Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Ships Monthly

NAVAL NEWS The Royal Navy’s Hunt class mine countermeasures vessel HMS Cattistock (M31) has been awarded the Freedom of Poole, the highest honour a town can bestow upon the Royal Navy or one of HM Ships, and a first for the Dorset town. Commissioned in 1981, HMS Cattistock, the third ship of her class and homeported at HMNB Portsmouth, has long been affiliated with Poole, as well as the West Dorset village whose name it shares, and she is a regular visitor to Poole for the town’s Annual Service of Remembrance. In a ceremony on 4 May, with the ship moored at Town Quay, the ship’s company of more than 70 personnel marched through the streets of the town, led by the Band of HM Royal Marines from Plymouth. The…

TUG NEWS The Port of Antwerp-Bruges has introduced its first methanol-fuelled tug. The Belgian port group’s goal is to become climate neutral by 2050, with the conversion of the tug seen as a step towards this target. The 50-ton bollard pull tug, named only ‘21’, which operates in Antwerp, was the vessel chosen as part of the Methatug project, part-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, which aims to demonstrate the use of methanol fuel as a sustainable path to decarbonise the marine sector. Following the conversion to dual-fuel engines, the 2002-built tug can store up to 12,000 litres (around 9.5 tonnes), enough to keep the vessel operating for two weeks. The introduction of the tug follows the delivery last year of Hydrotug 1, with CMB.TECH.…

IRELAND TO AMERICA In May a new transatlantic service was launched by Peel Ports Group and BG Freight Line connecting Dublin/Belfast, Hamburg and Antwerp with North American ports including Halifax and New York. The first departure from Liverpool on 10 May saw the 2016-built cargo vessel Atlantic Sun leave New York and sail to Baltimore, before returning to Liverpool, where cargoes were transhipped to JSP Anna, which sailed for Dublin and Belfast.…

STENA LINE Stena Line is to send 24,688gt ro-ro freight vessels Stena Foreteller (2002) and Stena Forerunner (2003) to China, where the Weihai Jinling Yard will fit an additional vehicle deck to boost each vessel’s capacity by one third. The work will be carried out during 2025 and follows a major earlier project when the pair, each powered by four Sulzer diesel engines giving a speed of 22.5 knots, were fitted with new twin propellers. Both vessels fly the Swedish flag and are employed on Stena’s Irish Sea route network. Other work carried out in 2023 included the application of silicone paint to the white-hulled pair. The MCCL-owned Valentine (1999/23,987gt) also received new decks at Perama in Greece during a conversion to full car carrier configuration, with space for 2,000…

SILVERSEA Royal Caribbean subsidiary Silversea took delivery of its second Meyer Werft-built ship on 14 May in Eemshaven. Along with her sistership Silver Nova, these 55,051gt 728-passenger vessels are the largest ever operated by Silversea. Each has a crew of 556. These Evolution class ships have been designed to be environmentally friendly, fuelled by LNG and with batteries to enable engine-free operation in port. Together, these features reduce emissions by 40 per cent and give the ships an Energy Efficient Design Index rating which is about 25 per cent better than the current IMO requirements. Silver Ray’s maiden voyage was due to sail from Lisbon on 15 June and her first season will be spent in the Mediterranean, before she heads to Florida in December.…

ROYAL NAVY The UK Defence Secretary has confirmed the retirement of the frigates HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster. The ships have a combined service life of 63 years. Westminster is to be scrapped but Argyll has been sold to BAE Systems and will be used to support apprentice shipbuilder training. All the remaining Type 23s have far surpassed their planned service life and are becoming increasingly unviable to maintain. The cost of some life extension (LIFEX) refits has exceeded L100 million per ship and taken up to to five years to achieve due to hull corrosion and structural integrity issues. HMS Sutherland, the last ship of 12 ships to undergo LIFEX, is scheduled to return to sea in June after work lasting three and a half years. Mooted plans for…

SHIP CANAL The much publicised dry season that has affected the Panama Canal’s water level and capacity could soon be over. Over the last six months the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific has seen its driest period in the past 73 years. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is planning to accept larger and deeper-draught vessels, but with the low level of water in the canal and lakes, restrictions had limited passages to shallower-draught vessels, and transits through the Canal are currently down 60 per cent on those of 2022. However, recent wet weather has partially replenished the canal’s reservoirs to something close to normal capacity, allowing the ACP to increase transit slots to Panamax vessels to 27 a day. The wet weather has enabled more product tankers and container…

BULKERS Genoese-operator Ignazio Messina has taken over the 6,300TEU capacity Jolly Verde, the largest ship in the company’s history. She is the first of two sisters, which the company will deploy on their Middle East to India service. Acquired from NSB Group, the Romanian-built container ship was completed in 2007, and was rebuilt nine years later, through a unique widening and lengthening programme. Since being built, she has had two periods on long-term charter to Mediterranean Shipping Co as MSC Carouge. Ignazio Messina has transitioned away from its traditional container/ro-ro market following the sale of its fleet of ro-ros and acquisition of container ships. Jolly Verde was handed over in April in Antwerp.…

NHS-UK National Historic Ships UK has appointed four historic vessels from around the UK to act as its Flagships of the Year for 2024 and ‘fly the flag’ for maritime heritage. These include the sea-going paddle steamer Waverley; the tug Challenge, which is the last surviving example of a large purpose-built Thames shiphandling tug with an impressive war history; Provident, a Brixham Trawler offering classic sailing holidays in Scotland and celebrating her 100th anniversary this year; and Lady Daphne, a 101-year-old spritsail barge now moored at Charlestone Harbour and offering varied events. The 2024 Flagships will receive a special broad pennant to fly at the masthead, a copy of the NHSUK guidance manual Conserving Historic Vessels, and a brass plaque. The scheme has been running since 2009 and provides an…

VIC-32 In May the Puffer Preservation Trust ran their first Steam Engineering training cruise on board VIC 32. The five-day course left Yorkhill Quay, Glasgow and provided delegates with intensive training, with a mixture of practical engine room experience, tutorials and a little time ashore. Across the week VIC 32 steamed 135 nautical miles. VIC 32 was built in 1943 at Richard Dunston’s yard in Thorne, Yorkshire as a puffer for work around the west coast of Scotland, taking supplies to remote harbours and islands and carrying raw materials, including whisky, back to Glasgow. During the war she carried cement for pier building on Barra and participated in the construction of the Churchill Barriers at Scapa Flow. She was transferred to the Admiralty in 1947, was renamed C702 and worked…

The ‘Super Dreadnought’ which saw action in two world wars Named after Queen Elizabeth I and modelled on the 1906 HMS Dreadnought, HMS Queen Elizabeth was the first of the class of Queen Elizabeth battleships which became known as ‘Super Dreadnoughts’. When she was launched in 1913, Queen Elizabeth was one of the most powerful ships of her era, with the five ships in her class designed to operate against lead ships in an enemy fleet. Her service with the Royal Navy spanned both World Wars before her role became redundant and she was scrapped in 1948. Queen Elizabeth was fast, capable of speeds up to 24 knots, powered by oil and not coal, which was seen by some as a risk due to potential issues with supply. She had…

Founded in April 2021, Ambassador Cruise Line was established by Christian Verhounig, the former CEO of Cruise & Maritime Voyages, and offers a premium value no-fly offering within the UK cruise sector. Using smaller second-hand ships and operating from a variety of ports around the United Kingdom, they are operating along similar lines to the now defunct Cruise & Maritime Voyages, whose fleet had been expanding until the Covid pandemic put a stop to cruises. The Ambassador company operates two ships: Ambience, which sailed her maiden voyage for the company in April 2022, and Ambition, which came into service in May 2023. Ambience is homeported at London Tilbury, and is now more than 30 years old. She was delivered to Princess Cruises in 1991 as Regal Princess, sailing on their…

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This month’s colour mystery shows an old cargo vessel under way. The first few letters of her name can just be made out, and they are ‘Corom’. But what is her full name? Did she enjoy a long career and have more than one name? Who were her owners? Where did she trade? What was her fate? And where might the photo have been taken? Send your answers with details of the ship, including a postal address, by email to: sm.ed@kelsey.co.uk; or by post to Mystery Ship, Ships Monthly, Kelsey Media, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Kent ME18 6AL. Emails preferred.…

CRUISE SHIP The 60th anniversary of former ferry Columba’s debut in Scottish waters was marked on 12 March, when there was a special lunch aboard the vessel, which is now cruising as Hebridean Princess. Guests included Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, who was in Aberdeen to open a new dock. Currently the only vessel holding a Royal Warrant, Hebridean Princess was built at the Hall Russell Yard in Aberdeen as the 2,104gt ferry Columba and ran between Oban, Craignure and Lochaline, while sisters Clansman and Hebrides covered other MacBrayne routes. She was built with side hoists for vehicles, carrying up to 600 passengers, and 50 cars, and was the last member of the fleet left with the hoists by the time they were removed in 1992. Then later use was…

P&O FERRIES In a surprise move, P&O Ferries has chartered Spirit of Britain (2011/47,952gt), one of their largest Dover-based vessels, to fellow Calais route operator Irish Ferries, and she is to be renamed Oscar Wilde. The current Oscar Wilde, built in 2007 as Star for Tallink, serving the Holyhead-Dublin and Dublin-Cherbourg routes, is to be renamed James Joyce. The new James Joyce was appropriately built by the same shipbuilders as Ulysses, the ship she will now partner on the Irish Sea. The two-year bareboat deal for the former Spirit of Britain began in June and comes with an ‘obligation to purchase’ clause written into the contract for the 2,000-passenger/1,050-car vessel, which has been running from Dover since being delivered by Raumabased builder STX. The switch of Spirit of Britain means…

NEXT E-FLEXER Versatility has always been a keynote to the Stena Group’s E-Flexer passenger and vehicle ferries, which now run into a double-figure total. The latest co-operation to come to fruition is that between Stena and Canada’s Marine Atlantic, resulting in the tenth of the series setting out on a delivery voyage from China Merchants Weihai Jinling Shipyard via the Cape Horn to the Atlantic coast of Canada in June. Named Ala’Suinu and designed to take 1,000 passengers, the 37,807gt vessel has a service speed of 23 knots from twin 12-cylinder Wärtsilä diesel engines, with the port side unit located a little further forward than its starboard partner. Passenger accommodation occupies three decks, below which are two vehicle decks, with bow and stern ramps on Deck 3 and internal access…

PARADISE CRUISE LINE Two ships have been refitted in Belfast recently. Following a three-month refit at the Harland & Wolff shipyard, the former Costa Atlantica, renamed as Margaritaville at Sea Islander, undertook sea trials in late April before leaving on 19 May for her new base in Tampa, Florida, from where she will operate short cruises, largely within the Gulf of Mexico. The ship was christened by Savannah Buffet, daughter of the Margaritaville founder, Jimmy Buffet, in June. ■ Meanwhile Braemar, now owned by Villa Vie Residences, arrived in Belfast and headed to the Harland & Wolff yard on 28 April for her refit. This will see her turned into the residential cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey. The departure of her first cruise was delayed from 15 May to 30…

PLAN NAVY China’s third aircraft carrier has completed its first sea trials. Fujian (18) departed the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on 1 May for eight days at sea, during which time the 80,000-tonne carrier’s stability, power, electrical and other systems were tested. The domestically produced ship is a significant step in the development of the country’s naval aviation, as it is the first to be configured for the launch and recovery of aircraft with catapults and arrestor cables. The first two PLAN aircraft carriers, Liaoning (16) and Shandong (17), are STOBAR ships that use ski jumps to assist aircraft launches. Fujian is only the second ship, after USS Gerald R. Ford, to be equipped with an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System. The EMALS uses a linear induction motor to accelerate aircraft…

NORWEGIAN NAVY The Norwegian government has outlined a new long-term defence plan for 2025 to 2036. Under the so-called Norwegian Defence Pledge, Norway’s defence spending will almost double, achieving the NATO target of two per cent of GDP this year, gradually rising to around three per cent by the end of the period. The Navy is set to become the largest beneficiary of the increased investment in the Norwegian Armed Forces. Because of its immediate proximity to Russia’s nuclear submarine force in the High North and North Atlantic, it will get a minimum of five new frigates, with anti-submarine warfare helicopters, at least five new Type 212CD submarines, and a standardised vessel class of up to ten large and 18 smaller vessels for the Coast Guard. The frigates are to…

PORT NEWS President Biden announced plans to apply a 25 per cent tariff on strategic Chinese manufacturing sectors, including ship-to-shore cranes used in container ports. Expected to take effect later this year, the move is intended to secure domestic jobs and supply chains and comes after the Biden Administration committed $20 billion to enhance investment in domestic quay crane manufacturing. In recent months, cranes manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), the key supplier of such cranes to ports globally, came under increased scrutiny after investigations by US officials raised security concerns following the discovery of unauthorised additional equipment which did not support the cranes’ functionality.…

BRENT The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded L98,000 to the steam tug Brent to assess the way forward for her restoration in Maldon. She has been the subject of an ongoing restoration project for several years funded solely by pubic donations. The grant will fund an 18-month project to look into ways in which Brent’s full restoration can be developed through partnerships with other local heritage and maritime organisations, building a community centred on the tug while developing its potential as a training vessel and eventually carrying passengers. The award will also look at preparing plans for a pontoon, essential for the berthing of Brent and visiting historic craft. Brent was built in 1945 as part of the War effort for the Admiralty but was sold to the Port…

SIMPLON Overnight on 28 March the Lake Geneva paddle steamer Simplon suffered serious damage while she was, unusually, lying alongside the pier at Cully on the north shore of the lake, six miles east of Lausanne. She had been on trials when she broke down and was towed to Cully by Leman. During the night the wind increased to gale force, causing Simplon to range violently alongside the tiny pier, smashing her starboard sponson forward of the paddle box and demolishing some of the piles of the pier itself. The rudder contacted the rocks on the shore north of the pier and was badly damaged, but fortunately the hull itself was not breached. Simplon was towed back to the shipyard the next day. Work on building Simplon for the Lake…

Ship propulsion, as well as ship operation, management and crewing, is expected to experience considerable changes over the remainder of this decade and on into the next two, as additional environmental mandates are instituted and new technologies introduced to lower vessel emissions, improve safety of operation and reduce overall operating costs. This has already seen several alternative fuels, such as methanol, ammonia and hydrogen, enter the market to challenge traditional petroleum-based fuels, and even liquid natural gas (LNG), while battery technology has improved to the extent that it is expected to become the leading energy source for tug and ferry operations, where rapid charging can take place. Carbon capture is also becoming important and even nuclear power is once again being examined, with China recently unveiling a design for a…

In March 2023 Condor Ferries acquired StraitNZ’s ro-pax ferry Straitsman for service on the company’s link between Portsmouth and the Channel Islands. After a refurbishment, she emerged as Condor Islander and entered service in October 2023. This was the first ‘new’ ship to enter service with Condor since 1999, when Commodore Clipper arrived from the Van der Giessen de Noord yard Krimpen a/d Ijssel in the Netherlands, where she had been completed in May 1999. She replaced two ferries, Havelet and Island Commodore, and has maintained passenger services year-round from Portsmouth to both Guernsey and Jersey ever since. She has operated alongside the fast craft Condor Liberation since 2015 and Condor Voyager since 2021. There had been much speculation in the industry about which vessel Condor would select when they…

■ Russell Plummer looks at two well-known English paddle steamers which celebrate their centenaries in 2024: ■ The coal-fired River Dart-based Kingswear Castle is powered by a compound diagonal engine built in 1904 for an earlier vessel of the same name. ■ The larger Medway Queen, originally built for the New Medway Steam Packet Co, is undergoing restoration at Gillingham in Kent, with hours of work by volunteers keeping the project on course. Praise all-round is due to the people who have kept the 250-passenger Kingswear Castle running into this milestone year. The vessel’s long career started with delivery from the Noss Shipyard of Messrs Philip and Son on the banks of the Dart. She spent 41 years being operated by the River Dart Steamboat Co between Dartmouth and Totnes.…

Anyone who knew the Dorset resort of Weymouth during the first half of the 20th century must have been familiar with the paddle steamers belonging to the long-established firm of Cosens & Co Ltd. With their distinctive black-topped buff funnels, they had become an essential part of the local seaside experience, offering summer sailings from the Pleasure Pier to Portland, Lulworth Cove, Swanage, Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight. During the winter they lined the narrow harbour awaiting their turn for attention by the company’s slipway or engineering staff. By the summer of 1949 there were still four steamers based at Weymouth but, as fashions changed, trade began to dwindle, costs increased, and much-loved members of Cosens’ fleet, Monarch, Victoria, Empress and Emperor of India, were towed to the breaker’s…

Many of the transfers between the Blue Funnel and Glen/Shire fleets in the 1970s were made to meet trading needs and/or to comply with Liner Conference rights and tonnage obligations. However, tax efficiency was also a likely reason, particularly when the transfer took place shortly before the sale or scrapping of a particular vessel. Glen Line was inaugurated in 1869 by Allan C. Gow of Glasgow, who took delivery of the sailing ships Glenaray and Glenavon to serve the trade to Chile. The opening of the Suez Canal in November 1869 led him to enter the China tea trade and build steamships, the first being Glengyle, delivered at Govan in November 1870. Glen Line’s home port was then moved to London, the Line being managed by James McGregor, who in…

The Mystery Ship is Canastota, which was built in 1907 as Falls of Orchy by Napier & Miller, Glasgow (yard no.160) for Falls Line (Wright, Graham & Co). In 1915 the ship was sold to Canastota Steamship Co (C.S. Swan) and renamed Canastota. She sailed from Port Jackson, Sydney, NSW on 13 June 1921 bound for Wellington, New Zealand with a cargo of cased benzine and general cargo, and was reported missing. Some cargo showing signs of charring later washed up on Lord Howe Island, and a Taffrail Log believed to be from the ship was found near Seal Rocks, New South Wales. The ship was lost together with her crew of 49. No bodies were recovered and it is presumed a fire and explosion was the cause of her…

CRUISE SPECIAL 34-page special highlighting 120 years of cruise ships, from the advent of ‘pleasure cruising’ by P&O in the early 20th century to today’s mega ships taking thousands of guests round the world. PLUS OCEAN CARGO LINE • A look at the Super P class of cargo ships in the Barber Blue Sea Line, and their 1970s replacements, the multi-purpose M class ships. HMS INVINCIBLE Ordered 50 years ago as lead ship of a class of three light aircraft carriers, HMS Invincible was commissioned in time for a maiden deployment to the Falklands for the 1982 conflict. TANKER DISASTERS • The major disasters that have overtaken oil tankers during the last half century, and the problems a wrecked tanker causes. FERRY MYSTAR • On board MyStar, the Estonian shipping…

VEHICLE CARRIERS Sweden’s Wallenius Marine has taken delivery of the 6,500CEU capacity Future Way (62,432gt) from China’s CIMC Raffles shipyard as the first of two sisterships, the second, Way Forard, to be delivered later this year. Both vessels measure 199.95m by 37.0m, with the PCTCs to be long-term chartered to the VW Group. Each is powered by a MAN B&W dual-fuel main engine with a 12,820kW output, and features one LNG storage tank with a capacity of 2,300m3. In 2021 Wallenius Marine and Volkswagen entered a partnership and signed a contract for the two multi-fuel vessels. Wallenius ordered the Knud E. Hansen-designed vessels at CIMC Raffles yard, and the contract included options for four more.…

HISTORIC BREAKER The Finnish icebreaker Voima (Strength) is celebrating its 70th birthday this year as the oldest ship of its class still in active service. Completed by the Wärtsilä Helsinki shipyard in 1954 as the first of a new series of icebreakers to emerge from Finland’s post-war reconstruction programme, the 4,159grt Voima was originally equipped with two symmetrical propellers of opposite rotation driven by six Atlas Polar engines developing a total of 9,000kW. Between 1978 and 1979 the vessel was extensively modernised when six Wärtsilä 16V22 engines totalling 12,840kW took the place of the older Atlas units, while the interior was completely renovated to meet modern standards and a new navigation bridge installed. In addition, the ship’s hull sides were reinforced with new plates to increase protection against ice pressure.…

RNLI BICENTENARY As part of the celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), an impressive gathering of operational, European and historic lifeboats was held in Poole over the weekend of 18-19 May. Lifeboats from the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and France joined a group of historic lifeboats, most from the post-war era and now maintained by dedicated owners, at Poole Quay Boat Haven’s pontoons. There were some older craft, including two rowing lifeboats, from Sweden and the UK. The lifeboats were open to the public throughout the weekend, as were the RNLI’s All-Weather Lifeboat Centre and Lifeboat College, hosting tours of the facilities, with demonstrations of lifeboats The celebrations ended on 19 May with a parade of sail around Poole harbour, when the craft, together…

RATHLIN ISLAND Since Dunaverty Limited took over passenger and vehicle ferry services from Ballycastle to Rathlin Island, six miles off the coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, when the previous company suffered financial failure, the operation has been given a fresh lease of life and now boasts two vessels and 18 staff. The island has a population of just 150 but its popularity with tourists is increasing. The principal vessel is the 105gt bow-loading Spirit of Rathlin, built by Arklow Marine Services, which has space for 141 passengers plus six cars or one HGV. Her building cost, including delivery by barge to Ballycastle where she was craned into the water, was L2.8 million. She has a speed of 14 knots from two Scania marine diesels. Supporting in a passenger-only role…

HAPAG-LLOYD Hapag-Lloyd’s Hanseatic Inspiration, the company’s newest ship, was dry-docked at the Lloyd Werft yard in Bremerhaven between 13 and 23 May, following which she sailed an eight-night itinerary calling at German ports and finishing in Hamburg. During her time in the yard, the 2019-built Malta-flagged ship received new carpets and upholstery in addition to the usual technical work. In the autumn she will offer Great Lakes cruises based at Toronto and Milwaukee. The company has cancelled the 2024-25 Antarctic season for Hanseatic Spirit, citing a higher demand for winter expedition cruises departing from Germany. Hanseatic Nature and Hanseatic Inspiration will continue to offer Antarctic cruises over that winter. Generally sold in the German market, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises specifically offers international (German/English) cruises on Europa 2 and Hanseatic Inspiration.…

QUARK EXPEDITIONS The 4,376gt Ocean Adventurer has begun her final season with Quark Expeditions, for whom she has operated for 15 years. She will be decommissioned from their fleet in October. At the age of almost 50, a one-way trip to a breaker’s yard seems the likely next step for the veteran. She was built in Yugoslavia in 1975 as Alla Tarasova, one of a series of eight ships destined for Murmansk Shipping Company’s coastal services. In 1997-98 the ice-capable expedition ship was rebuilt as the cruise ship Clipper Adventurer, for Clipper Cruise Line, as part of a $13 million refit, but, when First Choice Travel bought that company, she was sold to the Danish Clipper Group. Over the following years she was chartered to a number of expedition cruise…

CUNARD The latest addition to the Cunard fleet, the 113,000gt Queen Anne, was named at a ceremony at the famous Pier Head in Liverpool featuring the tenor Andrea Bocelli on 3 June, and a host of other celebrities. Thousands of well-wishers gathered on Liverpool’s waterfront for the official naming, which was part of Queen Anne’s ‘lap of honour’ cruise that has taken her around the British Isles. The new ship made her debut at Southampton at the end of April (see SM, June) and then embarked on her maiden voyage, a seven-night voyage to Lisbon, departing on 3 May from her home port of Southampton, before undertaking her round-Britain cruise. During the summer she is due to undertake a variety of cruises, including a couple of Western Mediterranean, Northern Europe…

RUSSIAN NAVY Two new warships intended for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were launched at a double ceremony at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in Tatarstan, on 7 May. The ships, named Typhoon, a Project 22800 corvette, and Viktor Velikiy, a Project 22160 OPV, are both ship classes that have recently been targeted by Ukraine. Askold, an earlier Project 22800 vessel, is claimed to have been damaged beyond repair during construction following a Storm Shadow cruise missile strike. Reports suggest that a second of the class had been sunk in another Ukrainian attack. RFS Tsiklon, which only entered frontline service in mid-2023, was sunk overnight at the port of Sevastopol after being hit by a pair of US-supplied ATACMS missiles. The Project 22800, which are also known as the Karakurt class, are a…

ROYAL NAVY Speaking at the annual Sea Power Conference, the UK Defence Secretary has touted a ‘Golden Age’ shipbuilding programme for ‘up to’ 28 new ships and submarines, backed by a rise in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade. The proposed new investment is for six new amphibious warships. Known as Multi Role Support Ships (MRSS), they are intended to rapidly deliver a Royal Marines Commando Force anywhere in the world. Currently in the concept phase, they are to be highly flexible warships, able to deploy on a wide variety of operations, and designed to carry vehicles, aircraft, insertion craft and a range of uncrewed systems for complex missions. They will also be equipped as primary casualty receiving ships. They will replace…

NEW BULKERS Norway’s Belships is rapidly expanding its fleet of bulk carriers by contracting for the construction of two more 64,000dwt vessels in Japan, where it already has eight similar-sized ships under construction. The latter bulkers are to be delivered between 2024 and 2027, while the recently ordered ultramaxes will be delivered in 2028. This will bring the Belships fleet up to 40 units, all of the vessels to be financed through long-term charter lease agreements, each for a period of seven to ten years and containing purchase options during the charters. Founded by Christen Smith in 1918 as a pioneering heavy lift specialist, Belships changed from heavy lift to bulk cargoes in the 1960s and later merged with the Lighthouse companies in 2018.…

PORT NEWS Three temporary channels were opened out of Baltimore port by 20 April, and the 2019-built Balsa 94 became the first vessel to make use of a new 35ft-deep shipping channel past the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge at Baltimore, Maryland on 25 April The Panamanian-registered vessel is one of five that had been marooned in the port following the collapse of the bridge after it was hit by the outbound container carrier Dali on 26 March, which made headlines around the world. Dali is still entangled in the bridge wreckage as a salvage plan is currently being worked out. Baltimore normally processes more cars and farm equipment than any other port in the USA and is a major driver of the local economy.…

LNG BUNKERING China’s CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering Co, one of the most experienced small-scale gas carrier shipyards in the world, has launched Seaspan Lions. She is the second in a series of three 7,600m3 capacity LNG bunkering tankers it is building for Canada’s Seaspan Energy. The first of the series, Seaspan Garibaldi, was launched in January, while the third remains as an option. Seaspan Lions will provide LNG fuelling services for vessels on the West Coast of North America, while Seaspan Garibaldi will be based in the Panama region. Each of the ships measures 112.8m by 18.6m and will operate on a draught of 5m with a service speed of 13 knots. The design of the vessels was undertaken by Seaspan, working closely with VARD Marine Inc to incorporate…

FALIE Volunteers are calling on the Government of South Australia to provide funding for the restoration of the ketch Falie, which has languished in Port Adelaide since 2021 after a slipping for minor repairs escalated into the need for major work on her hull. Built in Holland in 1919, Falie arrived in Port Adelaide in 1923 after being acquired by the Spencer Gulf Transport Company for use in the Mosquito Trading fleet. She was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in World War II and undertook patrol work in Sydney, as well as carrying explosives around Australia. The ship was retired in 1982, acquired by the State Government in 1985 and converted to carry 70 passengers. By 2005 she had fallen into disrepair and was turned into a museum at…

JAMES CRAIG The 150th birthday of the tall ship James Craig was marked by a flotilla of historic vessels in Sydney Harbour on 18 February. With dignitaries aboard, the flagship of the Sydney Heritage Fleet sailed from the Australian Maritime Museum at Pyrmont to Bradleys Head and back. There was champagne and canapes on board, and firefighter tugs in attendance. James Craig was built in 1874 and sailed around the world, including transiting Cape Horn 23 times, until 1925 when she was hulked in Recherche Bay in South Tasmania. Almost half a century later she was refloated and towed back to Sydney, where work started on her restoration in 1972. The event came after the death of the principal benefactor, Robert Albert, who underwrote most of her restoration costs and…

The first retrofit of a fully functioning carbon capture system (CCS) aboard a large container ship has been completed by China’s Huarun Dadong Shipyard, which has installed a CCS, developed by Shanghai-based Qiyao Environmental Protection, on board the 152,300dwt Evergreen vessel Ever Top during the vessel’s regular ten-year class survey and overhaul. The system uses amine absorbents to selectively capture and separate CO2 in the ship’s exhaust, which is then compressed and liquefied for storage and offloading. Testing of the system has shown it to achieve a comprehensive CO2 capture rate of more than 80 per cent, with the purity of the CO2 reaching more than 99 per cent.…

■ Condor Islander has fresh, light and airy passenger accommodation and lounges, which have soft and light colours. The main addition to the passenger lounges for UK service has been the installation of a new duty free shop. ■ The main passenger facilities occupy deck 7, with the main midship area taken up by the Courtyard Brasserie with jade green, blue and beige furnishings throughout. The restaurant serves regular meals that you would see on any cross-Channel ferry, including snacks, beverages and light refreshments. ■ Islander does not have a designated Bar, unlike Clipper, but instead has a small counter at the end of the food servery which supplies alcoholic beverages. ■ At the self-service restaurant, breakfast is served prior to passengers disembarking at Jersey and later for those travelling…

After cheating enemy bombers during the Dunkirk Evacuation of 1940, Medway Queen herself became the subject of a rescue mission when, 40 years on, what was a half-sunken wreck was towed back to the River Medway for restoration to begin following the formation of the Medway Queen Preservation Society. The vessel was originally delivered to the Rochester-based New Medway Steam Packet from the Ailsa Yard at Troon in Scotland in 1924, with a gross tonnage of 316 (134 net). EXCURSION TRIPS She had space for up to 980 passengers on trips from Rochester to Chatham, Southend and Clacton, before the start of a long association with sailings to Herne Bay. A coal-fired boiler provided steam for a compound diagonal engine, with cylinders of 21 and 43 inches and a 48-inch…

lettere of the month At a Garden Party some time ago I was happy to tell Marshall Meek (naval architect, with Blue Funnel and Ocean from 1953 to 1978) that, when I was a student apprentice at Vickers, I had fitted urinals into one of his ‘P’ boats (I retain some useful plumbing skills). However, as told in his autobiography ‘There Go The Ships’ (2003), the building of these ships (six in Britain, two in Japan) was a classic tale of everything that was wrong with British shipbuilding at the time. ‘The UK shipyard managements were unwilling to pay any heed to what we told them was happening in the Far East. It would have been a golden, though belated, opportunity to learn from the Japanese, but such was the…