Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Ships Monthly

FRENCH TANKER Rotors continue to be seen as viable fuel and emission reducing devices and French tanker operator Socatra has been the latest to take advantage of their use. The Bordeaux-based company, founded in 1977, has entered into a contract with Norway’s Norsepower to have two 35m-tall rotors retrofitted to its 2022-built medium-range (MR) tanker Alcyone, which is currently on charter to TotalEnergies. The Norsepower rotors are modern versions of the 1920s-developed Flettner Rotor and are spun against a sidewind using a small electric motor. This creates high and low pressure areas around the cylinder that aid a ship’s forward propulsion. The rotational direction of the cylinder can be changed to match wind direction, although there is little benefit gained from head or tail winds during which the rotors are…

NEW FERRY The newly-built hospital ship Global Mercy, built by China’s Tianjin Xingang shipyard for Lausanne, Switzerland-based Mercy Ships, arrived in Dakar, Senegal on 14 February to begin surgical operations at the West African port. The 174m by 28.6m vessel will be berthed at Dakar over the next half-year during which more than 800 operations are scheduled to be performed. Completed as the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, and the first ship in the world to be built as a civilian hospital ship from the start, the 37,000gt Global Mercy has six operating theatres and 200 beds along with laboratories, general outpatient clinics and eye and dental clinics plus extensive medical training facilities. Up to 640 volunteers from more than 60 nations will staff the vessel at any one time…

STENA LINE In February Stena Line confirmed its plans to secure the future of its Fishguard-Rosslare service by redeploying the ferry Stena Nordica from its fleet. Stena Europe suffered an engine room fire in mid-February and was wothdrawn from the route while she went to Birkenhead for repairs. She has been on the route for more than 20 years. Stena Nordica, which has been operating in the Baltic Sea, is a familiar ship on the Irish Sea having provided temporary relief cover on several Irish Sea routes over the last few years. She is scheduled to replace Stena Europe at Fishguard in July. Stena Line will commence a formal consultation with the unions representing the crew of Stena Europe, who will all be offered roles on Stena Nordica or other…

PORT NEWS Dublin Port saw two ferry companies switch terminals in late January. Seatruck Ferries moved their terminal to the Alexandra Basin and the P&O river berth, close to the Toll Bridge and city centre. This facilitated the ability to transship goods arriving on CLdN’s ships from Santander in Spain for the UK Market. In late 2022 CLdN took ownership of Seatruck, the ships adopting the CLdN funnel colours. Following the move, the company introduced a four-ship rolling schedule to their Liverpool to Dublin route using Seatruck Progress, Precision, Power amd Pennant. Seatruck Pace served Dublin-Holyhead while the Point and Performance linked Heysham with Warrenpoint. P&O returned their chartered ship Clipper Pennant to Seatruck. Pre pandemic, P&O had a four-ship operation from Dublin to Liverpool, but now the service is…

FERRY PORT On 17 February Stena Line signed a new deal with Peel Ports, UK Port operator, to run out of the Twelve Quays ferry terminal in Birkenhead until the beginning of the 22nd century. The Swedish company has operated twice-daily ferry services to Belfast since 2011, and the new deal will see them continue to operate there for at least another 77 years, until 2100, demonstrating the success of the partnership between the two companies. Significant investments have been made to meet current and future needs of customers. In 2021 and 2022 Stena launched two new E-Flexer ferries, Stena Edda and Stena Embla, on the service to Belfast. The terminal opened in 2002, with Norse Merchant Ferries beginning ro-ro operations.…

ISLE OF MAN SP Final sea trials for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company’s new ropax ferry Manxman were delayed after the 14,000gt vessel had to return to the yard of South Korean builders Hyundai Mipo with a gearbox problem. It is still hoped the 30-day delivery voyage via the Suez Canal will take place in time for the 949-passenger vessel to begin sailings from Douglas to Heysham in early summer, taking over the main service from Ben-my-Chree, the Steam Packet’s last newbuilding, which was delivered from Van der Giessen de-Noord in 1998. Steel-cutting for Manxman, which will carry over 300 more passengers than Ben-my-Chree and is 8m longer at 132m, started in August 2021, with keel-laying in December 2021 and then hull construction utilising 36 different blocks. Power…

TALLINK After lying at Velsen-Noord in the Netherlands since September 2022 housing migrants and refugees, Tallink’s largest vessel, Silja Europa (1993/59,912gt), is returning to service in the Baltic, operating between Estonia and Finland, but not before having her propulsion control system upgraded by Qtagg. The work is intended to reduce fuel consumption by six per cent and CO2 emissions by 2,096 tonnes a year. The new governor is to be installed in the engine room, replacing the existing Woodward control units for the four MAN diesel engines, which deliver 31,800kW for a speed of 21.5 knots. Silja Europa was ordered by Rederi AB Slite for Viking Line service as Europa, but the company went into liquidation. Tallink/Silja Line stepped in and reached an agreement with German builders Jos L. Meyer…

TECHNOLOGY The first day of March saw Brittany Ferries’ third vessel from the Stena Ro-Ro -designed and -owned E-Flexer series, Santoña, begin sailings from England to Spain opposite 2021-delivered elder sister Salamanca. After the long delivery voyage from China and completion at the Jinling Weihai Yard, the new 42,000gt vessel went to Astilleros de Santander in Spain for final touches before a Brittany Ferries debut on sailings from Portsmouth to Bilbao and Santander. Brittany Ferries also have smaller E-Flexers 11 and 12 on order for delivery during winter 2024-25. They will replace fleet veterans Bretagne (1989/24,534gt) on the Portsmouth-St Malo route and Normandie (1992/27,541gt), sailing between Portsmouth and Caen/Ouistreham in France. The first vessel will be named Saint-Malo. Santoña is fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), which helps to reduce…

COSTA CRUISES Carnival Corporation’s disposal programme continues, with the sale of Costa Magica to Seajets Group. This is the first of two further ships to leave the Costa fleet, which lost Costa Victoria and Costa neoRomantica during the pandemic, and more recently has seen Costa Venezia move across to Carnival Cruise Line (with Costa Firenze to follow) to become Carnival Venezia. Additionally, the transfer of Costa Atlantica and Costa Mediterranea to the China State Shipbuilding Corporation/Carnival Corporation joint venture now styled as Adora Cruises was agreed prior to the shutdown. However, both of these ships remain laid up at Cyprus. Costa Magica, now renamed Mykonos Magic, is the first ship larger than 100,000gt to be sold by one of the big players to interests outside its own group. Costa Magica…

ROYAL NAVY The Defence Select Committee has been told that both propeller shafts on HMS Prince of Wales were defective. The revelation comes after an inspection of the port shaft found similar issues to those that led to the failure of components on the starboard shaft last year. These caused significant damage to the shaft, the propeller and some superficial damage to the rudder, forcing the aircraft carrier to abandon a high-profile deployment to the USA and limp to Rosyth for repairs. The cause of the shaft failure is likely to stem from alignment mistakes made during construction, as the fault has not been reported to have affected HMS Queen Elizabeth. Thus, both shafts are undergoing repair at the same dry-dock where the QE class carriers were assembled. The rectification…

US NAVY The US Navy’s Military Sealift Command has taken delivery of USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13). The Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel is the first Spearhead class ship with capabilities for V-22 Osprey flight operations, able to launch and recover 11m Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) and equipped for enhanced medical support. It is also the largest vessel in the US Fleet with the capability to be operated autonomously. Following builder’s sea trials, the 103m aluminium catamaran was tested as an autonomous prototype, for which a perception and situation awareness suite, an autonomy controller, an autonomous machinery control system, and automation enhancements to the machinery plant improving hull, mechanical and electrical reliability were installed. The enhancements will enable EPF 13 to operate autonomously for up to 30 days, while retaining the…

CONTAINER SHIPS Ship demolitions are increasing and ship prices are beginning to fall as a wave of pandemic-induced consumer spending passes. Last year, demolition sales fell to their lowest levels since 2005, with only six container ships of a combined 10,904 TEU sold for dismantlement. Among these was the last of the American-built ‘Trailerships’, the 50-year-old Matsonia, which was broken up in Texas, and the twin 1990-built feeders Mathu Bhum and Xetha Bhum, both sold for recycling in Bangladesh. A weakening charter market and looming overcapacity brought about by a mid-pandemic ordering spree is expected to see over 350,000TEUs of capacity broken up this year. At the same time, prices for second-hand container ships for further trading have been falling off rapidly, with nearly six per cent of the global…

TANKERS James Fisher Everard, which operates a fleet of product tankers from 3,000 to 35,000 metric tons in capacity, has extended a charter agreement for the product tankers Speciality and Clyde Fisher. The pair are owned by Singaporean-headquartered First Ship Lease, with the vessels bareboat chartered to the Barrow-based owner. The contract for the 12,985dwt Clyde Fisher, which was one of a pair of sisters delivered in 2005, has been extended for two years. The charter for the smaller Speciality, delivered in 2006 and which joined the Fisher fleet after the company’s acquisition of F.T. Everard the same year, has been extended by three years. In total, First Ship Lease (FSL), the company which Fishers are leasing/bareboat chartering the ships from, own eight tankers, which are bareboat-chartered to the British…

DUAL-FUEL TANKERS Swedish tanker operator Terntank, which currently operates ten chemical/product tankers in the European shortsea market, expects to take delivery of two 15,000dwt hybrid dual-fuel tankers in early 2025 which will be both methanol and wind assistance-ready. Designed by Kongsberg, the twin ships will be delivered with a power plant that uses marine gas oil (MGO) or Biofuel while being configured for the future use of methanol, as well as the mounting of four automated sails. The vessels will be built by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard, Yangzhou, which has an option to build two additional tankers.…

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the founding of the well-known Ellerman Lines, which went on as the Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Company to form the short-lived Canadian City Line service in cooperation with its North American agent, McLean-Kennedy of Montreal, during the early 1970s. Both firms had maintained trade links with India, Pakistan and Ceylon prior to World War II, and the new line was to renew this link using conventional breakbulk tonnage sailing via South Africa, the Suez Canal having been closed by hostilities in 1967. The Canadian ports were to be Montreal and Toronto, with Saint John, New Brunswick used during the winter months when the St Lawrence river was ice-bound. The principal eastbound cargoes were to be Canadian newsprint, wood pulp, machinery, asbestos, lead, zinc,…

Caledonian MacBrayne is the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries, and ferry services, between the mainland of Scotland and 22 of the major islands on Scotland’s west coast, and January 2023 marks half a century since the Caledonian Steam Packet Co acquired most of the ships and routes of MacBrayne’s and commenced joint Clyde and West Highland operations under the Caledonian MacBrayne name, with a headquarters at Gourock. Founded in 1889, the Caledonian Steam Packet Co (CSP) was a railway-owned subsidiary operating steamer, ferry and excursion sailings on the Firth of Clyde, with its main terminals at Gourock, Wemyss Bay and Ardrossan. By 1969 the CSP had become a somewhat neglected subsidiary of British Rail, operating a mixed bag of elderly passenger-carrying steamships, such as the turbine steamers Duchess…

SHIPS MAIL Pride of Bilbao What a delight to see that the P&O ship on which I served as Second Engineer during the millennium celebrations, Pride of Bilbao, has had a full refit and, after 36 years of service, continues in full service (SM, Feb). It was somewhat amusing that, during my six-year stint on her, I served with a fellow Engineer who casually stated that the vessel was equipped with the French-built SEMT Pielstick engines, and he stated that SEMT stood for ‘Simple Engineering Made Tricky’. David Parnell St Briavels, Gloucs RMS Queen Elizabeth Due to falling passenger numbers in the latter stages of her career as a North Atlantic liner, RMS Queen Elizabeth was periodically diverted to cruising. I have been handed paperwork from one such cruise, to…

FLEET NEWS Continuing its spending spree, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) has acquired the 26-year-old Sovereign Maersk, renaming her MSC Domna X following handover in Singapore at the end of January. Although at the time of delivery into service in 1997 her container intake was not disclosed, Sovereign Maersk was the largest container ship in the world, being the first to have a capacity in excess of 8,000TEU. She was the first in a series of 25 similar vessels built for Maersk at the company’s Odense shipyard facility over a period of eight years from 1996. Her capacity was increased to 9,600TEU in 2012, by raising her accommodation to allow more containers to be stowed on deck.…

WINDFARM Norway’s GC Rieber Shipping has ordered two ‘WindKeeper’ hybrid diesel-electric Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) from Turkey’s Cemre Shipyard, the first for delivery in 2025, which will make use of a Small Water Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design. The 57m vessels will be completed to DNV class and will have Walk-to-Work and DPS(2) notations. A stand-alone company, WindKeeper AS has been set up by GC Rieber to own the first two ships, with two more held on option, all to be capable of being converted to fully-electric operation in the future. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL • t > 01959 541444 • e > sm.ed@kelsey.co.uk…

MOLSLINJEN Competition authorities in Denmark and Sweden have approved a take-over by Molslinjen of the five-vessel Great Belt operation of ForSea on the short crossing between Helsingborg and Helsingør. It becomes the tenth route for Aarhus-headquartered Mols, now into a 60th year, whose current fleet comprises 15 vessels, with the largest, the 18,009gt Hammershus, dating from 2018, and Povl Anker (1978/12,358gt), which both handle Bornholm services. ForSea have been running with Tycho Brahe (1991/10,845gt), Aurora AF Helsingborg (1992/10,918gt) and Hamlet (1997/10,067gt), taking cars, commercial vehicles and passengers, with freight support from UK-built sisterships Mercandia IV (1989/4,511gt) and Mercandia VIII (1987/4,296gt).…

ORKNEY FERRIES The Orkney Island Council-owned ferry operation experienced problems in the opening weeks of 2023, with Shapinsay (1989/199gt), on the route from Kirkwall, needing a January trip to dry-dock after a propeller shaft seal failed. During her absence, a passengers-only service was supplemented by lift-on/lift off vehicle connections by 1990-built 771gt sisters Earl Sigurd and Earl Thorfinn. Bad weather seriously disrupted services on 6 January, with sailings to destinations including Stronsay, Eday and Sanday cancelled, along with Rousay to Tingwall and a run from Kirkwall to Papa Westray. When Shapinsay, lengthened in 2011 by 6m to boost car spaces from 12 to 16 vehicles, returned to service, there was more trouble after she snagged a creel line and lost two trips on 12 January, with a Northerly Marine vessel…

CELESTYAL CRUISES Early in the Covid pandemic many ships were sold at knock-down prices, often for scrap, but some for further trading. Celestyal Cruises purchased Costa neoRomantica from Costa Cruises with the aim of putting her into service as Celestyal Experience. Unfortunately, that did not happen and the ship was soon resold for breaking. Around the same time, a number of ships were acquired speculatively by interests connected with the Greek ferry operator Seajets, including three former Holland America Line ships, although one of those came via P&O Cruises Australia, and this ship will now join the Celestyal fleet as Celestyal Journey. It is not clear if this acquisition is intended to replace either of the company’s existing vessels, Celestyal Crystal and Celestyal Olympia. Celestyal Journey was built for Holland…

RUSSIAN NAVY The Russian Navy has decommissioned the last of six Project 941 Akula class nuclear-powered strategic ballistic-missile submarines, better known in the West by the NATO reporting name, Typhoon. Although the first to be built, Dmitry Donskoy (TK-208) was also the longest-serving. This was due to her being modernised in 2002 and later converted again as a test platform for the Bulava-M ballistic missile system that equips the latest generation of Russian SSBNs. With a dived displacement of 48,000 tonnes and with a set of 20 missile launchers, flanked by two main pressure hulls, encased by an outer hull, the Soviet-era leviathans were the largest submarines ever built. Their size and destructive potential encapsulated the Cold War and formed the basis of the novel, The Hunt for Red October.…

SAUDI NAVY The Royal Saudi Naval Forces’ upcoming US-built Multi-Mission Surface Combatants are to be equipped with the MBDA CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) system for close-in and local-area air defence. The European SAM was selected ahead of the American Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM), which was slated to equip the ships at the time they were ordered. Also known as Sea Ceptor, the state-of-the art missiles have a range of 25km and a speed of Mach 3. They are already in service on the RN’s Type 23 frigates and will soon be fitted to the Type 26, Type 31 and Type 45s. The CAMM has also been selected by the navies of Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Poland. The MMSC is a more powerful variant of the US Navy’s Freedom…

COMPANY NEWS Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the International Maritime Organization’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 2008 levels, is retrofitting 100 of its ships with new propellers and bulbous bows. The drydocking programme, which will see slimmer propellers with fewer blades installed, along with bulbous bows maximised for slow steaming, will enable the vessels to lower their fuel consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new propellers will be supplied by Mecklenburger Metallguss in Waren an der Müritz, Germany and will be transported to shipyards in Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Oman, Singapore and China for installation as the ships are taken in for their regular drydockings. At the same time, main engines will be adjusted to conform…

CONTAINER SHIPS Oslo-headquartered MPC Container Ships expects to take delivery of two dual-fuel 1,300TEU container ships from China’s Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering in the second half of 2024 that will be capable of operating on methanol as well as Marine Gas Oil (MGO). The twin vessels, to be employed on 15-year time charters to North Sea Container Line (NCL), will also be equipped with shore power connections, battery packs, shaft generators and twisted-edge flap rudders to enhance overall operating efficiency. The construction of the two ships, which will cost $39 million each, is being partially supported by the Norwegian NOX fund ($5.95 million) and Norway’s Enova programme ($1.35 million).…

MULTIPURPOSE Singapore-based AAL Shipping expects to take delivery of a series of six Super B class 32,000dwt multipurpose vessels from Chinese shipbuilder Guangzhou Wenchong for delivery between 2024 and 2026. The dual-fuel ships will be capable of running on methanol and will be fitted with three 350-tonne capacity cranes with a maximum combined lift of 700 metric tons between two adjacent cranes. A service speed of 14.5 knots will be provided by methanol-ready MAN main engines of 7,380kW output supported by two 1,700kW and one 1,065kW auxiliary diesel generators. The ships will be delivered under the names AAL Antwerp, AAL Hamburg, AAL Houston, AAL Dubai, AAL Dammam and AAL Limassol, the last name in tribute to the port where AAL was established in 1995. Since 2009 AAL has been headquartered…

In the early morning of 14 December 1998 we were riding in a taxi to the port of Petrola, an industrial enclave filled with oil refineries at the northern end of the Bay of Eleusis. Once there, we boarded a private launch that took us out to Margarita L, the former Union-Castle liner RMS Windsor Castle, and my dream of gaining access to this historic vessel was finally coming true. The ship, laid up in the anchorage since 1991, had just been placed on the sales list after the health of her nearly 90-year-old owner, Greek billionaire John S. Latsis, had begun to decline. Through the offices of a shipbroker, I was granted permission to document the ship in the hope of helping to get her sold for preservation in…

The Port of Montreal, located on the upper reaches of the St Lawrence River 990 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, is Canada’s largest eastern port and currently handles over 2,000 cargo ships and 34 million tonnes of cargo annually. The first permanent wharves at the port were built by the Harbour Commission in 1830 and stretched over 1,430m (4,691ft) in length by 1832, while the main shipping channel was deepened to 7.5m (24.5ft) in 1883 and 10.7m (35ft) in 1910. After World War II more than 25 steamship lines were serving Montreal during the ice-free months, and in 1962 government-owned icebreakers began keeping the channel open between the port and downriver Quebec City intermittently, while year-round navigation was inaugurated in 1964. Three years later the first containers were being…

Over the course of the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Navy changed out of all recognition. Its status as a superpower navy with worldwide bases and operations was eclipsed, but it remained a powerful force because of its potency, if not its size. The first four decades were dominated by the Cold War, while the wars and conflicts during the whole era included the Korean War, the Suez invasion, the Indonesian confrontation, the Cod Wars, the Falklands War, two Gulf Wars, the Balkan wars and the Libya crisis. In 1952 the UK was still a global and maritime superpower with a large empire. It had the world’s second largest navy, the largest shipbuilding industry and the largest merchant fleet. The vast networks of seaborne trade routes linking…

letter of the month The article about Ellerman’s Big Four (SM, Feb, p.28), as they were known, was very interesting as I had three days of interviews on City of Port Elizabeth before joining Ellerman Lines as an Engineer Cadet in 1960. I sailed as Second Engineer on City of Durban and City of Exeter in the late 1960s. A couple of incidents on Exeter stick in my mind. We were on passage down the Thames to Rotterdam, Las Palmas and South Africa when we had a problem with the starboard engine and had to stop for about eight hours to fix it. When we got under way again, I went on deck about 0600 and encountered a couple of elderly passengers who looked at the lights on the shore…

FEBRUARY’S MYSTERY The mystery ship is Arabian Prince, built in 1918-19 by William Pickersgill of Sunderland. The 5,760gt ship measured 405ft by 52.3ft and was powered by a Richardson-built triple expansion engine of 546nhp, which gave her a speed of 11 knots. In 1927 she was sold to Z Steamship Co and renamed Zenada. In 1933 she was sold to Livanos Bros and renamed Nestos. In 1935 she changed owners again, this time to Theofano Maritime Co. The ship was wrecked in 1941 at East Hoyle Bank, six miles south of Mersey Lightvessel while en route from New Orleans to Garston Dock with a cargo of sulphur. John Jordan, Cloyne I think the mystery ship is the Prince Line vessel Arabian Prince (5,764grt), built by Wm Pickersgill & Sons in…

VEHICLE CARRIERS China Merchants Jinling Shipyard at Nanjing has delivered the 7,000CEU capacity car carrier Jasmine Leader to Japan’s NYK Line as the first of four similar-sized LNG-fuelled pure car truck carriers (PCTC) it is building for the company. The ship is propelled by a WinGD 7X62DF2.1 low-pressure dual-fuel engine that uses an Intelligent Control by Exhaust Recycling (iCER) system to cut methane emissions from the exhaust by 50 per cent. In addition, the vessel is equipped with battery hybrid technology to improve fuel efficiency. Construction of the four new ships is in line with NYK Line’s plan to replace current vessels with around 40 LNG-fuelled PCTCs.…

NEW BOXBOATS Following the led of several other shipping companies, South Korea’s HMM has chosen methanol to fuel its next series of newbuilds, which will consist of nine container carriers to be completed by compatriot builders Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and HJ Shipbuilding and Construction. To be delivered in 2025 and 2026, the 9,000TEU vessels are expected to cost $1.2 billion en bloc to build and will be employed on routes connecting Asia with the Americas and India. HMM has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with five suppliers of methanol for the new ships, but will also continue to examine other alternative fuels, including LNG, hydrogen and green ammonia.…

ARAN ISLANDS Efforts are being made to restore the former Aran Islands ferry Naomh Eanna, which is lying heeling to port and partially submerged in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock since going down during the night of 18-19 January. The 423gt vessel was the main link from Galway to the islands for more than 20 years after being delivered from Dublin’s Liffey Dockyard in April 1958. At the time, she was one of the last ferries built in Europe with a riveted hull. Finally taken off the Coras Iompair Eirann (CIE) service to the islands of Inishmore, Ishmaan and Inisheer in 1988, she was bought the following year by Ireland’s National Trust and was first berthed in the Grand Canal Dock, moving later to the Graving Dock. Several preservation plans were…

HISTORIC PADDLER After many months on the Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Co’s covered slipway at Old Mill Creek, Dartmouth, the 1924-built paddle steamer Kingswear Castle was successfully relaunched on 6 December 2022 and moved to the shipyard’s fitting-out berth, where work continued to prepare her for the 2023 season. It is planned that she will re-enter passenger service on the River Dart during July, by which time Phases 1 and 2 of the Centenary Rebuild Project will have been completed. From the boiler room to the stern, the ship will have been completely refurbished. From the engine room forward, underwater steelwork including hull replating and renewal of the keelson, stringers and frames has been completed. All bulkheads have been replaced, new wiring fitted and much else besides. The cost…

SHETLAND-FAIR ISLE A grant of £27 million from the UK Government Levelling Up Fund is being provided to finance a first roll-on/roll-off vessel for the service from Grutness, Mainland, Shetland to Fair Isle. The island is located 80 miles north of the Scottish mainland, halfway between Orkney and Shetland. Emma Macdonald, leader of Shetlands Islands Council, was enthusiastic about the award, and commented: ‘This investment will make a huge difference not just to the community of Fair Isle but to the whole of Shetland and we very much welcome it. There is still a lot of work to do but knowing we have the funding in place is a huge start.’ At present Fair Isle is served by the 1986-built passenger vessel Good Shepherd IV, which was built by J.W.…

ROYAL FLEET AUX The UK Ministry of Defence has taken delivery of a second offshore support vessel, acquired from the commercial sector in as many months. Island Crown was handed over at Devonport in January after being purchased from Island Offshore for £40 million. The ten-year old Norwegian-built ship will undergo military-use conversion work before entering service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The new platform will operate as a Mine Hunting Capability Operational Evaluation Vessel, essentially acting as a ‘mother ship’ for Royal Navy mine-hunting operations, with a range of uncrewed systems. These will include the joint Anglo-French Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) system and the Combined Influence Sweep (SWEEP). The ship will be homeported at the Clyde naval base, where the Royal Navy’s First Mine Counter Measures Squadron (MCM1),…

WINDFARMS China’s CMHI Haimen Shipyard has delivered the DP2-rated heavylift vessel Les Alizés to Belgium’s Jan De Nul Group, which will first employ the 236m by 52m ship to transport and install 107 monopile foundations and one offshore substation topside at Ørsted’s Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 windfarms off the coast of Germany. The ship has been designed to transport ever larger offshore wind turbines. The 61,000dwt Les Alizés has been specifically designed for the loading, transporting, lifting and installing of large offshore wind turbine foundations and features a deck loading capacity of 61,000 tons and a deck space of 9,300m² served by a main crane of 5,000 tons capacity. This allows the ship to transport several heavy foundations to the offshore installation site in one trip, which…

FEEDER SHIPS Hamburg-based Tailwind Shipping, the shipping arm of supermarket chain Lidl, has opened a new container service connecting Bangladesh to Europe. Named Tiger Express, the service boasts a fast transit time of 20 days between Chittagong and Barcelona. The service also calls at Moerdijk, inland of Rotterdam. Aimed at the fashion and textile sectors, the service will be run by three 800-900TEU capacity feeder container ships. Tailwind Shipping was founded in July 2022 by the retail giant to carry non-food goods manufactured in China to its stores in Europe. The company currently operates an Asia to Europe service, named Panda Express, served by four container ships, ranging in size from 3,800 to 5,500 TEU.…

WIND ASSISTANCE Deployable kites have been used for auxiliary power on a number of ships over the past decade, but the biggest employed to date is a 500m2 parafoil ‘Seawing’ kite developed by Airseas of France and installed on Louis Dreyfus’ 2004-built ro-ro vessel Ville de Bordeaux, used by Airbus to transport aircraft assemblies. The Seawing system consists of a launching mast, trolleys, winches, storage pod and inflatable parafoil wing, all mounted on a ship’s forecastle. The wing, which is connected to the vessel by an umbilical control cord and cable, is pulled out of the storage pod by the trolley system and inflated, then launched from the top of the mast, all automatically. Once airborne, it is controlled from the ship’s bridge using a computer linked to an EcoRouting…

MULTI-PURPOSE The Netherlands’ Vertom, a company named for its very first vessel, Vera Tomson, has ordered another two 7,000dwt diesel-electric-powered multi-purpose ships from compatriot builder Thecla Bodewes Shipyards, with completion by 2025. The order follows delivery of the first vessel of the LABRAX series, the 118m by 14.3m Vertom Patty, with sisters Vertom Cyta and Vertom Tomma to be handed over later this year and a further three hulls still under construction. All eight ships will feature an optimised hull shape and box-type cargo holds to ensure maximum loading flexibility. In addition, their modular diesel/electric propulsion systems have been designed to take advantage of future fuels and all have the ability to convert to methanol/electric or hydrogen/electric propulsion when such systems become available.…

CONTAINER SHIPS Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has taken delivery of the 24,188TEU OOCL Spain from China’s Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering (NACKS) shipyard as the first in a series of six sisterships. Although the 399.99m by 61.3m container carriers surpass Evergreen’s 24,004 TEU A class vessels in capacity, they rank behind the Mediterranean Shipping Co’s recently delivered MSC Irina and MSC Loreto, which have a capacity of 24,346 TEUs. Besides being OOCL’s first vessel with a capacity over 24,000TEUs, the 228,000dwt OOCL Spain is also the first newbuilding delivered to the company in over five years and its first new ship since becoming part of China’s COSCO Shipping Group. The new vessel will be employed in OOCL’s Asia-Europe LL3 service, an 84-day round trip calling at 14…

Belfast Harbour is the major maritime hub for Northern Ireland, handling 67 per cent of the counry’s seaborne trade. A wide variety of ships use the harbour, with tankers large and small being among the regular callers, as Belfast handles over 80 per cent of Northern Ireland’s imports of petrol, diesel and home heating oil. Roy Thompson’s photographs show some of these vessel which have called at the port in recent years.…

Despite being over 40 years old, Baleària’s ferry Regina Baltica is in excellent condition, sailing year-round with the Spanish operator on its Morocco and Algeria routes. Although good maintenance has contributed to the longevity of the 1980-built ship, the vessel’s high-capacity drive-through car decks, and cruise ferry design, together with her good manoeuvrability, make her well suited for long overnight crossings to North Africa. Baleària has enjoyed a meteoric rise, growing since its inception in 1998 to be the market leader in Spain and in 2023 celebrating its 25th Anniversary. The company has 29 vessels operating on 24 routes linking six countries. It employs 1,680 people and 2.9 million passengers, and 765,000 vehicles are carried annually. Baleària’s modern fleet includes nine LNG-powered vessels and its first all-electric ferry, Cap de…

PLUS CARNIVAL CELEBRATION • A look on board the new Carnival flagship, Carnival Celebration, which has recently entered service in the Caribbean. SMYRIL LINE • The shipping company Smyril Line provides the Faroe Islands with an essential link to Iceland, northern Europe and the Baltic States. FERRIES OUT OF POOLE • Barfleur, Condor Liberation, Corbière and Rozel are just some of the many ferries that have sailed from the port of Poole during 50 years of cross-Channel services. BOEING’S JETFOILS • To see a passenger hydrofoil flying smoothly over choppy seas at 40 knots is no surprise today. But in the 1970s, the Boeing Jetfoil was pure science fiction. However, its success in UK waters was somewhat limited. WORLD NAVIES • ICELAND LINKS • CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIP • JETFOIL HISTORY •…