Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Ships Monthly

CONTAINER SHIP The 2023-built 24,136TEU container vessel ONE Innovation made her maiden call at Southampton on 22 July. She was striking, not only because of her pink livery, but also because she is the first ship which can take 25 rows of 40ft containers over her length of 400m. The ship arrived from European ports, having come previously from Singapore via the Suez Canal on the Alliance’s FE3 service. In Europe, the vessel called at Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp before returning to Asia via Algeciras. Ocean Network Express (ONE) is the latest containership line to begin operations of a Megamax containership exceeding the 24,000TEU threshold. The new ship has a carrying capacity 20 per cent larger than the previous largest ship in the fleet, so ONE joins Mediterranean Shipping Company…

BULKER In July the 47-year-old mini bulk carrier Eos arrived in Aliaga, Turkey for scrapping, ending a lengthy period of idleness, after she had spent time in Algerian, Italian and Greek ports. Entering service in 1976 as Eemsborg for Delfzijl-based operator Wagenborg, the ship was originally built as a 82.4m dry cargo ship, fitted with a pair of cranes. She was altered in 1984, when a 20m section was added, the cranes were removed, and she was fitted with a self-discharging system. She was a regular sight in Northern European waters, operating for Erik Thun as Eos, until late 2012, by which time she had left for the Mediterranean. In mid-2012, following a dispute regarding her cargo, she was abandoned in the Algerian port of Djen-Djen. She was later in…

STEAMSHIP After three years out of service due to having cracked boilers, Loch Katrine’s historic steamship Sir Walter Scott, which was built by Denny’s of Dumbarton in 1899, resumed sailing in June after the completion of a £750,000 restoration project. The restoration work involved replacing the steamship’s decking and her two steam boilers, as well as undertaking other major structural repairs. This would not have been possible without the success of an SOS ‘Save our Steamship’ fundraising public appeal. The appeal received donations from round the UK and the world, and was boosted by grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Stirling Council, Pilgrim Trust and Hugh Fraser Foundation. The steamship was restored by the steamship’s own in-house team over an 18-month period with the support of specialist contractors including…

CAIRNRYAN-LARNE The Irish Sea North Channel ferry route operated by P&O Ferries between Cairnryan in Scotland and the Irish port of Larne celebrated its 50th anniversary on 10 July. It was started by the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company (ASN) before coming under P&O control, and now more than 40 return crossings a week are currently covered by Japan-built sisters European Causeway (2000/20,646gt) and European Highlander (2002/21,218gt). Carrying 410 passengers and with 1,771 lane metres for freight vehicles, they are each powered by four Wärtsilä diesel engines. To mark the anniversary, Larne Port featured an exhibition of historic photographs and news clippings, and during the big day prizes were given on the spot to passengers, while there was a special menu for freight drivers. In a statement P&O said it was…

P&O FERRIES Further long-term commitment to North Sea freight services operated by P&O Ferries has come in the form of time extensions for the three vessels which currently maintain services between Teesport at Middlesbrough and Zeebrugge in Belgium. Charters of 20,296gt sisters Norsky and Norstream, delivered from Aker Finnyards in 1999 to Bore Ltd, have been extended for a further three years, while P&O will continue to use Finnlines’ China-built ro-ro vessel Finnpulp (2002/25,792gt) to make two midweek circuits between Zeebrugge and Teesport. P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite said: ‘Continued co-operation with Bore and Finnlines is a response to the importance of our North Sea routes. We are delighted to be reinforcing our presence and to ensure that customers continue to receive great service and consistent sailings between Zeebrugge and…

EXPLORA JOURNEYS The first ship for the new cruise line Explora Journeys, Explora I, was handed over by Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard on 20 July, a little over two years after the first steel for this first of a sextet of luxury (MSC definition) cruise ships was cut. With a gross tonnage of 63,621, Explora I is regarded these days as a small ship. She carries a maximum of 922 passengers and has a crew numbering about 700. Explora Journeys is a subsidiary of MSC Cruises, and the first cruise sub-brand for the group. On 24 July Explora I called at Barcelona to be showcased to the trade, and also called at Portsmouth, before heading north for her maiden voyage, which departed Copenhagen on 1 August. This cruise will call at…

ROYAL NAVY The forward section of the future HMS Cardiff has emerged from the ship hall at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard. It was followed by the aft end several weeks later, on 16 July. The next stage of construction will see the two hull sections integrated and additional structural work carried out on the hardstand. The build process for the remaining six Type 26 frigates will take place under cover, inside a new £100 million-plus ship build hall being erected on reclaimed land, which will make construction faster and less weather-dependent. First of class, HMS Glasgow, is currently being fitted out at BAE Systems’ nearby Scotstoun facility. Meanwhile, across the country at Rosyth the first nine sailors have joined what will be HMS Venturer. Construction of the lead Type 31…

RUSSIAN NAVY The Russian Navy is set to decommission its Northern Fleet flagship and most powerful surface combatant. The heavy nuclear powered missile cruiser RFS Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) is to be replaced by the returning Admiral Nakhimov late next year. Admiral Nakhimov (ex-Kalinin) is nearing the end of an extensive overhaul and modernisation project that began in 2013, with the Soviet-era ship mothballed since 1999. The Soviet-era warship is effectively being rebuilt around latest generation weapon systems at United Shipbuilding Corporation’s Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk. The updates include ten universal launch systems for eight Kalibr-NK or Oniks cruise missiles, Fort-M and Pantsyr-M air defence systems and Paket-NK and Otvet anti-submarine weapons. It may also carry up to 60 Zircon hypersonic missiles. The battlecruiser has been touted as almost…

CONTAINER SHIPS German shipowner Ernst Russ has acquired the 13,371TEU container ship Rome Express, currently under charter to Hapag-Lloyd, from Peter Doehle, which is by far, the largest ship in the Russ fleet. The 153,514dwt vessel, powered by a MAN-B&W diesel engine of 66,10 KW output, was completed by South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries as MSC Filomena in 2010. She measures 366m by 48m and was modified with a scrubber unit in 2020. By comparison, the 16 other container vessels in the Russ-owned fleet have a total capacity of just 21,275TEUs.…

On the night of 7 April 1990 the Vognmandsruten ferry Scandinavian Star, en route from Oslo to Frederikshavn, caught fire. The fire originated on Deck 3 and spread to Decks 4 and 5. The ship had a crew of 97 and was carrying 395 passengers. A total of 159 were killed in the tragic incident, many of them as a result of smoke inhalation, and most of them Norwegian. The ship was eventually taken to the Swedish port of Lysekil, and then laid up in Southampton during the summer of 1990. The subsequent enquiries into the disaster raised issues concerning the alarm system, ventilation, bulkhead doors, crew training and language difficulties. Some still believe there remain unanswered questions concerning the tragedy. Built as Massalia at Dubigeon, France in 1971, Scandinavian…

The Belknap class cruisers, of which nine were built in total during the 1960s, were envisaged as large missile-armed destroyer leaders (the US Navy’s term for frigate used between 1950 and 1975). However, they were reclassified in the 1975 USN fleet realignment due to their large displacement, of 9,730 tons, as guided missile cruisers. Crucial in keeping the displacement to an acceptable level had been the extensive use of aluminium in the vessels’ superstructure. The lead ship of the class, USS Belknap, was ordered from Bath Iron Works in Maine on 5 February 1962, launched on 20 July 1963 and commissioned on 7 November 1964. She was fitted the latest surface search and air search radars. During the 1980s the weapons were upgraded substantially. The by then obsolete Terrier missiles…

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letter of the month Following Henry Aitken’s letter (SM, June) I hope I can enlighten him. Although Union-Castle released numerous colour cards pre-war, and the survivors remained available until 1951, only four were issued immediately after 1945, all of which were based on paintings by Harold Ing. However, the Cayzer regime introduced cards for their new mailships, the first of which was a night-time view of Pendennis Castle and the second the view of Windsor Castle supplied by Mr Aitken. Both were based on original paintings by Derrick Smoothy. It is correct to say that they are ‘little known’ and I suspect they were available on board the ship for only a very limited period. Thereafter, the sepia tone cards were used until about 1970. The third colour card was…

MSC SEASCAPE PLUS WAR EMERGENCY DESTROYERS • Conrad Waters provides a photographic review of the Royal Navy’s war-built destroyers, such as HMS Penn, HMS Saumarez and HMS Savage. AMERICAN TRADERS • Jim Shaw looks back at the history of one of America’s better known shipping companies, Moore-McCormack Lines, which was established in 1913 and sold in 1983. STENA LINE’S IRISH SEA CHANGEOVER • Farewell to Stena Europe after more than two decades of Irish Sea service, as Stena Nordica takes over on the Fishguard-Rosslare route. PRINCESS IN THE SUN • Profile of the former Irish Sea ferry Galloway Princess, which is sailing today as Morocco Sun across the Strait of Gibraltar. ON SALE 29 SEPTEMBER 2023…

INDUSTRY NEWS Local shipowners SM Line and Pan Ocean are reportedly lining up bids to take over South Korean operator HMM Line. Pan Ocean’s parent, Harim Group, has partnered with private equity company JKL Partners to submit a bid, while SM Line’s parent, SM Group, has stated they are willing to bid up to $3.5 billion (KRW4 trillion). Following the collapse of another well-known South Korean company, Hanjin in 2016, SM Line was formed to acquire a number of the assets. Pan Ocean, which until 2013 was known as STX Pan Ocean, operates a wide range of ships, from LNG to Valemax ore carriers. The successful bidder will take over more than 100 ships in the HMM fleet, which until 2020 was known as Hyundai Merchant Marine. This includes container…

MOTOR VESSEL In June the 74th anniversary of the launch in 1949 of the motor vessel Balmoral was marked. The vessel was completed by J. Thorneycroft & Co and was the last of the P&A Campbell White Funnel fleet, one-time fleet mate of the paddler Waverley. She is currently berthed at Princes Wharf in Bristol. During the same month the replacement of what is believed to be the last of the original 1949 deck planking around the stern was completed by in-house personnel. Refurbishment and maintenance works continue by a dedicated volunteer workforce, with the intention of eventually returning Balmoral to excursion service. The next major work is a dry-docking at the Albion Dock in Bristol in the latter part of this year to carry out remedial work to the…

NEWBUILD Construction has begun at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock, Germany on the new research ship Meteor (IV), which is due to be delivered to Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2026. To measure approximately 10,000gt, the 125m-long vessel will offer accommodation for 35 scientists and 36 crew members and will be equipped with a large number of laboratories and research spaces. The ship’s propulsion system, as well as electrical distribution, power supply and radar technology, will be provided by Wärtsilä. Once in operation, the vessel will be managed by Leer-based Briese Schiffahrt and will replace the 1986-built Meteor (III) and the 1976-built Poseidon, the latter decommissioned in 2020 and now the refugee rescue ship Sea-Watch 4 in the Med.…

STENA LINE The long-serving 24,828gt Stena Line vessel Stena Europe made a final Irish Sea crossing from Fishguard to Rosslare on 13 July after spending more than two decades on the route since she was first introduced in 2002. Built in 1981 for Sessan Line as Kronprinsessan Victoria at the Arendal Yard in Gothenburg for service between Gothenburg and Frederikshavn, she was part of the Sessan fleet which was quickly taken over by Stena Line, who converted an upper car deck to take two levels of additional cabins. She became Stena Europe in 1994 and, before transfer to the Irish Sea, the extra cabin areas were restored to carry vehicles. She usually made two return trips a day, with space for 1,400 passengers and 1,150 lane metres. After leaving the…

CONDOR FERRIES Condor Islander, Condor Ferries’ new acquisition from service as Straitsman with the Bluebridge operation between North and South Islands in New Zealand, arrived at the Poole Bay anchorage on 3 August after completing an extensive series of berthing trials taking in visits to St Peter Port and St Helier in Guernsey and Jersey, St Malo in France as well as on the English south coast at Portsmouth and Poole. She was fresh from an overhaul and repainting at the Astander Shipyard in Spain. Completed by Merwede Yard in 2005, the 13,906gt Condor Islander was expected to spend four weeks at Poole’s Bulwark Quay for an internal refit and final preparations for a service debut from Poole to the Channel Islands in October. With power from twin MAK diesel…

MARELLA CRUISES Marella Cruises was the latest operator to suffer a fire aboard one of its ships. While Marella Discovery was sailing between Amber Cove and Grand Turk, a fire started in one of her main engines in the early hours of 7 July. The fire was quickly extinguished and the ship returned to Amber Cove for damage assessment work to be undertaken. The delay in getting the fire control system recertified forced the cancellation of the cruise and passengers were flown home. The delay also meant that the ship was unable to reach Port Canaveral in time to start the following cruise, so that was cancelled. The ship was back in service, with her scheduled departure on 16 July. The Marella fleet has recently been expanded with the introduction…

CRYSTAL CRUISES Rising from the ashes of Genting Hong Kong, the ‘new’ Crystal Cruises, now owned by A&K Travel Group, returned to life on 31 July with the return to service of Crystal Serenity, sailing from Marseille. Her older and smaller fleet mate, Crystal Symphony, will be sailing from Piraeus on 1 September. Both ships have had a major refit at Fincantieri’s Trieste facility, during which their passenger capacities were significantly reduced. Crystal Serenity sees capacity reduced from over 1,000 to just 740, and Crystal Symphony’s passenger capacity has fallen from 960 to 606, with a crew ratio of almost one to one. A&K Travel Group is owned by Geoffrey Kent and the former owner of Silversea, Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio. With the resumption of operations for Crystal came the announcement…

ROYAL NAVY The Royal Navy’s largest warship is back at sea after nine months sidelined at a Scottish shipyard. HMS Prince of Wales moved out of No.1 dry dock and into the River Forth after the completion of engineering repairs to her propulsion system. The rectification work, costing £25 million, was not covered under warranty and will be paid for out of the RN budget. During her unscheduled lay-off, the aircraft carrier also received planned capability enhancements to support future tasking. The crew of 750, all of whom remained with the ship throughout, will now focus on returning the ship to operational status. A planned deployment to the USA in the autumn will include aviation work-ups with F-35 Lightning II jets, V-22 Ospreys, Merlin helicopters and flight trials of the…

COMPANY NEWS Evergreen Marine, the Taiwanese container operator, has made a US$5.04 billion investment by ordering 24 container ships. The building of the 16,000TEU capacity methanol dual-fuel container ships will be split between the South Korean yard of Samsung Heavy Industries and Nihon Shipyard in Japan, with the Korean yard building 16 of the vessels. The order follows similar orders for methanol-capable container ships from Maersk and CMA CGM. A number of ship owners have looked to methanol as a solution to reduce harmful emissions as shipping looks to vastly reduce its overall CO2 footprint. Evergreen, established by Chang Yung-fa in 1968 with the 1952-built Central Trust, currently has a number of vessels on order, ranging in capacity from 1,900TEU to 24,000TEU.…

BUNKERING TANKERS Italy’s Fratelli Cosulich (see SM, June) expects to take delivery of the 5,300dwt bunkering tanker Paolina Cosulich from China’s CIMC SOE shipyard early next year after the ship was floated out of her building dock in June. The ship will follow the earlier delivered Alice Cosulich, completed by the same yard last September. Both vessels have a capacity of 8,200m3 of LNG and 500m3 of marine gasoil (MGO) and make use of Wärtsilä-supplied dual-fuel propulsion systems. Alice Cosulich has been long term chartered to the Netherlands based Titan group, while Paolina Cosulich is expected to operate in the Mediterranean.…

Two years after the first steel was cut for her keel, P&O Pioneer entered service on 19 June 2023 to become the most innovative cross-Channel ferry since Spirit of Free Enterprise made her debut over 40 years previously. Designed by Danish naval architects OSK Design, P&O Pioneer is the first of two Fusion class vessels built in China, which are believed to be the largest double-ended vessels in the world and the longest ever ferries to operate on the English Channel. Pioneer represents a move to a cleaner, more efficient and environmentally friendly mode of operation and provides passengers with innovative new onboard facilities. The contract for Pioneer’s construction was signed in September 2019, with the order for two sisterships, worth £250 million, being placed with Guangzhou Shipyard International. An…

The port and Norwegian capital city of Oslo is situated on low-lying land in a sheltered harbour at the head of Oslofjord. It lies at a natural junction of sea and land transportation comprising both road and rail networks, and has a major international airport at Gardermoen. The modern Port of Oslo, together with the freight terminal at Alnabru, is the national cargo and transport hub, and a vital portal to access the Norwegian marketplace. The port handles a diverse range of cargo and container traffic, including consumer goods, motor vehicles, grain, oil, salt and cement for the construction industry, as well as hosting numerous cruise ships every year and being the terminal for several ferry services. Although there is evidence of Iron Age habitation, the settlement was founded at…

By the end of the World War II, American shipyards had built a total of 2,710 vessels that were collectively known as the Liberty ships. A further ship was damaged on the stocks and not completed. The Liberties had been based on a pre-war tramp ship design from J.L. Thompson of North Sands on the River Wear, the only significant changes being that the Americans used welding as the main construction method, utilising pre-fabricated sections to speed up the building process, and the vessels were fuelled by oil rather than coal. American shipbuilding had for some time favoured steam turbines as a method of propulsion, but for the Liberties, they reverted to a simple triple expansion steam engine, again of prewar vintage and designed by North Eastern Marine Engineering Co.…

At 1100 on Friday 2 June 1944, just four days before the D-Day landings, a Royal Navy cruiser was commissioned for trials alongside Vickers-Armstrongs’ shipyard on the River Tyne. The new HMS Swiftsure was to be the final Royal Navy cruiser delivered for wartime service when she was formally accepted from the builders later that month. Originally intended to be one of a large series of ‘Improved Fiji’ class cruisers, she was destined to serve as a class of her own. Swiftsure traced her origins to decisions made on the British cruiser force during the darkest days of World War II. The outbreak of hostilities in September 1939 had brought to an end the regime of naval armaments treaties that had restricted cruiser displacement and armament during much of the…

In 1975 I was employed by Ocean’s Blue Funnel Line, working for Barber Lines in Oslo. As Benledi was employed on the joint BenOcean service, I could ascertain that the ship had loaded a cargo of steel plate in Japan for discharge at the Oslofjord ports of Horten and Tønsberg, for use by the local shipyards. The ship’s agents at Horten advised that Benledi was to berth shortly after dawn on Monday 15 April 1975, so I drove to the quayside the previous night to await her arrival and, after taking some photographs, drove to work in Oslo. The agents subsequently advised that the ship was scheduled to move from Horten to Tønsberg on the afternoon of Saturday 19 April. I then travelled by train from Oslo to Moss and…

Although no more sidewall hovercraft were built in the UK, new designs from Norway and France briefly operated on the South Coast during the 1990s. The Norwegian CIRR 120P was designed by Cirrus A/S and 13 were built between 1988 and 1991. Fitted with a sophisticated ride-control system, the prototype, Virgin Butterfly, made 55 knots during sea trials. With space for up to 330 passengers on two decks, she and her sistership Sant Agata were chartered by Cowes Express in 1990and ran between Southampton and Cowes for two years as Wight Queen and Wight King. A sistership, San Pietro, was leased by Brighton Ferries in 1995 for a short-lived service from Brighton Marina to Fécamp in Normandy. Nearly 30 years later, two of the CIRR 120P hovercraft are still in…

HEAVY LIFT Dutch offshore services specialist Boskalis employed its largest semi-submersible, the 116,175dwt Boka Vanguard, to transport the floating production unit (FPU) Zafiro Producer from ExxonMobil’s Zafiro oil field off Equatorial Guinea to the Modern American Recycling Services yard at Frederikshavn, Denmark for demolition following the FPU’s decommissioning by Boskalis subsidiary SMIT Salvage earlier this year. The 1973-built Zafiro Producer was converted from the 268,191dwt tanker Swift in 1996 and measures 331.5m by 56m, while the 14-knot Boka Vanguard was completed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2012 and was previously used to transport six caissons with a total weight of more than 93,000 tons, its heaviest cargo lifted to date, as well as the 322m by 48m cruise ship Carnival Vista.…

FIRE ON BOARD Grimaldi’s 2011-built ro-ro/container carrier Grande Costa D’Avorio is expected to be scrapped after investigations are completed concerning a fire that heavily damaged the 26,653dwt vessel in early July and took the lives of two American firefighters while injuring six others. The fire broke out on 5 July while the con-ro vessel was loading approximately 1,200 second-hand vehicles at Port Newark, New Jersey for shipment to Africa. The blaze started among several cars positioned on Deck 10, but quickly spread to other decks and vehicles. Officials noted that local firefighters sent to the scene were not trained for shipboard fires on cargo ships and that American two-inch fire hoses did not connect to the one-inch fittings found on the European vessel.…

CLdN INCIDENT The 2009-built CLdN ro-ro vessel Mazarine (31,140gtgt) suffered a failure in her MAN/B&W engines during a scheduled voyage from Ireland to Zeebrugge on 10 July. After drifting without power for several hours around eight miles off the Cornish coast, she grounded close to the 135ft high tower of the Wolf Rock lighthouse. There were 22 crew and three lorry drivers on board, and RNLI lifeboats from Sennen Cove and Penlee were quickly on scene, to be joined by the ferry Scillonian III (171/1,936gt), which was heading from Penzance to St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. Also in attendance was the Trinity House support vessel THV Galatea. Mazarine, built at the Flensburg Yard in Germany with 3,678 lane-metres of truck and trailer space, was finally towed to Falmouth…

MEDITERRANEAN At the start of June the unique high-speed craft Cat 1 entered service again, wearing the livery of Magic Sea Ferries and serving the Sporades islands from the small mainland Greek port of Agios Konstantantinos. She has been laid up for 11 years, mainly in Salamis, after a brief career with NEL Lines. Built by Kawasaki Heavy lndustries in Kobe, Japan in 1994, the ship is unusual, as she is not only classed as an HSC, but looks like an attempt to combine a single-hull with a catamaran and a blunt bow. The design won the Japan Society of Naval Architects & Ocean Engineers Ship of the Year. She began life as Hayabusa for Japan’s JetFerry, and served as such until 2005. Then came a five-year lay-up before she…

OLD FERRY The 58-year-old ferry Star N is under demolition at Aliaga, Turkey after an exceedingly long career, which started in 1965 with the vessel’s completion by Germany’s Orenstein & Koppel for Norwegian shipowner Otto Thoresen as Viking III for service out of Southampton. The 5,762gt ro-pax, which last operated between Tripoli, Libya and Zarzis, Tunisia at the start of this year, had previously sailed under the names Gabriel Scott, Sagafjord, Sandefjord, Fenno Star, Scandinavia, and Terje Vigen. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL • t > 01959 541444 • e > sm.ed@kelsey.co.uk…

COSTA CRUISES Traditionally, Costa Cruises’ Mediterranean itineraries have been seven to ten days, but now under the new Costa Journeys programme some longer voyages will be offered. During her final months with Costa before transferring to Carnival Cruise Line, the 2020-built Costa Firenze will offer 14-night cruises from her base ports of Savona, Marseille and Barcelona to Madeira and the Canary Islands, between October 2023 and January 2024. Costa Pacifica will add Haifa as a turnaround port for her cruises to Egypt and Israel in October and November 2023, while Costa Fascinosa will feature a single cruise in April 2024 to Madeira and the Azores. Also in April 2024, Costa Fortuna will undertake a ‘round the Mediterranean’ cruise, calling at destinations as far apart as Tunis in the south and…

CARNIVAL CORP The ninth and final ship in the current Carnival Corp Excel class building programme, Carnival Jubilee, was floated out at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg of 21 July. When ordered, she was destined for the Aida fleet, but one of the changes during the pandemic was to transfer this order to the Carnival fleet. Of the nine ships, that yard has completed five and the Meyer Turku yard has built four, including the other two in the series that have gone to Carnival. Aida Cruises, Costa Cruises and P&O Cruises each took two Excel class ships. This final vessel had her iconic winged funnel installed four days later, after completing thruster trials in the adjacent dock. Following her River Ems transit and sea trials later in the year,…

US NAVY USS Canberra (LCS 30) was commissioned at the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Base East in Sydney on 22 July. It is the first time a US warship has been commissioned outside the United States. Canberra is also the first foreign capital to have a US warship named after it. The first USS Canberra (CA 70) was named in remembrance of the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra, which sank after the Battle of Savo Island in 1942, while fighting alongside US naval forces. The rare overseas event is part of the wider formalising of security co-operation as part of the AUKUS accord, which will later see US and British nuclear-powered submarines forward-deploying to western Australia. Meanwhile, the Independence class Littoral Combat Ship’s crew will always include at least one Australian…

INDIAN NAVY India’s Defence Acquisition Council has approved plans for the procurement of three additional Scorpène class submarines and 26 Rafale M jets. The announcement comes after a visit by the Indian Prime Minister to France in mid-July. The Indian Navy currently has six Scorpènes, known as the Kalvari class, which were built domestically by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders under a technology transfer agreement with Naval Group. The additional submarines are to be constructed under the same Project 75 programme, but with a greater number of Indian developed and-manufactured components, such as the DRDO Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system. Subject to negotiations, they may also be equipped with the latest Naval Cruise Missile (NCM) submarine-launched land attack cruise missile.…

CONTAINER SHIPS Containerships, the European-shortsea brand, has been dropped, with its operations being merged with its French parent, CMA CGM. The change took place with effect from 1 July. CMA CGM acquired the Finnish company in October 2018, merging its European feeder operations into the brand, which included MacAndrews (who had already absorbed OPDR). Containerships Group was founded in 1990, initially operating feeder container ships in Northern Europe and the Baltic. In 2015 the company ordered a number of LNG-fuelled containerships from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard in China, with the first 1,368TEU capacity vessel entering service in late 2018, just after CMA CGM’s takeover. Since then the company has built up its network, which extends from the Northern Baltic, to as far south as the Canary Islands.…

BULKERS Norwegian shipowner Grieg Maritime Group has ordered two ammonia-ready open-hatch bulk carriers from the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Longxue shipyard in China, with options for two additional vessels. Designed to meet the International Maritime Organisation’s EEDI Phase 3 standards, the 225m by 36m ships will be powered by MAN Energy Solutions’ B&W 5S60ME main engines and configured for the placement of tanks capable of holding 3,000m3 of ammonia on the deck straddling the accommodation block. The first of the 82,000dwt vessels is expected to be delivered in the spring of 2026, with the following, all to be classed by DNV and sail under the Norwegian NIS flag, to be handed over through the remainder of that year. WATERFRONT • www.shipsmonthly.com • The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18…

P&O Ferries operates a fleet of ferries across the English Channel between Dover and Calais, consisting of Spirit of France and Spirit of Britain, working, until recently, with Pride of Kent, Pride of Burgundy and Pride of Canterbury. P&O has a space charter arrangement with DFDS on the route, which allows freight customers to board the next available sailing, irrespective of which of the two companies they booked with.…

One of the most famous naval battles of World War II took place in Drøbak Sound, a narrow stretch of water in outer Oslofjord 15 miles south of Oslo, which is the main sea route to the city. The passage is protected by the 19th century fortress at Oscarsborg, which, at the outbreak of World War II, comprised fortifications, three outdated 28mm Krupp guns, and torpedo batteries. In April 1940 they were under the command of 65-year-old Birger Eriksen and Commander Andreas Anderssen, who had officially retired in 1927. The Nazi invasion of Norway in April 1940 involved an attack up the fjord to capture Oslo. It was spearheaded by the recently commissioned cruiser Blucher and a convoy comprising the cruisers Lutzow and Emden, the raider Morwe, as well as…

In 1968 George Campbell had set up the ICAN Company Ltd in Tokyo to develop and improve cargo-handling gear. The company engineered manyfittings for the Campbell F type standard ships and participated in the development of the ubiquitous Universal Cargo Gear, UCG, used on most of the Fortunes. This design, developed by Campbell and subject to an Algonquin patent application, used wire for luffing and slewing. On five of the later vessels in the Fortune series, the UCG was replaced by the Horizontal Slewing Crane, HSC, which was operated by electro-hydraulic cylinders, rather than wire. Developed for the Freedom Mk.II series, the HSC was another patented Algonquin innovation.…

The sidewall hovercraft has narrow catamaran hulls joined by flexible skirts across the bow and stern. Its marine propellers and rudders make it quieter and more manoeuvrable than its amphibious cousin, but it cannot leave the water. Early prototypes were trialled at the start of the 20th century, with the first working hovercraft built by an Austrian Naval Officer, Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl, during World War I. He borrowed five aero engines for his ‘air-cushion-fast-torpedo-boat’, which achieved more than 30 knots during tests on the Adriatic in 1916. However, the navy lost interest when the war ended and the air force took their engines back. In the 1950s Christopher Cockerell experimented with sidewall hovercraft at his Suffolk boatyard before moving on to fully hovering models. He patented both designs, but…

Cunarders’ red funnels As a retired Cunard Deck Officer I was interested in your piece about the new cruise ship Queen Anne and her recently installed handsome new funnel. In fact, the red has not been a completely unbroken tradition. It will be recalled that Queen Elizabeth 2 had a white funnel when she entered service, with red flood lights at the base of the funnel which, when activated, and over a period of several minutes, caused a strengthening red glow to spread up the funnel. I served as Second Officer and First Officer on QE2 over several years at that time, when one of Cunard’s marketing tag lines was ‘ships have been boring long enough’. I also served as First Officer on the Caribbean-based Cunard Adventurer in 1975 and…

JULY’S MYSTERY The mystery steamer is from the T. & J. Harrison stable. She was built by Henderson’s, Glasgow and handed over as Actor in October 1917 to Harrison’s, but immediately requisitioned by the Shipping Controller. Her maiden voyage to India was under the command of Captain W.J. Simmons. On 1 September 1918, while she was on a voyage in ballast from Liverpool to Philadelphia, she was torpedoed by UB-125 in the Irish Sea. She was towed to port for repairs, which took four months. In 1919 she was returned to her company, who converted her to oil fuel burners. In 1939 she was sold to Nailsea Steamship of Cardiff and renamed Nailsea River. In 1940 she was acquired by Manchester liners but retained her name. On 15 September 1940,…