUSTRY NEWS Sunstone Ships has firmed up the order for the seventh, and final, member of the 8,000gt Infinity class of expedition ships with China Merchants Industries Holdings, for delivery in 2025. Sunstone is the largest owner of expedition ships, with five infinity vessels already in service and another, Ocean Albatros, due for delivery in March 2023. There are five older vessels, the oldest of which is almost 50 years old. Sunstone does not operate ships for its own account, but charters them out. Another class of slightly larger ships seems to be at the planning stage. An interesting concept is that from Swiss-based Aman Resorts, working in conjunction with Cruise Saudi. This is for a 100-passenger 183m-long yacht of about 23,000gt. The operator will be Neptune Co, the builder…

AMBASSADOR Following a six-month charter to the Scottish Government as accommodation for refugees from Ukraine, Ambassador Cruise Line’s second ship, Ambition, will be heading to the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven on 1 April, where she will be rebranded and made ready for her new role. Ambition is due to be named in the Port of Tyne on 11 May by Olympic sailing gold medallist Shirley Robertson OBE. The following day she will sail on her first voyage for Ambassador, to France and Spain. For her early cruises, she will also pick up passengers in Dundee. Eventually Ambition will cruise from a variety of UK ports, including Liverpool, Belfast, Bristol and Falmouth. Ambition was built in France in 1999 for Festival Cruises, but after that company ceased trading she was…

ROYAL FLEET AUX The UK Ministry of Defence has formally awarded ‘Team Resolute’ a £1.6 billion contract for the construction of three logistics vessels for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The consortium comprises Harland & Wolff, BMT and Navantia UK, a British subsidiary of the Spanish company Navantia. The 216m vessels were designed by Bath-based BMT, who also conceived the RFA’s Tide class fleet tankers. Construction of the forward and centre sections of the new ships will take place at Harland & Wolff’s shipyards in Belfast and Appledore, while the stern sections will be built by Navantia in Cádiz. The final assembly for all three vessels will be take place in Belfast. H&W’s gaining of another major defence contract will bring £77 million of shipyard investment as part of the government’s…

RUSSIAN NAVY Russia has operationally deployed its new 3M22 Tsirkon hypersonic missile system for the first time aboard RFS Admiral Gorshkov. The Project 22350 frigate sailed from its base in Severomorsk, Northern Russia, on 4 January, in company with a Dubna class tanker. Wearing prominent ‘Z’ funnel markings, the ships were shadowed by the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel Bergen and HMS Portland as they transited the North Sea. Prior to a planned exercise with South African and Chinese warships, the Gorshkov sailed far into the western Atlantic to conduct a simulated hypersonic missile strike against an enemy warship at a distance of more than 900km, a PR move no doubt calculated to interest NATO observers. The ships will later transit the Mediterranean en route to the Indian Ocean, but will…

COMPANY NEWS Bermuda-headquartered Seapeak, formerly known as Teekay LNG, has acquired the Danish shipping company Evergas from France-based Jaccar Holdings for approximately $700 million. The transaction, which involves two very large ethane carriers (VLECs) and eight multigas/liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, will see Evergas rebranded and operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seapeak. The latter company is among the world’s largest independent owners and operators of LNG tonnage, and has interests in 51 gas carriers, as well as a 30 per cent stake in an LNG regasification terminal in Bahrain.…

CONTAINER SHIP In a sign that the high rates earned by container ships since the end of 2020 are coming to an end, the Greekowned ship Akinada Bridge became the first large container vessel to be sent for scrap in over two years. The former Ever Decent was the last to be broken, back in November 2020. Beached at Alang on 10 January, the Panama-flagged Akinada Bridge had arrived off the demolition beaches five days earlier. The Hong Kong convention-certified shipbreaker Bansal Ship Recyclers reportedly paid around $14 million for the ship. Built at Ulsan in South Korea in 2001, she sailed as Akinada Bridge for her entire life, something very rare today. Initially operating for Japanese operator K Line, the 5,610TEU capacity vessel was sold in 2014 to Greek…

TANKERS Canada’s Algoma Central Corp has purchased the twin 18,734dwt product tankers Chantaco and Chiberta from Sea Tankers Shipping of France. Built by Turkey’s RML Marine Shipyard in 2007, the 16-year-old vessels are to be renamed Algotitan and Algoberta and will replace two existing but older tankers in the Algoma fleet. Ontario-based Algoma has also acquired the 2010-built 16,536dwt chemical tanker Birgit Knutsen from Knutsen OAS Shipping of Norway but this ship, currently operating under a bareboat charter, has yet to be renamed. In the newbuild sector, the company has ordered two 80,000dwt self-unloading bulk carriers, with a further two on option, from China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for delivery in 2025. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL • t > 01959 541444 •…

QUEEN MARY After being closed for a couple of years due to Covid, and following the bankruptcy of the previous operator, Queen Mary reopened to the public in December 2022 on a limited basis, initially offering tours without catering to organised groups. In June 2022 Long Beach City Council approved a contract with Evolution Hospitality LLC to take over the Queen Mary operations and oversee necessary repairs, which included replacing the ship’s domestic boilers, elevators, restrooms, railings, plumbing and parking upgrades, as well as removing the ship’s lifeboats, which were in poor condition. The basic steel structure remains a concern, and 11 new bilge pump platforms have been installed as critical safety components to discharge water. A further £1 million was offered to the project last summer by the City…

GREAT BRITAIN The SS Great Britain Trust has launched an urgent appeal to replace the ship’s Topmast No 2. This is the largest of the ship’s six masts and is also the most complex and costly to replace. It carries the topsail yard, as well as being positioned directly above the mainyard, which is used for the Go Aloft! mast and yard climbing experience. Each mast consists of a lower mast which supports a topmast above it. Originally these were all of timber construction, but in 2007 the Trust carried out essential maintenance and replaced the lower masts in steel, with topmasts made of solid timber. An inspection in 2017 revealed that topmasts 1, 4, 5 and 6 needed renewing, and they were therefore replaced by specially designed hollow timber…

The motor tug Kent is marking 75 years of operations this year, and is now in the hands of South Eastern Tug Society, who have lovingly restored the historic craft. Built by Richards Ironworks at Lowestoft for JP Knight Ltd of Rochester, she was launched in 1948, at which time she was the most powerful single-screw harbour tug in Britain with diesel propulsion. Kent began working on the River Medway with shiphandling duties at Rochester, Chatham and Sheerness, but in subsequent years she operated elsewhere in the UK, carrying out coastal tows and a host of other duties. When the British Petroleum Refinery at the Isle of Grain was commissioned, Kent assisted the first tanker to her berth. During her working life, Kent had spells in Scotland and Ireland under…

Although the keel of Stena Tender was laid in 1975, the vessel was built at three yards. She was constructed in Austria, assembled and fitted out in Romania, and then lengthened in Germany. Two years after the keel-laying she was delivered with a new name, Goya. Various name and route changes later, she became Townsend Thoresen’s Viking Trader in 1983. In 1988 she was transferred to P&O and entered service for Pandoro on the Fleetwood to Larne route, still with her orange hull. Eventually rebranded, she was renamed Leopard in 1996 and moved to the Dublin route. She also sailed once a week from Dublin to Cherbourg.…

It was not long before the then new Tye 21 frigates were called on to prove themselves in combat. The outbreak of the Falklands War in April 1982 was ultimately to see seven of the eight Type 21s – Amazon was the exception – dispatched southwards as part of the naval task force charged with recovering the islands from Argentinian occupation. Only five of the ships were eventually to return. The Type 21s played an important part in the War, undertaking a wide variety of missions, from anti-submarine defence to shore bombardment. On 1 May 1982 Arrow was the first of the class to sustain action damage when she suffered several canon hits from Argentine Dagger jets which were shelling Port Stanley airfield. Three days later, she helped rescue survivors…

The Chandris family is best known for its passenger liners, but is less well known for its tanker operations. The family acquired their first tanker, the 1913-built Vassos, in 1935, and during the 1960s became one of the top ten Greek ship owners and among the first Greek companies to order very large crude carriers (VLCCs). When delivered by the Odense shipyard in Denmark in April 1969, the 209,000dwt Evgenia Chandris was the largest tanker ever owned by a Greek company. Four years later the 290,000dwt Rania Chandris was delivered by the same yard. The funnels of all of their ships were emblazoned with the Greek letter ‘chi’, the initial letter of the name Chandris in Greek. Ioannis (John) D. Chandris (1890-1942) of Chios, who started the business in 1911…

I have the January mystery ship picture in my collection. The postcard dates from a period when shipping lines took one photo of a ship in their fleet and named it as any one of a specific class. One version of this card has the name Largs Bay on the reverse. Another card (maybe the original image) has the name Esperance Bay clearly visible. The five ‘Bay’ cargo-passenger liners were built for the Commonwealth Government Line in the early 1920s. The most famous of this class was Jervis Bay, which, while she was serving as an AMC protecting a convoy, drove off the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. She herself was sunk but the convoy escaped. This action earned her Captain, Edward Fegan, a posthumous Victoria Cross. Peter Clarke, Staines…

NEWBUILD Fincantieri Marine Group’s shipyard at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in the USA has been contracted to build a 288ft-long Service Operation Vessel (SOV) designed by HAV Design AS of Norway for CREST Wind, a joint venture between Florida-based Crowley and Denmark’s Esvagt. When it is completed in 2026, the HAV 832 design SOV will operate under a long-term charter agreement with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy to support Siemens Gamesa’s service operations on the Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project off the state of Virginia.…

NEW FERRIES Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions expects to deliver the sister ships Spirit of Tasmania IV and Spirit of Tasmania V to Australia-based TT-Line Spirit of Tasmania for operation between Geelong, Victoria and Devonport, Tasmania by the first and last quarters of 2024. The two 48,000gt ferries are being equipped with four Wärtsilä nine-cylinder dual-fuel main engines each, all capable of running on LNG, to produce 41,220kW and give a speed of 25 knots. The 212m by 31m vessels will have 3,700 lane metres for vehicles and will be able to accommodate up to 1,800 passengers. Following their delivery, they will replace the 25-year-old twins Spirit of Tasmania I (ex-Superfast IV) and Spirit of Tasmania II (ex-Superfast III), which were completed by Finland’s Kvaerner Masa in 1998.…

CARGO LINER The former Royal Mail Ship St Helena, dating from 1990 which served her namesake British overseas territory, was drydocked at Durban during early January for rudder work and routine maintenance to be undertaken before the ship set off for its next electric racing event being held in the Middle East. Acquired by Jersey-based St Helena LLC in 2018, and given a major renovation, the 6,767gt vessel is now employed to transport a fleet of electrically powered off-road vehicles and their equipment to remote racing areas around the world. Backed by FIA Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton in collaboration with other investors, the races have a cumulative television viewing audience of over 380 million.…

CONTAINER SHIP China’s NACKS shipyard (Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co) floated out a new 24,000TEU container ship OOC Spain for Hong Kong-based shipowner Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) in November 2022, with the launching ceremony of the new ultra-large vessel taking place on 9 January. The ship measures 399.99m by 61.3m, with a moulded depth of 33.2m. The ship is classed by American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and, after entering into operation, she will serve the Asia-Europe route. The design of the ship incorporates a newly developed bulbous bow, propeller front shroud and other energy-saving devices. The DACKS (Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Engineering) shipyard is building a series of similar-sized vessels for COSCO Shipping Line, owner of OOCL. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding,…

AQUILON SHIPPING A new port on Turkey’s Black Sea coast welcomed its first cruise ship on 3 August 2022. Previously a little-used tender port, the historic small town of Amasra now has a substantial breakwater cruise quay. The first ship to use the new facility was Astoria Grande, formerly AIDAcara, operating for Moscow-based Aquilon Shipping Company, but sailing under the Palau flag. The ship is operated in partnership with the Turkish-owned Miray Cruises, but is only marketed to Russians. On a later visit to the port, on 18 January, Astoria Grande struck the breakwater in bad weather and strong winds, subsequently sailing back out to sea to ride out the weather and for divers to assess the damage. She subsequently berthed at the port. At the time she had 385…

AIDA CRUISES Following the sale of AIDAcara (currently Astoria Grande) and AIDAvita (currently laid up in Tallinn) comes the news of the withdrawal, to take place in October 2023, of the last of Aida Cruises pioneering small ships, AIDAaura. AIDAaura and AIDAvita were the two ships ordered soon after P&OSN Co took a majority stake in Aida Cruises in 2000. Small by today’s standards, AIDAvita is just 42,289gt but carries up to 1,266 passengers. As with all Aida ships, the restaurants are primarily buffet-style, which saves on both space, due to relatively fast table turnover, and crew numbers, with few waiters. That may be something that is not easy to change while retaining the existing passenger capacity. As yet, no buyer has been indicated for either AIDAvita or AIDAaura.…

MULTI-ROLE SHIP The UK Ministry of Defence has taken delivery of the the first of two future undersea surveillance ships. The 2019-built offshore support vessel Topaz Tangaroa arrived at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead in mid-January for conversion. The ship will emerge as a dedicated Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) by the summer, under the name RFA Proteus. Before starting her new role of safeguarding seabed telecommunications cables and gas pipelines, the 98m OPV will be equipped with a military-grade communications system, mountings for self-defence weapons and a repaint. The vessel has an expansive working deck and features a ‘moon pool’, a large access point in the underside of the hull through which submersible capabilities can be launched. She will be crewed by RFA sailors, while up to 60 Royal Navy specialists will…

US NAVY The US Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations has outlined his order of priority for US Navy’s future major acquisition programmes into the 2030s. First on the agenda is getting the MQ-25A Stingray drone into service. The unmanned, carrier-borne aerial tanker is due to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2025. It will replace F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters in their air-to-air refuelling role, freeing up the jets for their primary mission. The strike fighter replacement is next, with the aptly named ‘Next Generation Air Dominance’ project. The manned 6th generation fighter, known as F/A-XX, will eventually replace the Super Hornet in the 2030s, operating alongside unmanned aircraft. Attention will then focus on the simultaneous development of new classes of DDG(X) guided missile destroyers and SSN(X) nuclear-powered attack submarines. On current…

TANKERS Greek owner Tsakos has completed a deal with a Middle Eastern owner to take over its fleet of medium-range (MR) product tankers. The buyer is reported to be paying $126 million for the six tankers, which are 18 years old. The Athens-based owner acquired the sisterships in 2006, a year after their completion at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, Ulsan, from Western Petroleum as part of a nine-ship deal. Built to FS ice class 1A, the 53,000dwt tankers have been operating in the global market. Tsakos has also been busy in the shipbuilding market, having just negotiated with Korean builder Hyundai to switch orders for two 2,782TEU capacity feeder container ships, converting the order into two 158,000dwt Suezmax tankers. The Tsakos Group’s current fleet comprises 98 vessels, consisting of cargo vessels…

FEEDER SHIPS The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which has been purchasing a large number of second-hand vessels over the past several years, managed to purchase the 2,478TEU capacity Buxcontact earlier this year for only $9.75 million, while a sistership had gone for over $23 million just 12 months previously. The acquisition illustrates the dramatic fall in used container ship prices that has occurred over the past few months as trading conditions return to pre-pandemic levels and as a glut of new container vessels is about to be delivered by world shipyards, the result of substantial orders placed when shipping companies were recording record profits. Founded by Gianluigi Aponte in Naples in 1970, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland since 1978, MSC currently operates over 730 vessels with a combined carrying capacity…

JACOBITE QUEEN Fears were expressed in the autumn for the future of the oldest Loch Ness passenger vessel, Jacobite Queen, after she was withdrawn from service at the end of last season and put up for sale for £250,000. However, despite some interest being shown in the vessel, owner Jacobite Cruises have reviewed the situation and decided to keep its flagship and use her for events and private hires on the loch in 2023. Jacobite Queen was built in 1949 by Hawthorn, Leslie at Hebburnon-Tyne and was powered by a 150 bhp Gardner 6L3B diesel for service as a passenger ferry across the Tyne for the River Tyne and Mid Ferry Company. In 1953 she was renamed Tyne Queen. From 1963 to 1987 she was operating on the same route,…

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Between 1986 and 1993 the ferry Belard was operated on the Ardrossan-Belfast route. Built in Denmark in 1979 as Mercandian Carrier II, she was bought by P&O in 1985, and underwent a £1 million refit on the Clyde, during which she was fitted with Vectwin rudders and a directional Elliot White Gill jet to augment the thrust from her propellor. Supposedly this allowed her to make 15 knots ahead, eight astern and five sideways. Her vehicle lift to the weather deck was replaced by an internal ramp. She replaced the 1970-built Pointer, which had served the Ardrossan route to Northern Ireland since 1977. Belard served the route (her name derived from the ports she served) until November 1993. After a dispute with the Harbour Commissioners, the Northern Ireland terminal was…

A liner that led many lives, Norddeutscher Lloyd’s (NDL) Bremen is seen near the end of one of those lives just prior to her sale to Chandris Cruises in 1971 to become the Greek company’s largest ship. Ordered by Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique for South American service, and delivered by Chantiers de l’Atlantique as Pasteur only a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, the vessel served as a troop transport and hospital ship throughout the war years. Following several repatriation voyages, she was returned to France but quickly became a troop transport once again for the carriage of French soldiers to Vietnam, Algeria and Egypt. In 1957, with her intended South American route taken over by the 1952-built twins Charles Tellier and Laennec, the ship was sold…

One of the Chandris fleet was involved in a significant grounding incident in west Wales on Sunday 5 August 1973. Andrew Asher was duty captain at Milford Haven when, after dragging her anchor during a storm, Dona Marika ran aground near St Ishmaels in Lindsway Bay, Milford Haven. Due to gale force winds the previous day, the berthing of the 193,000dwt tanker Esso Anglia had been delayed until the Sunday when, for operational reasons, notwithstanding that her main engine had been immobilised, Dona Marika was temporarily moved out to the anchorage. That night she dragged her anchor and, although a second anchor was dropped, she ran aground, grinding on the rocks as she moved with the swell. On time charter to Esso Petroleum, she was part-loaded with petrol and other…

The annual Fleet Week in San Francisco in early October 2022 is the highlight of the maritime calendar in Northern California, and consists of the largest parade of ships on the West Coast. The Fleet enters the Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge and the ships steam towards port. A variety of vantage points, such as Crissy Field and Marina Green on the north shore, offer fine views of the parade, as is evident from the photographs supplied by Benson Lee.…

I read with interest the report that Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines are to sell their cruise ship Braemar (SM, Jan, p.6). However, the report is not correct in stating the she was lengthened before entering service with Fred. Olsen. The report states correctly that she was bought in 2001; however, she was not lengthened until 2008. I attach a photo of her leaving Saint Maarten in February 2008, showing her shortly before she was lengthened. In addition to being lengthened, she was given an Observatory lounge above her bridge, enclosing what had previously been open deck space. Malcolm McRonald Heswall, Wirral…

RMS WINDSOR CASTLE REMEMBERED Peter Knego recalls visiting Margarita L, the former Union-Castle liner RMS Windsor Castle, 25 years ago, when the ship was languishing in the Bay of Eleusis in late 1998. PLUS REGINA BALTICA • Matt Davies profiles Regina Baltica, Baleària’s Baltic beauty, a veteran ferry which has been operating for more than four decades in different guises, with various operators. CAL MAC’S 50th ANNIVERSARY • Marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Caledonian MacBrayne, operators of lifeline ferry services on the West Coast of Scotland. THE ELIZABETHAN NAVY • An assessment of the significant changes to the Royal Navy during the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. MONTREAL MEMORIES • Jim Shaw looks at some of the cargo liners which called at the Canadian port of…