Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Ships Monthly

NEW ROLE Offshore support vessels continue to be modified for purposes other than for which they were built, and among these is the 70m by 16m Kamara, completed by Singapore’s Keppel Singmarine in 2005 as Smit Kamara for Smit Singapore. Now she is being used by Boskalis to hunt for unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the seabed. Most of the UXO consists of decades-old explosives left over from World War II, which pose a threat to offshore wind farm development, particularly to the turbine sites, and the many kilometres of cable routes that need to be trenched into the ocean floor. The 19-year-old Kamara, specially modified for her new duty, uses a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and human divers to examine the areas in question and, if potential UXOs are discovered,…

NEWBUILDS Furetank has signed an agreement with Chinese shipbuilder China Merchants Jinling Shipyard for units 20 and 21 in its Vinga series of chemical/product tankers. The vessels, which will be fully owned by the Donso-based operator, will enter service in late 2026 and early 2026, replacing older units. Furetank’s fleet will then be composed entirely of environmentally friendly vessels, with an average age of two years. Designed in collaboration with FKAB Marine Design, the ice class 1A 17,999dwt Vinga series are dual-fuelled, being capable of operating on LNG, LBG (Liquid biogas) or gasoil. They incorporate a battery, enabling a hybrid propulsion solution, as well as being fitted with other fuel-saving devices. Since the first in the class, Fure Vinga (now Gaia Desgagnes, under the Canadian flag), entered service in 2018,…

WIND ASSISTANCE On 22 February Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) signed a contract with bound4blue for wind-assisted ship technology to be fitted, with three 22m eSAILs® to be fitted on the 2019-built tanker Pacific Sentinel. The ‘suction sail’ technology, which drags air across an aerodynamic surface to generate propulsion, will be fitted later this year to the 183m 50,000dwt tanker to reduce overall consumption by approximately ten per cent, depending on vessel routing. bound4blue’s fully autonomous eSAIL® technology is suitable for both newbuilds and retrofit projects, and offers savings for a range of vessels, regardless of size and age. Pacific Sentinel’s three sails will use an autonomous control system to optimise power and reduce fuel consumption.…

ROYAL DAFFODIL A much-delayed £2.5 million project to transform former Mersey Ferry Royal Daffodil (1962/751gt) into an entertainment centre in Liverpool looks set for completion this year. With the ship’s name shortened to Daffodil, owners Philip Oliver and Joshua Boyd hope to find a permanent home for the former 860-passenger vessel at Canning Dock, close to the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool. Plans include the completion of three outside sun decks, and there will be a café, cocktail wine bar including all-day dining for 63, and an 84-seat restaurant on the main deck. Her engines have been removed, and the former engine room is to be converted into an event space for up to 240 people. The vessel will be able to accommodate up to 560 guests in total. In…

HISTORIC SHIP One of four SeaBridge class combination ro-ro container ships completed by Mississippi’s Ingalls Shipyard in 1969 for Moore-McCormack Lines (see SM, Oct 2023), the former Mormacstar, has gone for scrap in Brownsville, Texas. Besides operating for Moore-McCormack, the ship also sailed for American Export-Isbrandsten Lines as Red Jacket and for United States Lines as American Rapid before becoming part of the US Ready Reserve Fleet as Cape Nome (AKA 1014) in 1988, the name under which the 602ft by 90ft ship was dismantled. Upon her delivery 55 years ago, the 16,830dwt vessel was considered the first American-designed and -built con-ro ship. She featured seven cargo holds fitted with cellular guides, which extended from the tank top to the underside of the ro-ro deck, the latter extending the full…

ROYAL CARIBBEAN With the timely delivery and entry into service of the world’s largest ever passenger ship, Icon of the Seas, her first sister, Star of the Seas, will suffer a short delay in delivery, resulting in the cancellation of two cruises in August 2025. She will now enter service on 31 August from her homeport of Port Canaveral. The third and at present final ship in the series, as yet unnamed, will be delivered in the spring of 2026 Somewhat surprisingly, the company has now ordered another unit in the Oasis class, until delivery of Icon the largest passenger ships ever built. This will bring the total in this class to seven. The first two were built by STX Finland (now Meyer, Turku), with the lead ship, Oasis of…

CARNIVAL CRUISES Carnival Jubilee was named in the port of Galveston, Texas on 24 February by singer Gwen Stefani. This was the first time that a major cruise ship has been named in the port. Carnival Jubilee is the third member of the Excel class to join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet, bringing the line’s fleet up to a total of 26 vessels. Just a few days earlier an order was placed with Meyer Werft at Papenburg for a fourth ship for Carnival, bringing the class to ten ships spread around four brands, something of a record. These 183,521gt ships are the largest in the fleet, although there have been reports that the company might be looking for larger ships in the next round of orders. With the forthcoming transfer…

UKRAINE WAR Ukraine’s special intelligence unit Group 13 is wreaking havoc on the Black Sea Fleet, with naval kamikaze drones sinking two more Russian warships. Overnight on 1 February the Project 12411 (Tarantul III) missile corvette RFS Ivanovets was attacked by multiple USVs while she was patrolling the west coast of Crimea. Despite being equipped with anti-ship and anti-air missile systems, a 76mm gun and 30mm point defence guns, the Sovietera warship had little defence against the attack by a group of low-observable Magura V5 USVs packed with high explosive. On 14 February the previously damaged Ropucha class amphibious landing ship Caesar Kunikov was sunk in a similar way, south of the coastal town of Yalta. Ironically, the Russian officer, after whom the ship was named, was killed on the…

ROYAL NAVY HMS Prince of Wales has replaced her sistership at the head of an international task group for Steadfast Defender 24, the most important NATO exercise in a generation. Despite being in maintenance at 30 days’ notice, the ship was readied to sail within a week. The aircraft carrier will lead an eight-ship and submarine international Carrier Strike Group with the Type 23 HMS Somerset and two Tide class fleet tankers. They will be joined by US, Spanish and Danish escorts. With F-35B Lightning fighters, Merlin Mk.2 and Wildcat helicopters on board, it will be the first time Prince of Wales has operated with a full air group embarked. HMS Queen Elizabeth had been preparing to take part until pre-sailing checks revealed an issue with a starboard propeller shaft…

CONTAINER SHIPS Japan’s Ocean Network Express (ONE) has ordered 12 methanol dual-fuel container ships from China’s Jiangnan and Yangzijiang shipyards, with each facility to build six vessels for delivery starting in 2027. The 13,000TEU vessels will feature optimised hull forms, with the possibility of incorporating air lubrication systems while making use of waste heat recovery equipment and shaft generators to enhance fuel efficiency. ONE has also been awarded an Approval in Principle by classification society DNV for the design of a smaller 3,500TEU ammonia-burning container ship it has developed in association with compatriot shipbuilder Nihon Shipyard. The Japanese company is currently ranked as the world’s sixth-largest container carrier, with a fleet capacity of 1.8 million TEUs.…

JUICE CARRIER Brazil’s Citrosuco, the world’s largest producer of orange juice concentrate, has placed the refrigerated juice carrier Golden Citrus into operation across the Atlantic following the 26,215gt vessel’s conversion from a geared handyside bulk carrier. Completed in 2015 by China’s Yangfan Group, originally for Italy’s d’Amico, the 180m by 30m ship was extensively modified by Portugal’s Lisnave shipyard last year, when the height of the hatch coamings was increased and 16 stainless steel juice tanks, each weighing 150 tonnes and measuring 12m by 12m by 16.5m, were installed in the cargo holds, along with insulated piping. Currently being operated in partnership with Lübeck-based Oldendorff, the converted bulker has retained her cranes for the handling of back-haul deck cargoes, while expanding Citrosuco’s fleet of bulk juice carriers to six vessels.…

LNG CARRIERS Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) has ordered four 174,000m3 capacity LNG carriers from South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries at a cost of $260 million each. They will be powered by twin MAN Energy Solutions 5G70ME-GA Mk.10.5 main engines equipped with Exhaust Gas Recirculation By-Pass (EGRBP) technology. The 289.9m by 46.1m ships will be able to use ‘boil-off’ gas from their membrane-type cargo tanks as fuel to power their dual-fuel two-stroke main engines. Upon sequential delivery starting in 2027, they will be chartered to EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg, a major German energy company.…

For more than 50 years the main ferry connection between Scotland and Northern Ireland was the route between Stranraer, on Loch Ryan, and Larne. The Larne and Stranraer Steamboat Company secured a mail contract as early as 1874, with sailings covered by the paddle steamers Princess Louise (1872-90), Princess Beatrice (1875-1904), Princess Victoria (1890-1910) and Princess May (1896-1910). They followed paddle pioneers Dasher and Arrow on the North Channel’s first recorded passenger trips from October 1861. Stranraer services are now just a memory and, for the past 50 years, two different operators have developed separate terminals at Cairnryan on the loch’s eastern shore, each served by a pair of well-matched vessels. Stena Line sail to Belfast, while P&O Ferries maintain the long-established connection with Larne. The original Stranraer contract passed…

On 4 March 2024 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) formally celebrated 200 years of life-saving with a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey. The RNLI has always relied on voluntary contributions and on volunteers to crew the lifeboats and inshore lifeboats, and the service in March was a reflection of the voluntary ethos that has served the organisation ever since 1824. Over the two centuries the volunteers have carried out thousands of rescues, while the design of lifeboats has changed out of all recognition, as naval architects have worked to produce boats which can cope with the worst of weathers, heading out when others seek shelter, while also keeping their crews safe. Today, the RNLI operates a fleet of both all-weather self-righting state-of-the-art lifeboats and fast inshore lifeboats, which…

SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE The 34,797dwt semi-submersible vessel Seaway Albatross, converted out of the 1993-built tanker Tordis Knutsen in 2015, was recently employed to transport the Van Oord split hopper barges Pieter Caland and Cornelis Lely, along with the backhoe dredger Simson, to Burgas, Bulgaria, where they will be employed to dredge the port area to its required depth of 15.5m. The 264m by 42.5m Seaway Albatross can be submerged to a water depth of 9.5m above the main deck for loading and discharging purposes, while the 5,400m2 deck has a load rating of 30 tonnes per square metre. A speed of 13 knots is provided by a 20,000hp MAN B&W 6S70MC main engine, while accommodation is available for up to 39 people.…

PORT NEWS The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore reported a 9.4 per cent increase in the tonnage of vessels calling at the port over 2022, reaching a record high of 3.09 billion gross tonnes. Cargo-handling at the port was also up against 2022, as the container terminals saw a 4.6 per cent rise, achieving 39 million TEU. Tuas, which will eventually house the entire container operations of the port, saw its first eight berths open, as part of the Phase 1 of the terminal’s development. In the anchorages off the port, bunker sales topped 51.8 million tonnes during the year, a new record, beating the 50.6 million of 2017. Around 1.2 per cent of the bunker fuel delivered in the port was alternative fuels, including green methanol being…

POLAR RESEARCH The former South African polar research and training vessel S.A. Agulhas has been acquired by German firm J*S Maritime, which plans to completely refurbish the 47-year-old ship at a cost of $55 million and charter her out for research missions and polar cruises. Completed in Japan during 1978 as a supply vessel for the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), the 112m by 18m ship was taken over by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in 2012 for training purposes, but was retired six years ago because of mounting maintenance and repair costs. The 6,123gt vessel regularly visited South Africa’s base on Antarctica, and research stations on Gough Island and Marion Island.…

ISLES OF SCILLY After their surprise bid to buy the Isles of Scilly Steamship Co failed, Harland and Wolff are chartering a 400-passenger fast ferry with substantial freight areas to start their own competing passenger service between Penzance and Scillies capital St Mary’s in May. The twice-daily 90-minute crossings each way are to be marketed as Scilly Express. The service will use a catamaran built by Austal in Vietnam, which started life operating as Atlantic Wolf and will run as Scilly Express. She has seating areas over three different decks for two return trips a day. Harland and Wolff chief executive John Wood said: ‘After viewing 16 different vessels, we have secured a fast ferry in time for the summer. She will make her way to the UK, first stopping…

CAL MAC One of the pair of much-delayed 5,000gt ferries for services to Arran being built for Caledonian MacBrayne on the Clyde by Ferguson Marine at Port Glasgow began sea trials on 13 February. She is due to be delivered in June and will be followed by sistership Glen Rosa during May 2025. The ships were expected to have cost £97 million when originally ordered for delivery in 2018 and 2019, but the price is thought to have quadrupled during many years of delays. With yard numbers of 801 and 802, each ferry has a pair of Wärtsilä diesel engines driving twin screws for a speed of 16.5 knots, using LNG or marine diesel fuel. They will be able to take up to 1,000 passengers and 127 cars, or a…

FRENCH NAVY Naval Group has completed the La Fayette frigate (FLF) modernisation programme, with the redelivery of FS Aconit. The €400 million contract to refurbish three of the five ships of the class is intended to extend their useful service lives by at least five years to cover a delay in the production of their FDI replacements since building slots were reallocated to Greek orders. The work to update the ships Courbet, La Fayette and Aconit included the replacement of the original combat management system with the SENIT FLF suite and the obsolete Crotale anti-air defence system with two reconditioned Sadral sextuple launchers armed with the latest generation of Mistral 3 missile. As well as being able to defend against sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, the very short-range ground-to-air missiles are well…

US NAVY The 13th San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship has completed builder’s sea trials ahead of a spring delivery. The future USS Richard M. McCool Jr (LPD 29) is a transitional ship between Flight I and Flight II versions, with conventional tripod masts instead of the prominent enclosed composite masts of the previous 12 Flight I ships, one of more than 200 design changes. She is also the first LPD to be equipped with the Raytheon AN/SPY-6(V)2 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, a smaller rotating version of the new fixed-face radar installed on the latest Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers. The (V)2 radar will also be fitted to America class LHAs, Nimitz class CVNs and Wasp class LHDs. All 13 planned Flight II ships are to be built by…

NEW TANKERS Barrow-based James Fisher Group operator, James Fisher Everard, has increased its order for chemical/product tankers to four. The order for two further 6,000dwt tankers follows an original order placed in October 2023. The batch will be delivered between 2025 and 2026 by China Merchants Jinling Shipyard at Yangzhou. The quartet, which are reportedly costing around £22 million each, will be similar to two sisters, led by Sir John Fisher, delivered in late 2022. Like their earlier sisters, they will be LNG dual-fuel powered, and feature several energy efficiency improvements, including enhanced hydrodynamic performance. James Fisher Everard operates a fleet of 17 tankers, ranging between 3,500 and 35,000 dwt. Their newest ship, Lady Maria Fisher, was named in January.…

CONTAINER SHIPS Turkish container ship operator Arkas is partnering with Hapag-Lloyd and Turkon to enter the US market. It has selected the 27,910gt Sine A, a 2,824-TEU capacity container ship built in Korea in 2008, to operate on the United States Express (USX) service. The addition of the Maltese-registered ship will make the service, which connects the United States with Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, into a weekly operation, served by seven ships. Arkas traded as EMES Shipping from 1996, before it took its current name in 2010. The company has been engaged in Mediterranean and Black Sea services, and currently operates 50 container vessels and is Turkey’s largest container operator.…

BULK CARRIERS China’s Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding has been contracted to build eight 85,000dwt bulk carriers for the Dynacom Group of Greece at a cost of $37 million per vessel for delivery between 2025 and 2027. To be operated under Dynacom’s Sea Traders banner, the 228.9m newbuilds will have a larger load capacity when compared with traditional 82,000dwt bulkers and will also be compliant with the energy efficiency requirements of Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) PHASE III, which is used to promote the adoption of more environmentally friendly ship designs. The order follows an earlier Sea Traders contract signed with China’s Hengli Shipbuilding (Dalian) for ten 82,000dwt Kamsarmax bulk carriers, with delivery of all 18 ships expected to expand the 1974-established Sea Traders’ fleet to almost 60 vessels.…

CONTAINER SHIP China’s Qingdao Yangfan Shipbuilding has been contracted to build the world’s first ammonia-powered container ship, the 1,400TEU Yara Eyde, which is expected to be delivered to Antwerp-based Delphis, part of Belgium’s CMB group, by mid-2026. The vessel will be operated between Norway and Germany by NCL Oslofjord AS, a joint venture between North Sea Container Line and Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA), under a 15-year service agreement with YCA to provide the ammonia and Yara International to provide the cargo, which will consist of containerised fertiliser moving between Yara’s fertiliser plant in Porsgrunn, Norway and Bremerhaven. The project is being financially assisted by a NOK 40 million grant from Norway’s Enova, which is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. Enova considers the project to be important…

Although P&O and associates spotted the potential of Cairnryan for development as a ferry port as far back as the early 1970s, more than 20 years went by before they substantially upgraded terminal facilities and looked for a pair of newvessels to link the Scottish port with Larne in Northern Ireland. The order for the new ships went to Japan’s Mitsubishi yard, with European Causeway (20,646gt) making her debut in 2000 and European Highlander (21,118gt) following two years later. The pair load vehicles via stern ramps at Cairnryan, and can accommodate more than 300 cars on 1,771 lane-metres of vehicle space, while up to 415 passengers can be carried, with 331 cabin berths available. Power comes from a line-up of four Wärtsilä 12V38 diesel engines developing a total of 31,680kW…

WORLD’S BIGGEST CRUISE SHIP MODERN CARGO SHIPS ST HELENA LINK SHETLAND’S FERRIES ICON of the SEAS Profile of Royal Caribbean’s new 248,663gt ship, which entered service in January, becoming the world’s biggest cruise ship. PLUS MODERN CARGO SHIP EVOLUTION Cargo ships have changed considerably in recent decades, with tightening environmental regulations forcing naval architects to make technological advances. HMS AJAX Conrad Waters examines the active wartime career of the famous Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ajax, which was launched in 1934. ST HELENA RMS St Helena provided dedicated lifeline services to the remote islands of Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. SHETLAND’S FERRY LINKS The Shetland archipelago consists of 16 inhabited islands, linked by an 11-strong fleet of small ferries operated and maintained by the Shetland Islands Council. ON SALE 26…

HUMBER PADDLER Emergency repairs have started on former Humber paddle steamer Wingfield Castle (1934/556gt) at Hartlepool prior to her full restoration as a visitor attraction. Built with sister vessel Tattershall Castle at the Sir William Gray yard in West Hartlepool, and one of three coal-fired paddle ferries for the Humber service between Hull and New Holland, Wingfield Castle could carry 20 side-loaded cars with space for 1,200 two-class passengers. She was withdrawn in 1974, with the service maintained by the 1940-built paddler Lincoln Castle and the diesel-electric Farringford. They ran until the route closed with the opening of the new Humber Bridge in the summer of 1981. The restoration of Wingfield Castle is part of a Waterfront Regeneration programme funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The repairs, costing an…

FERRY SALE Canada’s Bridgemans Partnership completed the purchase of the 35,154gt former Baltic cruiseferry Isabelle from Tallink Grupp on 31 January after the vessel, delivered from the Brodosplit facility in 1989 and originally running as Isabella, joined them on charter last year. The entire interior, offering 2,166 beds mainly in two- or four-berth cabins, has been put through an extensive refurbishment before the start of the ship’s time as a static floatel in Northern Canada for workers on the Woodfibre LNG site. Now renamed Isabella X, the ship is anchored off Nainamo, opposite Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia on Canada’s west coast. As Isabella, she started life with Viking Line, serving Turku-Mariehamn-Stockholm. The ferry was then sold to rival Tallink, which put her on its Stockholm-Riga route. She was…

TECHNOLOGY On 19 February Chemship commissioned its first ship to be fitted with wind assisted propulsion. The 9,155gt Chemical Challenger becomes the first chemical tanker in the world to be equipped with sustainable wind technology. The ship will serve on Chemship’s transatlantic route between the East Coast of the USA and the Mediterranean. Four 16m-high aluminium wind sails were installed on the 134m vessel. The VentoFoils from Econowind create a direct wind surface of 180m2. Smart vacuum technology quintuples the force of the wind, creating a gross wind surface of 900m2. This is equivalent to an imaginary sail of 30m by 30m. Chemship expects to achieve an average CO2 reduction of ten per cent with these turbo sails.…

IRISH SEA Stena Line commenced its new Liverpool (Birkenhead)-Dublin freight service on 15 February, with the first sailing departing Dublin Port’s Terminal 5 at 06:30. The new route is expected to further boost the company’s freight volumes following a record year on its Irish Sea services in 2023. The service will operate daily from Dublin in the morning, making the evening return from the 12 Quays terminal in Birkenhead. The service will be Stena Line’s seventh route in the Irish Sea region, complementing its Belfast-Cairnryan, Belfast-Heysham, Belfast-Liverpool, Dublin-Holyhead, Rosslare-Fishguard and Rosslare-Cherbourg services. With Stena Horizon operating temporarily on the route, the company is assessing ship deployment options for a permanent freight-only vessel. Stena see the new freight route between Liverpool and Dublin as a key service across the Irish Sea,…

NCL Norwegian Dawn was denied entry to Port Louis, Mauritius on 25 February after a small number of passengers were reported to have been suffering from a stomach-related illness. With testing completed, and with no undue health concerns, the ship was finally allowed into port two days late, causing a logistics problem, as Port Louis was a turnaround port. Norwegian Joy returned to service with an 11-night transatlantic repositioning voyage from Southampton to Miami on 13 February, following a major refit at Damen shipyard in Rotterdam, during which part of the Observation Lounge was converted to cabin spaces, creating an additional 24 balcony rooms. The area formerly used as a reality games centre was converted to become a thermal suite for the spa. Norwegian Gem will be homeported in Jacksonville,…

ROYAL CARIBBEAN Royal Caribbean International’s first ever world cruise departed Miami on 10 December 2023, on Serenade of the Seas. Somewhat ambitious for a first venture of this sort, the cruise is scheduled to last 274 days, with 60 countries to be visited, making this one of the longest conventional world cruises ever undertaken. Starting with a trip around South America, the ship headed out across the Pacific. With the current trouble in the Red Sea, an itinerary change was required and passengers were asked to vote for either a fast run from Cape Town to the Canary Islands, and a run of sea days to Istanbul, or a more relaxed sail up the West African coast, calling at ports that would be new to the company. The latter option…

GREEK NAVY The Greek Defence Minister has confirmed that the USA has agreed in principle to the joint design and production of Constellation class frigates, to be built in Greek shipyards. The proposed ships would be a scaled-down version of the US design, which itself is based on the Italian FREMM frigate. Greece is also in the running to receive four ex-US Navy Freedom class Littoral Combat Ships, which are surplus to requirements. The Hellenic Navy plans to field a range of at least 18 warships after 2030, comprised of seven Constellation class frigates, to replace the ageing Elli class (Dutch Kortenaer) in the air defence role, three Kimon class FDIs, currently under construction in France, the four existing Hydra class (MEKO 200 HN) frigates, along with the Freedom class…

INDUSTRY NEWS The world’s container ship fleet is expected to exceed the 30 million TEU mark for the first time in history this year as a wave of new construction hits the water. The global fleet grew by eight per cent last year with the delivery of 350 newbuilds, representing a record 2.2 million TEU in capacity and beating the previous record of 1.7 million TEU set in 2015. This year, fuelled by orders placed during the pandemic, a staggering 478 container ships, with a total capacity of 3.1 million TEU, are scheduled for delivery, beating last year’s record by over 40 per cent. As a result, the capacity of the world’s container ship fleet is expected to grow by around ten per cent, despite some older ships being scrapped,…

COASTERS AtoB@C Shipping, the Swedish subsidiary of Finland’s ESL Shipping, has taken delivery of the 5,340dwt hybrid coaster Electramar from India’s Chowgule Shipyard as the first in a series of 12 sisterships. Measuring 90m by 16m, the non-geared vessels are being built to ice class 1A standards and equipped with a 1MWh battery pack supplementing a Yanmar 1,920kW main engine. Bulk and breakbulk cargo can be accommodated in a single hold of 7,650m3 capacity that can be fitted with three movable bulkheads and six ‘tweendecks. The ships have been designed to have reduced CO2 emissions by up to 50 per cent as compared to current ESL vessels. Founded in 2000, AtoB@C Shipping acquired its first vessel, Unimar, in 2006 after relying on chartered tonnage and, after taking over Rederi AB…

ELECTRIC TUGS Tugboats usually proceed from the builder’s yard to their new home on their own, but multiple orders and long distances are seeing a growing number transported by heavylift vessels. Such was the case earlier this year when the new all-electric tugs Saam Chief Dan George and Saam Volta, both completed in Turkey by the Sanmar Shipyard, were delivered to Vancouver, British Columbia by the 14,371dwt heavylifter BBC Emerald, which is equipped with two 400-ton cranes. The 23.4m by 11.85m tugs, to be operated in Vancouver by SAAM Towage, were designed by Vancouver’s own Robert Allan Ltd and have a bollard pull of 70 tonnes. When operating at full capacity, both units will reduce CO2 emissions in the Canadian port by 2,600 tonnes annually. They are powered by two…

The history of Alfred Holt’s Ocean Steamship Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, has been told many times. The company was renowned for designing and building many fine cargo ships, and operating liner services round the world, and the Blue Funnel name is one of the most famous in the history of British shipping. Founded in 1866, the company operated merchant ships for 122 years and was one of the UK’s larger shipowning and operating companies, merging with and taking over a variety of other companies during that time. By the 1960s the Ocean Steamship Company consisted of three companies: Glen Line (operating 15 ships), Elder Dempster (35 ships) and Blue Funnel Line (58 ships). While Elder Dempster served routes to West Africa from the UK/Continent and the USA, the…

A fter the withdrawal of ferry services from Stranraer, Stena Line brought in a pair of sister vessels when switching their Loch Ryan base to a newly-constructed Cairnryan berth and terminal. The first sailings took place on 21 November 2011 by newly acquired 30,285gt sisters Stena Superfast VII and Stena Superfast VIII. Instead of bringing in newbuildings for the new Loch Ryan terminal, Stena opted for top-class secondhand tonnage and spent heavily on the chosen pair, which were built by HDW at Kiel in Germany, who were previously closely associated with building naval vessels, and were attempting to move in a fresh direction. Stena’s choice was sisterships Superfast VII and Superfast VIII, which had been completed in 2001 to operate for Superfast Ferries on a newly launched route between Rostock,…

If ever there was a ferry that symbolised the corporate ambitions of its owner, Pont-Aven is a prime example. To this day, she represents the zenith of Brittany Ferries’ cruise ferry era, and has now given the company two decades of high class service on routes between England, Ireland and France. She was ordered on 5 June 2002, nine years after the acquisition of the second-hand Val de Loire (1987/31,788gt, ex-Nils Holgersson) and the inauguration of P&O European Ferries’ rival service from the UK to Spain using the chartered Pride of Bilbao (1986/37,583gt, ex-Olympia). P&O had stolen a march with their larger and, arguably, more luxurious vessel. So Brittany Ferries was compelled to act, providing a cruise ferry like no other previously seen in UK service. Pont-Aven was a marvel…

Any analysis of Europe’s leading fleets inevitably focuses on the British Royal Navy and France’s Marine Nationale as the region’s major maritime powers. Italy’s Marina Militare is typically given less attention in spite of its historical aspirations to Mediterranean dominance. However, the Italian Navy is currently benefitting from a substantial programme of modernisation, allowing it to steadily close the gap on its main European rivals. Italy enjoys many advantages in its pursuit of naval influence. It has a strong domestic maritime sector, with state-controlled shipbuilder Fincantieri commonly regarded as Europe’s largest and most influential shipbuilding group. This strength is supported by expertise in associated areas, not least the wide range of skills provided by defence and aerospace conglomerate Leonardo. In addition to activities in areas such as radar and missile…

SHIPS MAIL REBUILDING CROSS-CHANNEL FERRIES IN THE 1980s letter of the month Your articles (January and February 2024) on the cross-Channel ferries in the second half of the last century made fascinating reading. It was surprising to learn that over 40 vessels were plying their trade on so many routes across the Channel in the early 1970s. I was also surprised that there was sufficient business all those years ago to keep them gainfully employed. However, they were quite small and, I guess, likely to have longer cycle times and be generally much less efficient than ships in the current fleets. Another thing that struck me was that the naval architects seemed to have gone out of their way to make them look like small passenger liners, almost hiding the…